Sevenoaks: A Story of TodayHolland, J. G. (Josiah Gilbert)
General
Sevenoaks: A Story of Today
Holland, J. G. (Josiah Gilbert)
Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
Having accomplished his business, Jim went on, and before the twilight
had deepened into night, he found himself briskly paddling up the
stream, and at ten o'clock he had drawn his little boat up the beach,
and embraced Turk, his faithful dog, whom he had left, not only to take
care of his cabin, but to provide for himself. He had already eaten his
supper, and five minutes after he entered his cabin he and his dog were
snoring side by side in a sleep too profound to be disturbed, even by
the trumpet of old Tilden.
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH, JIM ENLARGES HIS ACCOMMODATIONS AND ADOPTS A VIOLENT METHOD OF
SECURING BOARDERS.
When Jim Fenton waked from his long and refreshing sleep, after his
weary tramp and his row upon the river, the sun was shining brightly,
the blue-birds were singing, the partridges were drumming, and a red
squirrel, which even Turk would not disturb, was looking for provisions
in his cabin, or eyeing him saucily from one of the beams over his head.
He lay for a moment, stretching his huge limbs and rubbing his eyes,
thinking over what he had undertaken, and exclaiming at last: "Well,
Jim, ye've got a big contrack," he jumped up, and, striking a fire,
cooked his breakfast.
His first work was to make an addition to his accommodations for
lodgers, and he set about it in thorough earnest. Before noon he had
stripped bark enough from the trees in his vicinity to cover a building
as large as his own. The question with him was whether he should put up
an addition to his cabin, or hide a new building somewhere behind the
trees in his vicinity. In case of pursuit, his lodgers would need a
cover, and this he knew he could not give them in his cabin; for all who
were in the habit of visiting the woods were familiar with that
structure, and would certainly notice any addition to it, and be curious
about it. Twenty rods away there was a thicket of hemlock, and by
removing two or three trees in its center, he could successfully hide
from any but the most inquisitive observation the cabin he proposed to
erect. His conclusion was quickly arrived at, and before he slept that
night the trees were down, the frame was up, and the bark was gathered.
The next day sufficed to make the cabin habitable; but he lingered about
the work for several days, putting up various appointments of
convenience, building a broad bed of hemlock boughs, so deep and
fragrant and inviting, that he wondered he had never undertaken to do as
much for himself as he had thus gladly done for others, and making sure
that there was no crevice at which the storms of spring and summer could
force an entrance.
When he could do no more, he looked it over with approval and said:
"Thar! If I'd a done that for Miss Butterworth, I couldn't 'a' done
better nor that." Then he went back to his cabin muttering: "I wonder
what she'd 'a' said if she'd hearn that little speech o' mine!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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