“We will haul them over, and carry them into the house,” said John, “and do all the work, but you go to the door and give them to her.”
“And let her thank me for them? I shan’t do any such thing; you must go yourselves, like men; it’s nothing to be ashamed of, but something to be proud of; anybody would think you’d been stealing.”
Unable to prevail with Uncle Isaac, they put the fish in the cart, and set out. When in sight of the house they stopped for consultation.
“You go to the door and knock, Fred,” said John.
“I’m sure I can’t; I never spoke to her in my life. It’s your place to go; it’s your cart and oxen.”
“You go, Charlie, that’s a good fellow.”
“O, I don’t think I’m the one to go at all, John. I’m a stranger in these parts, and don’t know her, nor the ways of the people here.”
John, ordinarily so resolute, and the leader in all enterprises, blushed like a girl, and seemed quite frightened.
“What shall I say?” he inquired of his companions, who were by no means backward in telling him what to say, as long as they had not to say it themselves.
“You get out! you make it too long; I can’t say half of that.”