Now wash your dishes";
and Ivory caught up his cap from a hook behind the door.
"Are you going to the barn? " asked Rodman.
"No, only down to the gate for a minute. Mark said that if he had
a good chance he'd send a boy with a note, and get him to put it
under the stone gate-post. It's too soon to expect it, perhaps,
but I can't seem to keep still."
Rodman tied a gingham apron round his waist, carried the
tea-kettle to the sink, and poured the dishpan full of boiling
water; then dipped the cups and plates in and out, wiped them and
replaced them on the table' gave the bean-platter a special
polish, and set the half mince pie and the butter-dish in the
cellar-way.
"A boy has to do most everything in this family!" He sighed to
himself.
"I don't mind washing dishes, except the nasty frying-pan and the
sticky bean-pot; but what I'm going to do to-night is different."
Here he glowed and tingled with anticipation. "I know what they
call it in the story-books--it's sentry duty; and that's braver
work for a boy than dish-washing!"
Which, however, depends a good deal upon circumstances, and
somewhat on the point of view.
XXXII
THE HOUSE OF AARON
A FEELING that the day was to bring great things had dawned upon
Waitstill when she woke that morning, and now it was coming true.
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