Mr. Tucker

“ Tucker with a frank smile.
"Especially as I'm going up to Sacramento to-night with some influential friends," he continued, with an ostentation calculated to resist the assumption of her charms and her furniture. "Senator Dyce of Kentucky, and his cousin Judge Briggs; perhaps you know 'em, or maybe Spencer—I mean Mr. Tucker—does."
"I reckon," said Mrs. Tucker smiling; "but tell me something about the boys and girls at Vineville, and about yourself. You're looking well, and right smart too." ”

“ Tucker and I bumped heads, [30] I counted them as the first three on the list of the million friends that Cousin Sue said I must make.
"Well, since we are all going to Gresham, suppose you young ladies hand over your tickets to me and I will be courier for the crowd," said Mr. Tucker.
I gave him my ticket, also my reservation in the parlor car. It made no difference how poor payments were, Father and I always traveled in comfort. "It saves in the end to ride in a clean, comfortable coach," Father declared. "Saves wear and tear on clothes and nerves."
Annie Pore handed him her rumpled ticket. ”

“ Through this long speech Louis stood wide-eyed and flushed. Claire caught him by one hand and impulsive Dee by the other.
"Oh, sir!" was all he could falter.
"You must, you must!" exclaimed Dee.
"Louis, Louis, if you only can!" and Claire raised his hand to her cheek.
"But what will my father say?" [270]
"We are going to leave him to Mr. Tucker, at least he is going to prepare the way. I have had a long talk with Tucker this afternoon, and we have mapped out a plan of campaign."
"But your father surely could have no objection," said Dum. "A scholarship is something that everybody accepts." ”

“ Tucker had kindly had our breakfast sent up from the café.
"That's to make up for treating us the way he did last night," said Dum, buttering her cakes as she sat up in bed.
"Treating us what way?" inquired Dee.
"Dancing with that Binks abomination. He knew he had no business to do it."
"Why, Dum," I said, determined to cool her down if possible, "I don't really see how Mr. Tucker could have done otherwise. A schoolmate who from all appearances is devoted to his daughters, joins our group and lets it be known [260] that she is dying to dance, indeed is thinking of dancing alone. ”

“ Rand right as to the Tucker [10] family, explaining to her that Mr. Tucker was the father of my friends and that I was merely a schoolmate who was invited to come to the beach on a visit.
"Well, you may be putting something over on me, as these wild June tenants used to call it. I can't believe that the young man who came down here is the paw of these strapping twins any more than I could believe that you are their maw. Maybe he sent his office boy." That made all of us laugh.
"We've been coming here for years, Mrs. Rand," said Dee. "It is strange we do not know each other. ”

“ Thank you, Cousin Park! I would not inconvenience you even a little bit for the world, nor would I leave my friends until my visit with them is finished. Annie Pore is as much my friend as she is the Tuckers', and I love her dearly and have found her a perfect lady on all occasions. Mr. Tucker is acquainted with Mr. Pore and his judgment as to who is a suitable person to introduce to us is to be relied on implicitly. Mr. Pore is not a common Englishman at all but a very cultivated, highly-educated gentleman. ”

“ He is having a much-needed holiday."
"Oh, then he has gone on a trip?" [33]
"I fancy not."
"Why, then I am sure he would be glad to come back and relieve Annie so she can come to Maxton. Oh, Mr. Pore, do please write for him to come on back and take his holiday later!"
"Really, Miss Allison——" he began in his most dignified Oxford donnish manner.
"Oh, I just know you will! You and Father and Mr. Tucker are all just alike. You can't bear to deny your girls any pleasure." ”

“ Stephen White could grow a moustache as big as a hedge and come and settle all over the county if he wanted to, and Mr. Jeffry Tucker could dance with a loud-mouthed girl in flame-coloured chiffon until he scorched himself if he wanted to. I had been to a ball and been something of a belle and now I was tired and sleepy and wanted to get to bed and talk over things with the girls,—I did wish though that I had not blushed like a fool rose just at the wrong time and that Zebedee had not seen me. ”

“ Neither boat was big enough for the whole crowd so we had decided to divide the party.
"I have determined how we are to sit," said Mary in the coarse, nasal tone that belonged to Mabel, "I prefer the naphtha launch, as cat boats are so dirty. I intend that the Tuckers, especially Mr. Tucker, shall accompany me, also Stephen White and Mr. Hart. Page and Annie and Mary must find room in the cat boat while I will allow Sleepy and Rags to look after them. Oh! Miss Cox! I forgot her! She can go in the cat boat, too, but we will make room for Mr. Gordon in the launch." ”

“ Tucker.
“Philip,” said Squire Pope pompously, “you are very young, and you don’t know what is best for you. We do, and you must submit. Mr. Tucker, take him and put him in the wagon, and we’ll drive over to the poorhouse.”
“What! now?” asked Philip, in dismay.
“Just so,” answered Joe Tucker. “When you’ve got your bird, don’t let him go, that’s what I say.”
“That’s the talk, dad!” said Zeke gladfully. “We’ll take down his pride, I guess, when we’ve got him home.”
Joe Tucker approached Philip, and was about to lay hold of him, when our hero started back. ”

“ Why should the atoms of the body politic derive any advantage from the dissolution of the organism of which they form a part? That Mr. Tucker should put the State on a level with churches and insurance companies is simply astounding. Does Mr. Tucker really think that five or six "States" could exist side by side with the same convenience as an equal number of churches? The difficulty of determining what "State" an individual belonged to would be practically insuperable. How are assaults and robberies to be dealt with? ”

“ Who's here?" from Dum.
It was his Eminence of the Tum Tum, in all the glory of a starched piqué vest, followed by Claire and Louis, both of them rather ill at ease in their father's presence. Miss Judith introduced the paying and non-paying guests with all the ceremony of a presentation at the Court of St. James.
"Now I am afraid Mr. Tucker's mayonnaise is going back on him," whispered Mrs. Green to me; "I don't believe he and Jimmy Lufton together [266] could beat in that old man and make him into a smooth, palatable mixture." ”

“ Then there was Bobby, the little brother, an enfant terrible and a perfect little duck.
Mr. Carter was the most pathetic figure I have ever seen: a big, strong man, accustomed to action and power, reduced to letting his daughters make a living for him. He seemed to have lost the power of concentration, somehow. Mr. Tucker said he thought he would get well but it was going to take a long time. He had worked beyond mental endurance trying to keep his family in luxury. ”

“ Allison, what are you going to do with Page this winter?" asked Mr. Tucker.
"Do with Page! Why—nothing but—nothing at all."
"Oh, but, doctor——" broke in Dum and in the same breath Dee clamored:
"We want——" but nobody heard what we wanted as I had to put in my oar saying I thought I ought to stay at home.
"Now, see here, if we all of us talk at once we won't get anywhere, and we might just as [265] well have stayed in Richmond," complained Zebedee.
"Well, let's appoint a chairman then," I suggested, "and everybody address the chair. I nominate Mr. Tucker chairman pro tem." ”

“ The Country Club was a beautiful building with spacious grounds, golf links, tennis courts, and a view of the James River that appealed to me very much. The dinner was fine, and Father and I had a splendid time.
"I am glad to escape all the meals I can at the apartment house café," confessed Mr. Tucker. "When Tweedles are away, I eat anywhere but at home."
"You are an extravagant piece," said Dee.
"But I have my regular meals served for Brindle," laughed Mr. Tucker.
"Oh, that alters the case, then!" exclaimed Dee. "Brindle should have just as good food as people, with a variety of vegetables." ”

“ Tucker had with animals, that horse came around so that you'd hardly know it from a spirited charger of Mr. Crœsus—a gentleman who lives up in that neighborhood. It grew so strong that it was able to drag a cart-load of vegetables down town to Mr. Tucker's customers, and Mr. Tucker was able to put another lot or two under cultivation. And if the lots were a little rough and sunken, it was very pretty to see them full of "green things a-growing." Up to this last winter there was almost always something to sell, and pretty soon after Mr. Tucker cured his horse he got a cow. ”

“ Tucker first traded off some pigs for her, and gave some silver to boot out of Mother Tucker's stocking. What little milk she had seemed to be turned to gall, and even that couldn't be got from her until she was tied to the side of the house; then she would have kicked the whole mansion down if it hadn't been founded on a rock, like the wise man's house Mr. Tucker read about in the Bible. Mr. Tucker and Tommy think there are only two books worth reading in the whole world: one is the Bible, and the other is Robinson Crusoe. ”

“ Tucker!” returned our hero. “I give you fair warning that I shall run away the first chance I get.”
Philip’s tone was so calm and free from excitement that Mr. Tucker could not help seeing that he was in earnest, and he looked perplexed.
“You don’t look at it in the right light,” he said, condescending to conciliate his new boarder. “If you don’t make no trouble, you’ll have a good time, and I’ll let you off, now an’ then, to play with Zeke. He needs a boy to play with.” ”

“ I needed my gray eyes to pick a smooth road for Peg. Jo Winn and Dee were just far enough behind us to keep out of our dust, and occasionally we could hear Dee's ringing laugh and an unusual guffaw from the silent Jo.
"You see now why we couldn't come in your automobile, as Mr. Tucker wanted," I said to Dum, as Father wheeled the colt sharply to the left into a forest of pines where scrub oaks and chinquepins almost concealed a very poor excuse for a road.
"Come on, Daughter," Father called back to me; "we'll keep close together through the woods, as there is no dust." ”

“ Tucker,” said Murray appealingly, “what can we do to make peace with you?” 145
“Without even seeing your husband again,” added the doctor, “I am willing to concede that he will live to be three thousand years old.”
“We are beaten,” asserted Murray. “You have humbled our business and professional pride. We give Mr. Tucker none of the credit; it all belongs to you. We claim to be the equals of any man, but of no woman. Now, on what terms can we have peace?”
“I did want your insurance company for a sort of belated wedding present,” said Mrs. Tucker thoughtfully. ”

“ Caroline, were especial friends of Charlotte, through many a long year. Thus the first break in the charmed circle of sisters was made; and Fanny was now ‘Miss Tucker,’ Charlotte being the second home-daughter.
Until the spring of 1850 Mr. Tucker kept his health and vigour to a marvellous extent for a man eighty years old,—for one too who had worked more or less hard through life from the age of fourteen or fifteen. He still attended to his India House business, not seeming to find it too much for his strength ”

“ Tucker, who felt that the reputation of the boarding-house was endangered by such insinuations. “We mean to live respectable. There's two towels a week allowed, and that I consider liberal.” “And do all your boarders use the same towel?” asked Phil, unable to suppress an expression of disgust. “Sartain. You don't think we allow 'em one apiece, do you!” “No, I don't,” said Philip decidedly. He had ceased to expect anything so civilized in Mr. Tucker's establishment. “Now you're safe in your room, I reckon I'd better go downstairs,” said Tucker. “I will go with you.” “Not much you won't! ”

“ We reached the landing where the boats were anchored and as Dum had not biffed Mabel, I suppose her prayer was answered.
"Oh, there are the boats! What a darling little launch! Dum and Dee and I bid to go in that. Mr. Gordon, will you please arrange those cushions in the stern for me? Be sure and don't lose me, Mr. Tucker, and I will finish that delicious yarn I was in the midst of. Stephen, you will run the launch, I know, as that will give you such a good chance to be near Dee, and, Mr. Hart, here is a nice seat for you right by Dum." ”

“ Tucker, planted himself in a chair and surveyed him grimly. “I thought I should find you here,” he remarked.
“Well, I always am here, ain't I?” retorted Mr. Tucker, removing his cigar and regarding him with mild surprise.
“Mr. Tucker is my friend,” interposed Mrs. Bowman. “I am the only friend he has got in Trimington. It's natural he should be here.”
Mr. Clark quailed at her glance.
“People are beginning to talk,” he muttered, feebly.
“Talk?” said the widow, with an air of mystification belied by her color. “What about?”
Mr. Clark quailed again. “About—about our wedding,” he stammered. ”

“ He looked very boyish indeed as he swung off the Pullman, a suitcase in one hand and a great basket, neatly covered with purple paper, in the other.
"I know what that purple paper means," cried Dee from afar. "He's been to Schmidt's and that basket's full of goodies."
So he had, and, Zebedee like, had a proposition for pleasure. I have seldom seen Mr. Tucker that he did not have some scheme on hand for amusement for someone, and the best thing about it was that he usually was ready to partake of the fun himself ”