The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

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in the vehicle went tearing by the horses. This sort of conduct marked every entry to a station and every exit from it; and so in those days children grew up with the idea that stage-coaches always tore and always tooted; but they also grew up with the idea that pirates went into action in their Sunday clothes, carrying the black flag in one hand and pistolli

wkey a was a pretty large town for interior Missouri. Washington, very stiff and tired and hungry, climbed out, and wondered how he was t

nd see them, but I'm into so many operations, and they're not things a man feels like trusting to other people, and so somehow we keep putting it off. Fortunes in them! Good gracious, it's the country to pile up wealth in! Here we are-here's where the Sellers dynasty hangs out. Hump it on the door-step, Jerry-the blackest niggro in the State, Washington, but got a good heart-mighty likely boy, is Jerry. And now I suppose you've got to have ten cents, Jerry. That's all right-when a man works for me-when a man-in the other pocket, I reckon-when a man-why, where the mischief as that portmonnaie!-when a-well now that's odd-Oh, now I remember, must have left it at the bank; and b'George I've left my check-book,

. As it was, he managed to kill two birds with one stone-that is to say, he killed the sugar speculation by holding for high rates till he had to sell at the bottom figure, and that calamity killed the mule that laid the golden egg-which is but a figurative expression and will be so understood. Sellers had returned home cheerful but empty-handed, and the mule

much more stylish than any of its neighbors. He was borne to the family sitting room in triumph

d shiny with much polishing, but nevertheless it had an almost convincing expression about it of having been just purchased new. The rest of his clothing was napless and shiny, too, but it

under your own shingles my boy-I'll have a fire going, in a jiffy. Light the lamp, Polly, dear, and let's have

st it, for the hinges had retired from business. This door framed a small square of isinglass, which now warmed up with a faint glow. Mrs. Sellers lit

tongue ran blithely on without interruption; and the purring little wife, diligent with her knitting, sat near at hand and looked happy and proud and grateful; and she listened as one who listens to oracles and, gospels and whose grateful

e occasional square-shaped interruptions of the general tint of the plaster which betrayed that there used to be pictures in the house-but there were none now. There were no mantel ornaments, unless one might bring himself t

s I was saying to-silence in the court, now, she's begun to strike! You can't talk against her-you have to just be patient and hold up till she's said her say. Ah well, as I was saying, when-she's beginning again! Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twen--ah, that's all.-Yes, as I was saying to old Judge--go

ore the clock "buckled down to her work" as the Colonel expressed it, and the more insupportable the clatter became, the more enchanted

d to his gr

ng surprise, and therefore Washington said (it was

dee

e's too; wasn't she, father! You never saw her, but Sis has seen her, when Sis was a baby-didn't you

offering to read the riot act or seeming to discountenance the insurrection or disapprove o

over her-you ask father if she didn't. She had an uncle once that was bald-headed and used to have fits; he wasn't our uncle, I don't know what he was to us-some kin or another I reckon-father's seen him a thousand times-hai

n-a speculation which some London bankers had been over to consult with him about-and soon he was building glittering pyramids of coin, and Wash

ng. He tried to get a trifle closer to the stove, and the consequence was, he tripped the supporting poker and the stove-door tumbled to the floor. And then there was a revelation-there was nothi

like that, and of course its influence must necessarily be deadly in nervous organizations with excitable temperaments, especially where there is any tendency toward rheumatic affections. Bless you I saw in a moment what was the matter with us, and says I, out goes your fires!-no more slow torture and certain death for me, sir. What you want is the appearance of heat, not the heat itself-that's the idea. Well how to do it was the next thing. I just put my head to work, pegged

such iniquity. He tried to believe in the healthfulness of the invention, and succeeded tolerably well; b