David Harum: A Story of American LifeWestcott, Edward Noyes
General
David Harum: A Story of American Life
Westcott, Edward Noyes
Bankers -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Fiction
"I've heard enough 'bout s'posin' fer one day," said Mrs. Bixbee
decisively, "unless it's s'posin' you finish your dinner so's't Sairy
c'n git through her work sometime."
CHAPTER XXXV.
After dinner John went to his room and David and his sister seated
themselves on the "verandy." Mr. Harum lighted a cigar and enjoyed his
tobacco for a time in silence, while Mrs. Bixbee perused, with rather
perfunctory diligence, the columns of her weekly church paper.
"I seen a sight fer sore eyes this mornin'," quoth David presently.
"What was that?" asked Aunt Polly, looking up over her glasses.
"Claricy Verjoos fer one part on't," said David.
"The Verjooses hev come, hev they? Wa'al, that's good. I hope she'll
come up an' see me."
David nodded. "An' the other part on't was," he said, "she an' that
young feller of our'n was walkin' together, an' a putty slick pair they
made too."
"Ain't she purty?" said Mrs. Bixbee.
"They don't make 'em no puttier," affirmed David; "an' they was a nice
pair. I couldn't help thinkin'," he remarked, "what a nice hitch up
they'd make."
"Guess the' ain't much chance o' that," she observed.
"No, I guess not either," said David.
"He hain't got anythin' to speak of, I s'pose, an' though I reckon
she'll hev prop'ty some day, all that set o' folks seems to marry money,
an' some one's alwus dyin' an' leavin' some on 'em some more. The' ain't
nothin' truer in the Bible," declared Mrs. Bixbee with conviction, "'n
that sayin' thet them that has gits."
"That's seemin'ly about the way it runs in gen'ral," said David.
"It don't seem right," said Mrs. Bixbee, with her eyes on her brother's
face. "Now there was all that money one o' Mis' Elbert Swayne's
relations left her last year, an' Lucy Scramm, that's poorer 'n
poverty's back kitchin, an' the same relation to him that Mis' Swayne
was, only got a thousan' dollars, an' the Swaynes rich already. Not but
what the thousan' was a godsend to the Scramms, but he might jest as
well 'a' left 'em comf'tibly off as not, 'stid of pilin' more onto the
Swaynes that didn't need it."
"Does seem kind o' tough," David observed, leaning forward to drop his
cigar ash clear of the veranda floor, "but that's the way things goes,
an' I've often had to notice that a man'll sometimes do the foolishist
thing or the meanest thing in his hull life after he's dead."
"You never told me," said Mrs. Bixbee, after a minute or two, in which
she appeared to be following up a train of reflection, "much of anythin'
about John's matters. Hain't he ever told you anythin' more 'n what
you've told me? or don't ye want me to know? Didn't his father leave
anythin'?"
"The' was a little money," replied her brother, blowing out a cloud of
smoke, "an' a lot of unlikely chances, but nothin' to live on."
"An' the' wa'n't nothin' for 't but he had to come up here?" she
queried.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account