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The Parent's Assistant by Maria Edgeworth
Book, page 221 / 462


sobbing; "but the thing is, I shall never have such another play-fellow,-
-I shall never have such another friend as Maurice Grant."

"Like father like son--you may think yourself well off to have done with
him."

"Done with him! Oh, father, and shall I never go again to work in his
garden, and may not he come to mine?"

"No," replied Oakly, sturdily; "his father has used me uncivil, and no
man shall use me uncivil twice. I say no. Wife, sweep up this hearth.
Boy, don't take on like a fool; but eat thy bacon and greens, and let's
hear no more of Maurice Grant."

Arthur promised to obey his father. He only begged that he might once
more speak to Maurice, and tell him that it was by his father's orders he
acted. This request was granted; but when Arthur further begged to know
what reason he might give for this separation, his father refused to tell
his reasons. The two friends took leave of one another very sorrowfully.

Mr. Grant, when he heard of all this, endeavoured to discover what could
have offended his neighbour; but all explanation was prevented by the
obstinate silence of Oakly.

Now, the message which Grant really sent about the Brobdingnag
raspberries was somewhat different from that which Mr. Oakly received.
The message was, that the raspberries were not Mr. Grant's; that
therefore he had no right to give them away; that they belonged to his
son Maurice, and that this was not the right time of year for planting
them. This message had been unluckily misunderstood. Grant gave his
answer to his wife; she to a Welsh servant-girl, who did not perfectly
comprehend her mistress' broad Scotch; and she in her turn could not make
herself intelligible to Mrs. Oakly, who hated the Welsh accent, and whose
attention, when the servant-girl delivered the message, was principally
engrossed by the management of her own horse. The horse, on which Mrs.
Oakly rode this day being ill-broken, would not stand still quietly at
the gate, and she was extremely impatient to receive her answer, and to
ride on to market.

Oakly, when he had once resolved to dislike his neighbour Grant, could

 
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