I often said, you might come over for a day from Woodchester. What's the matter, Maggie, you look so fagged? She's losing all her beauty, is not she, Edward? Where's breakfast? I thought I should find all ready. What's the matter? Why don't you speak?" said she, growing anxious at their silence. Maggie left the explanation to Edward.


She was a large, pale, quiet woman, with heavy eyelids over weak eyes, and hair that turned red or yellow as the lights fell on it.


Ten minutes later, Biel was cutting Bronckhorst into ribbons behind the old Court cells, quietly and without scandal. What was left of Bronckhorst was sent home in a carriage; and his wife wept over it and nursed it into a man again.


Then the station invited Mrs. Bronckhorst everywhere, until Bronckhorst was fit to appear in public, when he went Home and took his wife with him.


There were no letters; but Bronckhorst said openly that he would rack Heaven and Earth until he saw Biel superintending the manufacture of carpets in the Central Jail. Mrs. Bronckhorst kept entirely to her house, and let charitable folks say what they pleased.


Willoughby thought it innocent of the girl to say this; it reminded him of his own notion as a child  that kings and queens put on their crowns the first thing on rising in the morning.


But when, an hour later, he and Esther stood by the last gate on the road to Orton, some of these consequences were already calling loudly to him.


Her aunt heard her footfall. 'What do you want here, Esther?' she said with thin disapproval; 'get back to your sewing.'


The room was repulsive in its disorder. The one lighted burner of the gaselier, turned too high, hissed up into a long tongue of flame.


He himself was not sorry to be released from Esther's too friendly eyes, and he spent an agreeable evening over a book, and this time managed to forget her completely. Though he remembered her first thing next morning, it was to smile wisely and determine he would not meet her again.


The other laughed. 'And very commendable they should be,' he continued, 'since you are scarcely, so to speak, out of your honeymoon.' With a social smile on his lips, Willoughby calculated a moment before replying, 'I have been married exactly three months and three days.'


A letter box opened its narrow mouth low down in one wall, and over the door swung the sign, 'Stamps and money order office', in black letters on white enamelled iron.


And now to go back there after knowin' you! It'll be worse than ever. I can't endure it, and I won't! I'll put an end to it or myself somehow, I swear!'


But when he understood the terror of his Hatred, he laid his head upon his arms and wept, not facile tears like Esther's, but tears wrung out from his agonizing, unavailing regret.


He received as one not comprehending his sister's persuasion to remain at home; but when he went she followed at a little distance.


Bob Jennings had never lost more than two quarters in his life, but he was not seen at the workshop all this day.


Thus it was for ten years, during which time there were no children, and Bob bore all things uncomplaining: cooking his own dinner when he found none cooked, and sewing on his own buttons.


Presently he said: 'I ain't found 'er yet, Jin; I was in 'opes she might 'a' bin back by this. I  I don't expect she'll be very long. She was alwis a bit larky, was Melier; but very good 'arted.'


'A POOR STICK' By Arthur Morrison (_Tales of Mean Streets_, London: Methuen and Co.


Finally he drove round to the Charing Cross telegraph office, sent off a message, and then, at last, we made for Baker Street once more.


I trust that I shall soon have to congratulate you upon a successful conclusion. Come, Watson, I fancy that we may employ ourselves more profitably at home.'


Well, well, the point is a minor one, and when you have Randall you will probably find no difficulty in securing his accomplice. The lady's story certainly seems to be corroborated, if it needed corroboration, by every detail which we see before us.' He walked to the French window and threw it open.


Holmes nestled in silence into his heavy coat, and I was glad to do the same, for the air was most bitter, and neither of us had broken our fast.


'How did the burglar know no one would hear it? How dared he pull at a bell rope in that reckless fashion?' 'Exactly, Mr. Holmes, exactly. You put the very question which I have asked myself again and again.


We have not yet met our Waterloo, Watson, but this is our Marengo, for it begins in defeat and ends in victory. I should like now to have a few words with the nurse, Theresa. We must be wary for a while, if we are to get the information which we want.'


'What, the three Randalls?' 'Exactly; the father and two sons. It's their work. I have not a doubt of it. They did a job at Sydenham a fortnight ago and were seen and described. Rather cool to do another so soon and so near, but it is they, beyond all doubt. It's a hanging matter this time.'


His dark, handsome, aquiline features were convulsed into a spasm of vindictive hatred, which had set his dead face in a terribly fiendish expression.


'By an inspection of the trains, and by reckoning the time. The local police had to be called in, they had to communicate with Scotland Yard, Hopkins had to go out, and he in turn had to send for me. All that makes a fair night's work. Well, here we are at Chislehurst Station, and we shall soon set our doubts at rest.'


The window, the curtains, the carpet, the chair, the rope  each in turn was minutely examined and duly pondered. The body of the unfortunate baronet had been removed, and all else remained as we had seen it in the morning.


The crime was committed before twelve last night.' 'How can you possibly tell?' 'By an inspection of the trains, and by reckoning the time.


'Excuse me, my dear fellow,' said he, as we watched the rear carriages of our train disappearing round a curve, 'I am sorry to make you the victim of what may seem a mere whim, but on my life, Watson, I simply _can't_ leave that case in this condition.


'Why do you not write them yourself?' I said, with some bitterness. 'I will, my dear Watson, I will.


One day out in a country lane I met Theresa Wright, her old maid. She told me all about her, about him, about everything.


'It was certainly rather eccentric behaviour. I was merely going on the idea that if the silver had been taken by persons who did not want it  who merely took it for a blind, as it were  then they would naturally be anxious to get rid of it.'


'What about the wineglasses?' 'Can you see them in your mind's eye?' 'I see them clearly.' 'We are told that three men drank from them. Does that strike you as likely?' 'Why not?


I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience. Let us know a little more before We act.' Before evening, we had a visit from Inspector Stanley Hopkins. Things were not going very well with him. 'I believe that you are a wizard, Mr. Holmes.


He had evidently heard some suspicious sounds, and he came prepared for such a scene as he found. He was dressed in nightshirt and trousers, with his favourite blackthorn cudgel in his hand. He rushed at the burglars, but another  it was an elderly man  stooped, picked the poker out of the grate and struck him a horrible blow as he passed. He fell with a groan and never moved again.


The first serious disagreement between them had reference to conduct at the breakfast table.


He made no attempt to read at breakfast; he moved about very quietly. And in the afternoon he came home at the regulation hour.


'Have you looked it over, sir?' 'I never trouble with the details. Please examine it.' 'There is no need, sir. I never make a mistake.' 'I said, Mrs. Elderfield, please _examine_ it.' She seemed to hesitate, but obeyed. 'The bill is quite correct, sir.'


Not that his constant removals had been solely due to discomfort and a hope of better things.


His wits had gone wool gathering; they returned to him only after the short honeymoon at Brighton, when he stood upon his own hearth rug, and looked round at the new furniture and ornaments which symbolized a new beginning of life.


Then fell from her lips a casual remark which made the hearer uneasy. 'I don't think I shall always stay here. The neighbourhood is too crowded. I should like to have a house somewhere further out.'


Left to himself, he would have taken a very small house, and furnished it much in the style of Islington lodgings; as it was, he occupied a ten roomed 'villa', with appointments which seemed to him luxurious, aristocratic.


A certain degree of comfort he firmly exacted; he might be a trifle fastidious about cooking; he stood upon his dignity; but no one could say that he grudged reward for service rendered.


He could not foresee what awaited him under Mrs. Elderfield's roof; the event impressed him as providential; he felt, with singular emotion, that choice was taken out of his hands. Lodgings could not be more than perfect, and such he had found.


Strongly impressed, as every woman must needs be, by his air and tone of mild authority, she congratulated herself on the arrival of such an inmate; but no subservience appeared in her demeanour; she behaved with studious civility, nothing more. Her words were few and well chosen.


Her words were few and well chosen. Always neatly dressed, yet always busy, she moved about the house with quick, silent step, and cleanliness marked her path. The meals were well cooked, well served. Mr. Jordan being her only lodger, she could devote to him an undivided attention.


Why, look! There's a patch of mud on the carpet  ' 'It was my hurry to speak to you,' murmured Mr. Jordan, in confusion. 'Please go at once and take your boots off. And you left your slippers in the bedroom this morning. You must always bring them down, and put them in the dining room cupboard; then they're ready for you when you come into the house.'


Why had he married her at all? What fault had she committed to incur such outrageous usage?


"On my way to the station," she resumed, "I stopped at the drug store, telephoned to Martha Black, and asked her to run over and close up my house, for it looked like a storm." "It did rain," put in Mollie. "I should say it did. And Martha never closed my house?" It was a direct question.


she asked, pillowing the tousled yellow head on her arm. "I  I'se losted!" sobbed the little girl "P'ease take me home!


He also invented the "Pennsylvania fireplace" and the "Franklin" stove.


Many of his letters were practically essays. For Madame Brillon the "Ephemera," the "Morals of Chess," "Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout," "Story of the Whistle," and "Petition of the Left Hand" were written.


After a year and a half of struggle and adventure, he was back in Philadelphia working at his trade. Franklin was now twenty one.


Besides his newspaper and almanac printing, Franklin printed books.


Bell lay on the ice in an almost inanimate condition. Johnson had to take vigorous measures to rouse him, but at last, by dint of shaking and rubbing him with snow, he succeeded.


"And no provisions?" "No." "And no ship to make our way back to England?"


"What's to become of us?" asked the Doctor. "Who can tell!" was the old sailor's reply. "Anyhow," said Clawbonny, "do not let us despair! Let us be men!"


"Well, captain, now we know our actual situation, we are in a better position to determine our course of action." "Speak your minds, then," said Hatteras, again burying his head in his hands. "What do you say, Bell?" asked the Doctor.


It was impossible to venture outside in such weather, but the stove drew capitally, and made the hut quite comfortable, or at any rate it seemed so to the weary, worn out adventurers.


It is necessary, too, that you should get your strength a little recruited. You might sink down on the road with fatigue, without even a snow hut to shelter you." "But think of the terrible death that awaits us here," replied the carpenter. "My friends," said Hatteras, in almost supplicating tones; "you are despairing too soon.


The last day the men ran riot. They completely sacked the ship, and in a drunken paroxysm Pen and two or three others set it on fire. I fought and struggled against them, but they threw me down and assailed me with blows, and then the wretches, headed by Shandon, went off towards the east and were soon out of sight.


I could not resist him, and from that moment everybody did pretty much as they pleased. Shandon made no attempt to restrain them: it was his policy to make them believe that their privations and toils were at an end.


The travellers had to fasten themselves together with a long rope to avoid getting separated, and it was all but impossible to pursue the right course.


Happily the moon would rise about half past six, and her soft beams would give sufficient light to show the road. The parting moment came.


On arriving at the first of these hummocks, the travellers set to work to make a cave in it where they could rest more comfortably than in the tent, and after three hours' persevering toil, were able to light their stove and lie down beside it to stretch their weary limbs.


Their strength was exhausted, and they had a hundred miles more to go. To increase their sufferings, rations had to be still further reduced.


A few foxes passed in the distance, and the Doctor lost another ball in attempting to shoot them.


His thick gloves hampered him, and, flinging them hastily off, he took up the gun with a firmer grasp. But what a cry of agony escaped him! The skin of his fingers stuck to the gun as if it had been red hot, and he was forced to let it drop. The sudden fall made it go off, and the last ball was discharged in the air.


A few hares or foxes would be a welcome addition to their scanty food; but all that day, if even he chanced to see one, either he was too far away, or he was deceived by refraction, and took a wrong aim.


"But you must come in, you obstinate fellow. Come, now, I tell you; it will be too late presently." At last he succeeded in dragging the poor fellow into the tent, where he made him plunge his hands into a bowl of water, which the heat of the stove kept in a liquid state, though still cold.


With the first streak of dawn next day, the Doctor and Johnson rushed out to look at the thermometer. All the mercury had frozen into a compact cylindrical mass. The Doctor broke the tube and took it out.


THE LAST CHARGE OF POWDER Johnson was obliged to take the dogs inside the hut, for they would have been soon frozen outside in such dry weather. Had it been snowing they would have been safe enough, for the snow served as a covering, and kept in the natural heat of the animals.


Before either of his companions came up he had plunged the knife in the animal's throat, and made an end of him, for he fell down at once to rise no more. "Hurrah! Bravo!" shouted Johnson and the Doctor, but Hatteras was as cool and unexcited as possible, and stood with folded arms gazing at his prostrate foe.


"Do you think his own were similar?" "Who knows? These Americans, Johnson, are bold, daring fellows.


The Doctor soon joined the old boatswain behind the hummock, and told him what they had been doing.


I am here, fortunately." "Mr. Clawbonny," said Johnson, "now this Yankee has come back to life again, I must confess I don't much like the expression of his face." "I am much mistaken if he does not suspect the projects of Hatteras."


On cutting the carcase open, Johnson found nothing but water in the stomach. The beast had evidently had no food for a long time, yet it was very fat, and weighed fifteen hundred pounds.


He allowed his victim to get within ten paces of him, and then sprang forward with a tremendous bound, but stopped short, stupefied and frightened, within three steps of Hatteras, who started up that moment, and, throwing off his disguise, knelt on one knee, and aimed straight at the bear's heart.


It was on Easter Sunday, the 31st of March, when the travellers installed themselves in their new abode and after holding divine service in the sitting room, they devoted the remainder of the day to rest.


There does not seem a boat visible of any description, and I fear these timbers are in too bad a condition to build a new ship out of them." "I don't know that," returned Clawbonny, "time and thought do wonders; but our first business is to build a house, and not a ship; one thing at a time, I propose." "And quite right too," said Hatteras; "so we'll go ashore again."


He also depicted the interior, with tables, and toilette tables, mirrors, candelabra, tapers, beds, mattresses, pillows, curtains, time pieces, chairs, playing cards, wardrobes, completely fitted up  in fact, everything in the way of furniture that could be mentioned, and the whole entirely composed of ice.


I must try to make a plan." "Ah! Doctor, if you undertake it," said Johnson, "I am sure you'll make a good thing of it."


"Can you prove to me," said Altamont, "that an Englishman has set foot here before an American?"


"It is no new sea," returned Altamont; "it is in every Polar chart, and has a name already. It is called the Arctic Ocean, and I think it would be very inconvenient to alter its designation. Should we find out by and by, that, instead of being an ocean it is only a strait or gulf, it will be time enough to alter it then."


"Very well, we'll have it to ourselves then," he continued, turning to Johnson and Bell. "We'll leave our traces behind us. I propose that the island we see out there, about three miles away from the shore, should be called Isle Johnson, in honour of our boatswain,'' "Oh, Mr. Clawbonny," began Johnson, in no little confusion.


"Now, then," said the Doctor, "let us go onto name the most important of our discoveries." "There is that immense sea which surrounds us, unfurrowed as yet by a single ship."


"It is simple justice," returned the Doctor. "Nothing could be better," said Altamont.


This important business over, the Doctor introduced an interesting subject of conversation by saying   "My friends, it is not enough to have come thus far in spite of so many difficulties; we have something more yet to do.


Night was drawing on, and it was time to think of returning to Fort Providence. The moon had not yet risen, but the sky was serene and cloudless, and already glittering with stars  magnificent stars. "Come," said the Doctor, "let us be off, for it is getting late.


The question was raised whether to construct a hut and rest till morning, or proceed; but Clawbonny insisted on going on, as Hatteras and Johnson would be so uneasy.


"My good Bell, you mean to say to please yourself, but your voracity would never equal the Green landers', for they devour from ten to fifteen pounds of meat a day."


From this elevation there was an extensive view over a vast tract of country, which was all disordered and convulsed as if it had undergone some volcanic commotion. Sea and land, as far as it was possible to distinguish one from the other, were covered with a sheet of ice. A new project struck the Doctor's mind, which was soon matured and ripe for execution.


When an Esquimaux sits down to dinner he is quite thin, and by the time he has finished, he is so corpulent you would hardly recognize him.


The hunters separated, going in different directions, so as to surround the animal and cut off all retreat.


"Trust me for that," said Bell. "But do look out, the sky is all in a blaze." "Ay!


By nine o'clock the whole party were enjoying a good supper, and Bell couldn't help exclaiming   "Well, even at the risk of being taken for an Esquimaux, I must confess eating is the most important business if one has to winter in these regions. A good meal isn't to be sneezed at."


"What girls!" exclaimed Altamont.


"Yes, several curious experiments have been made in that respect. I remember reading of some servant girls, in the town of Rochefoucauld, in France, who could stay ten minutes in a baker's large oven when the temperature was 300°, while potatoes and meat were cooking all round them." "What girls!" exclaimed Altamont.


"Of course it is, Altamont, for the hand could not bear more than 122°, but the palate and tongue are less sensitive." "You surprise me." "Well, I will convince you it is fact," returned Clawbonny, and taking up a thermometer, he plunged it into the steaming coffee.


He thought over it a long while, and at last drew the captain aside, and said in the kindest, gentlest way   "Hatteras, do you believe I'm your friend?" "Most certainly I do," replied the captain, earnestly; "my best, indeed my only friend."


"To ruin me. He seems to defy me, and speaks as if he were lord and master. He thinks he has my destiny in his hands, and knows all my projects. Didn't we see the man in his true colours when we were giving names to the different coasts?


Indeed, it seems as if the wily animals employed this ruse to attract the dogs, and make them their prey. Several navigators have mentioned the fact, and the Doctor's own experience confirmed it. Johnson took care not to let his Greenlanders loose; of Duk there was little fear; nothing could take him in.


The night was scarcely longer than three hours. [Illustration: ] Other tokens of spring's approach were manifest of equal significance, the birds were returning in flocks, and the air resounded with their deafening cries.


Hares were seen on the shores of the bay, and mice in such abundance that their burrows completely honeycombed the ground.


"Well, if arriving on one side and leaving at the other is not going through, I don't know what is!" said Hatteras. "Yes, but he went four hundred and seventy miles over ice fields," objected Altamont. "What of that?" "Everything; that is the gist of the whole argument. It was not the Investigator that went through."


Captain Kellett, the Commander, had reached Winter Harbour, and finding McClure's document in the cairn, had dispatched his lieutenant in search of him. McClure accompanied him back, and arranged with the captain to send him his batch of invalids.


McClure replaced this document by another, which stated his intention of returning to England by the North West Passage he had discovered, by Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay, and that in the event of his not being heard of, he might be looked for north or west of Melville Island.


This decided the captain to alter his course.


"Well, if we still had any doubts about the footmarks, this settles the case at once, at any rate," said Clawbonny. "Forward!" exclaimed Hatteras so energetically, that instinctively each one obeyed, and the march was resumed forthwith.


About daybreak its fury seemed to have spent itself, and Hatteras, accompanied by Bell and Altamont, ventured to leave the tent. They climbed a hill about three hundred feet high, which commanded a wide view. But what a metamorphosed region met their gaze!


The tent was pitched in a ravine for shelter, as the sky was dark and threatening, and a violent north wind was blowing. "I'm afraid we'll have a bad night," said Johnson. "A pretty noisy one, I expect," replied the Doctor, "but not cold.


All pursuit of him was out of the question; it was impossible to leap across the fiery torrent, and equally impossible to get round it. Altamont, indeed, was mad enough to make an attempt, and would certainly have lost his life if the others had not held him back by main force.


Nothing but violent measures would keep him back from destruction, but the Doctor was unwilling to employ these unless driven to extremity.


Hatteras, however, climbed up the steepest ascents with surprising agility, disdaining the help of his staff.


A cry of horror broke from his companions, and rang to the top of the mountain. Clawbonny thought his friend had perished, and lay buried for ever in the depths of the volcano.


"Yes," he resumed, "we are close to the Pole, but we are not on it." "How do you make that out," said Altamont.


"Horrible, horrible!" he said. "What is it?" asked Johnson. "Don't you recognize them?" "What do you mean?" "Look and see!"


The Doctor became very uneasy at these multiplied indications of approaching winter. He knew the difficulties Sir John Ross had to contend with after he left his ship to try and reach Baffin's Bay, and how, after all, he was compelled to return and pass a fourth winter on board.


The Doctor stooped down to look at them more closely, but instantly started back pale and agitated, while Duk barked ominously. "Horrible, horrible!" he said. "What is it?" asked Johnson. "Don't you recognize them?" "What do you mean?" "Look and see!"


The impossibility of wintering there now was evident, and they decided to get to Baffin's Bay by the shortest route. "We have no alternative," said Clawbonny; "Baffin's Bay is not more than six hundred miles distant. We can sail as long as there is water enough under our sloop, and get to Jones' Sound, and then on to the Danish settlements."


Starvation stared the poor fellows in the face. [Illustration: "Dead, frozen    "  P.262] Altamont, who had displayed great unselfishness and devotion to the others, roused his sinking energies, and determined to go out and find food for his comrades. He took his gun, called Duk, and went off almost unnoticed by the rest.


The first care of Clawbonny was to request the Royal Geographical Society to receive a communication from him. He was accordingly admitted to the next [Illustration:   P.267] séance, and one can imagine the astonishment of the learned assembly and the enthusiastic applause produced by the reading of Hatteras' document.


They had succeeded in reaching the western boundary of the ice field by carrying and pushing each other along, and they watched the ship gradually fade away from view without observing them, in spite of their loud cries for help.


The lost child gravely accepted two chocolates, one in each hand, and at once proceeded to get about as much on the outside of her face as went in her mouth. She seemed more content now.


"I can't understand it," sighed Mollie. "Two mothers! Who ever heard of such a thing?" "Me got two muvvers," said the child, calmly, as she took a bite first of the chocolate in her left hand, and then a nibble from the one in the right.


"Mamma Carrie live dat way, mamma Mary live dat way," and in quick succession she pointed first in one direction and then the other. "Oh, dear!" sighed Amy. "It's getting worse and worse!" "You can't have two mammas, you know," said Betty, gently.


"I might be in as bad a hole as that fellow I saw on the train not long ago." "How was that?" asked Betty, more for the sake of saying something rather than because she was interested.


All of a sudden he woke up in his seat, and begun hunting all through his pockets. First I thought he had lost his ticket, for he kept hollerin', 'It's gone! I've lost it! My last hope!' and all things like that.


"You see, I work through this part of the country. I peddle writing paper, pens, pins, needles and notions," he added, motioning to his pack. "I often stop at Nellie's house, and at her aunt's, too. They're my regular customers," he added, proudly, and with a proper regard for his humble calling.


"That's nice," said Betty. "We really didn't know what to do with her, and we ought to be in Flatbush at my friend's aunt's house," and she indicated Mollie. "Will you go with your little friend?"


"I live dere sometimes," spoke the child, "and sometimes down dere," and she indicated two directions. "I dot two muvvers." "What in the world does she mean?" asked Mollie, hopelessly. "That's what she always says," spoke the boy.


"To say nothing of the five hundred dollar bill," added Grace, in a low tone. "Hush!"


"To say nothing of the five hundred dollar bill," added Grace, in a low tone. "Hush!" cautioned Betty, in a whisper. "Don't let him know anything about it." "And you are sure you wouldn't know that man again?" asked Mollie. "I mean the one you spoke of?"


We just know where it is, that's all. A five hundred dollar bill! Fancy!" She glanced meaningly at her companions.


"Come on!" cried Amy, for once taking the initiative, and she darted toward the bank of the stream. "There he is!" cried Betty. "He's come up!"


"Nothing, if he really is killed," answered the practical Little Captain. "But he jumped like a man who knew how to do it, and how to dive. The water is deep there."


"Indeed you were fortunate," said Betty. "Are you hurt?" "Not a bit  a little shaken up, that's all. I should not have been on that bridge, as a section hand warned me a train was due, and the trestle is very narrow. But I was taking a short cut.


The latter was Betty's cousin, at whose house the girls had stopped. It was necessary for the recipient of the money to be identified, and this Betty's cousin, who knew the operator, agreed to look after.


"I'll have my father telegraph the five hundred dollars to me at Judgeville," explained Betty. "Then I can give it to you, and you can telegraph it to your business man in New York.


A little later word was received that the transaction had been successfully carried out. Mr. Blackford could now get control of the business. "And it's all due to you young ladies!" he said, gratefully. "I don't know how to thank you.


There was none. The place was silent, the only sound being the patter of the rain and the sighing of the wind.


"We were frightened for a minute." "Verra sorry. Juno made the dance for the ladies!"


What little hope I had, then, was out of reach, lost to me like the golden days of the past. It was then that I was overcome by despondency, the hopelessness of my situation weighing my spirits down.


He laughed, as did Zimri, and replied, "We are brothers, and as such there is always a strong rivalry, but at the same time there is the closest bond.


The land across the sea then entered my mind, and its degenerate inhabitants, but that was across a wide channel that would be hard to cross even if I had infinite time, freedom, and materials to make a boat which would withstand the waves, and I had none of the three.


When one only sees the surface reflected back, then history and its wisdom lose their meaning, and one sees not the past but only the present.


Simply put, they stretched elastic ropes across an empty frame, almost like a trampoline made of individual cords.


But that moment was short lived, for another problem quickly presented itself, namely, how would I remove the hang glider from the tower and launch it. It was far too large to go down the stairs and needed to be propelled to a high speed or dropped from a high altitude to become airborne.


Then he asked me if I had any other questions for him, and I replied that I did indeed have one.


As they walked, they slowly disappeared, until they were gone without a trace, for even their footprints had faded to nothing.


I felt keen joy at my skills in air travel at that moment, and as I stepped back to admire my work, I felt that peculiar satisfaction of having made something and finding that it was good.


Brown was the prevailing color of it all for as far as my eye could see, though I cannot say if that condition prevailed inland further, since I had forgotten the telescope, which would probably have proved a useful tool.


My sudden movements caused the top heavy tower to sway slightly for a few moments, giving me quite the scare, for I didn't realize what it was at first.


There is not much that you can do now, but still I must warn you, for whatever it is worth, if only to prove my affections.


You are to be set on the altar and then the White Eagle will start to spew forth either protons or electrons, depending on which is chosen, past or future. When your body's cells absorb all of the floating matter, they will be either positively or negatively charged to such an extent that their revolutions will be rapidly accelerated.


There were none, and once I had convinced myself that I was completely alone, I dashed swiftly up the stairs and jumped onto the couch.


I am Jehu, past, present, and future, I am the concentration of humanity in all its forms and reproductions, I am the creator and destroyer of every age of this temporal maze. Why am I the defender and executioner of the race of men? Why am I the protagonist and antagonist of humanity?


According to the Externus Miraculum view, the Temple of Time is crucial to the implementation of either plan, in fact it is the crux of them both, the one issue that it is of as great importance, or greater, than the presence of you, the kinsman redeemer.


"No, thank you. That was fine. Now I must try and get dry. But I'm used to this sort of thing. I'm from the West, and I've been in more than one flood." "You have!" cried Amy, and the others knew of what she was thinking  her own case. "I hope he didn't have the same sort of trouble I had, though," she thought.


"We can freshen up," went on the girl who loved candy, "and enter into town in style. I hope mamma put in my new gown and another pair of shoes."


_ CHRYSTMASSE OF OLDE God rest you, Chrysten gentil men, Wherever you may be,   God rest you all in fielde or hall, Or on ye stormy sea; For on this morn oure Chryst is born That saveth you and me.


So, dear my child, kneel at my feet, And with those voices from above Share thou this holy time with me, The universal hymn of love.


Then He stooped and kissed the tree, and then He turned and went away.


The little tree felt quite relieved by this assurance, and it held up its head more confidently than ever before. And how it thrived and grew, and waxed in strength and beauty!


"They are killing me!" cried the tree; "why is not the angel here to protect me?" But no one heard the piteous cry,  none but the other trees of the forest; and they wept, and the little vine wept too.


It heard them tell of the Master's goodness and humility,  how He had healed the sick and raised the dead and bestowed inestimable blessings wherever He walked.


And when the morning came, lo!


By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen."


We are twenty one years old. We are six feet tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet tall.


Thus has it been ever since the Great Rebirth, and farther back than that no memory can reach.


Our name is Equality 7 2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all men wear on their left wrists with their names upon it. We are twenty one years old.


And we were lashed more often than all the other children. The Teachers were just, for they had been appointed by the Councils, and the Councils are the voice of all justice, for they are the voice of all men.


For this they were not liked in the Home of the Students, as it is not proper to smile without reason. And also they were not liked because they took pieces of coal and they drew pictures upon the walls, and they were pictures which made men laugh.


The sleeping halls are white and clean and bare of all things save one hundred beds. Thus have we lived each day of four years, until two springs ago when our crime happened.


We left them to lie in the shade of the Theatre tent and we went with International 4 8818 to finish our work. We came together to the great ravine behind the Theatre.


They do not speak often, for they are weary. The Old Ones know that they are soon to die.


We pulled with all our strength, but we could not move it. So we called International 4 8818, and together we scraped the earth around the bar. Of a sudden the earth fell in before us, and we saw an old iron grill over a black hole.


And if ever we surrender it, we shall surrender our life with it also." Then we saw that the eyes of International 4 8818 were full to the lids with tears they dared not drop.


Then they asked: "Are Street Sweepers sent to different parts of the City or do they always work in the same places?" "They always work in the same places," we answered, "and no one will take this road away from us."


We have seen one of such men burned alive in the square of the City. And it was a sight which has stayed with us through the years, and it haunts us, and follows us, and it gives us no rest.


And a word steals into our mind, as we look upon our brothers, and that word is fear. There is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and in the air of the streets. Fear walks through the City, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and none dare to speak.


Then they turned as swiftly, and they walked away from us. But the following day, when we came to the road, they smiled. They smiled to us and for us. And we smiled in answer.


And it is whispered that they have grown over the ruins of many cities of the Unmentionable Times. The trees have swallowed the ruins, and the bones under the ruins, and all the things which perished.


We have heard the legends of the great fighting, in which many men fought on one side and only a few on the other. These few were the Evil Ones and they were conquered.


They raised their hand to their forehead and moved it as we had. Thus, each day, we greet Liberty 5 3000, and they answer, and no men can suspect. We do not wonder at this new sin of ours.


We wish to write this name.


But we think that the Council of Scholars is blind. The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them. We know, for we have found a secret unknown to all our brothers.


We do not know, but we shall learn. We cannot stop now, even though it frightens us that we are alone in our knowledge.


The frog had been hanging on a wire of copper; and it had been the metal of our knife which had sent the strange power to the copper through the brine of the frog's body.


We do not care. We forget all men, all laws and all things save our metals and our wires. So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone!


"But you think such thoughts as these and you wish us to think them." We looked into their eyes and we could not lie. "Yes," we whispered, and they smiled, and then we said: "Our dearest one, do not obey us."


We stood, and we held our head in our hands. We could not conceive of that which we had created. We had touched no flint, made no fire. Yet here was light, light that came from nowhere, light from the heart of metal.


We must guard our tunnel as we had never guarded it before.


We shall tell them the truth. We shall hand to them, as our confession, these pages we have written. We shall join our hands to theirs, and we shall work together, with the power of the sky, for the glory of mankind.


We were in the Uncharted Forest. We had not thought of coming here, but our legs had carried our wisdom, and our legs had brought us to the Uncharted Forest against our will. Our glass box lay beside us.


Only the glass box in our arms is like a living heart that gives us strength. We have lied to ourselves. We have not built this box for the good of our brothers.


"Our name is Equality 7 2521," we answered, "and we are a Street Sweeper of this City." Then it was as if a great wind had stricken the hall, for all the Scholars spoke at once, and they were angry and frightened.


We placed our glass box upon the table before them. We spoke of it, and of our long quest, and of our tunnel, and of our escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention.


The moss is soft and warm. We shall sleep on this moss for many nights, till the beasts of the forest come to tear our body. We have no bed now, save the moss, and no future, save the beasts.


No men stopped us at the gate. We walked through empty passages and into the great hall where the World Council of Scholars sat in solemn meeting.


And then we stopped. For, upon the blue of the sky below us, we saw our own face for the first time.


We could also rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again.


Then we said: "Our dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude.


They were silent, then they spoke slowly, and their words were halting, like the words of a child learning to speak for the first time: "We are one... alone... and only... and we love you who are one... alone... and only."


Then we went out to gather wood for the great hearth of our home. We brought water from the stream which runs among the trees under our windows. We killed a mountain goat, and we brought its flesh to be cooked in a strange copper pot we found in a place of wonders, which must have been the cooking room of the house.


The light is dim, and we cannot see the Golden One, only one lock of gold on the pillow of an ancient bed. This is our home.


Then today, at sunrise, we saw a white flame among the trees, high on a sheer peak before us. We thought that it was a fire and stopped. But the flame was unmoving, yet blinding as liquid metal.


I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them.


And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone.


And they, these few, fought a hopeless battle, and they perished with their banners smeared by their own blood. And they chose to perish, for they knew.


At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains.


I have always wished to kill a cougar as I did this one, with dogs and the knife.


At this moment a large hound and a small half breed bull dog, both of whom were quite badly wounded this morning by a cougar, are shoving their noses into my lap to be petted, and humming defiance to one another.


THE PIG NAMED MAUDE Keystone Ranch, Jan. 29, 1901 DARLING LITTLE ETHEL: You would be much amused with the animals round the ranch. The most thoroughly independent and self possessed of them is a large white pig which we have christened Maude.


The May flowers and bloodroot have gone, the anemonies and bellwort have come and the violets are coming. All the birds are here, pretty much, and the warblers troop through the woods.


I always believe in going hard at everything, whether it is Latin or mathematics, boxing or football, but at the same time I want to keep the sense of proportion.


I should be rather sorry to see you drop too near the middle of your class, because, as you cannot enter college until you are nineteen, and will therefore be a year later in entering life, I want you to be prepared in the best possible way, so as to make up for the delay.


BLESSED TED: Recently I have gone in to play with Archie and Quentin after they have gone to bed, and they have grown to expect me, jumping up, very soft and warm in their tommies, expecting me to roll them over on the bed and tickle and "grabble" in them.


Mother stopped off at Albany while sister went on to Boston, and I came on here alone Tuesday afternoon. St. Gaudens, the sculptor, and Dunne (Mr. Dooley) were on the train and took lunch with us. It was great fun meeting them and I liked them both.


We very much wished for you while we were at the (Buffalo) Exposition. By night it was especially beautiful.


Your father's friend, THEODORE ROOSEVELT.


Mrs. Roosevelt and I have, I think, read all your stories to the children, and some of them over and over again.


DARLING ETHEL: I have thought it very good of you to write me so much. Of course I am feeling rather fagged, and the next four days, which will include San Francisco, will be tiresome; but I am very well.


I have collected a variety of treasures, which I shall have to try to divide up equally among you children.


Under this plan you would have an excellent education and a grounding in discipline and, in some ways, a testing of your capacity greater than I think you can get in any ordinary college.


JAPANESE WRESTLING White House, March 5, 1904. DEAR KERMIT: . . . . . I am wrestling with two Japanese wrestlers three times a week. I am not the age or the build one would think to be whirled lightly over an opponent's head and batted down on a mattress without damage.


There is a great deal of sullen grumbling, but it has taken more the form of resentment against what they think is my dictation as to details than against me personally.


They don't dare to oppose me for the nomination and I suppose it is hardly likely the attempt will be made to stampede the Convention for any one.


I was thinking about it just this morning when Mother and I took breakfast on the portico and afterwards walked about the lovely grounds and looked at the stately historic old house.


Ted and Ethel, as well as Archie and Quentin, are generally in Mother's room for twenty minutes or a half hour just before she dresses, according to immemorial custom.


Archie has just bought himself a football suit, but I have not noticed that he has played football as yet. He is spending Saturday and Sunday out at Dr. Rixey's. Ted plays tennis with Matt. Hale and me and Mr. Cooley. We tied Dan Moore. You could beat him.


WINTER LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE White House, Dec. 17, 1904. BLESSED KERMIT: For a week the weather has been cold  down to zero at night and rarely above freezing in the shade at noon.


Yesterday afternoon we had Professor Yamashita up here to wrestle with Grant. It was very interesting, but of course jiu jitsu and our wrestling are so far apart that it is difficult to make any comparison between them.


They climbed trees, sailed boats in the fountain, and dug in the sand box like woodcocks.


It was tremendous galloping over cut banks, prairie dog towns, flats, creek bottoms, everything.


ABERNETHY THE WOLF HUNTER Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 20, 1905. DEAR TED: I do wish you could have been along on this trip. It has been great fun.


It was perfectly delightful to see Mother and the children, but it made me very homesick for you.


We went to church at the dear little church where the Wilmers' father and mother had been married, dined soon after two at "Plain Dealing," and then were driven over to the station to go back to Washington. I rode the big black stallion  Chief  and enjoyed it thoroughly.


We did everything for ourselves, but all the food we had was sent over to us by the dear Wilmers, together with milk. We cooked it ourselves, so there was no one around the house to bother us at all.


I take Hall to chop, and he plays tennis with Phil and Oliver, and rides with Phil and Quentin.


White House, October 11, 1905. DEAR TED: I was delighted to find from your last letters that you are evidently having a pretty good time in spite of the newspaper and kodak creatures. I guess that nuisance is now pretty well abated.


We were all of us, I am almost ashamed to say, rather blue at getting back in the White House, simply because we missed Sagamore Hill so much. But it is very beautiful and we feel very ungrateful at having even a passing fit of blueness, and we are enjoying it to the full now.


Newspaper reporters followed all his movements, especially in athletics, and he was the victim of many exaggerated and often purely fictitious accounts of his doings. His father wrote him indignant and sympathetic letters, two of which are reproduced here.


Of course the fact that you are comparatively light tells against you and gives you a good deal to overcome; and undoubtedly it was from this standpoint not a good thing that you were unable to lead a quieter life toward the end of your stay at Oyster Bay.


ADVICE REGARDING NEWSPAPER ANNOYANCES When Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., entered Harvard as a freshman he had to pay the penalty of being a President's son.


The gardens are pretty dishevelled now, but the flowers that are left are still lovely; even yet some honeysuckle is blooming on the porch.


POETS AND PRINCES White House, November 6, 1905. DEAR KERMIT: Just a line, for I really have nothing to say this week. I have caught up with my work.


Ethel was a dear, as always, and the two little boys were as cunning as possible.


We have had a very mild and open fall. I have played tennis a good deal, the French Ambassador being now quite a steady playmate, as he and I play about alike; and I have ridden with Mother a great deal.


It is now just forty years since you stopped being my nurse, when I was a little boy of seven, just one year younger than Quentin now is. I wish you could see the children play here in the White House grounds.


I took him, with Bob Bacon, Gifford Pinchot, Ambassador Meyer and Jim Garfield, for a good scramble and climb in the afternoon, and they all came to dinner afterwards. Before we came down to dinner I got him to spend three quarters of an hour in telling delightfully exciting lion and hyena stories to Ethel, Archie and Quentin.


The apple trees are now coming into bloom, including that big arched apple tree, under which Mother and I sit, by the fountain, on the stone bench. It is the apple tree that Mother particularly likes. . . Did Quentin write his poems after you had gone? I never can recollect whether you have seen them or not.


As we rolled and bounced over all three beds in the course of the play, not to mention frantic chases under them, I think poor Mademoiselle was rather appalled at the result when we had finished.


PILLOW FIGHTS WITH THE BOYS White House, March 19, 1906. DARLING KERMIT: . . . . . During the four days Mother was away I made a point of seeing the children each evening for three quarters of an hour or so.


I usually spend half an hour on deck before Mother is dressed. Then we breakfast together alone; have also taken lunch alone, but at dinner have two or three officers to dine with us. Doctor Rixey is along, and is a perfect dear, as always.


EVENTS SINCE COLUMBUS'S DISCOVERY November 14th. The fourth day out was in some respects the most interesting.


Now every arrangement is as clean and healthful as possible. The men can bathe and do bathe as often as cleanliness requires.


They have two young bull dogs, a cat, three little raccoons, and a tiny Cuban goat. They seem to be very amicable with one another, although I think the cat has suspicions of all the rest.


He has become sincerely attached to the school, and at the moment thinks he would rather stay there than go to Groton; but this is a thought he will get over  with Mother's active assistance. He has all kinds of friends, including some who are on a hockey team with him here in the city.


Kermit has really become not only an excellent hunter but also a responsible and trustworthy man, fit to lead; he managed the whole caravan and after hunting all day he would sit up half the night taking care of the skins. He is also the nicest possible companion.


At night the hyenas come round the camp, uttering their queer howls; and once or twice we have heard lions; but unfortunately have never seen them.


We worked hard; Kermit of course worked hardest, for he is really a first class walker and runner; I had to go slowly, but I kept at it all day and every day.


He is still altogether too reckless; but by my hen with one chicken attitude, I think I shall get him out of Africa uninjured; and his keenness, cool nerve, horsemanship, hardihood, endurance, and good eyesight make him a really good wilderness hunter.


We have become genuinely attached to Cunninghame and Tarleton, and all three naturalists, especially Heller; and also to our funny black attendants.


The second of the positive merits by which Gibbie found acceptance in the eyes of the police, was a yet more peculiar one, growing out of his love for his father, and his experience in the exercise of that love.


But he desired to be friendly with her, and once, as she leaned over him, put up his hand  not a very clean one, I am bound to give her the advantage of my confessing  to stroke her cheek: she pushed him roughly away, rose in indignation upon her crutch, and lifted her cane to chastise him for the insult.


But it was not by any means only things sought that he found. He continued to come upon things of which he had no simulacrum in his phantasy.


At the vision of their plight his good humour instantly returned, he burst into a great hearty laugh, and proceeded at once to lift the table from off them. That effected, he caught up Gibbie in his arms, and carried him with him to bed.


Meantime the murder came to the knowledge of the police, Mistress Croale herself giving the information, and all in the house were arrested. In the course of their examination, it came out that wee Sir Gibbie had gone to bed with the murdered man, and was now nowhere to be found.


Presently he remembered it was in Sambo's arms he fell asleep, but where he was now he could not tell: certainly he was not in bed. Groping, he pushed a door, and a glimmer of light came in. He was in a closet of the room in which Sambo slept  and something was to do about his bed.


Evil language and coarse behaviour alike passed over him, without leaving the smallest stain upon heart or conscience, desire or will.


He was not shocked by the things he saw, even when he liked them least. He regarded the doing of them much as he had looked upon his father's drunkenness  as a pitiful necessity that overtook men  one from which there was no escape, and which caused a great need for Gibbies.


One night Sambo was looking on at a game of cards, in which all the rest in the room were engaged. Happening to laugh at some turn it took, one of them, a Malay, who was losing, was offended, and abused him.


The city, his home, was frightful to him. Quarrels and curses and blows he had been used to, and amidst them life could be lived. If he did not consciously weave them into his theories, he unconsciously wrapped them up in his confidence, and was at peace. But the last night had revealed something unknown before.


The human bird loved liberty too dearly to gather anything but pain from the song of the little feathered brother who had lost it, and to whom he could not minister as to the drunkard.


THE GENERAL "Good morning; good morning!"


I hope I've caught the feeling of 'the Line,' And the amazing spirit of the troops. By Jove, those flying chaps of ours are fine! I watched one daring beggar looping loops, Soaring and diving like some bird of prey.


There are ground doves no bigger than big sparrows, and cuckoos almost as large as crows.


Camp at Tampa, May 6th, '98. BLESSED BUNNIES, It has been a real holiday to have darling mother here.


THE LETTERS IN THE SPANISH WAR At the outbreak of the war with Spain in the spring of 1898 Theodore Roosevelt, who was then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, in association with Leonard Wood, organized the Regiment of Rough Riders and went into camp with them at Tampa, Florida.


When you get on here for the Christmas holidays you will have to try them both, for if there is any fox hunting I am by no means sure you will find it better to take Bleistein than Renown. Sister is very handsome and good, having had a delightful time.


DEAR TED: Three cheers for Groton! It was first class.


When Allan will come from the trainer's I do not know. Rather to my surprise, Ronald has won golden opinions and really is a very nice dog. Pinckney loves him, and he sits up in the express wagon just as if it was what he had been born to. Quentin is learning to ride the pony.


JOY OVER A FOOTBALL VICTORY White House, Nov.


Archie and Quentin play industriously in it during most of their spare moments when out in the grounds. I often look out of the office windows when I have a score of Senators and Congressmen with me and see them both hard at work arranging caverns or mountains, with runways for their marbles.


I also feel as you do that if a man had to struggle on and make his way it would be a great deal better to have some one like Sophie.


DICKENS AND THACKERAY White House, February 3, 1906.


Dickens' characters are really to a great extent personified attributes rather than individuals.


Hilnaric never married. But her dowry was set aside to build a temple wherein men curse the ocean. Once every year, with solemn rite and ceremony, they curse the tides of the Sea; and the moon looks in and hates them.


And the day came when Athelvok should go. And Hilnaric said to him: "Will you not indeed most surely come back again, having just looked over the summit of Poltarnees?"


Now the king of Arizim had a daughter who played with the wild wood flowers, and with the fountains in her father's court, and with the little blue heaven birds that came to her doorway in the winter to shelter from the snow.


Now, he that shall love thy daughter, Hilnaric, whoever he shall be, is the man to climb Poltarnees and return, as none hath ever before, and tell us upon what Poltarnees looks; for it may be that they daughter is more beautiful than the Sea."


And there below him was the old wrinkled Sea, smiling and murmuring song.


And Hilnaric stood there wondering, clad in white, with the moonlight shining on her forehead; and watching her from the shadows on the terrace stood the kings of Mondath and Toldees.


Then the king of Arizim said to the watcher by the pool: "If thou wilt go up Poltarnees and come back, as none have come, and report to us what lure or magic is in the Sea, we will pardon thy blasphemy, and thou shalt have the Princess to wife and sit among the Council of Kings."


But while the rocking horse was speaking two boys stole away, unnoticed by their parents, from a house on the edge of the waste place, and were coming across it looking for adventures.


One day they sent me northward to Provence, and there I fulfilled my destiny. For they set me as a guard over the bubbling wine, and I faithfully stood sentinel for twenty years.


Now I am an outcast in a cold northern city, who once have known the Andalusian skies and guarded long ago Provençal suns that swam in the heart of the rejoicing wine."


"And very swiftly it said other things to me, but I answered not; and at last the soul that vexed the man that had trusted me flew away and left him at peace.


I fought in tournays and went errant upon quests, and met Ulysses and the heroes and the fairies.


But I said: "I was once without water in a desert and heard a city speaking to me, but knew not whether it really spoke to me or not, for on that day I heard so many terrible things, and only some of them were true."


All the bells clanged hideously in the belfries, horses bolted in the streets, the dogs all howled, the stolid conquerors awoke and turned in their beds and slept again; and I saw the grey shadowy form of Andelsprutz rise up, decking her hair with the phantasms of cathedrals, and stride away from her city.


A few days after the last man had gone the birds came into London, all the birds that sing. When they first saws me they all looked sideways at me, then they went away a little and spoke among themselves.


Then they hopped nearer me and began to sing. It was the time of the rising of the dawn, and from both banks of the river, and from the sky, and from the thickets that were once the streets, hundreds of birds were singing.


It must be remembered that I could not weep.


A million common artificial things all cloaked for a while in mystery, like beggars robed in purple, and seated on dread thrones. Four million people asleep, dreaming perhaps.


One who has danced goes homewards. Somewhere a ball has closed its doors and ended. Its yellow lights are out, its musicians are silent, its dancers have all gone into the night air, and Time has said of it, "Let it be past and over, and among the things that I have put away."


And when the heat of the day began to abate, and the sun drew near to the snows on the Hills of Hap, the note of the zootibar still rose clear from the gardens, and the brilliant dresses of the dancers still wound among the flowers.


Then fear took the Europeans also, and they too fled. And what the message was I have never heard.


To and fro they swing, and creak and creak in the wind, but no one hears them. They are of green copper, very lovely, but no one sees them now. The desert wind pours sand into their hinges, no watchman comes to ease them.


They carried staves, such as messengers bear in those lands, and seemed sombrely clad when the dancers all came round them with their green and lilac dresses.


Some danced astounding dances that they had learned from the desert wind, rapidly curving and swirling till the eye could follow no longer.


And we passed Gondara and Narl and Haz. And we saw memorable, holy Golnuz, and heard the pilgrims praying.


Once in these mountains, he said, he followed the spoor of a bear, and he came suddenly on a man of that family who had hunted the same bear, and he was at the end of a narrow way with precipice all about him, and his spear was sticking in the bear, and the wound was not fatal, and he had no other weapon.


Therefore he decided that it were better to flee at once; so he commanded, and the sailors went to the sails, and others raised the anchor to the deck, and just as the highest pinnacle of marble lost the last rays of the sun we left Perdóndaris, that famous city.


As the sun sank behind the field of orchids that grew on the matted summit of the jungle, the river monsters came wallowing out of the slime in which they had reclined during the heat of the day, and the great beasts of the jungle came down to drink. The butterflies a while since were gone to rest.


And while he was carefully lifting his beard with his left hand, the merchant eyed the merchandise again, and said that rather than see so worthy a captain die, a man for whom he had conceived an especial love when first he saw the manner in which he handled his ship, he and his aged father should starve together and therefore he offered fifteen piffeks more.


You might make one blow at Loz, but then would come one thrust from that iron sword, and there was no way of surviving it. No one could fight with Loz. And he became ruler of the tribe in the place of Iz, who hitherto had ruled it with his sharp axe, as his father had before him.


Around the fire a little tribe was encamped. They, too, had come from the mountains, and from lands beyond them, but it was in the mountains that the wolves first winded them; they picked up bones at first that the tribe had dropped, but they were closer now and on all sides.


It was Loz who had lit the fire.


Deep in his heart Lod shuddered, for his instinct told him that Ged wanted Lod's only son, who should hold the iron sword when Lod was gone. No one would dare touch Lod because of the iron sword, but his instinct said in his slow mind again and again, "Ged loves Ith. Ith has said so.


A stillness hung over that city's gate. And the great silence of the solemn night was more acceptable to the watchers in the gate than any sound of man.


And the man unwrapped from many silks a box of divers metals wrought by the Japanese, and on the lid of it were figures of men who gazed from some shore at an isle of the Inland Sea.


This he showed to the watchers, and when they had seen it, said, "It has seemed to me that these speak to each other thus: "'Behold now Oojni, the dear one of the sea, the little mother sea that hath no storms.


Some one was tugging at the hall door bell. Presently a servant came and told our host that a policeman in the hall wished to speak to him at once. He apologised to us, and went outside, and we heard a man in heavy boots, who spoke in a low voice to him.


Still the men ate, but lazily now, and without ferocity. At last the great spoons dropped out of their hands, and their spirits rose and left them.


It was this sullen stream as much as all other causes that had made me say in my heart that the town was vile, that Beauty was dead in it, and Romance fled.


"Who may tell what we are," they answered, "or whence we come?" And one turned towards the smoke stained houses, saying, "Blessed be the houses, because men dream therein."


It had rained, and a cheerless stream dropped down a dirty gutter. It had come from heaps of refuse, foul and forgotten; it had gathered upon its way things that were derelict, and went to somber drains unknown to man or the sun.


Then Camorak said, "There are many things to be planned, and counsels to be taken, and provender to be gathered. Upon what day shall we start?" And all the warriors answering shouted, "Now."


On the next day some of the warriors hunted stags, and others lay in rushes by a neighbouring lake and shot arrows at water fowl. One stag was killed, and some geese, and several teal.


And it may well be that against these no warrior may avail, and that Fate has conquered us, and that our quest has failed." And after this they were silent.


But if such men as we, such resolute conquerors, cannot prevent one doom that Fate has planned, then is the race of man enslaved for ever to do its petty and allotted task."


That night they ate the last of their provisions, and slept unmolested by the prowling things that haunt the gloom of the forest. On the next day some of the warriors hunted stags, and others lay in rushes by a neighbouring lake and shot arrows at water fowl.


And the citizens of Arn kept close together and close behind the warriors. For the deeps of the forest were all unknown to travellers, but not unknown to those tales of fear that men tell at evening to their friends, in the comfort and the safety of their hearths.


Moreover, no war was ever declared till Camorak and his men had listened long to the harp, and were elate with the music and mad against peace.


And the king sent Arleon of the Harp down from his right hand to mingle with the Weald folk to hear aught that any told of Carcassonne.


And only the other day I found a stone that had undoubtedly been a part of Zaccarath, it was three inches long and an inch broad; I saw the edge of it uncovered by the sand. I believe that only three other pieces have been found like it.


And he foretold the onrush of the Zeedians, and the fall and the forgetting of Zaccarath, and the coming again of the desert to its own, and the playing about of little lion cubs where the courts of the palace had stood.


Then the prophet was conducted back to his place at the far end of that mighty hall, and for a while musicians played on marvellous curved horns, while drums throbbed behind them hidden in a recess.


And there the fancy came to me that it would be a terribly cold place to be in the starlight, if for some reason one was hurt and could not get away.


The call is from afar both in leagues and years, for the hills that call one are the hills that were, and their voices are the voices of long ago, when the elf kings still had horns.


And the afternoon wore on, and the winter evening came, and the night fell, and all black grew the sea, and about the time that the stars come blinking out to look upon our littleness, the polling booth closed in the town.


And he spoke of the down where they sat, when the summer came, and the flowers that were not yet, and the different butterflies, and about the bats and the swifts, and the thoughts in the heart of man.


And by him the poet stopped and offered him a seat in the motor that was covered with flags.


For them are the catacombs of Ptolemais, and the carven mausolea of the nightmare countries.


I told him that I could, and translated for his benefit a paragraph near the beginning. If I erred, he was not scholar enough to correct me; for he seemed childishly pleased at my English version.


Some o' these here critters looks like monkeys, or half monkeys an' half men, but I never heerd o' nothing like this un."


The interruption was not produced by my fright, nor by the rapidly increasing storm amidst whose fury I was presently to open my eyes on a smoky solitude of blackened ruins. It was produced by a very simple though somewhat unusual happening.


The night of November 20 was boisterous. A furious gale stormed across the country, scourging it with desolating drifts of sleet. Great trees were torn from the earth and hurled across the roads.


The three men advanced to the door. Just as they reached it there came from the interior a confusion of the most appalling sounds—the clash of weapons, steel against steel, sharp explosions as of firearms, shrieks of women, groans and the curses of men in combat!


He seemed to be searching for something, though his eyes were unmoved in their sockets. I wonder if he ever walks in his sleep. He took a circuit a part of the way round the room, and went out the same way he had come in. Twice more before I slept he came back into the room, acting precisely the same way, and departing as at first.


He got no commendation, however, for this equitable distribution of his patronage; people were disposed to regard it as an ineffectual attempt to conceal his possession of so much money.


The expiring effort of the previous night's storm had been a light fall of snow; there were no footprints; the white surface was unbroken.


At about eight o'clock that morning the Rev. Henry Galbraith, a well known and highly esteemed Lutheran minister, arrived on foot at his house, a mile and a half from the Deluse place.


In many a talk with his cousin beneath the nearer stars of Flanders no word of it ever passed his lips.


He had already—somewhere, somehow—seen death descending upon his cousin from the air. Yet with a difference.


He hesitated. He was no murderer, yet he paused. He heard the roar, the ugly thud, the crash, the cry for help—too late ... and when, an instant afterwards, his steel plunged into the great beast's heart, the human heart and life he might have saved lay still for ever.


The nerves, over strained to numbness, lay very still. The physical system, battered and depleted, made no cry. The clamour of the flesh was hushed. He was aware, however, of an undeniable exaltation of the spirit in him, as he lay and gazed towards his cousin's bed.


Smith, on the other hand, was conscious of a depth and strength in the tie that certainly intrigued him; being of a thoughtful, introspective nature, he was keenly sensible of the strange competition in their lives, and sought in various ways for its explanation, though without success.


The companion, moreover, was his brother; they ever hunted together; there was a passionate link between them born of blood and of affection—they were twins.


It showed itself in earliest days, at school, at Cambridge, in travel, even in house parties and the lighter social intercourse.


Across the water a large bird, flapped its heavy wings, as it moved[151] down stream to find another fishing place. For he and his companion had disturbed it as they broke out of the thick foliage and reached the river bank.


This was the first time it happened to him. At the theatre, a week later, when the phenomenon was repeated, the stage he was watching fixedly at the moment went far away, as though he saw it from a long way off. The distance, so far as he could judge, was the same as before, about a mile.


At length he cautiously opened his eyes. The fly was[233] of normal size once more. He hastily flicked it out of the window.


"Uncle!" she cried, yet her voice was loud as before, "but what a funny face!


"Right as a trivet!" he exclaimed aloud. He emitted a long sigh; he was immensely relieved. "Nothing wrong with my eyes." He thought about the actual occurrence a great deal—he felt as puzzled as any other normal person must have felt.


He experienced again the distressing dizziness; he closed his eyes, covering them with his hand, then rubbing the eyeballs slightly; and when he looked up the next minute, the world was as it should be, as it had been, at any rate.


It was an Eastern scene, realistically costumed and produced, that without an instant's warning withdrew.


He did not see movement, that is. It was suddenly remote, while yet the actors' voices, the orchestra, the general hubbub retained their normal volume.


Photographs in magazines and newspapers explained the rest.


Loathing! No. I'll give it the right word—hatred. I simply couldn't help myself; I hated the man from the very first go off. A wave of repulsion swept over me as I followed him down the room a moment with my eyes, till he took his seat at a distant table and was out of sight.


From discussing the day's sport and the weather outlook, the conversation drifted to other, though still cognate, fields.


Ericssen went on. "It was not his character or qualities I hated," he said. "I didn't even know them. That's the whole point. There's no reason you fellows should have disliked him. My hatred—our mutual hatred—was instinctive, as instinctive as first love.


I had the satisfaction, too, of knowing that he heard my words. I saw the swift expression of frustrated loathing in his eyes.


Youth proclaimed him as a hero; time, a statesman; love, a man; Death has crowned him as a martyr,—so from goal to goal he ran, Knowing all the sum of glory that a human life may span.


Absolute ruin, she said; but there must be no armistice. No armistice. No. It was necessary that there should be no armistice at all. No armistice with Germans.


Far off a vista of trees followed a cheerless road all dead as mourners suddenly stricken dead in some funereal procession.


The cold wind blew over the blasted heath and bits of broken iron flapped on and on.


You, señor, with your son perhaps growing up, perhaps wearing already some sword that you wore once, you can turn back to your memories or look with hope to the future with equal ease. The man that I met in Croisilles had none of these things at all.


Madame or señor of whatever far country, who may chance to see these words, blame not this old man for the fierce hope he cherished. It was the only hope he had.


You, Madame, with your garden, your house, your church, the village where all know you, you may hope as a Christian should, there is wide room for hope in your future.


We stopped and stood by a house that was covered with plaster marked off to look like great stones, its pitiful pretence laid bare, the slates gone and the rooms gone, the plaster all pitted with shrapnel.


And; like Homer, their words were epic.


A pair of wheels moulders amongst weeds, and may be of peace or of war, it is too broken down for anyone to say.


Surely, indeed, there is a third side to war: for what had the doll done, that used to have a green pram, to deserve to share thus in the fall and punishment of an Emperor?


One blue columbine close by mourned alone for the garden.


He seized her by the shoulder and tried to seize her by the throat, and twice Ethel had to break away and gallop off, Fitz Lee endeavoring in vain to catch the dog. Finally he succeeded, just as Mike had got Fidelity by the hock.


I like to see Quentin practising baseball. It gives me hopes that one of my boys will not take after his father in this respect, and will prove able to play the national game! Ethel has a delightful new dog  a white bull terrier  not much more than a puppy as yet. She has named it Mike and it seems very affectionate.


There some of the bees got out and were left behind ("Poor homeless miserables," as Quentin remarked of them), and yesterday they at intervals added great zest to life in the classroom. The hive now reposes in the garden and Scamp surveys it for hours at a time with absorbed interest.


Mother and I do not mind them at all, and indeed rather like to hear them scrambling about, and then as a sequel to a sudden frantic fight between two of them, hearing or seeing one little fellow come plump down to the floor and scuttle off again to the wall.


JOHN BURROUGHS AND THE FLYING SQUIRRELS White House, May 10, 1908. DEAREST ARCHIE: Mother and I had great fun at Pine Knot. Mr. Burroughs, whom I call Oom John, was with us and we greatly enjoyed having him. But one night he fell into great disgrace!