The Black-Bearded Barbarian(黑胡子粗人).pdf

The Black-Bearded Barbarian
The Black-Bearded
Barbarian
by Marian Keith
1
The Black-Bearded Barbarian
CHAPTER I.
SPLITTING ROOKS
Up in the stony pasture-field behind the barn the boys had been
working all the long afternoon. Nearly all, that is, for, being boys, they had
managed to mix a good deal of fun with their labor. But now they were
tired of both work and play, and wondered audibly, many times over, why
they were not yet called home to supper.
The work really belonged to the Mackay boys, but, like Tom Sawyer,
they had made it so attractive that several volunteers e to their aid.
Their father was putting up a new stone house, near the old one down
there behind the orchard, and the two youngest of the family had been put
at the task of breaking the largest stones in the field.
It meant only to drag some underbrush and wood from the forest
skirting the farm, pile them on the stones, set fire to them, and let the heat
do the rest. It had been grand sport at first, they all voted, better than
playing shinny, and almost as good as going fishing. In fact it was a kind
of free ic, where one could play at Indians all day long. But as the day
wore on, the ic idea had languished, and the stone-breaking grew
more and more to resemble hard work.
The warm spring sunset had begun to color the western sky; the
meadow-larks had gone to bed, and the stone-breakers were tired and
ravenously hungry--as hungry as only wolves or country boys can be. The
visitors suggested that they ought to be going home. "Hold on, Danny, just
till this one breaks," said the older Mackay boy, as he set a burning stick to
a new pile of brush.
"This'll be a dandy, and it's the last, too. They're sure to call us to
supper before we've time to do another."
The new fire, roaring and snapping, sendkg up showers of sparks and
filling the air with the sweet odor of burning cedar, proved too alluring to
be left. pany squatted on the ground before it, hugging th