Camping -- Fiction; Manners and customs -- Fiction
"It's that fellow they call the bishop," said Martin. "He put a pretty
heavy slur on you. You drove down a stake, and you locked your boat to it,
and you walked away as big as if you were the sheriff of the county, and
here he comes along, and snaps his fingers at you and your locks, and, as
cool as a cucumber, he pulls up the stake and shoves out on the lake, all
alone by herself, a young lady that you are paid to take care of and
protect from danger."
"I want you to know, Martin Sanders," said Matlack, "that I don't pitch
into a man when he's in his bed, no matter what it is that made him take
to his bed or stay there. But I'll just say to you now, that when he gets
up and shows himself, there'll be the biggest case of bounce in these
parts that you ever saw."
"Bounce!" said Martin to himself, as he turned away. "I have heard so much
of it lately that I'd like to see a little."
Matlack also communed with himself. "He's awful anxious to get up a
quarrel between me and the parson," he thought. "I wonder if he was too
free with his tongue and did get thrashed. He don't show no signs of it,
except he's so concerned in his mind to see somebody do for the parson
what he ain't able to do himself. But I'll find out about it! I'll thrash
that fellow in black, and before I let him up I'll make him tell me what
he did to Martin. I'd do a good deal to get hold of something that would
take the conceit out of that fellow."
Mr. Arthur Raybold was a deep-minded person, and sometimes it was
difficult for him, with the fathoming apparatus he had on hand, to
discover the very bottom of his mind. Now, far below the surface, his
thoughts revolved. He had come to the conclusion that he would marry
Margery. In the first place, he was greatly attracted by her, and again he
considered it would be a most advantageous union. She was charming to look
upon, and her mind was so uncramped by conventionalities that it could
adapt itself to almost any sphere to which she might direct it. He
expected his life-work to be upon the stage, and what an actress Miss
Dearborn would make if properly educated--as he could educate her! With
this most important purpose in view, why should he waste his time? The
Archibalds could not much longer remain in camp. They had limited their
holiday to a month, and that was more than half gone. He must strike now.
The first thing to do was to get Clyde out of the way; then he would speak
to Mr. Archibald and ask for authority to press his suit, and he would
press that suit as few men on earth, he said to himself, would be able to
press it. What girl could deny herself to him when he came to her clad not
only with his own personal attributes, but with the fervor of a Romeo, the
intellectuality of a Hamlet, and the force of an Othello?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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