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Ill vow, Will, she said quietly after a moment.
Old Major Pentland never did an
honest days work in his life,Gant yelled, as a happy afterthought. And what
Eliza endured in pain and fear and glory no one knew.
The men amusedthemselves
constantly with pocket knives.
The country nurse, returning from thebathroom,
in which she had locked herself, ran to her aid. The Swiss resented the implied
jeer at his Titan. Another brother hadbeen killed during the Seven Days. Gant
grinned with a thin false painting of mirth. Theyregoing to run a street
through there some day as sure as you live.
He was rank with whisky stench; the
window rattled as he snored. One night the dry doctor, Cardiac, said: I think
well be throughwith this before to-morrow evening.
But Eliza was not content
with his trade: there was no money indeath.
But during a weary convalescence
shepursed her lips grimly and took them off to Florida.
Once, Eliza and four of
her children were sick at thesame time with typhoid fever.
Will Pentland closed
his blunt knife and put it in his pocket.
All the propertyI need is eight feet
of earth to be buried in. Had something to eat that didntagree with you?
It is
nothing but a curse and a care, andthe tax-collector gets it all in the end.
By
God, shell do it then, cried several; and the place trembledagain with their
laughter. Its fearful, its awful, its croo-el,and he began to weep affectedly.
She had wrapped him well in ablanket; now she put a pillow on a chair and
placed his feet on it.
On one of these, a small lot at the edge of the
publicsquare, she persuaded him to build a shop.
The Swiss resented the implied
jeer at his Titan. Major Pentland advanced slowly toward Gant. Gant roared,
pounding the flimsy door heavily withhis great fist.
And what Eliza endured in
pain and fear and glory no one knew.
Both before and aft, said Will with a
smart wink.
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