Domestic fiction; Sisters -- Fiction; Women -- England -- Fiction
But the Square was enormous, boundless. Samuel Povey gazed at the
approaching phenomenon, as a bird at a serpent, with bulging, beady
eyes. The child's speed went on increasing and his path grew
straighter. Yes, he would arrive; he would do it! Samuel Povey
involuntarily lifted one leg in his nervous tension. And now the hope
that Dick would arrive became a fear, as his pace grew still more
rapid. Everybody lifted one leg, and gaped. And the intrepid child
surged on, and, finally victorious, crashed into the pavement in front
of Samuel at the rate of quite six miles an hour.
Samuel picked him up, unscathed. And somehow this picking up of Dick
invested Samuel with importance, gave him a share in the glory of the
feat itself.
Daniel Povey same running and joyous. "Not so bad for a start, eh?"
exclaimed the great Daniel. Though by no means a simple man, his pride
in his offspring sometimes made him a little naive.
Father and son explained the machine to Samuel, Dick incessantly
repeating the exceedingly strange truth that if you felt you were
falling to your right you must turn to your right and vice versa.
Samuel found himself suddenly admitted, as it were, to the inner
fellowship of the boneshaker, exalted above the rest of the Square. In
another adventure more thrilling events occurred. The fair-haired Dick
was one of those dangerous, frenzied madcaps who are born without fear.
The secret of the machine had been revealed to him in his recent
transit, and he was silently determining to surpass himself.
Precariously balanced, he descended the Square again, frowning hard,
his teeth set, and actually managed to swerve into King Street.
Constance, in the parlour, saw an incomprehensible winged thing fly
past the window. The cousins Povey sounded an alarm and protest and ran
in pursuit; for the gradient of King Street is, in the strict sense,
steep. Half-way down King Street Dick was travelling at twenty miles an
hour, and heading straight for the church, as though he meant to
disestablish it and perish. The main gate of the churchyard was open,
and that affrighting child, with a lunatic's luck, whizzed safely
through the portals into God's acre. The cousins Povey discovered him
lying on a green grave, clothed in pride. His first words were: "Dad,
did you pick my cap up?" The symbolism of the amazing ride did not
escape the Square; indeed, it was much discussed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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