Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
"If I should put out a little milk behind the house, in a pail, could you come after it, Tessibel?" "Yep," replied Tess eagerly. "I could crib it from your yard, if ye'll let me." "Yes, yes; that's the way to do," replied Teola, with a faint smile. "If I can't get the milk out, you go into the kitchen. Simply take all you can get. Take all you want. My father and mother will be home soon.
Her stern father, who hated Tessibel Skinner with all his heart, must never know of the little Dan. Her mother, weary and nervous, would go to her grave from the shock; and Frederick Teola straightened at the thought of her brother. He would help her in all things, even in the tragedy that now covered her life. Of that Teola felt sure, but the humiliation would be too great.
"Tess, will you come to our home, and tell Father and Mother about Teola?" The name slipped into a whisper from his lips, and, leaning against the hut door, he burst into boyish, bitter tears. "Forgive me, please," he murmured; "but it was so awful! And what she must have suffered!... And I didn't know we none of us knew." He lifted his face, swept them with a heartrending glance, and finished.
"If ye sleeps to-night, I tells ye in the mornin' about the brat.... Sleep, now." For more than an hour Tessibel sat with Teola Graves' baby clasped tightly in her arms, moving back and forth silently in the wooden rocker. A broken board squeaked now and then under the girl's weight, but she slipped the chair into other positions, and rocked on. She marveled at the child born but that afternoon.
During all his short, happy life anxiety had never been his companion until now. It strangled his class ardor and made conscientious study impossible. Teola Graves' tearful, pain-stricken face rose constantly before him. His own eyes darkened at the thought. Oh, to go back to the toffy pull to live over again those last few weeks how different it all would be, and how repentant he was.
"Then ye air a-comin' home with me to the shanty." Tess muttered this in a sly voice, almost in a whisper. Teola raised her glance, and read in the eyes bent upon her that her whole secret was known. Tessibel Skinner, her father's foe, the daughter of a murderer, was helping her to her feet. "I'm too sick to walk," she wept, in a barely audible voice.
You understand, don't you, that that squatter covered with germs of all kinds drank from your daughter's cup." Mrs. Graves started preceptibly. She was noted for a fear of germs. "Teola, your mouth must be scoured with peroxide ... Oh, if some one would only tell me how it all happened!" Frederick rose from his chair and impulsively laid his hand on his mother's shoulder.
Teola turned a puzzled face toward the fishermaid, but there was nothing about the girl to tell her why the accident had happened, for Tessibel, grappling with a huge cloth, was wiping the floor furiously. "I was saying, Tess," repeated Teola, "that I may not come down to-morrow.... Oh! hear how it rains, and the thunder!... Tess, since he died, and the baby came, thunder-storms make me shiver."
Young turned to the student. "Shall I?" An acquiescent nod gave him permission to lift the note and read: "Dear Child: My daughter is dead. Frederick will tell you. If you can forgive me for all I have done against you and your father, will you come here to us, and tell Mrs. Graves and myself of the past few weeks. Frederick has told me that he loves you, and of your sacrifice for Teola.
She would find Teola, and bring her and the babe back to the shanty. Softly she parted the branches that hid the spot where she had first seen the Dominie's daughter. Through the maze of brambles she saw the girl, with the child clasped closely in her arms. The cloth in which Tess had wrapped it had fallen from the little shoulders, leaving them white, save for the blood-red mark of fire.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking