"
"Pshaw!" said the lawyer.
"You said you wanted these shoes made out of soft leather an' with
pretty thin soles, Mr. Bartram?"
"Yes, yes; make them any way you please."
Then the lawyer left the room and closed the door with a crash that
caused the new cobbler to look up apprehensively.
CHAPTER VII.
Little by little the Kimper family was made more comfortable and put in
better condition for the coming winter. Broken window-panes were
mended, though frequently only with bits of board closely wedged,
cracks in the wall were stuffed with dried grass and plastered with
mud, and clean straw replaced the dirty substitutes for beds and
mattresses. The head of the family worked hard at the cobbler's shop,
yet did not cease working when he reached home.
Yet week by week Sam looked better than in old times. Conrad Weitz, the
manager of the most popular drinking-place in the town, predicted that
there would soon have to be a change for the worse.
"He ain't drinkin' noding," said Conrad; "and a feller dat's been
drinkin' all his life can't get along midout it afterwards."
The vender of stimulants said this to Deacon Quickset, for the two men
were incessantly arguing over the liquor question, and never lost an
opportunity of bringing up a new point about it when they met by any
chance.
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