“When Uncle John went away he told us to do the best we could and as
soon as George was better and he could leave home he would come and
help us settle everything up. There wasn’t so very much to do beside
the everyday work except to gather the apples and harvest the corn.
We had a big field of corn that year, but we managed to get it cut up
and began to husk it. But it was slow work, for I was only a little
shaver—not quite eleven years old, and Theodore isn’t strong like I
am. It came on cold early that fall and we got pretty discouraged.
One night there was a circle round the moon, and Theodore said he was
afraid we were goin’ to have a snowstorm. That would make the husking
harder, and we both felt real worried. But what do you think? When we
went out in the field the next morning the corn was all husked and in
heaps ready to draw in! It had been a moonlight night and the neighbors
had all turned in and done it for us. They were all so good to us I
shall never forget it of them.
“As soon as he could Uncle John came back, and then we sold the farm.
We hated to, but he thought that was best, for though it was only a
small one we were too young to manage it. When everything was settled
there was eight hundred dollars apiece for Theodore and me. Uncle John
put this out at interest for us, secured by mortgage so it should be
safe, and took us home with him. But Uncle John isn’t rich by any
means, and he has five children of his own, so though they are all
kind as can be we didn’t want to live on him. For two years now, I’ve
been driving this tin-cart summers. I get twenty dollars a month and
my expenses, and I’ve a hundred dollars in the bank I earned myself.
Winters I live at Uncle John’s and go to school. He won’t take anything
for my board, but I buy dresses and things for Aunt Eunice and my
cousins; they are so good to me I want to do what I can for them. With
what I earn and the interest on my own money, as soon as I’m old enough
I mean to buy a farm. I would like a store, but Uncle John thinks a
farm is safer, and perhaps I’ll buy the old farm back.”
“How nice that would be!” cried Posey.
“Why, see here, Posey,” with the force of a sudden idea, “when I get a
farm I shall need somebody to keep the house, and I’ll tell you what
I’ll do, I’ll marry you. Then you can have a home, too; we’re both
orphans and haven’t either of us one now.”
Posey clapped her hands. “That will be splendid! I know I should just
love to live on a farm, and I will learn to make butter, and do all
the things they do on farms. But,” and her face sobered, “won’t your
brother want to live with you?”
“No; Theodore doesn’t take to farming. He’s teaching now, a summer
school up in Michigan. His plan is to go to college and then be a
minister. He’ll make a tiptop one, too.”
“I think you ought to be a minister,” said Posey. “You talk good enough
for one.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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