United States or Jamaica ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Don't you worry about me, mother; I'll take care of myself and you too," remarked Toady, with the cheery belief in impossibilities which makes youth so charming. "Now, Van, tell us what to do, for things have come to such a pass that we must either break away altogether or be galley-slaves as long as Aunt Kipp lives," said Polly, who was a good deal excited about the matter.
"No," answered I, imitating his laconism of speech. "No!" "I have been in the service. I have just left it." "Oh ah! From Mexico, then, I prezoom?" "Yes." "Business in Swampville?" "Why, yes, Mr Kipp." "I am usooally called kurnel here," interrupted the backwoods militario, with a bland smile, as if half deprecating the title, and that it was forced upon him.
Van wasn't a dignified man at all, but as he said that with a sudden flash of his mild eyes, there was something in his face and manner that daunted Aunt Kipp more than the small fist belligerently shaken at her from behind the sofa.
"I'm not tired, 'm; it's a very interesting story," replied Toady, with a gravity that nearly upset the old lady. "Well, in spite of all this, that kind, good, forgiving grandma left that bad boy twenty thousand dollars when she died. What do you think of that?" asked Aunt Kipp, pausing suddenly with her sharp eye on him.
"It isn't an interesting story," he cried; "and I won't hear any more; and I won't have your money if I mayn't go halves with Polly; and I'll work to earn more than that, and we'll all be jolly together, and you may give your twenty thousand to the old rag-bags, and so I tell you, Aunt Kipp."
Polly wouldn't have doubted her aunt's possession of a heart, if she could have known the pain and loneliness that made it ache, as the old woman crept away; and Toady wouldn't have laughed if he had seen the tears on the face, between the big frills, as Aunt Kipp laid it on the pillow, muttering, drearily, "I might have been a happy, useful woman, but I didn't choose to, and now it's too late."
Word Of The Day