Alabama -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; War stories
"Never fear, Pearl, he is a stranger here, and there's little chance of
your ever setting your eyes on his ugly, savage face again. Keep the
money, dear; I won't have it after all the airs he put on. If, instead
of shoeing his wild brute, I had knocked the fellow down for his
insolence in cursing me, it would have served him right. Politeness is
a cheap thing; and a poor man, if he behaves himself, and does his work
well, is as much entitled to it as the President."
"I will give the dollar to grandma, to buy a new coffee-pot; for she
said to-day the old one was burnt out, and she could not use it any
longer. But what is that yonder on the grass? That man left something
after all."
She picked up from the spot where he had thrown his shawl a handsome
morocco-bound pocket copy of Dante, and opening it to discover the name
of the owner, she saw written on the fly-leaf in a bold and beautiful
hand, "S. E. M., Boboli Gardens, Florence. Lasciate ogni speranza voi
ch' entrate."
"What does this mean, grandpa?"
She held up the book and pointed out the words of the dread inscription.
"Indeed, Pearl, how should I know? It is Greek, or Latin, or Dutch,
like the other outlandish gibberish he talked to that devilish horse.
He must have spent his life among the heathens, to judge from his talk;
for he has neither manner nor religion. Honey, better put the book
there in the furnace; it is not fit for your eyes."
"He may come back for it if he misses it pretty soon."
"Not he. One might almost believe that he was running from the law. He
would not turn back for it if it was bound in gold instead of leather.
It is no account, I'll warrant, or he would not have been reading it,
the ill-mannered heathen!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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