Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man — John Shaqi
Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle ManLewis, Sinclair
General
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
“Gee!” he mused, “I’d like to know if Jake is handling my work the way
we—they—like it. I’d like to see the old office again, and Charley
Carpenter, just for a couple of minutes. Gee! I wish they could have
seen me put it all over Pete to-night! That’s what I’m going to do to
the blooming Englishmen if they don’t like me.”
The S.S. _Merian_ panted softly beside the landing-stage at Birkenhead,
Liverpool’s Jersey City, resting in the sunshine after her voyage,
while the cattle were unloaded. They had encountered fog-banks at the
mouth of the Mersey River. Mr. Wrenn had ecstatically watched the
shores of England—_England!_—ride at him through the fog, and had
panted over the lines of English villas among the dunes. It was like a
dream, yet the shore had such amazingly safe solid colors, real red and
green and yellow, when contrasted with the fog-wet deck unearthily
glancing with mist-lights.
Now he was seeing his first foreign city, and to Morton, stolidly
curious beside him, he could say nothing save “Gee!” With church-tower
and swarthy dome behind dome, Liverpool lay across the Mersey. Up
through the Liverpool streets that ran down to the river, as though
through peep-holes slashed straight back into the Middle Ages, his
vision plunged, and it wandered unchecked through each street while he
hummed:
“Free, free, in Eu-ro-pee, that’s _me!_”
The cattlemen were called to help unload the remaining hay. They made a
game of it. Even Satan smiled, even the Jewish elders were lightly
affable as they made pretendedly fierce gestures at the squat patient
hay-bales. Tim, the hatter, danced a limber foolish jig upon the deck,
and McGarver bellowed, “The bon-nee bon-nee banks of Loch
Lo-o-o-o-mond.”
The crowd bawled: “Come on, Bill Wrenn; your turn. Hustle up with that
bale, Pete, or we’ll sic Bill on you.”
Bill Wrenn, standing very dignified, piped: “I’m Colonel Armour. I own
all these cattle, ’cept the Morris uns, see? Gotta do what I say,
savvy? Tim, walk on your ear.”
The hatter laid his head on the deck and waved his anemic legs in
accordance with directions from Colonel Armour (late Wrenn).
The hay was off. The _Merian_ tooted and headed across the Mersey to
the Huskinson Dock, in Liverpool, while the cattlemen played tag about
the deck. Whooping and laughing, they made last splashy toilets at the
water-butts, dragged out their luggage, and descended to the
dock-house.
As the cattlemen passed Bill Wrenn and Morton, shouting affectionate
good-bys in English or courteous Yiddish, Bill commented profanely to
Morton on the fact that the solid stone floor of the great shed seemed
to have enough sea-motion to “make a guy sick.” It was nearly his last
utterance as Bill Wrenn. He became Mr. Wrenn, absolute Mr. Wrenn, on
the street, as he saw a real English bobby, a real English carter, and
the sign, “Cocoa House. Tea _Id_.”
England!
“Now for some real grub!” cried Morton. “No more scouse and willow-leaf
tea.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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