I've Been Thinking; or, the Secret of SuccessRoe, A. S. (Azel Stevens)
General
I've Been Thinking; or, the Secret of Success
Roe, A. S. (Azel Stevens)
Conduct of life -- Fiction; Diligence -- Fiction; Success -- Fiction
'I know he did, Jim, and so he thought, but Bill has been careless. He
has taken potatoes there every year, as he thought, enough to square his
account; but he never saw how it was, nor had any settlement made, and
it has run on until lately; and when Bill asked him, for the first time,
for his account--what do you think? Grizzle up's with a bill of more
than eighty dollars.'
'Eighty dollars!'
'Yes, Jim, eighty dollars and upwards. Bill said when he saw it, he felt
as if he should drop down.'
'Did he pay any of it? I would not have paid one cent of it until it had
been pretty well examined. You remember your father's account?'
'Bill says he was confounded by it, and so afraid that his mother should
hear any thing about it--for you know she is such a queer woman--that he
paid Grizzle all the money that he received from you--thirty dollars.'
'Oh, what a pity!'
'Well, you see, Jim, Bill was so afraid his mother would know it he said
it would make her about crazy.'
'Yes; but for all that, he ought to have told his mother.'
'I suppose he ought; but she soon knew it. For what did Grizzle do, but
send Dick Tucker there; and he has taken the cattle, and other things,
to pay the bill.'
'Oh, Sam, I am sorry for Bill. I wonder what his mother did say?'
'Bill says she called him every thing she could think of; and then she
cried and hallooed so loud, that he had to go for the Widow Brown to
come and pacify her. But he says he can stay at home no longer; so he is
going across the barrens to see a Mr. Rutherford, who promised to be a
friend to him; and he says he never means to come back, until he gets
money enough to pay that account; and he is coming here to bid you good
bye.'
'Sam Oakum, this is too bad. I have been thinking how Bill might be a
great help to us, and himself too.'
'It is no use; he is done for--his cattle are gone, and so there is an
end of it. But don't say any thing to Bill about this, nor let him see
that you feel bad towards him.'
'We don't feel bad towards him. Why, Sam Oakum, we like Bill Andrews
almost as well as we do you; but there he comes.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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