. The Southern States. bster farm a great spreading walnut tree anold cart stood in the shade ; between theshafts hung an iron chain forming aswing, in which a slender dark-hairedgirl sat reading, scraping her bare footalong the ground to keep herself inmotion. Through the dense foliage ofthe ancestral walnut the sun had found anarrow passage and darted a ray uponthe head of the girl and aslant the pageshe was reading. It was high noon. Suddenly the book dropped from thegirls lap as she sprang to her feet. Apeculiar rasping sound had fallen uponher ear recalling her from fairy-land
. The Southern States. bster farm a great spreading walnut tree anold cart stood in the shade ; between theshafts hung an iron chain forming aswing, in which a slender dark-hairedgirl sat reading, scraping her bare footalong the ground to keep herself inmotion. Through the dense foliage ofthe ancestral walnut the sun had found anarrow passage and darted a ray uponthe head of the girl and aslant the pageshe was reading. It was high noon. Suddenly the book dropped from thegirls lap as she sprang to her feet. Apeculiar rasping sound had fallen uponher ear recalling her from was Gabriels trumpet summoningthe farm hands to dinner. The oldman stood in the low doorway leadingto the dining room, with his battered GABRIELS TRUMPET. 629 trumpet at his lips, sending forth thedoleful call familiar to those who hadlabored on the farm during the pasthalf century or more. No one butGabriel had ever blown that had tried, but with no betterresult than waste of breath ibr their with his battered trumpet at his lips. He alone knew the secret of its latenttones. Its duty done for the day, thehorn was carefully placed in the littlecorner cupboard and the master seatedhimself in a low flag-bottom chair bythe door. Gabriel had passed his ninetieth birth- day, but he was still active, with all hisfaculties well preserved, for he was notas blind as Brutus nor so deaf asHector, his two faithful watch dogs,lying before him on the grass, catchingflies in a lazy desultory way. LittlePolly Gooster, the orphan daughter ofGabriels only child, was the one sign ofyouth at the farm. Many a time shehad tried Gabriels soul with her madcappranks, but never a cross word nor atouch of the scriptural rod had hegiven her since the day when that mostpitiable of creatures, a motherless babe,she had laughed in his wrinkled facewith the merry eyes of his dead darlingand kissed his tears away in infant tiny year-old tot had thus creptinto her grandfathers
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubj, booksubjectagriculture
