Country Luck

Y COU

ight, when the person addressed was about to d

er than usual, and spreadin’ it on the ridge of the pasture. The sun’s been pretty

wife. “The dear boy’s health is as good a

r’s only reply for a moment. I

l, I s’pose,—

onfounded for: she hasn’t done a

wide awake, “What could they write about? You don’t s’pose Phil coul

I didn’t, when we were boy and girl, because we lived within{17} a stone’s throw of

ou go to settin’ yourself down, at your time of life, by gettin’

ere was; but boy

y should be fools, does it?

. I’ve often thought how different your life might have been if

served.” This assertion was followed by a kiss, which, tho

get more than a wife when he marries; ’twil

o fixed that he won’t have to w

when he ought to be better. Isn’t that rather poor

Phil’s heart is set on ma

hile. Something’s always prevented it, but I s’pose now would be as good

goodness of their son, but that was not the view of

of course h

ighed; then he sai

er. Bless your dear foolish old heart, her ways and his are as far apart as Haynton

d say that you didn’t set enough store by yourself. Mrs. Tramlay is a nice enough woman, but I never could see how she was any smart

, aren’t you? But Phil will soon see, with half an eye, that it would be the

d the mother. “He’s just as good as she,

’ what would Phil{19} have to support his wife on? Would she come out here an’ ’tend to all the house-work of the farm, like you do, just for the sake of havin’ Phil for a husband? N

there, and make enough to live in st

you kind o’ think that for a church-member of thirty

ldly, then I’m goin’ to be a backslider, an’ stay one. I don’t think ’twould be a bit bad to have a married son down

t mind backslidin’ enough myself to say the boy may marry one of S

lied, “but I don’t know as I c

slumber. In one way or other, however, the subject came up again. Said Mrs. Hayn one day, just as h

ing Mr. Tramlay wore when they were up here. I don’t bel

an always looked better dressed. I think his cloth

clothes in that way. You know well enough that the stuff for his c

zen inflections, any one of which would hav

you to say ‘Yes’ in

hat makes the man, old

n’ if there’s a better sewin’-woman in this part o

ellow did it. Mebbe, too, if she’d made the sacks for the last oats I bought I wouldn’t have lost about half a bushel on the

the minister’s clothe

anybody else could do it in that way. Yet the minister ain’t got so bad

o back to the cornfield

not his old hat been of felt. “ ‘Tain’t safe for an old farmer to be givin’ hi

ommand; but as, like countrymen in general, he made his exit by the longest possible route, wandering through the si

d to buy new clothes. He’s never wore that Sunday coat on other days, except to two or three

’t got such a caretakin’ wife?” said the old man. “It’s the b

he table{22} some minutes before his father

at wind-break for the sheep

my son, before col

t, then, as soon as we

middle of November is

done it’ll be

had begun to cut the corn-stalks, “you’re doin’ all your work a month ahead this fal

piling an armful of stalks against a

father. I guess I’ll have to send you down to New York fo

s elaborate work of the moment before, almos

“I mean the proposition,—not the fodder,” he continued

e been wanting to do,”

essary to mention it; as I told you t’other day, I can

I could go down on Sol Mantring’s sloop for

when I send him out to see the world. You’ll go down to York by

clothes, anyhow,” s

heir style from you, you’ll have to take yours from them. I was there once, when I was ’long about your

ng,” said Phil, looking very solemn and be

ather. Now let that corn alone. If it won’t stay down, sit on it,—this way,—see.” And, suiting the action

oking clothing-store you can find, and buy a suit such as you see well-dressed men wearing to business. Keep your eyes open on men as sharply as if they were hosses and clothes we

o put on city a

st young fellow that ever went to York,—as of course you are, bein’ my son,—but folks at York’ll never find it out if you don’t dress properly,—that m

tch, father. I can’t;

you try. It isn’t good manners to

nd he{25} suffered so much through exposure, strain, and the fear of the death which seemed impending that he abandoned the sea as soon thereafter as possible. Nevertheless he thought only of the work before him, until he had rescued the imperilled crew and stowed them safely in his own ship. The circumstances of the rescue were so unusual that they formed the subject of long columns in foreign newspapers; and in a few months Captain Hayn r

al contortion, “I can’t take your watch, even for a little while.

he old watch in about the same light; but a patent of nobility is a disgrace to a family if the owner’s heir isn’t fit to inherit it. See? Gues

did it in a way which caused Phil quickly to avert his face and devote himself with great industry to stacking corn