In a Canadian Canoe; The Nine Muses Minus One, and Other StoriesPain, Barry
General
In a Canadian Canoe; The Nine Muses Minus One, and Other Stories
Pain, Barry
English wit and humor
Since writing the above, I have had a letter from my Principal.
He wants my resignation. He says something about “strangeness of
manner--medical advice--real kindness to me--hope for recovery.” Mrs.
Smith has asked me, with tears in her eyes, to leave my apartments.
She says that I have been most regular in my payments, and in every
way showed myself to be a perfect gentleman; but the other lodgers are
frightened of me, and I frighten her sometimes. She can feel for me,
because she had a cousin who once went off like that; but would I mind
going?
Well, I have resigned my post, and to-night I leave my lodgings. I am
very lonely.
“BILL.”
_THE STORY OF A BOY WHOM THE GODS LOVED._
Bill came slowly up the steps from a basement flat in Pond Buildings,
crossed the pavement, and sat down on the kerb-stone in the sunshine,
with his feet in a delightful puddle. He was reflecting.
“All that fuss about a dead byeby!” he said to himself.
He was quite a little boy, with a dirty face, gipsy eyes, and a love
for animals. He had slept the deep sleep of childhood the night before,
and had heard nothing of what was happening. In the early morning,
however, he had been enlightened by his father--a weak man, with a
shuffling gait, who tried to do right and generally failed.
“Bill, cummere. Larst night there were a byeby come to be your sister
if she’d grow’d. But she didn’t live more’n hour. An’ that’s why your
awnt’s ’ere, an’ mind yer do whort she tells yer, an’ don’t go inter
the other room, an’ don’t do nothin’ ’cep’ whort yer told, or I’ll
break yer ’ead for yer, sure’s death, I will!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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