He
made a thin, peevish kind of fuss, for instance, when I took the collie
puppies from the farm out for a run the other day."
"They chased his young broods of speckled Sussex and drove two sitting
hens off their nests, besides running all over the flower beds. You know
how devoted he is to his poultry and garden."
"Anyhow, he needn't have gone on about it for the entire evening and then
have said, 'Let's say no more about it' just when I was beginning to
enjoy the discussion. That's where one of my petty vindictive revenges
came in," added Laura with an unrepentant chuckle; "I turned the entire
family of speckled Sussex into his seedling shed the day after the puppy
episode."
"How could you?" exclaimed Amanda.
"It came quite easy," said Laura; "two of the hens pretended to be laying
at the time, but I was firm."
"And we thought it was an accident!"
"You see," resumed Laura, "I really _have_ some grounds for supposing
that my next incarnation will be in a lower organism. I shall be an
animal of some kind. On the other hand, I haven't been a bad sort in my
way, so I think I may count on being a nice animal, something elegant and
lively, with a love of fun. An otter, perhaps."
"I can't imagine you as an otter," said Amanda.
"Well, I don't suppose you can imagine me as an angel, if it comes to
that," said Laura.
Amanda was silent. She couldn't.
"Personally I think an otter life would be rather enjoyable," continued
Laura; "salmon to eat all the year round, and the satisfaction of being
able to fetch the trout in their own homes without having to wait for
hours till they condescend to rise to the fly you've been dangling before
them; and an elegant svelte figure--"
"Think of the otter hounds," interposed Amanda; "how dreadful to be
hunted and harried and finally worried to death!"
"Rather fun with half the neighbourhood looking on, and anyhow not worse
than this Saturday-to-Tuesday business of dying by inches; and then I
should go on into something else.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25