Horatio Alger

“ Brindle had not only escaped scot-free, but the broom, a new one, bought only the week before, was broken.
"It's a plaguy shame," said Mrs. Mudge, angrily. "There's my best broom broken; cost forty-two cents only last week."
She turned and contemplated the scene of devastation. This yielded her little consolation.
"At least thirty cabbages destroyed by that scamp of a cow," she exclaimed in a tone bordering on despair. "I wish I'd a hit her. If I'd broken my broom over her back I wouldn't a cared so much. And it's all Mudge's fault. He's the most shiftless man I ever see. ”

“ Mudge. "You're about the laziest and most shiftless man I ever came across."
"Come, what does all this mean?" demanded Mr. Mudge, who was getting a little angry in his turn.
"I'll let you know. Just look out of that window, will you?"
"Well," said Mr. Mudge, innocently, "I don't see anything in particular."
"You don't!" said Mrs. Mudge with withering sarcasm. "Then you'd better put on your glasses. If you'd been here quarter of an hour ago, you'd have seen Brindle among the cabbages."
"Did she do any harm?" asked Mr. Mudge, hastily. ”

“ Mudge has got herself into a scrape, now, I'm thinking."
Having attained a safe distance from the Poorhouse, Ben doubled himself up and rolled over and over upon the grass, convulsed with laughter.
"I'd give five dollars to see it all over again," he said to himself. "I never had such splendid fun in my life."
Presently the Squire emerged, his tall dicky looking decidedly limp and drooping, his face expressing annoyance and outraged dignity. Mrs. Mudge attended him to the door with an expression of anxious concern. ”