The Argosy — page 130: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— = = aa avba ey = wee a 116 Shaving the Ponies’ Tatls. Tie Anca. “ Not if I know it. That senseless little reptile goes and flings him- self into the green pond, and the Pater " ‘Hugh says he fell in, Tod.” “It’s all the same. And the Pater horsewhips me for it! If I don’t pay him off, my name is not Todhetley. Here, Johnny.” “ How will you pay him off?” I asked, drinking the glass of cham pagne he held out. ‘‘ Leave that to me,” said Tod, ‘I'll sleep upon it.” ‘“T have told them it was not your fault, Tod. Hugh said so, too. He was coming in-doors by the fold-yard, and began chasing the ducks. That’s how it happened.” “ Awkward young donkey! But they shan’t continue to blame me, night or wrong, for every scrape he falls into. That won't do, now it has come to a horsewhip. You may tell the Pater so.” ‘And you'll not come into the dining-room, Tod ?” “T’ve answered you once,” said,Tod, cutting himself a piece of pud- ding that must have weighed three pounds. “You needn't wait, Johnny.” And back I went, after the unsuccessful negotiation. Tod’s feast transpired, and the Pater was vexed. What had made him intensely miserable, apparently only made Tod more jolly. Had he heard that his son was indulging grief or resentment in solitude, he would have gone and made fnends with him—I know he would— perhaps have said he was sorry for his haste. As it was, he let the affair drop, saying nothing. But the old Pater was not one to bear resentment ; and he loved Tod, in spite of his faults, better than anybody else in the world. On the following morning, when we were going to the Jacobsons’-—a three-mile drive—to spend the day and dine, he spoke pleasantly to Tod. ‘Put on your warmest top-coat, Joe. We shall have a sharp frost to-night.” Mrs: Todhetley’s toothache was worse, and her face swollen the size of two, so she would not come. Hugh’s nose was all mght this morn- ing, and she wanted to send him with us. But the Pater would not have it: Ae was not going to look after him all day, he said, to keep him out of the Jacobsons’ duck-ponds. We left him, sobbing and roaring with the disappointment, and started; I, Tod, andthe Pater. Tod generally sat in front when his step-mother did not, but he put me there to-day, and got up behind. No servant went with us to the Jacobsons’; old Blossom, their groom, would take care of the ponies. The Pater was a kind man when not ina passion. ‘I can see you are wanting to drive, Johnny,” he said. “ Well, you may take the reins for a little while.” I could drive as well as the Pater, at any rate in my own opinion, and we bowled along the frosty road, old Pater in his usual ~low over the ponies. Gon CloOOkKS.€O