"
Thaddeus Clayton never knew just how he allowed himself to be persuaded
to take his part in this "crazy scheme," as he termed it, but persuaded
he certainly was.
It was a miserable time for Thaddeus then. First there was that hurried
drive to Hopkinsville. Though the day was warm he fairly shivered as he
handed those two fateful telegrams to the man behind the counter. Then
there was the homeward trip, during which, like the guilty thing he was,
he cast furtive glances from side to side.
Even home itself came to be a misery, for the sweeping and the dusting
and the baking and the brewing which he encountered there left him no
place to call his own, so that he lost his patience at last and moaned:
"Seems ter me, Harriet, you're a pretty lively corpse!"
His wife smiled, and flushed a little.
"There, there, dear! don't fret. Jest think how glad we'll be ter see
'em!" she exclaimed.
Harriet was blissfully happy. Both the children had promptly responded
to the telegrams, and were now on their way. Hannah Jane, with her
husband and two children, were expected on Friday evening; but Jehiel
and his wife and boy could not possibly get in until early on the
following morning.
All this brought scant joy to Thaddeus.
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