Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 09
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Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 09
Literature -- Collections
About the third or fourth or fifth time that we swung out into the
glare--it was along there somewhere, a couple of hours or so after
sun-up--it wasn't as pleasant as it had been. It was beginning to get
hot. This was quite noticeable. We had a very long pull, after that,
without any shade. Now it is curious how progressively little frets grow
and multiply after they once get a start. Things which I didn't mind at
all at first, I began to mind now--and more and more, too, all the time.
The first ten or fifteen times I wanted my handkerchief I didn't seem to
care; I got along, and said never mind, it isn't any matter, and dropped
it out of my mind. But now it was different: I wanted it all the time;
it was nag, nag, nag, right along, and no rest; I couldn't get it out of
my mind; and so at last I lost my temper, and said hang a man that
would make a suit of armor without any pockets in it. You see I had my
handkerchief in my helmet, and some other things; but it was that kind
of a helmet that you can't take off by yourself. That hadn't occurred to
me when I put it there; and in fact I didn't know it. I supposed it
would be particularly convenient there. And so now the thought of its
being there, so handy and close by, and yet not get-at-able, made it all
the worse and the harder to bear. Yes, the thing that you can't get is
the thing that you want, mainly; every one has noticed that. Well, it
took my mind off from everything else; took it clear off and centred it
in my helmet; and mile after mile there it stayed, imagining the
handkerchief, picturing the handkerchief; and it was bitter and
aggravating to have the salt sweat keep trickling down into my eyes, and
I couldn't get at it. It seems like a little thing on paper, but it was
not a little thing at all; it was the most real kind of misery. I would
not say it if it was not so. I made up my mind that I would carry along
a reticule next time, let it look how it might and people say what they
would. Of course these iron dudes of the Round Table would think it was
scandalous, and maybe raise sheol about it, but as for me, give me
comfort first and style afterwards. So we jogged along, and now and then
we struck a stretch of dust, and it would tumble up in clouds and get
into my nose and make me sneeze and cry; and of course I said things I
oughtn't to have said,--I don't deny that. I am not better than others.
We couldn't seem to meet anybody in this lonesome Britain, not even an
ogre; and in the mood I was in then, it was well for the ogre; that is,
an ogre with a handkerchief. Most knights would have thought of nothing
but getting his armor; but so I got his bandana, he could keep his
hardware for all me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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