Book Description

"[...] "That's always the way," muttered Rachel. "Shut the stable door when the horse is stolen. Folks never learn from experience till it's too late to be of any use. I don't see what the world was made for, for my part. Everything goes topsy-turvy, and all sorts of ways except the right way. I sometimes think 'taint much use livin'." "Oh, you'll feel better by and by, Rachel. Hark, there's Jack, isn't it?" "Anybody might know by the noise who it is," pursued Rachel, in the same general tone that had marked her conversation hitherto. "He always comes stomping along as if he was paid for makin' a noise. Anybody ought to have a cast-iron head that lives anywhere in his hearing." Her cheerful remarks were here broken in upon by the sudden entrance of Jack, who, in his eagerness, slammed the door behind him, unheeding his mother's quiet admonition not to make a noise. "Look there!" said he, displaying a quarter of a dollar. "How did you get it?" asked his mother. "Holding horses," answered Jack. "Here, take it, mother. I warrant you'll find a use for it."[...]".