Somebody referred me to you . Guess I 'll try you . Twelve dollars a month , board , and lodging . What say ? '' For a moment Ellis 's face flushed with delight . Twelve dollars a month and permanent employment ! Then he remembered his promise to Mr. Fillmore . For a moment he struggled with the temptation . Then he mastered it . Perhaps the discipline of his many encounters with those elderberry roots helped him to do so . `` I 'm sorry , Mr. Green , '' he said reluctantly . `` I 'd like to go , but I ca n't . I promised Mr. Fillmore that I 'd finish cleaning up his elderberry pasture when I 'd once begun it , and I sha n't be through for a month yet . '' `` Well , I 'd see myself turning down a good offer for Old Tom Fillmore , '' said Jacob Green . `` It is n't for Mr. Fillmore -- it 's for myself , '' said Ellis steadily . `` I promised and I must keep my word . '' Jacob drove away grumblingly . On the road he met Timothy Robinson and stopped to relate his grievances . * * * * * It must be admitted that there were times during the next month when Ellis was tempted to repent having refused Jacob Green 's offer . But at the end of the month the work was done and the Fillmore elderberry pasture was an elderberry pasture no longer .
All that remained of the elders , root and branch , was piled into a huge heap ready XXXXX burning .
Green On Robinson at during for of that to with