Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: August 28, 2024
It was in vain that her father, speaking from the legal lore of the code, detailed the contempt of court that the Kittredges would commit should they undertake to interfere with the judicial decision it might be even considered kidnapping. "But what good would that do me an' the baby whisked plumb out'n the State?
By degrees she came to expect the covert unfriendly glances his brother cast upon her, the lowering averted mien of her sister-in-law, and now and again she surprised a long, lingering, curious gaze in his mother's eyes. They were all Kittredges! And she wondered how she could ever have dreamed that she might live happily among them one of them, for her name was theirs.
An' he tuk off his hat an' say, 'Thank the Lord, this will heal the breach an' make ye frien's! An' I say, 'Edzacly, pa'son, ef it air Abs'lom's deathbed; but them Kittredges air so smilin' an' deceiv-in' I be powerful feared he'll cheat the King o' Terrors himself. I'll forgive 'em ennything over his grave?" "Pa'son war tuk toler'ble suddint in his temper," said the literal Steve.
But Absalom hung his head before these congratulations; he found no relish in the old man's humbled pride. Yet had he not cursed the baby, lumping him among the Kittredges? Absalom went about for a time, with a hopeful anxiety in his eyes, searching for one of the younger Quim-beys, in order to involve him in a fight that might have a provocation and a result more to his mind.
He went and fastened the shutter, while his mother tremulously mended the fire. The absence of the baby was not noticed for some time, and when the father's hasty and angry questions elicited the reluctant facts, the outcry for his loss was hardly less bitter among the Kittredges than among the Quimbeys.
As the year rolled around again to summer, and she heard from time to time of his quarterly visits to the town as a member of the worshipful Quarterly County Court, she began to hope that, softened by his prosperity, lifted so high by his honors above all the cavillings of the Kittredges, he might be more leniently disposed toward her, might pity her, might even go so far as to forgive.
But all her griefs were bewept on the crag, that there might be no tears to distress the tenderhearted Absalom when she should return to the house. The election of Squire Quimbey was a sad blow to the arrogant spirit of the Kittredges. They had easily accustomed themselves to ascendency, and they hotly resented the fact that fate had forborne the opportunity to hit Joel Quimbey when he was down.
"Laws-a-massy, child, ef ye would jes hev b'lieved me 'bout'n them Kittredges Abs'lom in partic'lar ye'd be happy an' free now," said the old man, his imagination somewhat extending his experience, for he had had no knowledge of his son-in-law until their relationship began. The evening wore drearily on.
Not that he wished his daughter to be unhappy, but the joy which was his grief and humiliation was needlessly flaunted into his face; the idlers about the county town had invariably a new budget of details, being supplied, somewhat maliciously, it must be confessed, by the Kittredges themselves.
Kittredges kin kem enny time an' take my hide, horns, an' tallow ef they air minded so ter do." "I 'lowed I hearn suthin' a-gallopin' down the road," said Tim, abruptly. Her tears suddenly ceased. She clutched the baby closer, and turned and lifted the flap of the white curtain at the back of the wagon, and looked out with a wild and terror-stricken eye.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking