The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories. Mark Twain
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Название: The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories

Автор: Mark Twain

Издательство: Bookwire

Жанр: Языкознание

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isbn: 4057664092090

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ

       AN ENTERTAINING ARTICLE

       AN ENGLISH CRITIC ON MARK TWAIN

       REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS

       A LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

       AMENDED OBITUARIES

       TO THE EDITOR

       A MONUMENT TO ADAM

       A HUMANE WORD FROM SATAN

       TO THE EDITOR OF HARPER'S WEEKLY

       INTRODUCTION TO “THE NEW GUIDE OF THE CONVERSATION IN PORTUGUESE AND ENGLISH”

       by Pedro Carolino

       FOR TO SEE THE TOWN

       DIALOGUE 17

       TO INFORM ONE'SELF OF A PERSON

       ADVICE TO LITTLE GIRLS

       POST-MORTEM POETRY (1)

       THE DANGER OF LYING IN BED

       PORTRAIT OF KING WILLIAM III

       COMMENDATIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

       DOES THE RACE OF MAN LOVE A LORD?

       EXTRACTS FROM ADAM'S DIARY

       KEEP OFF THE GRASS

       EVE'S DIARY

       EXTRACT FROM ADAM'S DIARY

       After the Fall

       Forty Years Later

       AT EVE'S GRAVE

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      Lakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants, and a rather pretty one, too, as towns go in the Far West. It had church accommodations for thirty-five thousand, which is the way of the Far West and the South, where everybody is religious, and where each of the Protestant sects is represented and has a plant of its own. Rank was unknown in Lakeside—unconfessed, anyway; everybody knew everybody and his dog, and a sociable friendliness was the prevailing atmosphere.

      Saladin Foster was book-keeper in the principal store, and the only high-salaried man of his profession in Lakeside. He was thirty-five years old, now; he had served that store for fourteen years; he had begun in his marriage-week at four hundred dollars a year, and had climbed steadily up, a hundred dollars a year, for four years; from that time forth his wage had remained eight hundred—a handsome figure indeed, and everybody conceded that he was worth it.

      His wife, Electra, was a capable helpmeet, although—like himself—a dreamer of dreams and a private dabbler in romance. The first thing she did, after her marriage—child as she was, aged only nineteen—was to buy an acre of ground on the edge of the town, and pay down the cash for it—twenty-five dollars, all her fortune. Saladin had less, by fifteen. She instituted a vegetable garden there, got it farmed on shares by the nearest neighbor, and made it pay her a hundred per cent. a year. Out of Saladin's first year's wage she put thirty dollars in the savings-bank, sixty out of his second, a hundred out of his third, a hundred and fifty out of his fourth. His wage went to eight hundred a year, then, and meantime two children had arrived and increased the expenses, but she banked two hundred a year from the salary, nevertheless, thenceforth. When she had been married seven years she built and furnished a pretty and comfortable two-thousand-dollar house in the midst of her garden-acre, paid half of the money down and moved her family in. Seven years later she was out of debt and had several hundred dollars out earning its living.

      Earning it by the rise in landed estate; for she had long ago bought another acre or two and sold the most of it at a profit to pleasant people who were willing to build, and would be good neighbors and furnish a general comradeship for herself and her growing family. She had an independent income from safe investments of about a hundred dollars a year; her children were growing in years and grace; and she was a pleased and happy woman. Happy in her husband, happy in her children, and the husband and the children were happy in her. It is at this point that this history begins.

      The youngest girl, Clytemnestra—called Clytie for short—was eleven; her sister, Gwendolen—called Gwen for short—was thirteen; nice girls, and comely. The names betray the latent romance-tinge in the parental blood, the parents' names indicate that the tinge was an inheritance. It was an affectionate family, hence all four of its members had pet names, Saladin's was a curious and unsexing one—Sally; and so was Electra's—Aleck. All day long Sally was a good and diligent book-keeper and salesman; all day long Aleck was a good and faithful mother and housewife, and thoughtful and calculating business woman; but in the cozy living-room at night they put the plodding world away, and lived in another and a fairer, reading romances to each other, dreaming dreams, comrading with kings and princes and stately СКАЧАТЬ