Frank R Stockton

Rudder Grange Frank R Stockton

Book Excerpt: ...mia said I ought to have helped him, but I really thought that it would be better for one person to fall off the plank than for two to go over together), and we had paid him, and he had driven away in a speechless condition, we scrambled up and stood upon the threshold, or, rather, the after-deck of our home. It was a proud moment. Euphemia glanced around, her eyes full of happy tears, and then she took my arm and we went down stairs--at least we tried to go down in that fashion, but soon found it necessary to go one at a time. We wandered over the whole extent of our mansion and found that our carpenter had done his work better than the woman whom we had engaged to scrub and clean the house. Something akin to despair must have seized upon her, for Euphemia declared that the floors looked dirtier than on the occasion of her first visit, when we rented the boat. But that didn't discourage us. We felt sure that we should get it clean in time. Early in the afternoon our furniture arrived, to...