The best short stories of 1915, and the yearbook of the American short story
General
The best short stories of 1915, and the yearbook of the American short story
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories -- 20th century -- Bibliography; Short stories -- 20th century -- Indexes; Short stories, American
The dim, blue night gleamed in through the windows. All was shrouded
in the city silence, which yet has a peculiar, monotonous ring in
it. Somewhere, an infant awoke with a sickly cry which ended in a
suffocating cough. The grizzled old man bestirred himself, and with
hasty steps he tiptoed to the place where the boy lay. For a time
he stood gazing on the pinched features, the under-sized body of the
lad; then he raised one hand, passed it lightly over the boy's hair,
stroking his cheeks and chin. The boy opened his eyes, looked for a
moment at the shriveled form bending over him, then he petulantly
closed them again.
"You hate to look at granpa, he is your enemy, eh?" The aged man's
voice shook, and sounded like that of the child's awaking in the night.
The boy made no answer; but the old man noticed how the frail body
shook, how the tears rolled, washing the sunken cheeks.
For some moments he stood mute, then his form literally shrank to that
of a child's as he bent over the ear of the boy and whispered hoarsely:
"You are weeping, eh? Granpa is your enemy, you stupid! To-morrow I will
give you the money for the college. You hate to look at granpa; he is
your enemy, eh?"
THE SURVIVORS[18]
_A Memorial Day Story_
BY ELSIE SINGMASTER
From _The Outlook_
[18] Copyright, 1915, by The Outlook Company. Copyright, 1916, by Elsie
Singmaster Lewars
In the year 1868, when Memorial Day was instituted, Fosterville had
thirty-five men in its parade. Fosterville was a border town; in it
enthusiasm had run high, and many more men had enlisted than those
required by the draft. All the men were on the same side but Adam
Foust, who, slipping away, joined himself to the troops of his mother's
Southern State. It could not have been any great trial for Adam to fight
against most of his companions in Fosterville, for there was only one of
them with whom he did not quarrel. That one was his cousin Henry, from
whom he was inseparable, and of whose friendship for any other boys he
was intensely jealous. Henry was a frank, open-hearted lad who would
have lived on good terms with the whole world if Adam had allowed him
to.
Adam did not return to Fosterville until the morning of the first
Memorial Day, of whose establishment he was unaware. He had been ill
for months, and it was only now that he had earned enough to make his
way home. He was slightly lame, and he had lost two fingers of his left
hand. He got down from the train at the station, and found himself at
once in a great crowd. He knew no one, and no one seemed to know him.
Without asking any questions, he started up the street. He meant to go,
first of all, to the house of his cousin Henry, and then to set about
making arrangements to resume his long-interrupted business, that of a
saddler, which he could still follow in spite of his injury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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