Under the Country SkyRichmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
General
Under the Country Sky
Richmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
Country life -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
"Then I am very glad," she returned, "that I am here. Can you leave me
work to do?"
"I am afraid not, beyond that already laid out for to-day. Won't you
rest while I am gone? This is vacation time for most people, you know."
She shook her head. "With only father to look after I shall have little
enough to do."
"You won't--forgive me!--go up into that blistering attic and make rugs?
I hope not!" She felt that he was looking keenly at her.
"Why should you hope not? I am one of the people who must be busy to be
contented. How soon do you go, Mr. Jefferson?"
"On the noon train." He looked at his watch. "I have an hour to make
ready. No, don't go. I will come back when I am ready, and we will put
things in shape to leave, so that we shall know exactly where to take
them up again."
In half an hour he was back, and together the two put the results of
their joint work into such shape that at a moment's notice they might
resume it. This done, they went to Mr. Warne, and the intending traveler
explained briefly the situation--without, as Georgiana fully realized,
explaining it at all. Then, shortly, he went away, with something in his
manner which subtly told her that he was very glad to go, and that he
was thinking of little besides the errand which took him from them,
careful though he was in every courteous detail of leave-taking.
When he had gone Georgiana and her father looked at each other.
"Daughter," said Mr. Warne, looking intently at the vivid face, with the
eyes which saw so many things, "do you know what you remind me of?"
"No, Father Davy. Of a cross child?"
"Of a young colt, penned into a very small enclosure, with only one lame
and blind old horse to keep it company. And within sight, off on the
hillside, is a great, green pasture, with other colts and lambs sporting
gayly about, and the summer sunshine over all--except in the corral,
over which a dark cloud hangs. And I am sorry--sorry!"
"Father Davy!" Georgiana choked back a lump in her throat. "But it is
hot July, and the cloud makes it cooler and nicer in the corral. And
besides--the lame, blind horse is such a dear--has drawn such heavy
loads and would be so lonely now without company. And--and the colt has
many long years to sport on hillsides."
Mr. Warne smiled, more sadly than was his wont. "But not while it is a
colt." Then, after a pause, "My dear, we shall miss Mr. Jefferson."
"Shall we?"
"I shall miss him more than I should have realized till I saw him go
down the path. And James Stuart, too. That is why I know that you will
miss them."
"We shall live through it," prophesied his daughter cheerfully, and
betook herself to the kitchen, which she found looking, in spite of its
well-ordered neatness, more like a jail than ever before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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