Читать книгу Dogtown. Being Some Chapters from the Annals of the Waddles Family Set Down in the Language of Housepeople онлайн

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“Sorry, madam,” said the solitary clerk, popping up in some confusion. He was finishing his toilet, preparatory to leaving, by shaving himself at a scrap of mirror resting on the cash register, and he came forward hurriedly with a billow of lather where his chin should have been. “I very much regret to say that all our liquid refreshments except molasses and vinegar are sold out on account of the picnic, but we still have a few Uneeda biscuits, madam, and a small wedge of superior extra mild cheese, if it would serve you for a luncheon. Ah, a drink! You don’t need a biscuit, not juicy enough. Ha! ha! I see,” and the chinless gentleman retired, laughing at his own wit.

Miss Prue merely gasped and walked on without answering. K. A. V. took a turn at scratching and lunging and then remained so passive that her mistress began to have qualms lest she should have fainted, yet did not dare open the basket. She leaned against the fence and listened, puss was breathing. The few cottages along the way were closed and silent; but as she got farther on where the larger places were scattered, her courage arose, for she remembered that the Burgess model farm barns were on the way, and that there was a well close by the fence.