If I'm a little
tired or out of sorts,--which I haven't any right to be, not here,--or
quiet, or anything, you think somebody's been hurting me, or abusing me,
or that everything's gone wrong with me, when I do well enough all the
time."
"Now, Abram, you can't deceive me,--not that way. My eyes is mother's
eyes, and they see plain enough, where you're concerned, without
spectacles. Who's been putting on you to-day? Somebody. You don't carry
that down look in your face and your eyes for nothing, I found that out
long ago, and you've got it on to-night."
"O mother!"
"Don't you 'O mother' me! I ain't going to be put off in that way,
Abram, an' you needn't think it. Has Mr. Surrey been saying anything
hard to you?"
"No, indeed, mother; you needn't ask that."
"Nor none of the foremen?"
"None."
"Has Snipe been round?"
"Hasn't been near the office since Mr. Surrey dismissed him."
"Met him anywhere?"
"Nein!" laughing, "I haven't laid eyes on him."
"Well, the men have been saying or doing something then."
"N-no; why, what an inquisitor it is!"
"'N-no.' You don't say that full and plain, Abram. Something _has_ been
going wrong with the men. Now what is it? Come, out with it."
"Well, mother, if you _will_ know, you will, I suppose; and, as you
never get tired of the story, I'll go over the whole tale.
"So long as I was Mr. Surrey's office-boy, to make his fires, and sweep
and dust, and keep things in order, the men were all good enough to me
after their fashion; and if some of them growled because they thought he
favored me, Mr.
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