Hiram in the Middle West : $b Or, A young farmer's upward struggleTodd, Burbank L.
General
Hiram in the Middle West : $b Or, A young farmer's upward struggle
Todd, Burbank L.
Agriculture -- Juvenile fiction; Pastoral fiction
He was in no better mood the second day; and that afternoon Hiram saw
Adam Banks stroll along the road and go upon the burned-over piece
to speak to the woodchopper. There was not so much tree cutting done
during the next hour, and it vexed the young farm manager.
"It seems, as Mr. Bronson suggested, that I am bound to have trouble
with that fellow, whether I hire him or not," Hiram reflected.
CHAPTER XIII
WHEAT
It was about this time that Hiram received his first letter since
leaving Scoville from Sister. He was glad to hear personally from her,
and about her wonderful fortune as well; but it must be confessed
that had the letter been from a certain other girl he would have been
equally pleased.
He had heard of Lettie Bronson frequently from her father. She would
graduate from St. Beris in June and come home to Plympton. Then, Hiram
hoped, he would see her occasionally at Sunnyside Farm.
Secretly the young fellow was particularly pleased with his new
position as farm manager because it gave him an opportunity to delegate
the heavier and dirtier work to his workmen. If Lettie came on the
place he would be able to go to meet her in decent clothes and with
clean hands.
Sister's letter was very friendly and newsy; but upon reading it a
second time Hiram thought he observed in it a tone that was not like
that of the Sister he had previously known. She had been wont to be
rather fly-away and careless of speech and act. Now there was a sudden
primness in the way she expressed herself which must, Hiram thought,
arise from the feeling of responsibility which her new circumstances
had brought to her.
But here spoke the old tender-hearted, if imaginative, Sister:
"I wish I could go out myself, Hiram, and find my little brother.
Just think of his running away--even from a reform school--into
the world all stark alone! I don't know anything more about him
than that--not even what his first name is. It seems my Grandmother
Cheltenham hired the lawyer to find us both before she died, but
she would do nothing for Brother and me until we were both found.
So all that I can do is to wait patiently. I hope the poor boy will
come to no harm."
She signed the letter: "I-don't-know-my-first-name-yet Cheltenham." But
Hiram could imagine how proud and happy Sister was with a real name of
her own.
"Bless her dear little heart," he murmured.
The carpenters began to arrive at Sunnyside, and the shack, first to be
used for a bunkhouse and kitchen, was soon put up. It would comfortably
house twenty men, the bunks being built along the walls and a long
table and benches occupying the middle of the room. Hiram took his old
bed in the small house after Orrin Post moved in with the other men,
and the incubator house was fumigated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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