Christian Science -- Fiction; People with disabilities -- Fiction
But suddenly a realization came to her of how marked her resentment
would seem to him if he should discover its cause, and she hastened to
play a part. But he was in no danger of discovering, because he did not
even suspect. All the young fellows he knew, no matter how aristocratic
their names, were at work for mere pittances at employments no
self-respecting men would tolerate for a moment, because they offered no
hope of betterment or promotion. Men with the talent to become lawyers,
artists, bankers, and brokers were teaching school for less than Irish
bricklayers get in large cities. Therefore, it could not be alleged
that they were incapable of earning more or of occupying more dignified
positions. It was simply the lack of ambition--the inertia of the
South--which they could not shake off. It is the heritage of the
Southern-born.
Presently Moultrie again pointed with his whip:
"Over yonder is Sunnymede, our place. Poor old Sunnymede! Mortgaged to
its eyes, and with all its turpentine and timber gone! Guildford is
intact. We just skirt the edge of Sunnymede riding to Guildford. And
right where you see that tall blasted pine standing by itself is where I
made one of my usual failures. I’m like the man with the ugly mule, who
always backed. He said if he could only hitch that mule with his head
to the wagon, he could get there. So, if my failures were only turned
wrong side out, I’d be wealthy."
Carolina tried to smile. Moultrie continued:
"Once I thought I’d try to make some money, so I sold some timber to a
Yankee firm who wanted fine cypress, and with the money I constructed a
terrapin crawl. I knew how expensive terrapin are, and, if there is one
thing I do know about, it is terrapin. So I canned a few prize-winners,
and sent them to New York, and got word that they would take all I could
send. Well, with that I began to feel like a Jay Gould. I could just
see myself drinking champagne and going to the opera every night. So I
immediately raised some mo’ money in the same way,--out of the
Yankees,--organized a small company, and built a canning factory. The
lumber company was interested with me and advanced me all the money I
wanted. So I got the thing well started, and left special word with the
foreman, a cracker named Sharpe, to be sure and not can the claws, then
I went off to New York to enjoy myself. I stayed until all my money was
gone and then came home, intending to enjoy the wealth my foreman had
built up in my absence. But what do you reckon that fool had done? Why,
he had turned the work over to the niggers, and they had canned the
terrapin just so,--claws, eyebrows, and all! Well, of course, the New
York people went back on me,--wrote me the most impudent letters I ever
got from anybody. It just showed me that Yankees can never hope to be
considered gentlemen. Why, they acted as if I had cheated them! Said
they had advertised largely on my samples, and had lost money and credit
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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