It is my opinion that he would be greatly pleased to give it to Leon,if he could do what he liked.""Well,that's precisely the thing he can't do in this family,"said mother sternly.
"What do you think,father?"asked Laddie.
"I think Amen!to that proposition,"said father;"but I would have to take time to thresh it out completely.It appeals to me that Leon is old enough to recognize the value of the animal;and that the care of it would develop and strengthen his character.
It would be a responsibility that would steady him.You could teach him to tend and break it.""Break it!"cried Laddie."Break it!Why father,he's riding it bareback all over the Pryor meadow now,and jumping it over logs.
Whenever he leaves,it follows him to the fence,and the Princess says almost any hour of the day you look out you can see it pacing up and down watching this way and whinnying for him to come.""And your best judgment is----?"
Laddie laughed as he tied my hood strings."Well I don't feel about the Pryors as the rest of you do,"he said."If the money isn't claimed inside the time you specified,I would let Leon and Mr.Pryor make their own bargain.The boy won't know for years that it is practically a gift,and it would please Mr.Pryor immensely.Now run,or you'll be late!"I had to go,so I didn't know how they settled it,but if they wouldn't let Leon have that horse,it was downright mean.What if we were under obligations to Mr.Pryor?We were to Sarah Hood,and half the people we knew,and what was more,we LIKED to be.
When I came from school that night father had been to town.He had an ax and was opening a big crate,containing two of the largest,bluest geese you ever saw.Laddie said being boxed that way and seeing them so close made them look so big;really,they were no finer than Pryors',where he had got the address of the place that sold them.Mother was so pleased.She said she had needed a new strain,for a long time,to improve her feathers;now she would have pillows worth while,in a few years.They put them in the barn where our geese stayed over night,and how they did scream.That is,one of them did;the other acted queerly and father said to Laddie that he was afraid the trip was hard on it.Laddie said it might have been hurt,and mother was worried too.Before she had them an hour,she had sold all our ganders;spring had come,she had saved the blue goose eggs,set them under a hen,raised the goslings with the little chickens,never lost one,picked them and made a new pair of pillows too fine for any one less important than a bishop,or a judge,or Dr.Fenner to sleep on.Then she began saving for a featherbed.And still the goose didn't act as spry or feel as good as the gander.He stuck up his head,screamed,spread his wings and waved them,and the butts looked so big and hard,I was not right certain whether it would be safe to tease him or not.
The first person who came to see them was Sarah Hood,and she left with the promise of a pair as soon as mother could raise them.Father said the only reason mother didn't divide her hair with Sarah Hood was because it was fast,and she couldn't.
Mother said gracious goodness!she'd be glad to get rid of some of it if she could,and of course Sarah should have first chance at it.Hadn't she kept her over night so she could see her new home when she was rested,and didn't she come with her,and help her get settled,and had she ever failed when we had a baby,or sickness,or trouble,or thrashers,or a party?Of course she'd gladly divide,even the hair of her head,with Sarah Hood.And father said,"Yes,he guessed she would,and come to think of it,he'd just as soon spare Sarah part of his,"and then they both laughed,when it was nothing so very funny that I could see.
The next caller the geese had was Mrs.Freshett.My!she thought they were big and fine.Mother promised her a couple of eggs to set under a hen.Father said she was gradually coming down the scale of her feelings,and before two weeks she'd give Isaac Thomas,at least,a quill for a pen.Almost no one wrote with them any more,but often father made a few,and showed us how to use them.He said they were gone with candles,sand boxes,and snuff.Mother said she had no use for snuff,but candles were not gone,she'd make and use them to the day of her death,as they were the nicest light ever invented to carry from room to room,or when you only wanted to sit and think.Father said there was really no good pen except the quill you sharpened yourself;and while he often used steel ones like we children had at school to write to the brothers and sisters away,and his family,he always kept a few choice quills in the till of his chest,and when he wrote a deed,or any valuable paper,where there was a deal with money,he used them.He said it lent the dignity of a past day to an important occasion.
After mother and Mrs.Freshett had talked over every single thing about the geese,and that they were like Pryors'had been settled,Mrs.Freshett said:"Since he told about it before all of us,and started out the way he did,would it be amiss to ask how Laddie got on at Pryors'?""Just the way I thought he would,"said mother."He stayed until all of us were in bed,and I'd never have known when he came in,if it were not a habit of his always to come to my door to see if I'm sleeping.Sometimes I'm wakeful,and if he pommels my pillow good,brings me a drink,and rubs my head a few strokes with his strong,cool hands,I can settle down and have a good night's rest.I was awake when he came,or I'd never have known.It was almost midnight;but they sat two hours at the table,and then all of them rode.""Not the Missus?"
"Oh no!She's not strong enough.She really has incurable heart trouble,the worst kind there is;her daughter told me so.""Then they better look out,"said Mrs.Freshett."She is likely to keel over at a breath.""They must know it.That's why she keeps so quiet.""And they had him to supper?"
