"Oh, But If He
Comes Here Agin," He Continued, Grinding His Teeth And Doubling His
Fist, "I'll Thrash Him For It.
And thin, ma'am, he has girdled round
all the best graft apple-trees, the murtherin' owld villain, as if
it could spile his digestion our ating them."
"It would require a strong stomach to digest apple-trees, John; but
never mind, it can't be helped, and we may be very thankful that
these people are gone at last."
John and Bell scrubbed at the house all day, and in the evening they
carried over the furniture, and I went to inspect our new dwelling.
It looked beautifully clean and neat. Bell had whitewashed all the
black, smoky walls and boarded ceilings, and scrubbed the dirty
window-frames, and polished the fly-spotted panes of glass, until
they actually admitted a glimpse of the clear air and the blue sky.
Snow-white fringed curtains, and a bed, with furniture to correspond,
a carpeted floor, and a large pot of green boughs on the hearthstone,
gave an air of comfort and cleanliness to a room which, only a few
hours before, had been a loathsome den of filth and impurity.
This change would have been very gratifying, had not a strong,
disagreeable odour almost deprived me of my breath as I entered the
room. It was unlike anything I had ever smelt before, and turned me
so sick and faint that I had to cling to the door-post for support.
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