A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManJoyce, James
General
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Joyce, James
Artists -- Fiction; Autobiographical fiction; Bildungsromans; Dublin (Ireland) -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
Athy lowered his voice and said:
—Do you know why those fellows scut? I will tell you but you must not
let on you know.
—Tell us, Athy. Go on. You might if you know.
He paused for a moment and then said mysteriously:
—They were caught with Simon Moonan and Tusker Boyle in the square one
night.
The fellows looked at him and asked:
—Caught?
—What doing?
Athy said:
—Smugging.
All the fellows were silent: and Athy said:
—And that’s why.
Stephen looked at the faces of the fellows but they were all looking
across the playground. He wanted to ask somebody about it. What did
that mean about the smugging in the square? Why did the five fellows
out of the higher line run away for that? It was a joke, he thought.
Simon Moonan had nice clothes and one night he had shown him a ball of
creamy sweets that the fellows of the football fifteen had rolled down
to him along the carpet in the middle of the refectory when he was at
the door. It was the night of the match against the Bective Rangers and
the ball was made just like a red and green apple only it opened and it
was full of the creamy sweets. And one day Boyle had said that an
elephant had two tuskers instead of two tusks and that was why he was
called Tusker Boyle but some fellows called him Lady Boyle because he
was always at his nails, paring them.
Eileen had long thin cool white hands too because she was a girl. They
were like ivory; only soft. That was the meaning of _Tower of Ivory_
but protestants could not understand it and made fun of it. One day he
had stood beside her looking into the hotel grounds. A waiter was
running up a trail of bunting on the flagstaff and a fox terrier was
scampering to and fro on the sunny lawn. She had put her hand into his
pocket where his hand was and he had felt how cool and thin and soft
her hand was. She had said that pockets were funny things to have: and
then all of a sudden she had broken away and had run laughing down the
sloping curve of the path. Her fair hair had streamed out behind her
like gold in the sun. _Tower of Ivory. House of Gold._ By thinking of
things you could understand them.
But why in the square? You went there when you wanted to do something.
It was all thick slabs of slate and water trickled all day out of tiny
pinholes and there was a queer smell of stale water there. And behind
the door of one of the closets there was a drawing in red pencil of a
bearded man in a Roman dress with a brick in each hand and underneath
was the name of the drawing:
_Balbus was building a wall._
Some fellow had drawn it there for a cod. It had a funny face but it
was very like a man with a beard. And on the wall of another closet
there was written in backhand in beautiful writing:
_Julius Cæsar wrote The Calico Belly._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account