Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: August 26, 2024
Then there was Jeduth Pettybone, he brought down them colts to-day, and I worked the biggest part o' the mornin' shoein' on 'em; and then Jeduth he said he couldn't make change to pay me, so there wa'n't nothin' comin' in for 't; and then Hepsy she kep' a jawin' at me all dinner-time 'bout that.
Deacon Pettybone was a busy man, organizing the forces of the Baptists, and seeking diligently to round up the votes of neutrals. Elder Hooper, the leader of the Congregationalist party, was equally occupied, and no man might hazard a guess at the outcome of the affair. "This here is a great principle," said Deacon Pettybone, "and men gives their lives and sacrifices their families for sich.
He did talk the matter over with Deacon Pettybone, but got little enlightenment for his pains. "Don't seem natteral," Scattergood said, "f'r young folks to git to quarrelin' and bickerin' ontil life hain't endurable no longer. 'Tain't natteral a-tall. Somethin' must be all-fired wrong somewheres." "It's human nature to quarrel," said the deacon, gloomily. "Nothin' onusual about it."
"Howdy, Scattergood?" "How's things lookin' for to-morrer?" "Mighty even, Scattergood. If 'twan't for that ol' gallus Pettybone, we'd git that sidewalk with votes to spare." "Um!... If he was absent from the meetin' things might git to happen." "Ho! Tie him to home, and there wouldn't even be a fight." "Got a wooden leg, hain't he?" "Wisht he had three." "Got two, one hangin' in the harness room.
But when it noticed, not later than the second day of Miss Yvette Hinchbrooke's career in their midst, that young Homer Locker flapped about her like some over-grown insect about a street lamp, it took no pains to conceal its delight and devoutly hoped for the worst. "Looks like Providence was steppin' in," said Elder Hooper to Deacon Pettybone.
Even Deacon Pettybone, reputed to be the "nearest" inhabitant of the village, flew one small cotton flag, reputed to have cost fifteen cents, from his front stoop. The bridge was so covered with red, white, and blue as to quite lose its identity as a bridge and to become one of the wonders of the world, to be talked about for a decade.
"Hear things hain't goin' right down to the new pulp mill," said Deacon Pettybone, one bitterly cold afternoon, when he came into Scattergood's store to thaw the icicles out of his sparse beard. "Do tell," said Scattergood. "Be perty bad for you if they was to go wrong, wouldn't it?" "Perty bad, Deacon." "'Most ruin you, wouldn't it? Clean you out? Leave you with nothin'?"
"Hope it's painful," said Lafe, "I'm a-goin' home to bed." "What'll we do?" asked Deacon Pettybone. "Nothin'," said Scattergood, "till some doin' is called fur. Calc'late I better slip on my shoes. Might meet my wife." Mandy Scattergood was doing her able best to break Scattergood of his shoeless ways.
They had grown up together from boyhood, as chums, and later as business partners, but at the mature age of forty Deacon Pettybone had attended a revival service in the Baptist church.
The road to Banks's was fairly well traveled these days, for there was hardly a day that did not see either Selina Pettybone or Parson Hooper driving out to the little house, and, strangely enough, the days on which both were present appeared to be in the majority.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking