A Waif of the Plains by Bret Harte
page 28 of 131 (21%)
page 28 of 131 (21%)
|
shrunk from describing it in that way. He, however, said he thought it
was a large house. Yet the modest answer only made his new friend look at him the more keenly. "Your father was Colonel Hamilton Brant, of Louisville, wasn't he?" he said, half-confidentially. "Yes," said Clarence hopelessly. "Well," said his friend cheerfully, as if dismissing an abstruse problem from his mind, "Let's go to supper." When they reached the tent again, Clarence noticed that the supper was laid only for his host and wife and the second man--who was familiarly called "Harry," but who spoke of the former always as "Mr. and Mrs. Peyton"--while the remainder of the party, a dozen men, were at a second camp fire, and evidently enjoying themselves in a picturesque fashion. Had the boy been allowed to choose, he would have joined them, partly because it seemed more "manly," and partly that he dreaded a renewal of the questioning. But here, Susy, sitting bolt upright on an extemporized high stool, happily diverted his attention by pointing to the empty chair beside her. "Kla'uns," she said suddenly, with her usual clear and appalling frankness, "they is chickens, and hamanaigs, and hot biksquits, and lasses, and Mister Peyton says I kin have 'em all." Clarence, who had begun suddenly to feel that he was responsible for |
|