United States or Gibraltar ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It shocked him into sharp expostulation. "Nonsense!" he exclaimed. "You ain't old enough for the scrap heap by a big stretch. And besides, he made his fight, didn't he? He didn't quit, Al didn't, and he wouldn't want us to. No sir-ee, he wouldn't! No, sir, no! . . . I I hope you'll excuse me, Cap'n Lote. I declare it must seem to you as if I was talkin' pretty fresh. I swan I'm sorry.
She was not hilarious but she did not groan once, and twice during the meal she actually smiled. Captain Lote commented upon the change, she being absent from table momentarily. "Whew!" he observed, in an undertone, addressing his wife. "If it ain't a comfort to see the wrinkles on Rachel's face curvin' up instead of down.
"Mercy on us, Cap'n Lote," she demanded, "what IS the matter? You're as dumb as a mouthful of mush. I don't believe you've said ay, yes or no since we sat down to table. Are you sick?" Her employer's calm was unruffled. "No-o," he answered, with deliberation. "That's a comfort. What's the matter, then; don't you WANT to talk?" "No-o." "Oh," with a toss of the head, "well, I'm glad I know.
Of course I don't mean by that that I should be willing to give up my writing but well, you see, Grandfather, I owe you an awful lot in this world . . . and I know you had set your heart on my being your partner in Z. Snow and Co. I know you're disappointed." Captain Lote did not answer instantly. He seemed to be thinking.
Don't " "But he's alive, I tell you! He ain't dead! He ain't never been dead! Oh, my crimus! . . . Hey, Cap'n Lote! Captain Zelotes was standing in the doorway of the private office. The noise had aroused him from his letter writing. "Who's alive? What's the matter with you this time, Is?" he demanded. "Shut up, Issy," ordered Laban, seizing the frantic Mr. Price by the collar. "Be still!
Who knows not how, in the "Lytell Geste of Robin Hood," they shot at "pluck-buffet," the king among them, disguised as an abbot; and every man who missed the rose-garland, "his tackle he should tyne"; "And bere a buffet on his head, Iwys ryght all bare, And all that fell on Robyn's lote, He smote them wonder sair. "Till Robyn fayled of the garlonde, Three fyngers and mair."
Albert sniffed suspiciously, but no odor of alcohol rewarded the sniff. Neither was there any perfume of peppermint, Mr. Keeler's transparent camouflage at a vacation's beginning. And Laban was not humming the refrain glorifying his "darling hanky-panky." Apparently he had not yet embarked upon the spree which Captain Lote had pronounced imminent. But why did he behave so queerly?
Tell me the whole story, won't you, please. Just what Cap'n Lote said and what you said and what you plan to do and all? Please, Albert." There were tears in her eyes. He had always liked her, but it was a liking with a trace of condescension in it. She was peculiar, her "sympathetic attacks" were funny, and she and Laban together were an odd pair.
"Is the old man in, Labe?" he whispered, jerking his head toward the private office, the door of which happened to be shut. Laban looked at him over his spectacles. "Cap'n Lote, you mean?" he asked. "Yes, he's in. But he don't want to be disturbed no, no. Goin' to write a couple of important letters, he said. Important ones. . . . Um-hm. What is it, Ben? Anything I can do for you?"
"I was wonderin'," he said, "what my granddad, the original Cap'n Lote Snow that built this house, would have said if he'd known that he'd have a great-great-grandson come to live in it who was," scornfully, "a half-breed." Olive's grip tightened on his arm. "Oh, DON'T talk so, Zelotes," she begged. "He's our Janie's boy."
Word Of The Day