Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/303

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CHAPTER XXII.

Well, Tom Willis kep' doin' better and better and wuz gittin' a good salary, good enough, with what property he had, for him to marry on, and Anna kep' on lovin' him and refusin' to marry Von Crank, and Tamer kep' on naggin' Anna, and things seemed to be at a standstill. Since Cicero wuz shut up Tamer had acted worse than ever, so it seemed; the trouble instead of softenin' had seemed to harden her.

There is some troubles you know jest like that, kinder sharp, stiff, humiliatin' troubles, and agin there is heart meltin', heart breakin' griefs that soften the heart while it well nigh breaks 'em. Well, Tamer's wuz one of them sharp, witherin', humiliatin' ones, and her heart seemed harder than ever and she seemed more in favor of Von Crank, more sot against Tom Willis, more hard on Jack and more naggin'. But a change wuz to come, when the right time come the Lord softened Tamer's heart, and Anna went out of her servitude, out of the house of bondage into the Land of Promise, into a happy useful life with the man of her choice.

But, oh, my dear little Jack! my poor boy!

But to resoom backwards agin and take up the thread of history, I stayed at Hamen's several days, visitin' ostensibly with Celestine. For as many as three times a day, when she would be brung in to her meals from her engrossin' Art work, Celestine would say to me: "How