{"product_id":"2940013408012","title":"THE AWAKENING OF HELENA RICHIE","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDr. Lavendar and Goliath had toiled up the hill to call on old Mr.\u003cbr\u003eBenjamin Wright; when they jogged back in the late afternoon it was\u003cbr\u003ewith the peculiar complacency which follows the doing of a\u003cbr\u003edisagreeable duty. Goliath had not liked climbing the hill, for a\u003cbr\u003eheavy rain in the morning had turned the clay to stiff mud, and Dr.\u003cbr\u003eLavendar had not liked calling on Benjamin Wright.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But, Daniel,\" said Dr. Lavendar, addressing a small old dog who took\u003cbr\u003eup a great deal more room on the seat of the buggy than he was\u003cbr\u003eentitled to, \"Daniel, my boy, you don't consult your likings in\u003cbr\u003epastoral calls.\" Then he looked out of the mud-spattered window of the\u003cbr\u003ebuggy, at a house by the roadside--\"The Stuffed Animal House,\" Old\u003cbr\u003eChester children called it, because its previous owner had been a\u003cbr\u003etaxidermist of some little local renown. \"That's another visit I ought\u003cbr\u003eto make,\" he reflected, \"but it can wait until next week. G'long,\u003cbr\u003eGoliath!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGoliath went along, and Mrs. Frederick Richie, who lived in the\u003cbr\u003eStuffed Animal House, looking listlessly from an upper window, saw the\u003cbr\u003ehood of the buggy jogging by and smiled suddenly. \"Thank Heaven!\" she\u003cbr\u003esaid.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBenjamin Wright had not thanked Heaven when Dr. Lavendar drove away.\u003cbr\u003eHe had been as disagreeable as usual to his visitor, but being a very\u003cbr\u003elonely old man he enjoyed having a visitor to whom to be disagreeable.\u003cbr\u003eHe lived on his hilltop a mile out of Old Chester, with his \"nigger\"\u003cbr\u003eSimmons, his canary-birds, and his temper. More than thirty years\u003cbr\u003ebefore he had quarrelled with his only son Samuel, and the two men had\u003cbr\u003enot spoken to each other since. Old Chester never knew what this\u003cbr\u003equarrel had been about; Dr. Lavendar, speculating upon it as he and\u003cbr\u003eGoliath went squashing through the mud that April afternoon, wondered\u003cbr\u003ewhich was to blame. \"Pot and kettle, probably,\" he decided. \"Samuel's\u003cbr\u003egoodness is very irritating sometimes, and Benjamin's badness is--\u003cbr\u003ewell, it's not as distressing as it should be. But what a forlorn old\u003cbr\u003ecritter he is! And this Mrs. Richie is lonely too--a widow, with no\u003cbr\u003echildren, poor woman! I must call next week. Goliath wouldn't like to\u003cbr\u003eturn round now and climb the hill again. Danny, I fear Goliath is very\u003cbr\u003eselfish.\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079439007984,"sku":"2940013408012","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013408012_p0.jpg?v=1763580470","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013408012","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}