Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 12, 2025
In the name of homely American common sense, can you not see, as plain as daylight, that he is no nearer akin to a foreign nobleman than his barber or boot-black may be?" Arabella was silenced because it was folly to contend in this matter with her father, who was a blunt, common-sense, clear-seeing man; but she was not in the least convinced Mr.
"Not a word passed between them, but an hour later a note was put into Jim's hand by a ragged boot-black. "George," said Dick, that afternoon as they were locking up, "if you don't mind I believe I'll sleep in my old bed in the office to-night." Udell looked at his helper in astonishment. "What in the world?" he began; then stopped.
Besides, four dollars a week is such a miserable salary." "You thought yourself lucky when you got it." "So I did; but that was before I found out how much this boot-black was getting." "Well," said Gilbert, "he isn't a favorite of mine, as you know well enough. If there's anything I can do to oust him, I shall do it." "Couldn't you leave some money in his way? He might be tempted to steal it."
Dick led the way, and the gentleman followed him into the store. At the reappearance of Dick in such company, the clerk flushed a little, and looked nervous. He fancied that he could browbeat a ragged boot-black, but with a gentleman he saw that it would be a different matter. He did not seem to notice the newcomers, but began to replace some goods on the shelves.
Pa looked at me as if I was a total stranger, and told the porter if that freckled faced boot-black belonged around the house he had better be fired out of the ball-room, and the girl said the disgustin' thing, and just before they fired me I told Pa he had better look out or he would sweat through his liver pad. "I went to bed and Pa staid up till the lights were put out.
He hurried her through the station and up to the ladies' waiting-room, where he found a quiet corner and a large rocking-chair, in which he placed her so that she might look out of the great window upon the panorama of the evening street, and yet be thoroughly screened from all intruding glances by the big leather and brass screen of the "ladies' boot-black."
And if the observer chanced to be ill-natured, as well as acute and susceptible, he would probably suspect that the smile on the gentleman's face was a good deal akin to the shine on his boots, and that each must have cost him and his boot-black, respectively, a good deal of hard labor to bring out and preserve them.
"He was amoosin' himself by pitchin' into me," replied Dick. "What for?" "He didn't like it 'cause I patronized a different tailor from him." "Well, it seems to me you are dressed pretty smart for a boot-black," said the policeman. "I wish I wasn't a boot-black," said Dick. "Never mind, my lad. It's an honest business," said the policeman, who was a sensible man and a worthy citizen.
An arctic wind was blowing; it cut through me as I stood there. The boot-black was finishing his work and complaints. "But I should be 'appy, sir, if only I could make four bob a day," he said. I looked down at him; it seemed absurd, the belief of this crippled, half-frozen creature, that four-shillings would make him happy.
It is an unjust fact that if a man can play the fiddle, give legal opinions, and black boots just tolerably, he is called an Admirable Crichton, but if he does all three thoroughly well, he is apt to be regarded, in the several departments, as a common fiddler, a common lawyer, and a common boot-black. This is what has happened in the case of Stevenson.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking