Читать книгу The Ark of 1803. A Story of Louisiana Purchase Times онлайн

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The master pointed to the gaping schoolhouse doorway. “In, ye renegades,” he ordered, and they trooped noisily in to straighten the overturned benches and settle down to their study after the four days of unofficial vacation.

Jimmy Claiborne did not follow them. He waited until the men were starting back to the shipyard, then he stopped Marion Royce.

“Louis Gist says you won’t let me go on the ark,” he said, fixing the young captain with his sombre, discontented eyes. “I guess Uncle Amasa could make you, seeing what a share we’ve got in the cargo, but I just wanted to ask you if it’s true—what Louis said—that you don’t want me.”

Marion wished, as he looked gravely at the boy, that the ark were not taking the Claibornes’ share of the cargo at all, but he only said:

“That depends on yourself, Jimmy.”

Jimmy made no answer in words. He turned and strode off towards the woods behind the schoolhouse clearing. Marion called to him, but he gave no sign of hearing, and after waiting a moment longer Marion went back to his work.