`` It offends me to see bones sticking through anybody 's skin like that . We are n't used to such objects at Mount Hope Farm , thank goodness . Yes , you may smile , Salome . I like him well enough , and I 'll admit that he knows how to make himself useful , but I do n't trust him any more than ever I did . He 's mighty close about his past life . You ca n't get any more out of him than juice out of a post . I 've tried , and I know . '' But it was Miss Salome who had won Chester 's whole heart . He had never loved anybody in his hard little life before . He loved her with an almost dog-like devotion . He forgot that he was working to earn money -- and make his fortune . He worked to please Miss Salome . She was good and kind and gentle to him , and his starved heart thawed and expanded in the sunshine of her atmosphere . She went to the little porch room every night to kiss him good night . Chester would have been bitterly disappointed if she had failed to go . She was greatly shocked to find out that he had never said his prayers before going to bed . She insisted on teaching him the simple little one she had used herself when a child . When Chester found that it would please her , he said it every night . There was nothing he would not have done for Miss Salome . She talked a good deal to him about Johnny and she gave him the jack-knife that Johnny had owned .
`` It belonged XXXXX a good , manly little boy once , '' she said , `` and now I hope it belongs to another such . ''
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