American fiction -- 20th century; Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Journalists -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction
And thus onward, in the general direction of “the dells.” Most of the
time they did not know just where they were going next, nor care; they
took the most promising road.
The “dells” at last—steep ravines, miniature canyons, up which they went
in the guide’s leaky little gasoline launch, landing to explore the
quaint caverns in the rocks, dim-lighted by the daylight that sifted
through the openings above.... And so back, by new roads, glad they had
no map to take the surprise out of their journey.
Felix had never realized how much robust strength and endurance Rose-Ann
had until they tramped those Wisconsin roads. They were not above taking
a lift in some farmer’s wagon or passing automobile, if it promised to
get them to a town with a hotel before nightfall; but, having come in
sight of the town, if the night promised to be clear, they hunted up
some promising spot and encamped there: for what was the use of carrying
two heavy woollen blankets, if they were not going to sleep out under
the stars by a camp-fire?
Felix’s old corduroys, splashed with kalsomine in all colours, caused
him to be taken for an “artist.” At first this displeased him—but he
soon discovered that all the world envies the artist, loves him, and
wishes to take care of him. Old farmers, burly truck-drivers,
delivery-boys, tourists, wanted to give them a lift, and offered them
their best counsel as to where to go next. Hotel-keepers, grocers at
whose shops they replenished their food supplies, and farmers’ wives at
houses where they stopped till a shower passed over, talked to them with
friendly eagerness. Felix perceived that a pair of foot-loose vagabonds
with enough money in their pockets to pay for their bread and eggs and
bacon, are fortunate beings, the world’s darlings, beamed on and
approved by those who sleep under roofs and hold steady jobs and stay
day after day in the same place—approved because they are living life as
all men and women know it should be lived: if everybody cannot live that
way themselves, they are glad to see somebody else who can!
As they tramped, Felix’s mind went back to the songs of vagabondia which
he used to cherish, and then had rejected as romantic and foolish; and
at night, beside their dying camp-fire, when Rose-Ann demanded poetry
before she went to sleep, he would say for her the little fragments that
he remembered:
“_Down the world with Marna,
That’s the life for me!
Wandering with the wandering rain
Its unboundaried domain...._
“Mm—I forget. Anyway—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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