My spunky little bantam game cock was always challenging
one of my monster roosters and laying him low, so he had to be sent
away.
John, my eccentric assistant, could abide no possible rival, insulted
every man engaged to help him, occasionally indulging in a free fight
after too frequent visits to the cider barrels of my next neighbor, so
he had to follow the bantam.
Another distress was the constant calls of natives with the most
undesirable things for me to buy; two or three calls daily for a long
time. Boys with eager, ingenuous faces bringing carrier pigeons--pretty
creatures--and I had been told there was money in pigeons. I paid them
extortionate prices on account of extreme ignorance; and the birds, of
course, flew home as soon as released, to be bought again by some
gullible amateur. I had omitted to secure the names and addresses of
these guileless lads.
A sandy-haired, lisping child with chronic catarrh offered me a lot of
pet
rats!
"I hear you like pets," she said, "Well, I've got some tame rats, a
father and mother and thirteen little ones, and a mother with four.
They're orful cunning. Hope you'll take 'em."
A big, red-faced, black-bearded, and determined man drove one day into
the yard with an immense wagon, in which was standing a stupid, vicious
old goat, and almost insisted on leaving it at a most ridiculously high
price.
"Heard that the woman that had come to live here wanted most every
animal that Noah got into the ark; was sure she'd like a goat.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67