United States or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He was forehanded with his winter woodpile, immaculately neat with his dooryard, determined in his Sunday observance, and if he put the small apples in the middle of the barrel he refused to raise tobacco, lest it become a cause of stumbling to his neighbour. He paid his debts, disciplined his children, and in an age which has come to look chummily upon God, he dreaded His wrath.
There was four or five men cavorting around on their horses in the open place before the log store, cussing and yelling, and trying to get at a couple of young chaps that was behind the wood-rank alongside of the steamboat landing; but they couldn't come it. Every time one of them showed himself on the river side of the woodpile he got shot at.
Den she holler ag'in at him an' still he rock hisse'f, sayin' he's comin'. Den, fust thing I knowed out she come to de woodpile an' git it herse'f, an' den when she pass him wid 'er arms full o' wood he look up an' say 'Peggy, come yere an' kiss me I dunno what we'd do widout ye you'se de Lawd's anointed, sho'."
I'll get out for lunch, business or no business." Eleven-thirty brought him home, preoccupied and frowning. And he carried his frown and his preoccupation to the table. "Whatever is the matter, Bill?" Hazel anxiously inquired. "Oh, I've got a nasty hunch that there's a nigger in the woodpile," he replied. "What woodpile?" she asked. "I'll tell you more about it to-night," he said bluntly.
"'Woodpile? said I. "'Cord o' wood. Axe. Sweat o' the brow. Them's the best physic I know of. "He smoked on for a bit, and I sat and looked at him, admiring how the world was made. I don't know whether you read Kipling, Miss Vesta. I was rewarded for my patience. "'Young feller, said the old man, after awhile, 'how old do you s'pose I be? "'Seventy, said I; and he looked it, not a day over.
My mother kept a cook and a nursemaid, and a dvornik, or outdoor man, to take care of the horses, the cow, and the woodpile. All the year round we kept open house, as I remember. Cousins and aunts were always about, and on holidays friends of all degrees gathered in numbers.
"It seems as if I were always moving," Master Meadow Mouse mused. "It's lucky for me the world is wide. Thank goodness there's plenty of places left where I can go. I've tried the meadow, Farmer Green's woodpile, the tangle beside the pasture fence and the cornfield. And now now let me see! I believe I'll settle along Black Creek, under the bank."
It was so nice a day, and he had been so long at his woodpile, and he had had so little time to call his own that week. Over on the green, the boys of the village were playing a sort of "match-game" of base-ball, with a picked nine from the academy; and there seemed no reason why Dick and his basket should not stroll along inside the barrier-fence of the green, and see them play it.
If you will get some expert to go through the schedules of the present Payne-Aldrich tariff, you will find a "nigger" concealed in almost every woodpile, some little word, some little clause, some unsuspected item, that draws thousands of dollars out of the pockets of the consumer and yet does not seem to mean anything in particular.
He spurred forward like the wind, his eyes upon the tracks, and when he came in sight of the house he threw down his hat and swore. Of all the God-forsaken places in Arizona, the Dos S Ranch was the worst. The earth lay bare and desolate before it; the woodpile had disappeared; the bucket was thrown down the well.
Word Of The Day