All-Wool Morrison: Time -- Today, Place -- the United States, Period of Action -- Twenty-four HoursDay, Holman
General
All-Wool Morrison: Time -- Today, Place -- the United States, Period of Action -- Twenty-four Hours
Day, Holman
Political corruption -- Fiction; Politicians -- Fiction
"Oh, that reminds me, Andy. That boy who brought the telegrams to the
door! He'll come to the mill in the morning. Pay him ten dollars. I didn't
have the money in my clothes when I hired him."
"And that reminds me, too, Mr. Morrison!" said Miss Bunker. "Do you want
me to keep the telegrams with the record? You remember you took them when
you went out with the general."
Morrison reached into his breast pocket for the papers, tore them slowly
across, and stuffed the scraps back into a side-pocket. "I reckon they
won't do the record much good. It's more of the political exigency stuff,
Andy! I wrote 'em myself!"
His hands had touched his pipe when he had shoved the bits of paper into
his pocket. He took it out and peered into the bowl. There was tobacco
there and he fumbled for a match.
"Andy, usually I like to have morning come, for there's always business
waiting for me in the mornings and honest daylight helps any matter of
clean business. But I'm not looking ahead to this next sunrise with a
great deal of relish. Those telegrams were clinchers in the case of
Totten, but I don't know what the judges will say. What I said about
Senator Corson to the mob helped a lot--but I don't know what the Senator
is going to say in the morning. And I don't know what Governor North
proposes to say. Or what--" He checked himself and shook his head. "Well,
there's considerable going to be said, at any rate! I'll run over the
thing in my mind right now while I have time and everything is quiet. Mac
Tavish, take Miss Bunker to the car and tell Jock to carry you and her
home and to come back here for me."
After they had gone he lighted his pipe and sat down in the Governor's big
chair and smoked and pondered. Every little while he thrust his forefinger
and thumb into his vest pocket and ransacked without avail. "I must have
left it in my dress clothes," he muttered. "But no matter! I'm not in the
right frame of mind to enjoy poetry. However, merely in the way of taking
a new clinch on the proposition I do remember this much, 'But I will marry
my own first love!' There's truth in poetry if you go after it hard
enough. And, on second thought, I'd better keep my mind on poetry as
closely as I can! I certainly don't dare to think of politics right now!"
XX
IN THE COLD AND CANDID DAYLIGHT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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