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The Return · The Man of the House

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Chapter ten of The Man of the House by Pansy. The Slibbrivox recording is
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in the public domain. Chapter ten the return Happy New Year, said a
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voice close to Beth's ear. She dreamed it was Reuben, and that he
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came to her with his hands full of gold pieces with which he meant to
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buy a cow and a chair and a farm in the country. She wakened
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with a start to find the sun of New Year's morning flooding the world,
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and Reuben, in very truth, standing beside her. Is it really and
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truly you, she said, sitting up straight and rubbing her bewildered eyes.
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Oh, mother, mother, here he is, and he is alive,
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and nothing is the matter. And missus Stone opened her own heavy eyes,
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and New Year's morning began. My sakes, said Miss Hunter, opening the
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door softly so as not to disturb the sleepers, and shutting it suddenly and
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softly so as not to disturb the people who were wide awake and holding a
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family counsel. Then she rushed away to her griddle cakes. Miss Hunter must
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have been very hungry. She whisked the cover from her little stone jar and
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poured out a full bowl of nice, creamy looking sour milk, Miss Hunter,
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Miss Hunter, don't you know that a bowl full of sour milk will
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make cakes enough for five or six people, and there is only one of
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you? But Miss Hunter gave no heed if any voice whispered that to her,
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but measured her soda with care and dashed it into the milk, where
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it presently began to make such a sissing noise that one who didn't understand the
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work that soda has to perform when it gets with anything sour might have thought
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a bit of a steam engine had set up business in the bowl. Gurgle,
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gurgled, girlrgle, said the milk at last, changing its tone entirely,
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and Miss Hunter, who had been briskly stirring it all the while,
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said, with a satisfied air, Oh you're sweet, are you all right?
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Pity folks couldn't be made sweet tempered as easy as that. Then she
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broke an egg into another bowl, whisking it around frantically with a fork until
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it was bubbling SuDS. Then she put the yellow foam and the white foam
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together and stirred little tin shovels of flour into it, and salted it,
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and by and by mercilessly dropped a spoonful of the mass onto a hot griddle,
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and lo a lovely round brown cake, puffy and flaky, as nice
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as the nicest, said Miss Hunter, nodding her head in a satisfied way.
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Then she drew out her table and spread it with a clean cloth,
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and dashed at her bit of a cupboard, and brought out four plates.
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Had she forgotten that she was a lone woman. If she had, she
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made herself happy over the mistake, and added spoons and forks, and knives
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and cups, four of each, and made a ridiculous quantity of coffee for
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one woman. When all was ready, even to the baking of a very
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great many of the puffy cakes, some of which she buttered and sugared,
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and some of which she only buttered. She set four chairs around her table,
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then slipped across the hall once more and knocked boldly at the north door.
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It was Reuben who answered the knock. He laughed when he saw miss
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Hunter. Good morning. He said, I've got em. They are here
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in my pocket, safe and sound, diving down for the things she had
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ordered. I didn't know, but you'd think I went to the north pole
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for them, and I started. I guess, dear me, said miss
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Hunter. I'd forgotten about the things. It was so long ago. You
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see last year sometime, wasn't it? Happy New Year to you? We
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begun ours early in this house. Now have they told you that you are
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going out to breakfast for New Year's morning? Why? No'm said Reuben,
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astonished. He was just making ready to introduce his mother to Miss Hunter.
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Then he laughed, not but that. I'm getting used to going out to
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breakfast. I've been doing it lately, well, said Miss Hunter, joining
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in his laugh and turning to his mother. It's the queerest thing, you
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know. I was up some last night and being kind of sleepy this morning.
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What did I do but go and mix up the whole of my sour
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milk. And the consequence is I've cakes enough for half a dozen families the
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size of mine, So of course you'll have to come and help me eat
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em for New Year's you know. Of course they understood her pretty little make
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belief of being absent minded, and of course they were all polite enough to
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go to her pleasant room to breakfast, and grateful enough for all her kindness
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to be happy and enjoy those cakes and those cups of coffee, as missus
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Stone at least had not enjoyed a meal in many a day. What did
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I do with my basket? Said Reuben suddenly, as miss Hunter helped him
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to the seventh cake for strange to say. In spite of his elegant breakfast
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eaten from real China dishes and with a solid silver fork and spoon, Ruben
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was hungry. I had a basket when I came in. Where did I
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put it? You set it behind the stove in our room, said Beth.
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I saw it and wondered what was in it. I don't know myself,
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declared Reuben. Only it's something that is most awful heavy. I didn't
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know, but it would break my arms after I left the car. I
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guess i'd better bring it in and see what it is. A wonderful basket
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was that? You should have heard the exclamations as Ruben drew out the parcels
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one by one. A mince pie cuddled nicely among rows of doughnuts for the
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top layer. Then came a turkey, dressed and even stuffed, ready for
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the oven. Then a dish of cooked cranberries, looking like a great amount
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of trembling jelly as Reuben uncovered the dish. Then a large round frosted cake,
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then a chicken pie, and each little niche in the basket was filled
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in with nuts and candies. On the bottom was spread a smooth, thick
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package that Ruben said was the quilt for the turkey to sleep on. But
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a paper was pinned to the string, and on the paper, in delicate
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writing were the words for Beth. So Beth's trembling fingers picked at then until
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Reuben had pity on her impatience and his own, and cut the string.
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Then was brought to view a lovely little fur hood and cape. Not so
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very little either was the cape, for it reached below Beth's waist. It
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was curious to see how the different members of this family took the surprise.
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Oh oh, oh, squealed Beth, and she jumped up and down and
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clapped her hands. As a rule, she was a quiet little thing,
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but she had never in her life before had any soft, furry garment to
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wear, and she thought they were so lovely. Missus Stone wiped her eyes
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and said not a single word. She was very much surprised, and she
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was very glad, and she wondered if it could be possible that Miss Hunter's
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prayer of the night before had anything to do with all this. My sakes,
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said Miss Hunter, Isn't that just splendid? And she thought, but
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did not say, how well the merino in the trunk, when it was
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made to fit Beth would look beside the fur hood and cape. As for
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Reuben, there was a sparkle in his eyes that was pleasant to see when
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one remembered they were shining about his sister's gift. She must have been expecting
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me for at least a week and been getting ready, he said soberly,
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and this made them all laugh. We must have a New Year's dinner,
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said missus Stone, rousing to the heights of the occasion. Then they began
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to plan, and as soon as Miss Hunter found herself fully counted in as
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if she were, of course one of the family, she had her plan
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ready. Now I'll tell you what it is. Your mother was foolish enough
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to sit up for you last night, and you know you did not get
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in very early calling it. And it stands to reason that she don't feel
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quite chirk this morning. What she needs is a good long nap and she
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can have it as well as not. While I am cooking the dinner.
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Here's Beth to help me and you and we'll get up a dinner fit for
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the President if he needs any better one than we do. What do you
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say? But here? Missus Stone shook her head and reminded Miss Hunter that
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she too was up all night taking care of Mother Perkins, and that she
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must be quite as tired as any of them. This Miss Hunter assured her
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was not the case. She was used to it. There was nothing like
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getting used to things. Her poor father was sick for years, couldn't sleep
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nights, and she used to be up with him part of every night,
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sometimes all night. She grew so used to being broken of her rest that
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it really seemed almost foolish to lie in bed on the and she often got
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up and sat in a chair a while just because she could not sleep.
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She had her own way, the truth is she was very apt to have,
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And in another hour or two the north room was darkened and poor tired
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missus Stone was lying in a sound sleep on the bed. She could hardly
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remember any other week day when she had actually gone to bed in the middle
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of the day. In the South room, there was a delicious smell already
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from the oven, where the great turkey began to make little sputtery remarks,
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and Beth and Miss Hunter were washing the cooking dishes and chatting together as though
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they had always known and liked each other. A royal dinner it was that
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was served in that south room about two o'clock of the same day. Miss
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Hunter did not tell them, as she might, of the great dinners she
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had been in the habit of mending on New Year's days, but her cooking
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told the story to missus Stone just as well as though she had spoken.
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It was not until late in the afternoon, when the dishes were washed and
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the party over, and the guests had gone home, that Reuben unfolded the
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piece of paper and showed his mother what was hidden away in it. He
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had looked before, and been so astonished that he shut it up quickly and
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dived it down to the very bottom of his pocket. Now after having gone
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over every inch of the night up to the time when he stepped into that
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bed made of down and poppies to rest a minute, and answered a hundred
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questions from the curious Beth about the rooms and the table and the pictures and
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the piano, he said. And see here, mother, there's something else
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I got. Then he laid the paper in her lap, and she slowly
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unfolded it, and behold there shown a ten dollar gold piece. On the
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inside of the paper was written in the same pretty hand that had written Best's
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name, for the brave man of the house to help him in the support
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of his family. I told her, you know, exclaimed Reuben, that
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I had a family to support. I said, you had to work hard
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now, but one of these days I meant to have you sit in a
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silk dress in a big armchair and not do a single thing. Well,
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of course, I didn't tell her exactly that, but she asked me questions,
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and I told her what I wanted to do. There was more planning
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for the Stone family. It actually took hours to decide about that wonderful,
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shining bit of gold. Reuben was for paying a great deal of rent in
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advance, and so having that off their minds for a while. I hate
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rents, he said, with energy. Catch me ever paying any when I'm
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a man. Then he was for buying a whole ton of coal and a
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barrel of flour. But his mother reminded him that it was growing late in
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the season, and if the rest of the winter should be mild, they
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might not need a whole ton to carry them through to the days when chips
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and blocks of wood from new buildings would boil their potatoes, and there was
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certainly no place for a barrel of flour to stand. So finally, with
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a little bit of a sigh, which he covered up as soon as possible,
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he laid the ten dollars in her hands with a well, mother,
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there it is. I suppose the best way is to keep it and use
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it when you need it, just as you have always done. Only I
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would like to get the mean old rent paid off for a few weeks ahead.
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I'd just like the fun of going to mister Grimsby and handing it out
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and getting a receipt. He always acts as though he was sure we were
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going to cheat him out of it. This time there was one other thing
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which made Reuben sigh even on that happy New Year's day. Of course,
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he told his mother all about the saloon and the offer of business. When
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he had finished his story, she looked sober. Something in her face disappointed
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him. Didn't I do right, mother? He asked her eagerly. You
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wouldn't have me go into such a business, would you. Oh, I
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don't know, she said, in a troubled tone. We are very poor,
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you know, and you and Beth both need clothes, and we need
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almost everything in the line of provisions. It is the first chance you have
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had, poor folks. Mustn't be too particular. I suppose it will do
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for the rich to have principles, but it costs too much for us.
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Yes, but mother, said Reuben, with a distressed face. I should
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have had to wait on men to brandy and wine and all those vile things.
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You surely wouldn't have had me do that. Why you needn't have drank
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any yourself. And as for waiting on other people, somebody will do that.
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If you don't, there will be just as much of it drank.
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I don't see. But you might as well get the pay as any one,
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poor troubled Reuben. His mother's words did not shake his resolution in the
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least, for Miss Hunter had burst that bubble by what she said about selling
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poison. But it was hard not to have her approve of his actions,
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as she had almost always done before this. I thought you would be glad,
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he said, in a low tone. But I couldn't have done it
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anyhow, because I made a promise about it. A promise, said his
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mother curiously. Who did you promise? I promised myself last night when I
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was riding along by that drunken man, you know, just before we crossed
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the track, and in spite of it being broad daylight and he safe at
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home beside his mother, Reuben gave a little shiver. Besides, he said,
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after a moment of hesitation, speaking more gravely still, I guess I
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promised God. I asked him to take care of me, and he did,
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I think, and I said down in my heart that I would never
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taste a drop of rum and never do a single thing to help anybody else
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to take any He heard it, of course, and I guess maybe it
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is the same thing as a promise. Here, Beth, who had been
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a silent and attentive listener, suddenly burst forth. I wouldn't wear any clothes
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that were bought with their mean old money, nor eat anything that was got
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by selling rum, not if I starved, dear me, said the mother.
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What a couple of temperance fanatics I live with? But she said it
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very pleasantly, and there was a smile on her face. I suppose you
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are right, Reuben, she said after a minute. I was a little
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troubled about your having lost a chance to earn some money on your and Beth's
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account, not on my own. But I suppose it is best to keep
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clear of the business altogether. You are a good boy anyway, and I
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shall never have to worry about you as some mothers do. I don't suppose
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we shall starve. We never have yet, and to day we have been
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a long way from starving. And she leaned over and kissed him in very
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motherly fashion. But Reuben could not forget that troubled look. He went in
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to see that Miss Hunter was comfortable for the night before going to bed,
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and it looked so cozy here that he couldn't help sitting down a minute to
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tell her some more about this strange day. It felt to him as though
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he had known her all his life. What do you think, he said,
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leaning over her little table and looking up into her kind gray eyes.
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I had that chance we were talking about yesterday offered to me this very morning?
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What chance, asked Miss Hunter? All attention? Why to hold out
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the poison for other folks to drink, you know, and get good pay
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for it too. You don't say so, and you refused it, yes'm
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said Reuben gravely. But then I had a great long temperance lecture last night
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from a drunken man, and I couldn't go into any such business, you
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know. After that, I suppose miss Hunter saw a connection between what he
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had told her and the verse she quoted, though Reuben could didn't quite understand
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what it was, but this was what she said. He shall give his
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angels charge concerning THEE, to keep THEE in all thy ways. End of
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Chapter ten,