The Adventures of Ann - Stories of Colonial Times by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
page 52 of 57 (91%)
page 52 of 57 (91%)
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and a good many murmured assent.
"Wait a minute, I'll be down," said Phineas, shutting his window. How long poor Ann lay there shaking, she never knew. It seemed hours. She heard Phineas go down stairs, and unlock the door. She heard them tramp into the barn. "O, if I had hidden him there!" she thought. After a while, she heard them out in the yard again. "He could _not_ have gotten into the house, in any way," she heard one man remark speculatively. How she waited for the response. It came in Phineas Adams' slow, sensible tones: "How could he? Didn't you hear me unbolt the door when I came out? The doors are all fastened, I saw to it myself." "Well, of course he didn't," agreed the voice. At last, Phineas came in, and Ann heard them go. She was so thankful. However, the future perplexities, which lay before her, were enough to keep her awake for the rest of the night. In the morning, a new anxiety beset her. The poor thief must have some breakfast. She could easily have smuggled some dry bread up to him; but she did want him to have some of the hot Indian mush, which the family had. Ann, impulsive in this as everything, now that she had made up her mind to protect a thief, wanted to do it handsomely. She did want him to have some of that hot mush; but how could she manage it? The family at the breakfast table discussed the matter of the horse-thief pretty thoroughly. It was a hard ordeal for poor Ann, who could not take easily to deception. She had unexpected trouble too |
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