Christian fiction; Families -- Fiction; Love stories
"Not at all!" said young Graham quickly. "This isn't anything. The
electric people gave permission for this, and I thought it would be
safer than lamps and candles, you know. It cost scarcely anything for
the wiring. I had our regular man do it that attends to the wiring and
lights at the office. It was a mere trifle, and will make things a lot
more convenient for you. You see it's nothing to the company. They
just gave permission for a wire to be run from the pole there. Of
course they might not do it for every one, but I've some pretty good
friends in the company; so it's all right."
"But the fireplace!" said Shirley, going over to look at it. "It's
beautiful! It's like what you see in magazine pictures of beautiful
houses."
"Why, it was just the stones that were left from cutting the windows
larger. I thought they might as well be utilized, you know. It wasn't
much more work to pile them up that way while the men were here than if
we had had them carted away."
Here Carol interrupted.
"Shirley! There's a telephone! A real telephone!"
Shirley's accusing eyes were upon her landlord.
"It was put in for our convenience while the workmen were here," he
explained defensively. "It is a pay phone, you see, and is no expense
except when in use. It can be taken out if you do not care to have it,
of course; but it occurred to me since it was here your mother might
feel more comfortable out here all day if she could call you when she
needed to."
Shirley's face was a picture of varying emotions as she listened, but
relief and gratitude conquered as she turned to him.
"I believe you have thought of everything," she said at last. "I have
worried about that all this week. I have wondered if mother would be
afraid out in the country with only the children, and the neighbors not
quite near enough to call; but this solves the difficulty. You are
sure it hasn't cost you a lot to have this put in?"
"Why, don't you know the telephone company is glad to have their phones
wherever they can get them?" he evaded. "Now, don't worry about
anything more. You'll find hardships enough living in a barn without
fretting about the few conveniences we have been able to manage."
"But this is real luxury!" she said, sitting down on the steps and
looking up where the lights blazed from the loft. "You have put lights
up there, too, and a railing. I was so afraid Doris would fall down
some time!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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