United States or Ireland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I've knowed all your debts, 'spesh'ly that ye owe that sneakin' hound Parker; and thar isn't a time that I couldn't and wouldn't hev chipped in and paid 'em for ye for your father's sake ef I'd allowed it to be the square thing for ye. But I know ye, Jeff. I know what's in your BLOOD. I knew your father allus dreamin', hopin, waitin'; I know YOU, Jeff, dreamin', hopin', waitin' till the end.
But I kept tellin' myself that it had to be either him or me, an' I kind of got over it. Pickett would have it, ma'am. When I turned my back to him I was hopin' that he wouldn't try to play dirt on me. Do you reckon he oughtn't to have been made to tell you that he had been wrong in tacklin' you? Why, ma'am, I kind of liked Pickett. He wasn't all bad.
Once in a while I git the feelin' thar ain't no use in hopin', an' then a little suthin keeps sayin' 'Mebbe mebbe mebbe' an' I feel more cheerful again."
As it chanced, it was on that same day that a strange man accosted him on the street. "Say, she was all right, she was, old man. I been hopin' I'd see ye some day ter tell ye." "To tell me?" echoed Mr. Smith stupidly. The man grinned. "Ye don't know me, do ye? Well, I do look diff'rent, I'll own. Ye give me a dollar once, an' sent me to a lady down the street thar. Now do ye remember?" "Oh!
An' that sniper hidden in the bush yonder must ha' picked off quite a dozen of the Injuns. I'm hopin' he'll show up, now, an' let us know who he is." "Meantime," interposed Abe Harum, "what's goin' ter happen 'bout our ponies? You can't afford ter lose that Arab mare, Gid. A valuable beast, anyhow, let alone her being a present from Kiddie."
An' o' course, I knew that arter a while, when I didn't show up at camp, the boys would suspicion thet somethin' was wrong an' make up a searchin' party to look for me. There's somethin'in all of us, I reckon, that keeps right on hopin' up to the very minute that we cash in an' leaves this here vale o' tears. "But the worst was yet to come, as the story-book fellers say.
And then, by way of rounding out the subject: "Here's hopin' his nerve is as good as his clothes. I don't love a Mongolian any better'n you do, Bat, but the way he hustled to save that little brown man's skin sort o' got next to me; it sure did. Says I, 'A man that'll do that won't go round hunting a chance to kick a fice-dog just because the fice don't happen to be a blooded bull-terrier."
"Hooray!" yelled Kyan, a little behind, as usual. A passenger or two peered from the coach window. The stage driver ironically touched his cap. "Thank ye," he said. "Thank ye very much. I've been hopin' for this for a long time, though I'd about given up expectin' it. I'm very much obliged. Won't somebody please ask me to make a speech?" Captain Elkanah frowned his disapproval.
I know the quarter 'll bring him, 'n' I can't help kind o' hopin' 't to-morrow 'll find the whole thing settled 'n' off my mind." The next morning Mrs. Lathrop laid in an unusually large supply of fodder and was very early at the fence. Her son a placid little innocent of nine-and-twenty years was still in bed and asleep.
Sez he, "They needn't build it up on my account, for I won't patronize 'em any more!" And I told him, "I guessed he wouldn't be missed, specially Sundays and holidays." And he said, "Miss me or not, they needn't try to git me there agin, and they may jest as well give up hopin' to, first as last." Sez I, "Can't you be megum, Josiah?
Word Of The Day