A Cry in the WildernessWaller, Mary E. (Mary Ella)
General
A Cry in the Wilderness
Waller, Mary E. (Mary Ella)
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Québec (Province) -- Fiction
"Sho! It don't look more 'n fit for mop-rags, an' they in the house
scurce ten minutes. Guess 't 'll have ter come up ter-morrer, an' I
'll see that 't is up."
"And it will stay up; but it did look so neat and cosy--and now see
that!" I included in a glance the entire mass of luggage and sporting
outfit.
"Good deal of truck for one man, but I guess he can handle it all;
seems a likely enough sort of feller. I had to introduce myself, you
might say, for he an' Pete was talkin' so fast in French that I could
n't get in a word edgewise at furst. You 'd have thought the old manor
barns was afire, and they was trying to get the hosses out. I managed
to have my say, though, 'fore we struck the river road."
"I have n't had a good look at him--Jamie did n't give me the chance."
"Wal, I can't say as I have neither. He 's pretty quiet, but I noticed
he hit the nail on the head every time he did speak. The one they call
Doctor Rugvie is some different; he was like a schoolboy let loose when
he got into the pung. Guess Mr. Ewart won't wait long 'fore he 'll
have a sleigh, as is a sleigh, to match the French coach hosses, from
what I heard. The Doctor had his little joke about a pung for a manor
house. I 've got to go over again ter-morrer to get the rest of the
truck."
"Oh, Cale, more!"
He nodded, and, with a significant upward motion of his thumb, made his
exit at the kitchen end. I slipped into the dining-room to see that
all was in readiness for the extra supper. I actually did not know
what to do with myself, what was my place, or where I belonged in the
household, now that the owner of Lamoral and his friend were here. I
looked about: the flames from the pine cones were leaping in the
fireplace, the curtains were drawn close, the room was filled with a
resinous forest fragrance, for I had placed large branches of white
pine in some antiquated milk jugs of glazed red clay, which I found in
one of the unused dairy rooms, and set them on each end of the mantel.
When I heard Jamie and the Doctor on the stairs, I left by way of the
kitchen and, passing through that and the bare offices between it and
the living-room, slipped into the latter to inspect it. Here also the
fire was blazing, the wax candles in the sconces were lighted. The
yellow sofa was drawn in front of the fireplace, but good eight feet
from it. At either end were the easy chairs, and at the right of the
chimney, nearest the door into the kitchen offices, was a low ample tea
table covered with a white linen cloth, set with plain white china, a
nickel-plated tea-kettle and lamp. Behind the sofa, along the length
of its straight long back, stood the library table furnished with
writing pad and inkstand, a wooden bookrack filled with Jamie's
favorites and mine, and a bowl of red geranium blossoms. I was
satisfied with my work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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