Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 28, 2025
"No mortifying just yet, if you please," cried Susie. "The most important thing of all is yet to be done. Zeb hasn't heard the news; just think of it! You must write and tell him that I'll help you spin the children's clothes and work the farm; that we'll face everything in Opinquake as long as Old Put needs men. Where is the ink-horn?
"Yes, just about once in a hundred years!" snarled Zeke. "YOU find something to keep fat on, anyhow. We'll broil you some cold night. Trot out your beans if there's nothing else." "Growl away," retorted Zeke. "'Twon't be long before I'll be eating chickens and pumpkin-pie in Opinquake, instead of cooking beans and rusty pork for a lot of hungry wolves."
Then he asked, "Isn't there any one you would like to hear about in camp?" She blushed deeper still, and named every one who had gone from Opinquake except Zeb. At last she said a little ironically: "I suppose Ezekiel Watkins is almost thinking about being a general about this time?" "Hasn't he been here telling you what he is thinking about?" "Been here! Do you mean to say he has come home?"
Lame as I be, I'd walk to Opinquake to give her a hint in her choosin'. Guess Hi Woodbridge is right, and she wouldn't be long in making up her mind betwixt a soger and a cook a mighty poor one at that. Somehow or nuther I must let her know before Zeke Watkins sneaks home and parades around as a soldier 'bove ditch-digging. I've taken his measure.
I want a husband like grandfather. He wasn't afraid to face anything, and he honored his wife by acting as if she wasn't afraid either." Zeb gave Susie no chance to bestow the rebuffs she had premeditated. He had been down to witness the departure of the Opinquake quota, and had seen Susie's farewell to Zeke Watkins.
Has she given Zeke the mitten for your sake, Zeb?" piped little Hiram Woodbridge. "She hasn't given me anything, and I've got no claim; but she is the kind of girl that every fellow from Opinquake should stand up for. We all know that there is nothing chicken-hearted about her." "Eight, by George George W., I mean, and not the king," responded Hiram Woodbridge.
Zeke, sullen toward his jeering comrades, but immensely elated in secret, had shaken the dust snow and slush rather of camp-life from his feet the day before. He had the grace to wait till the time of his enlistment expired, and that was more than could be said of many. It spoke well for the little Opinquake quota that only two others besides Zeke availed themselves of their liberty.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking