The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (Musaicum Christmas Specials). Amanda M. Douglas
my best clothes!" thought Joe with a sigh.
But the coffee was so delightful, and the cold roast beef tender as a chicken. And Joe began to think it was possible for a few things to work together for good, if they were only the right kind of things.
Altogether he went home at night in very good spirits.
"But my trousers will have to go in the wash-tub, Granny," he exclaimed. "I believe I wasn't cut out for a gentleman, after all."
"O Joe, what a sight! How could you?"
"It was all easy enough. If you'd had molasses to scrub up, and flour to get before it was dry, you would have found the sticking process not at all difficult. And oh! Mrs. Van Wyck came in."
Florence flushed a little at this.
"Yes, wait till I show you." With that, Joe sprang up, and wrapped Granny's old shawl about him, and began in his most comical fashion. In a moment or two the children were in roars of laughter.
"I don't know as it is quite right, Joe dear," interposed Granny mildly, "to make fun of any one."
"My conscience don't trouble me a bit;" for now he was in a high glee. "I owe her a grudge for making me pay twenty-four cents for eggs. And, Granny, when you come to the store, don't beat me down a penny on any thing; nor ask me to throw in a spool of cotton nor a piece of tape, nor squeeze down the measure. I wonder how people can be so mean!"
"Rich people too," added Florence in an injured tone of voice, still thinking of Mrs. Van Wyck's overture.
"There's lots of funny folks in the world," said Joe with a grave air. "But I like Mr. Terry, and I mean to do my very best."
"That's right;" and Granny smiled tenderly over the boy's resolve.
"And I'll put on my old clothes to-morrow. Who knows but I may fall into the mackerel-barrel before to-morrow night?"
Kit laughed at this. "They'll have to fish you out with a harpoon, then."
"Oh! I might swim ashore."
The next day Joe improved rapidly. To be sure, he met with a mishap or two; but Mr. Terry excused him, and only charged him to be more careful in future. And Father Terry administered his unfailing consolation on every occasion.
But on Saturday night Joe came home in triumph.
"There's the beginning of my fortune," he said, displaying his dollar and a half all in hard cash. For that was a long while ago, when the eagle, emblem of freedom, used to perch on silver half-dollars.
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