Part 13 (2/2)

All the forenoon, he and Sue were sweeping and dusting and putting the house in order.

Sue picked some pansies from Mother's pansy bed and put them in a dish on the dining table.

Bobby went to the fence corners and picked some beautiful red bitter-sweet for the sitting-room. Last of all, they washed the Big Window.

After dinner, to pa.s.s the time away, Bobby took his ball and began to bounce it on the side of the house.

”I'll see whether I can catch it a hundred times,” thought he.

Ninety-seven times he caught it. ”I'll soon have a hundred,” he said.

”Won't that be fine to tell Mother?”

He screwed up his mouth and threw the ball again. But instead of hitting the boards it hit the Big South Window.

Crash went the gla.s.s, in dozens of pieces, to the ground.

”Oh! oh!” moaned Bobby, as he stood looking at the ruined window.

”Why did I do it? Why _did_ I do it?”

Sue heard the crash and came to see what had happened.

”It is too bad,” said she.

”I must get another gla.s.s put in before Mother comes home,” he said.

”There is not time,” said Sue. ”And probably there is not so large a pane without going to the city. But we can pick up the pieces and make it look as tidy as possible.”

So they picked up the pieces, and Bobby carried them off to the barrel where they kept broken gla.s.s and dishes.

When Bobby had put the broken pieces of gla.s.s in the barrel, he went into the sitting-room. How ugly the Big Window looked now, with the big, jagged hole in it and the gla.s.s cracked in all directions. He felt the chill November air coming in through the broken pane.

”It will never do,” thought he. ”I must get a new pane put in right away.”

He went to his bank, which was standing on the clock-shelf. In it he found four dollars, which he had been saving for a long time to buy a new Express Wagon.

”I hope it will be enough,” he said.

There was only one man in the village who kept window gla.s.s--Mr. Barlow, the carpenter. As fast as he could run, Bobby ran to the village, and as he ran, he kept thinking, ”Will he be at home? Will he have a big gla.s.s?”

When Bobby reached Mr. Barlow's shop, as soon as he could get his breath, he said, ”Oh, Mr. Barlow, have you a big window pane? I've broken our Big South Window.”

”Broken your Big South Window, have you? Well, that is too bad. I think I haven't one now, and to-morrow is Sunday; but I'll get you one on Monday when I go to the city.”

”Oh, but it must be put in to-day,” said Bobby. ”I have the money to pay you. Would four dollars be enough?”

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