Jonas Green marched straight up to Mrs. Jameson under her tree, and
said in a loud voice: "Ma'am, if this boy and girl are yours I think
it is about time you taught them better than to tramp through folks'
fields picking things that don't belong to them, and I expect what
I've lost in squashes and potatoes to be made good to me."
We all waited, breathless, and Mrs. Jameson put on her eyeglasses
and looked up. Then she spoke sweetly.
"My good man," said she, "if, when you come to dig your squashes, you
find less than usual, and when you come to pick your potatoes the
bushes are not in as good condition as they generally are, you may
come to me and I will make it right with you."
Mrs. Jameson spoke with the greatest dignity and sweetness, and we
almost felt as if she were the injured party, in spite of all those
squash and potato blossoms. As for Jonas Green, he stared at her for
the space of a minute, then he gave a loud laugh, let go of the boy
and girl, and strode away. We heard him laughing to himself as he
went; all through his life the mention of potato bushes and digging
squashes was enough to send him into fits of laughter. It was the
joke of his lifetime, for Jonas Green had never been a merry man, and
it was probably worth more than the vegetables which he had lost. I
pitied Cobb and Sarah, they were so frightened, and got hold of them
myself and comforted them. Sarah was just such another little timid,
open-mouthed, wide-eyed sort of thing as her brother, and they were
merely picking flowers, as they supposed.
"I never saw such beautiful yellow flowers," Sarah said, sobbing and
looking ruefully at her great bouquet of squash blossoms. This little
Sarah, who was only twelve, and very small and childish for her age,
said sooner and later many ignorant, and yet quaintly innocent things
about our country life, which were widely repeated. It was Sarah who
said, when she was offered some honey at a village tea-drinking, "Oh,
will you please tell me what time you drive home your bees? and do
they give honey twice a day like the cows?" It was Sarah who, when
her brother was very anxious to see the pigs on Mr. White's farm,
said, "Oh, be quiet, Cobb, dear; it is too late tonight; the pigs
must have gone into their holes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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