And, when the store laughed
at _that_, Baumgartner swore that he would possess half of the farm
before he died; and as Pressel and his wife died, and Seffy grew up, and
as he noticed the fondness of the little red-headed girl for his little
tow-headed boy, he added to his adjuration that he would be harrowing
that whole farm before _he_ died,--_without paying a cent for it_!
But both Seffy and Sally had grown to a marriageable age without
anything happening. Seffy had become inordinately shy, while the
coquettish Sally had accepted the attentions of Sam Pritz, the clerk at
the store, as an antagonist more worthy of her, and in a fashion which
sometimes made the father of Seffy swear and lose his temper--with
Seffy. Though, of course, in the final disposition of the matter, he was
sure that no girl so nice as Sally would marry such a person as Sam
Pritz, with no extremely visible means of support--a salary of four
dollars a week, and an odious reputation for liquor. And it was for
these things, all of which were known (for Baumgartner had not a single
secret) that the company at the store detected the personal equation in
Old Baumgartner's communications.
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