Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle ManLewis, Sinclair
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Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man
Lewis, Sinclair
Courtship -- Fiction; Love stories; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Middle-aged men -- United States -- Fiction
Yes, Pete heard him. Doubtless the first officer on the bridge heard,
too, and perhaps the inhabitants of Newfoundland. But Pete took his
time in scratching the back of his neck and stretching before he
crawled into his berth. For half an hour he talked softly to Tim, for
Wrennie’s benefit, stating his belief that Satan, the head boss, had
once thrown overboard a Jew much like Wrennie, and was likely thus to
serve Wrennie, too. Tim pictured the result when, after the capsizing
of the steamer which would undoubtedly occur if this long sickening
motion kept up, Wrennie had to take to a boat with Satan.
The fingers of Wrennie curled into shape for strangling some one.
When Pete was asleep he worried off into thin slumber.
Then, there was Satan, the head boss, jerking him out of his berth,
stirring his cramped joints to another dawn of drudgery—two hours of
work and two of waiting before the daily eight-o’clock insult called
breakfast. He tugged on his shoes, marveling at Mr. Wrenn’s really
being there, at his sitting in cramped stoop on the side of a berth in
a dark filthy place that went up and down like a freight elevator,
subject to the orders of persons whom he did not in the least like.
Through the damp gray sea-air he staggered hungrily along the gangway
to the hatch amidships, and trembled down the iron ladder to McGarver’s
crew ’tween-decks.
First, watering the steers. Sickened by walking backward with pails of
water he carried till he could see and think of nothing in the world
save the water-butt, the puddle in front of it, and the cattlemen
mercilessly dipping out pails there, through centuries that would never
end. How those steers did drink!
McGarver’s favorite bull, which he called “the Grenadier,” took ten
pails and still persisted in leering with dripping gray mouth beyond
the headboard, trying to reach more. As Wrennie was carrying a pail to
the heifers beyond, the Grenadier’s horn caught and tore his overalls.
The boat lurched. The pail whirled out of his hand. He grasped an iron
stanchion and kicked the Grenadier in the jaw till the steer backed
off, a reformed character.
McGarver cheered, for such kicks were a rule of the game.
“Good work,” ironically remarked Tim, the weakling hatter.
“You go to hell,” snapped Wrennie, and Tim looked much more respectful.
But Wrennie lost this credit before they had finished feeding out the
hay, for he grew too dizzy to resent Tim’s remarks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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