Frank's Campaign; Or, The Farm and the Camp, Jr. Horatio Alger [books to read for self improvement txt] 📗
- Author: Jr. Horatio Alger
Book online «Frank's Campaign; Or, The Farm and the Camp, Jr. Horatio Alger [books to read for self improvement txt] 📗». Author Jr. Horatio Alger
Chloe accepted, with wondering gratitude, the personal attentions of Mrs. Frost, who bound up the injured foot with a softness of touch which brought no pain to the sufferer.
“You ain't too proud, missus, to tend to a poor black woman,” she said. “Down Souf dey used to tell us dat everybody looked down on de poor nigger and lef' 'em to starve an' die if dey grow sick.”
“They told you a great many things that were not true, Chloe,” said Mrs. Frost quietly. “The color of the skin ought to make no difference where we have it in our power to render kind offices.”
“Do you believe niggers go to de same heaven wid w'ite folks, missus?” asked Chloe, after a pause.
“Why should they not? They were made by the same God.”
“I dunno, missus,” said Chloe. “I hopes you is right.”
“Do you think you can spare Pomp a little while to go home with us?”
“Yes, missus. Here you, Pomp,” she called, “you go home wid dis good lady, and she'll gib you something for your poor sick mudder. Do you hear?”
“I'se goin' to ride?” said Pomp inquiringly.
“Yes,” said Frank good-naturedly.
“Hi, hi, dat's prime!” ejaculated Pomp, turning a somersault in his joy.
“Scramble in, then, and we'll start.”
Pomp needed no second invitation. He jumped into the carriage, and was more leisurely followed by Frank and his mother.
It was probably the first time that Pomp had ever been in a covered carriage, and consequently the novelty of his situation put him in high spirits.
He was anxious to drive, and Frank, to gratify him, placed the reins in his hands. His eyes sparkling with delight, and his expanded mouth showing a full set of ivories, Pomp shook the reins in glee, shouting out, “Hi, go along there, you ol' debble!”
“Pomp, you mustn't use that word,” said Mrs. Frost reprovingly.
“What word, missus?” demanded Pomp innocently.
“The last word you used,” she answered.
“Don't 'member what word you mean, missus,” said Pomp. “Hi, you debble!”
“That's the word?”
“Not say 'debble'?” said Pomp wonderingly. “Why not, missus?”
“It isn't a good word.”
“Mammy says 'debble.' She calls me little debble when I run away, and don't tote in de wood.”
“I shall tell her not to use it. It isn't a good word for anybody to use.”
“Hope you'll tell her so, missus,” said Pomp, grinning and showing his teeth. “Wheneber she calls me little debble she pulls off her shoe and hits me. Hurts like de debble. Mebbe she won't hit me if you tell her not to say 'debble.'”
Mrs. Frost could hardly forbear laughing. She managed, however, to preserve a serious countenance while she said, “You must take care to behave well, and then she won't have to punish you.”
It is somewhat doubtful whether Pomp heard this last remark. He espied a pig walking by the side of the road, and was seized with a desire to run over it. Giving the reins a sudden twitch, he brought the carriage round so that it was very near upsetting in a gully.
Frank snatched the reins in time to prevent this catastrophe.
“What did you do that for, Pomp?” he said quickly.
“Wanted to scare de pig,” exclaimed Pomp, laughing. “Wanted to hear him squeal.”
“And so you nearly tipped us over.”
“Didn't mean to do dat, Mass' Frank. 'Pears like I didn't think.”
Mrs. Frost was too much alarmed by this narrow escape to consent to Pomp's driving again, and for the moment felt as if she should like to usurp his mother's privilege of spanking him. But the little imp looked so unconscious of having done anything wrong that her vexation soon passed away.
In half an hour Pomp was on his way back, laden with a basketful of provisions for his sick mother and himself.
CHAPTER XI. PUNISHING A BULLY
It was fortunate for Mrs. Frost that she was so soon called upon to think for others. It gave her less time to grieve over her husband's absence, which was naturally a severe trial to her. As for Frank, though the harvest was gathered in, there were plenty of small jobs to occupy his attention. He divided with Jacob the care of the cows, and was up betimes in the morning to do his share of the milking. Then the pigs and chickens must be fed every day, and this Frank took entirely into his own charge. Wood, also, must be prepared for the daily wants of the house, and this labor he shared with Jacob.
In the afternoon, however, Frank usually had two or three hours at his own disposal, and this, in accordance with a previous determination, he resolved to devote to keeping up his studies. He did not expect to make the same progress that he would have done if he had been able to continue at school, but it was something to feel that he was not remaining stationary.
Frank resolved to say nothing to his classmates about his private studies. They would think he was falling far behind, and at some future time he would surprise them.
Still, there were times when he felt the need of a teacher. He would occasionally encounter difficulties which he found himself unable to surmount without assistance. At such times he thought of Mr Rathburn's kind offer. But his old teacher lived nearly a mile distant, and he felt averse to troubling him, knowing that his duties in school were arduous.
Occasionally he met some of his schoolmates. As nearly all of them were friendly and well-disposed to him, this gave him pleasure, and brought back sometimes the wish that he was as free as they. But this wish was almost instantly checked by the thought that he had made a sacrifice for his country's sake.
A few days after the incident narrated in the last chapter, Frank was out in the woods not far from Chloe's cottage, collecting brushwood, to be afterward carried home, when his attention was called to an altercation, one of the parties in which he readily recognized as little Pomp. To explain how it came about, we shall have to go back a little.
Pomp was returning from Mrs. Frost's, swinging a tin kettle containing provisions for his mother and himself, when all at once he met John Haynes, who was coming from the opposite direction.
Now, John was something of a bully, and liked to exercise authority over
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