The Portion of Labor by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
page 59 of 644 (09%)
page 59 of 644 (09%)
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work, and drove over every morning. He pointed to a chair which a
hostler had occupied, tilted against the wall, for a morning smoke, after the horses were fed and watered, and which he had vacated to join the jubilant crowd. "Sit down there," he said to Eva. Then he hailed a staring man coming out of the office. "Here, help me in with my horse, quick!" said he. The man stared still, with slowly rising indignation. He was portly and middle-aged, the senior partner of the firm, who seldom touched his own horses of late years, and had a son at Harvard. "What's to pay? What do you mean? Anybody sick?" he asked. "Help me into the buggy with my horse!" shouted Jim Tenny. "I tell you the child is found, and I've got to take it home to its folks." "Don't they know yet? Is that it?" "Yes, I tell you." Jim was backing out his horse as he spoke. Mr. Clarkson seized a harness and threw the collar over the horse's head, while Jim ran out the buggy. When Mr. Clarkson lifted Eva and Ellen into the buggy he gave the child's head a pat. "God bless it!" he said, and his voice broke. The horse was restive. Jim took a leap into the buggy at Eva's side, and they were out with a dash and a swift rattle. The crowd parted before them, and cheer after cheer went up. The whistles sounded again. Then all the city bells rang out. They were signalling the other searchers that the child was found. Jim and Eva and Ellen made a progress of triumph down the street. The crowd pursued them with |
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