Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1896-12-24

John manages To get along without mr.
ing rerU much help"
hands and realizing his physical inca
pacity to do anything very heavy. But
be thought he could hoe. He immedi-
ately stated this belief.
you'll blister those pretty hands Of
yours inside Of an hour" sneered the
man, but AZ before not unpleasantly.
II might try" suggested Alec.
"Well, maybe You can earn your
board" said Milo, turning to work
again, for the others had stopped the
moment be did. II wouldn't pay You 4
cent for what You would do The first
day. You can find q hoe inside the barn
up there"
Alec stood undecided for a moment,
but no one was paying the slightest at.
tention to him, 80 he walked silently
back to the house, and at last. with the
help Of the pretty girl, found the hoe.
He rebelled at the idea Of working mere
ly FOR bis board, but the fear Of having
to draw again 80 heavily on his very
small amount Of cash decided him to
work one day at least. II he only earned
hts board, they certainly would not ex-
poet him to work very hard.
Mr.. Bennett, or Milo, az they called
him, even the boys, took some pains to
show him how to manage his hoe, how
to pull the weeds out from among the
potatoes without pulling up the potato
vines, too, and Their how to hill the dirt
up and make 1T compact all around. II
was more Of trick than be had i'm
agined, and he took some interest in
learning how to do 1t neatly and quick
", But as his employer had propheaied,
his hands were blistered inside Of an
hour, and he had to wind bis handker-
chief about the right one In order to
keep 1t from becoming torturingly sore.
Besides, his back began to ache pretty
soon, and before very long it ached 80
that it seemed as If be couldn t keep at
work. But he was determined not to
give up for any such thing as that
OF course Alec did not try to keep up
with the others, whose hands were ap-
parently as tough as iron and whose
backs never aohed, for they walked
straight along, down one row, back an
other, the four Of them abreast and
seeming to have sort Of pride in keep
ing even, though now and then one
would drop behind for some reason or
other. When at last he heard great
bell ring up at the house, and looking
up saw the pretty girl in the kitchen
doorway ringing it, he knew it must be
dinner time, But he kept on working,
not noticing that the four men had
dropped their hoes as suddenly at the
sound Of the bell as il they had been
automatons. But Milo called out good
naturedly;
Better come along to dinner now. |
guess you've earned it. How are your
hands?'
The others said nothing, but laughed
together, and as they walked slowly up
toward the house they glanced at Alec
every now and then in such way that
he felt uncomfortable, Only his pride
made him affect an indifference that be-
came him very we'll.
No one paid any particular attention
to him, and as dinner was not quite
ready he was glad enough to sit down
and rest. BE saw coming and going
within tall, angular woman whom
they called mother, but she paid no
more attention to him than did the 9TH
era, though abe had never seen him be-
fore. Milo came around once as the
pretty girl passed near by and said.
MAUD, I want to introduce to you
young city swell from New York
What's your manner"
Alec answered.
"She's Maud. She's my girl. ! call
her my little duck, Do you think they
have nicer girls in the CITY, nowf" went
on Milo after learning Aleo's name,
Maud paused moment and then
went on with her work, apparently
quite Indifferent to the "young city
swell" Alec had been standing before
the little looking glass combing his wet
hair and would have been very much
embarrassed had he not been invited at
lbat moment to move up to the table,
where, with the others, he partook Of
IN ample dinner Of baked beans and
pork. cold brown bread, boiled boets,
green peas, potatoes, radishcs and baked
rire nuddinp. with cranharrv tsvts IN