Part 7 (2/2)
James is not worth much, and Samuel, you know, is worse than nothing.”
”Speaking of Sam, I wish he would show his face. It's getting very late,” observed Mr. Royden, looking at the clock.
”The _old gentleman_ is always at the door when his name is spoken,”
said Mrs. Royden. ”There he comes.”
Sam was creeping into the kitchen as silently as possible.
”Young man!” cried Mr. Royden, opening the sitting-room door, ”come in here.”
”Yes, sir,” said Sam, in a very feeble and weak tone of voice.
But he lingered a long time in the kitchen, and during the conversation, which was resumed, he was nearly forgotten. At length Mr. Royden thought he heard a strange noise, which sounded very much like a person crying.
”Do you hear, Samuel?” he cried. ”Come in here, I say! What is the matter?”
”I'm--coming!” replied the boy, in a broken voice.
He made his appearance at the door in a piteous plight. He was covered with dirt, and with all his efforts he could not keep from crying.
”You have been flung from the horse!” suddenly exclaimed Chester. ”Is that the trouble?”
”I haven't been flung from the horse, neither!” said Sam, doggedly.
”Did you leave him at the tavern?”
”Yes,--I _left him at the tavern_.”
”What did the landlord say?”
”He didn't say nothing.”
”Sam, you're lying!” cried Chester.
”True as I live--” began Sam.
”I know what the trouble is,” said Mrs. Royden, who was very much provoked at seeing the boy's soiled clothes. ”He has been fighting. And, if he has, it is your duty, father, to take him out in the shed, and give him as good a dressing as he ever had in his life.”
Sam was on the point of confessing to the charge, as the best explanation of the distressed condition he was in, when the added threat exerted its natural influence on his decision.
”No, I han't fit with n.o.body,” he said. ”The boys in the village throw'd stones at me; but I didn't throw none back, nor sa.s.s 'em, nor do nothing but come as straight home as I could come.”
”What is the matter, then?” demanded Mr. Royden, impatiently, taking him by the shoulder and shaking him. ”Speak out! What is it?”
”Fell down,” mumbled Sam.
”Fell down?”
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