Thorndyke, and Mr.
Thorndyke--and you off there on the prairie all these weeks and never
came to see me--or us! Tell me about the farm, and the cows, and the
new house--I've heard of it--and your foreigner friend, and all about
it. Have you any little calves?"
I was able to report that Spot, the heifer that we had such a time
driving, had a little calf that was going to look just like its mother;
and then I described to her the section of land--all but a little of it
down in Hell Slew; and how I hoped to buy a piece across the line so as
to have a real farm. Pretty soon we were talking just as we used to talk
back there east of Waterloo.
"I came to see you and Elder Thorndyke and his wife," I said, "because
I'm going back to Dubuque to get a load of freight, and I thought I
might bring something for you."
"Oh," said she, "take me with you, Teunis, take me with you!"
"Could you go?" I asked, my heart in my mouth.
"No, oh, no!" she said. "There's nobody in Kentucky for me to go to; and
I haven't any money to pay my way with anyhow. I am alone in the world,
Teunis, except for you and my new father and mother--and I'm afraid they
are pretty poor, Teunis, to feed and clothe a big girl like me!"
"How much money would it take?" I asked. "I guess I could raise it for
you, Virginia."
"You're a nice boy, Teunis," she said, with tears in her eyes, "and I
know how well you like money, too; but there's nobody left there. I'm
very lonely--but I'm as well off here as anywhere.
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