Say, how about a collar?"
"Oh, the clothes are all right, but pa and ma won't let
me go near Nellie Slater."
"Is she tooberkler?" Pearl asked quickly.
"Not so very," Tom answered guardedly. "Ma is afraid I
might marry her."
"Is she awful pretty?" Pearl asked, glowing with pleasure.
Here was a rapturous romance.
"You bet," Tom declared with pride. "She's the swellest
girl in these parts"--this with the air of a man who had
weighed many feminine charms and found them wanting.
"Has she eyes like stars, lips like cherries, neck like
a swan, and a laugh like a ripple of music?" Pearl asked
eagerly.
"Them's it," Tom replied modestly.
"Then I'd go, you bet!" was Pearl's emphatic reply.
"There's your mother calling."
"Yes'm, I'm comin'. I'll help you, Tom. Keep a stout
heart and all will be well."
Pearl knew all about frustrated love. Ma had read a story
once, called "Wedded and Parted, and Wedded Again." Cruel
and designing parents had parted young Edythe (pronounced
Ed'-ith-ee) and Egbert, and Egbert just pined and pined
and pined. How would Mrs. Motherwell like it if poor Tom
began to pine and turn from his victuals. The only thing
that saved Egbert from the silent tomb where partings
come no more, was the old doctor who used to say, "Keep
a stout heart, Egbert, all will be well." That's why she
said it to Tom.
Edythe had eyes like stars, mouth like cherries, neck
like a swan, and a laugh like a ripple of music, and
wasn't it strange, Nellie Slater had, too? Pearl knew
now why Tom chewed Old Chum tobacco so much.
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