Rewards and Fairies - Penn State University

Rewards and Fairies
flood the park if she went on.’
When he looked up, Mr Springett, alone, was wiping his
‘Were there any springs at all?’ said Hal.
eyes with his green-and-yellow pocket-handkerchief.
‘Bound to be springs everywhere if you dig deep enough, ‘Bless me, Mus’ Dan, I’ve been asleep,’ he said. ‘An’ I’ve
ain’t there? But what I said about the springs put her out o’ dreamed a dream which has made me laugh—laugh as I ain’t
conceit o’ diggin’ haw-haws, an’ she took an’ built a white tile laughed in a long day. I can’t remember what ’twas all about,
dairy instead. But when I sent in my last bill for the stables, but they do say that when old men take to laughin’ in their
the gentleman he paid it ‘thout even lookin’ at it, and I hadn’t sleep, they’re middlin’ ripe for the next world. Have you been
forgotten nothin’, I do assure you. More than that, he slips workin’ honest, Mus’ Dan?’
two five-pound notes into my hand in the library, an’”Ralph, ‘Ra-ather,’ said Dan, unclamping the schooner from the vice.
he says—he allers called me by name—“Ralph,” he says, ‘And look how I’ve cut myself with the small gouge.’
“you’ve saved me a heap of expense an’ trouble this autumn.” ‘Ye-es. You want a lump o’ cobwebs to that,’ said Mr
I didn’t say nothin’, o’ course. I knowed he didn’t want any Springett. ‘Oh, I see you’ve put it on already. That’s right,
haws-haws digged acrost his park no more’n I did, but I never Mus’ Dan.’
said nothin’. No more he didn’t say nothin’ about my bluebrick
stables, which was really the best an’ honestest piece o’
work I’d done in quite a while. He give me ten pounds for
savin’ him a hem of a deal o’ trouble at home. I reckon things
are pretty much alike, all times, in all places.’
Hal and he laughed together. Dan couldn’t quite understand
what they thought so funny, and went on with his work
for some time without speaking.
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