Adventure stories; Automobile travel -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Philip admitted with regret that this might be so and Diane stared
hopelessly at his immaculate linen. Heaven alone knew by what
ingenuity Mr. Poynter, handicapped by the peculiar limitations of a
hay-camp, contrived to manage his wardrobe. What mysterious toilet
paraphernalia lay beneath the hay, what occasional laundry chores Ras
did by brook and river, what purchases Mr. Poynter made in every
village, and finally what an endless trail of shirts and cuffs and
collars lay behind him, doomed, like the cheese and buns, as he
feelingly put it, to one-night stands, only Ras and Philip knew; but
certainly the hay-nomad combined the minimum of effort with the maximum
of efficiency to the marvel of all who beheld him. Ras's problem was
infinitely simpler. He never changed. There was much of the original
load of hay, Philip said, dispersed about his ears and pockets and
fringing the back of his neck.
"Where did you get tomatoes?" inquired Diane at supper.
"Well," said Philip, "I hate to tell you. I strongly suspect Ras of
spearing 'em with a harpoon he made. Made it in his sleep, too. It's
pretty long and he can spear whatever he wants from the wagon seat.
Lord help the rabbits!" He lazily sprinkled salt upon a large tomato
and bit into it with relish. "But why should I worry?" he commented
smiling. "They're mighty good. Johnny, old top, see if you can rustle
up a loaf of bread to lend me for breakfast, will you? I'm willing to
trade three cucumbers for it. And tell Ras when you take his supper
over that there's a herring under the seat for Dick Whittington's
supper. Tell me," he added humorously to Diane, "just how do you
contrive to remember bread and salt?"
"I don't," said Diane, smiling. "Johnny does. Did the storm get you
last night, Philip?"
"It did indeed. It's the third load of hay we've had this week. We're
perpetually furling up the tarpaulin or unfurling it or skinning the
mattress or watching the clouds. I'm a wreck."
"Where have you been all day?"
"Haying!" said Philip promptly.
"Sleeping!" corrected Diane with a critical sniff.
Mr. Poynter fancied they were synonyms.
"Do you know," he added pointedly, "I imagine I'd find ever so much
more romance and adventure about it if I only had some interesting
ailment and a music-mill. I did think I had a bully cough, but it was
only a wisp of hay in my throat."
Philip's powers of intuition were most fearful. Diane colored.
"Just what do you mean?" she inquired cautiously.
"Nothing at all," replied Philip with a charming smile. "I never do.
Why mean anything when words come so easy without? It has occurred to
me," he added innocently, "that it takes an uncommonly thick-skinned
and unromantic dub to tour about covered with hay. Fancy sleeping
through this wild and beautiful country when I might be grinding up
lost chords to annoy the populace."
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account