Page:The Toll of the Bush.pdf/126
sequences, for drunk or sober I will have nothing more to do with you.’
For an instant the woman’s eyes blazed with passion, then clutching her throat she went sobbing into the house.
‘Oh, father, father!’ said Lena, her eyes shining, ‘do try, and we might all be so happy.’
‘Yes, I vill try,’ said her father, staring at the closed door. ‘I vill try so as neffer before.’
‘And you will succeed, father; and then how proud we will all be.’
‘Yes, I vill socceed. I vill make you proud as neffer was. Dis time I haf no money. Ah, filty wretch dat I am!’
‘Never mind that, dear; only try.’
‘Yes. Soon I vill bring some money—every veek I vill bring money. And your mother vill forgif me more’n more, and you vill be proud.’
‘Yes, I will be proud, for it will be very, very hard for you; but this time you will conquer, won’t you?’
‘Yes, dis time I am strong. It is nutting. I vill not touch him again; I have said it.’ And the poor wretch snapped his fingers at his absent enemy.
Lena looked at him and sighed. ‘When are you going, father?’ she asked.
‘Straight avay,’ said Andersen, and lifted his swag from where it had been lying since the night before under the fence. Lena helped to adjust it on his broad shoulders and to secure the straps, swollen with the dews; then she looked at him long and wistfully and said, ‘Remember.’