Volume I Part 86 (2/2)
”I only hope the snow aint so bright it'll blind his eyes,”
said Barby.
”There he is this minute,” said Hugh. ”It is impossible to tell from his countenance whether successful or not.”
”Well, where are the cows, Mr. Skillcorn?” said Barby, as he came in.
”I have went all over town,” said the person addressed, ”and they aint no place.”
”Have you asked news of them, Philetus?”
”I have asked the hull town, and I have went all over, 'till I was a'most beat out with the cold ? and I ha'n't seen the first sight of 'em yet!”
Fleda and Hugh exchanged looks, while Barby and Mr. Skillcorn entered into an animated discussion of probabilities and impossibilities.
”If we should be driven from our coffee dinners to tea with no milk in it!” said Hugh, softly, in mock dismay.
”Wouldn't!” said Fled. ”We'd beat up an egg and put it in the coffee.”
”We couldn't afford it,” said Hugh, smiling.
”Could! ? cheaper than to keep the cows. I'll have some sugar at any rate, I'm determined. ? Philetus!”
”Marm!”
”I wish, when you have got a good pile of wood chopped, you would make some troughs to put under the maple trees ? you know how to make them, don't you?”
”I do.”
”I wish you would make some ? you have pine logs out there large enough, haven't you?”
”They hadn't ought to want much of it ? there's some 'gregious big ones!”
”I don't know how many we shall want, but a hundred or two, at any rate; and the sooner the better. Do you know how much sugar they make from one tree?”
”Waul, I don't,” said Mr. Skillcorn, with the air of a person who was at fault on no other point; ”the big trees gives more than the little ones ?”
Fleda's eyes flashed at Hugh, who took to chopping in sheer desperation; and the muscles of both gave them full occupation for five minutes. Philetus stood comfortably warming himself at the fire, looking first at one and then at the other, as if they were a show, and he had paid for it. Barby grew impatient.
”I guess this cold weather makes lazy people of me!' she said, bustling about her fire with an amount of energy that was significant. It seemed to signify nothing to Philetus; he only moved a little out of the way.
”Didenhover's cleared out,” he burst forth, at length, abruptly.
”What!” said Fleda and Barby at once, the broom and the biscuits standing still.
”Mr. Didenhover.”
”What of him?”
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