![]() "You know what she said she'd do if she ever caught you around here again?' "Oh, Zara, aren't you afraid to come here?" said Bessie, alarmed, although Zara was her best and almost her only friend. Her brown legs were bare, her dress was even more worn and far dingier than Bessie's, which was clean and neat. She was as dark as Bessie was fair, a mischievous, black-eyed girl, who danced like a sprite as she approached Bessie. Hoover, still scowling, finally went off.Īs if that has been a signal, another girl appeared suddenly from the back of the woodshed. She didn't finish her threat in words, but Bessie had plenty of memories of former punishments. "An' if that butter ain't done when I get back, I"ll – " "I'm goin' to drive into town," she said. Her black silk dress and with her best bonnet on her head, appeared again. So don't be all day about it."īut the wood was hard, and though Bessie worked diligently enough, her progress was slow. "When you get that done there's butter to be made. "'Pears to me like you're mighty slow," she said, complainingly. Hoover came out after she had been chopping wood for a few minutes and eyed her crossly. Hoover had been listening to the work of washing the dishes, and she dared not rest lest her taskmistress descend upon her again when the noise ceased. Every bone and muscle in her tired little body ached, but she knew well that Mrs. She had been up since daylight – and the sun rose early on those summer mornings. But he liked Bessie, and he did his best to comfort her when he had the chance,Īnd thought there was no danger of starting a dispute with his wife.īessie finished her dishes, and then she went out obediently to the wood pile, and set to work to chop kindling. He knew his wife too well to argue with her. All she's good fer is to eat an' sleep – an' to hide off som'ere's so's she can read them trashy books when she ought to be reddin' up or doin' her chores!"Īnd Paw Hoover would sigh and retire, beaten in the argument. "She's so lazy she'd never do anythin' at all if I didn't stand over her. "Now, maw," Paw Hoover, a kindly, toil-hardened farmer, would say when he happened to overhear one of these outbursts, "Bessie's a good girl, an' I reckon she earns her keep, don't she, helpin' you like, round the place?" Did, too, for 'bout a year – an' since then never a cent! I've a mind to send you to the county farm, that I have!" "Leavin' you here on our hands when he went away – an' promisin' to send board money for you. "Take after your paw – that's what you do, good-for-nothin' little hussy!" the farmer's wife would say. Hoover a long time before, and she could scarcely remember them, but she heard about them, her father especially, whenever she did something that Mrs. Bessie had a father and mother, but they had left her with Mrs. ![]() But it had been that way for a long time, and she could think of no way of escaping to happier conditions. #Maw cat goes fishing free#Hoover, after a minute in which she glared at Bessie, turned and left the kitchen, muttering something about ingratitude as she went.Īs she worked, Bessie wondered why it was that she must always do the work about the house when other girls were at school or free to play. There were tears in her eyes, but she went at her dishes, and Mrs. "Yes – an' you took it away from me soon's you found it out," Bessie flashed back. You ain't got nothin' to carry on so about! Ain't you got a good home? Don't we board you and give you a good bed to sleep in? Didn't Paw Hoover give you a nickel for yourself only last week?" "I was awful tired – an' I wanted to rest a few minutes." She had come suddenly into the kitchen of the Hoover farmhouse and surprised Bessie King as the girl sat resting for a moment and reading.īessie jumped up alertly at the sound of the voice she knew so well, and started nervously toward the sink. The voice was that of a slatternly woman of middle age, thin and complaining. "Now then, you, Bessie, quit your loafin' and get them dishes washed! An' then you can go out and chop me some wood for the kitchen fire!" The Saalfield Publishing Company THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS "We'll take you over to camp and you can have dinner with us."ĬAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES, VOLUME I The Camp Fire Girls ![]() The Camp Fire Girls in the Woods, or Bessie King's First Council Fire. ![]()
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