Bob Chester's Grit; Or, From Ranch to RichesWebster, Frank V.
General
Bob Chester's Grit; Or, From Ranch to Riches
Webster, Frank V.
Ranch life -- Juvenile fiction
This caustic comment upon the length of time he was lingering over the
meal, and the open charge that he was trying to defraud the waitress,
hurt Bob, and his embarrassment was evident in the flush that mounted to
his face, as he stammered:
"I'm sorry if I've taken too long over my food. I didn't know I was
expected to eat it all at once. But I don't think you have any right to
say that I was trying to cheat you out of the pay. If I hadn't had the
money in my pocket to pay for what I ordered, I shouldn't have ordered
anything. How much is it, please?"
"Thirty cents," snapped the waitress.
Quickly Bob thrust his hand in his pocket, and drew forth a dollar bill
and gave it to her.
So deeply had Bob been stirred by the unjust reflection upon his
honesty, that his misery was plainly visible on his face, and the
waitress, returning, could not but notice it.
"I'm sorry if I made you feel bad, kid," she apologized, "but you see,
when people buy things in here, they generally pay for them right off,
and we have so many tricks worked on us that we have to be pretty sly
not to get nailed by some of them. But you're all right. You're only
just green."
Leaving the restaurant, Bob returned to the waiting-room, where he
picked out a seat nearest the place where the train announcer always
stood when he called out the trains that were ready for the passengers.
But as he sat there, he could not get the words of the girl in the
restaurant out of his mind, and kept repeating to himself: "Only just
green."
The constant brooding over this remark suggested the thought to him: "If
people here in the cities like New York and Chicago think that I don't
know anything, and am not used to the ways of doing things, what will
they think of me out in Fairfax? I said I wouldn't let them take me for
a tenderfoot, and I won't. I'll just pretend I know all about things and
watch how the other people do."
This new resolve fascinated the boy, and he fell into a day dream, in
which bronchos, cowboys, and herds of cattle figured prominently, and so
engrossed did he become in it, that it was with a start he heard the
train announcer call out the train for Kansas City and the West, which
he was to take.
Following the others who were going on the same train, Bob made his way
to the cars.
Mindful of his recent resolution and the unpleasant experience with the
porter of the parlor car, Bob scrutinized each coach of the train
carefully as he walked along until he came to one that was obviously a
chair car, and this he entered, selecting a seat well in the middle.
Eager as Bob was to reach his destination, it seemed to him that they
would never start, but when at last the wheels began to squeak as the
train got in motion, he gave vent to a sigh of delight.
Of the people about him, he took only passing notice, and busied himself
with trying to map out a plan of action after he reached Fairfax.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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