Stories by Foreign Authors: German — Volume 1 — John Shaqi
Stories by Foreign Authors: German — Volume 1
General
Stories by Foreign Authors: German — Volume 1
Short stories, German -- Translations into English
Warren's pipe had gone out while he was telling his story. He cleaned
it out methodically, drew from his pocket a cake of Cavendish tobacco,
and, after cutting off with a penknife the necessary quantity, refilled
his pipe and lit it. The way in which he performed all these little
operations betrayed long habit. He had ceased to speak while he was
relighting his pipe, and kept on whistling between his teeth. Hermann
looked on--silently. After a few minutes, and when the pipe was in good
order, Warren resumed his story.
"For a few weeks I was terribly miserable; not so much because I had
lost Ellen--a man cannot lose what he has never hoped to possess--as
from the ruin of all my illusions. During those days I plucked and ate
by the dozen of the fruits of the tree of self-knowledge, and I found
them very bitter. I ended by leaving Elmira, to seek my fortunes
elsewhere. I knew my trade well. Long practice had taught me how to
make the best of my learning, and I never had any difficulty in finding
employment. I taught successively in upwards of a dozen States of the
Union. I can scarcely recollect the names of all the places where I
have lived--Sacramento, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Boston, New
York; I have been everywhere--everywhere. And everywhere I have met
with the same rude schoolboys, just as I have found the same regular
and irregular verbs in Latin and Greek. If you would see a man
thoroughly satiated and saturated with schoolboys and classical
grammars, look at me.
"In the leisure time which, whatever might be my work, I still
contrived to make for myself, I indulged in philosophical reflections.
Then it was I took to the habit of smoking so much."
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