Tales for Fifteen; Or, Imagination and HeartCooper, James Fenimore
General
Tales for Fifteen; Or, Imagination and Heart
Cooper, James Fenimore
Girls -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Juvenile fiction
Charles was right, for Antonio, moving his face,
with a laugh cried in his turn--"There, sir, my nose
is moved, but you can't see no better, after all."
Julia was amused with his condescension, which
she thought augured perfect good-nature and
affability. After all, thought Julia, if noble and
commanding qualities are necessary to excite
admiration or to command respect, familiar virtues
induce us to love more tenderly, and good temper
is absolutely necessary to contribute to our
comfort. On the whole, she was rather pleased than
otherwise, that Antonio could receive and return
what was evidently intended for a witticism,
although as yet she did not comprehend it. But
Charles did not leave her long in doubt. On the
north side of the Mohawk, and at about fifty miles
from its mouth, is a mountain which, as we have
already said, juts, in a nearly perpendicular
promontory, into the bed of the river; its inclination
is sufficient to admit of its receiving the name of a
nose. Without the least intention of alluding to our
hero, the early settlers had affixed the name of St.
Anthony, who appears to have been a kind of Dutch
deity in this state, and to have monopolized all the
natural noses within her boundaries to himself. The
vulgar idiom made the pronunciation an-TONY's
nose--and all this Charles briefly explained to Miss
Emmerson and her niece by way of giving point to
his own wit. He had hardly made them comprehend
the full brilliancy and beauty of his application of
the mountain to their driver, when they reached the
pass itself. The road was barely sufficient to suffer
two carriages to move by each other without
touching, being from necessity dug out of the base
of the mountain; a precipice of many feet led to the
river, which was high and turbulent at the time;
there was no railing nor any protection on the side
next the water--and in endeavouring to avoid the
unprotected side of the road, two wagons had met
a short time before, and one of them lost a wheel
in the encounter--its owner had gone to a distance
for assistance, leaving the vehicle where it had
fallen. The horses of Antonio, unaccustomed to
such a sight, were with some difficulty driven by
the loaded wagon, and when nearly past the object,
took a sudden fright at its top, which was flapping
in the wind. All the skill and exertions of Antonio to
prevent their backing was useless, and carriage and
horses would inevitably have gone off the bank
together, had not Charles, with admirable presence
of mind, opened a door, and springing out, placed a
billet of wood, which had been used as a base for a
lever in lifting the broken wagon, under one of the
wheels. This checked the horses until Antonio had
time to rally them, and, by using the whip with
energy, bring them into the road again. He certainly
showed great dexterity as a coachman. But,
unhappily, the movement of Charles had been
misunderstood by Julia, and, throwing open the
door, with the blindness of fear, she sprang from
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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