And yet he was a man that could struggle right manfully with the
world's troubles; one who had struggled with them from his boyhood,
and had never been overcome. Now he was unable to conceal the
bitterness of his wrath because a little girl had ridden off to look
for a green spot for her tablecloth without asking his assistance!
Picnics are, I think, in general, rather tedious for the elderly
people who accompany them. When the joints become a little stiff,
dinners are eaten most comfortably with the accompaniment of chairs
and tables, and a roof overhead is an agrement de plus. But,
nevertheless, picnics cannot exist without a certain allowance of
elderly people. The Miss Marians and Captains Ewing cannot go out to
dine on the grass without some one to look after them. So the
elderly people go to picnics, in a dull tame way, doing their duty,
and wishing the day over. Now on the morning in question, when
Marian rode off with Captain Ewing and lieutenant Graham, Maurice
Cumming remained among the elderly people.
A certain Mr. Pomken, a great Jamaica agriculturist, one of the
Council, a man who had known the good old times, got him by the
button and held him fast, discoursing wisely of sugar and ruin, of
Gadsden pans and recreant negroes, on all of which subjects Maurice
Cumming was known to have an opinion of his own.
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