Family -- Juvenile fiction; Sisters -- Juvenile fiction
"Mr. Hildreth gave the pig to Sarah," she explained. "It is all hers.
And you mustn't tell anyone about buying it--that is, that the money is
for Louisa."
Mr. Robinson looked perplexed, as well he might.
"But little grasshoppers!" he ejaculated, scratching his head. "You
can go just so far with a secret, you know; if I buy this Gay farm a
heap of people will have to know about it."
"Oh, who?" said Rosemary in quick distress.
"Well, the guardian, or whoever holds the estate for them," said Mr.
Robinson. "Then the lawyer who draws the deed and all the folks at the
Court House who have anything to do with the searches and like that."
"I don't understand," declared Rosemary, while Sarah and Shirley began
to fold up the dresses Bony had worn. "But I am sure there is no
guardian. Louisa would have said something about it."
"Never mind," said the circus agent kindly. "Plenty of time to find
out all that later. Now if the little girl really wants to sell the
pig--"
He named a figure that surprised them all. Whether, as Doctor Hugh
suspected when he heard the story, Mr. Robinson wanted to help the Gays
too, and added more as a practical way to assist them; or whether, as
Sarah was firmly convinced, Bony was the smartest pig he had ever seen
and he recognized his value, does not really matter. There, before
three pairs of wondering eyes, he counted out a little heap of soiled
bills and gave them to Sarah.
"I'll take the pig in the morning," he said, folding up the remainder
of his money and fastening the roll with an elastic. "I expect to put
up with the Hildreths to-night and one of the boys will take me back to
town after breakfast. You look after the pig for me till then, won't
you?"
Sarah promised and then, as she did not seem to know what to do with
the money, he suggested that she run into the house and give it to her
mother to put away.
The three girls were anxious to go over to the Gay farm with Mr.
Robinson, but he explained that he thought he could talk better to Alec
and Louisa alone.
"I'm just going to wander over there and tell 'em that Richard Gilbert
sent me," he said. "I'll say he heard I wanted to buy a small place
and that I thought they might be in the market. I'll tell you all
about it, soon as I get back."
They watched him start "across lots" to the Gay farm and then Sarah
went into the house to ask her mother to put away the money.
"You've sold Bony, dear?" echoed Mrs. Willis when she heard the news.
"And for all this money? Who bought him, Sarah? When did you sell
your pig?"
Sarah told her about Mr. Robinson, and Rosemary and Shirley listened
eagerly for they had not heard the details, nor learned how Sarah had
met the circus agent.
"I always said Bony was a smart pig!" wound up Sarah, watching her
mother counting the money into a little black tin box, fitted with a
lock and key.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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