Tales of the Argonauts by Bret Harte (top books to read .txt) ๐
"Yes, father."
"They was all there?"
"Yes, Rance and York and Ryder and Jack."
"And Jack!" Mr. McClosky endeavored to throw an expression of archinquiry into his small, tremulous eyes; but meeting the unabashed,widely-opened lid of his daughter, he winked rapidly, and blushedto the roots of his hair.
"Yes, Jack was there," said Jenny, without change of color, or theleast self-consciousness in her great gray eyes; "and he came homewith me." She paused a moment, locking her two hands under herhead, and assuming a more comfortable position on the pillow. "Heasked me that same question again, father, and I said, 'Yes.' It'sto be--soon. We're going to live at Four Forks, in his own house;and next winter we're going to Sacramento. I suppose it's allright, father, eh?" She emphasized the question with a slight kick
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They had their financial panics even in Jersey, in the old days. She remembered when Dr. White married your cousin Maryโor was it Susan?โyes, it was Susan. She remembers that your Uncle Harry brought in an armful of bank-notes,โpaper money, you know,โand threw them in the corner, saying they were no good to anybody. She remembered playing with them, and giving them to your Aunt Annaโ no, child, it was your own mother, bless your heart! Some of them was marked as high as a hundred dollars. Everybody kept gold and silver in a stocking, or in a โchaneyโ vase, like that. You never used money to buy any thing. When Josiah went to Springfield to buy any thing, he took a cartload of things with him to exchange. That yaller picture-frame was paid for in greenings. But then people knew jest what they had. They didnโt fritter their substance away in unchristian trifles, like your father, Eliza Jane, who doesnโt know that there is a God who will smite him hip and thigh; for vengeance is mine, and those that believe in me. But here, singularly enough, the inferior maxillaries gave out, and her jaw dropped. (I noticed that her giddy daughter of eighty-five was sitting near her; but I do not pretend to connect this fact with the arrested flow of personal disclosure.) Howbeit, when she recovered her speech again, it appeared that she was complaining of the weather.
The seasons had changed very much since your father went to sea. The winters used to be terrible in those days. When she went over to Springfield, in June, she saw the snow still on Watsonโs Ridge. There were whole days when you couldnโt git over to William Henryโs, their next neighbor, a quarter of a mile away. It was that drefful winter that the Spanish sailor was found. You donโt remember the Spanish sailor, Eliza Janeโit was before your time. There was a little personal skirmishing here, which I feared, at first, might end in a suspension of maxillary functions, and the loss of the story; but here it is. Ah, me! it is a pure white winter idyl: how shall I sing it this bright, gay autumnal day?
It was a terrible night, that winterโs night, when she and the century were young together. The sun was lost at three oโclock: the snowy night came down like a white sheet, that flapped around the house, beat at the windows with its edges, and at last wrapped it in a close embrace. In the middle of the night, they thought they heard above the wind a voice crying, โChristus, Christus!โ in a foreign tongue. They opened the door,โno easy task in the north wind that pressed its strong shoulders against it,โbut nothing was to be seen but the drifting snow. The next morning dawned on fences hidden, and a landscape changed and obliterated with drift. During the day, they again heard the cry of โChristus!โ this time faint and hidden, like a childโs voice. They searched in vain: the drifted snow hid its secret. On the third day they broke a path to the fence, and then they heard the cry distinctly. Digging down, they found the body of a man,โa Spanish sailor, dark and bearded, with ear-rings in his ears. As they stood gazing down at his cold and pulseless figure, the cry of โChristus!โ again rose upon the wintry air; and they turned and fled in superstitious terror to the house. And then one of the children, bolder than the rest, knelt down, and opened the dead manโs rough pea-jacket, and foundโwhat think you?โa little blue-and-green parrot, nestling against his breast. It was the bird that had echoed mechanically the last despairing cry of the life that was given to save it. It was the bird, that ever after, amid outlandish oaths and wilder sailor-songs, that I fear often shocked the pure ears of its gentle mistress, and brought scandal into the Jerseys, still retained that one weird and mournful cry.
The sun meanwhile was sinking behind the steadfast range beyond, and I could not help feeling that I must depart with my wants unsatisfied. I had brought away no historic fragment: I absolutely knew little or nothing new regarding George Washington. I had been addressed variously by the names of different members of the family who were dead and forgotten; I had stood for an hour in the past: yet I had not added to my historical knowledge, nor the practical benefit of your readers. I spoke once more of Washington, and she replied with a reminiscence of Perkins.
Stand forth, O Josiah W. Perkins of Basking Ridge, N. J. Thou wast of little account in thy life, I warrant; thou didst not even feel the greatness of thy day and time; thou didst criticise thy superiors; thou wast small and narrow in thy ways; thy very name and grave are unknown and uncared for: but thou wast once kind to a woman who survived thee, and, lo! thy name is again spoken of men, and for a moment lifted up above thy betters.
End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Tales of the Argonauts, by Bret Harte
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