"Jim dear, what if--it's on'y an idea of mine, you know--what if
you sold that piece to the Redwood Mill, and we jest tuk that money
and--and--and jest lifted the ha'r offer them folks at Logport?
Jest astonished 'em! Jest tuk the best rooms in that new hotel,
got a hoss and buggy, dressed ourselves, you and me, fit to kill,
and made them Fort people take a back seat in the Lord's
Tabernacle, oncet for all. You see what I mean, Jim," she said
hastily, as her brother seemed to be succumbing, like his pipe, in
apoplectic astonishment, "jest on'y to SHOW 'em what we COULD do if
we keerd. Lord! when we done it and spent the money we'd jest snap
our fingers and skip back yer ez nat'ral ez life! Ye don't think,
Jim," she said, suddenly turning half fiercely upon him, "that I'd
allow to LIVE among 'em--to stay a menet after that!"
Jim laid down his pipe and gazed at his sister with stony
deliberation. "And--what--do--you--kalkilate--to make by all
that?" he said with scornful distinctness.
"Why, jest to show 'em we HAVE got money, and could buy 'em all up
if we wanted to," returned Maggie, sticking boldly to her guns,
albeit with a vague conviction that her fire was weakened through
elevation, and somewhat alarmed at the deliberation of the enemy.
"And you mean to say they don't know it now," he continued with
slow derision.
"No," said Maggie. "Why, theer's that new school-marm over at
Logport, you know, Jim, the one that wanted to take your picter in
your boat for a young smuggler or fancy pirate or Eyetalian
fisherman, and allowed that you'r handsomed some, and offered to
pay you for sittin'--do you reckon SHE'D believe you owned the land
her schoolhouse was built on.
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