The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 02Stevenson, Robert Louis
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The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 02
Stevenson, Robert Louis
English literature -- 19th century
Next morning we were up by half-past five, according to agreement, and
it was ten by the clock before our Jew boys returned to pick us up:
Kelmar, Mrs. Kelmar, and Abramina, all smiling from ear to ear, and full
of tales of the hospitality they had found on the other side. It had not
gone unrewarded; for I observed with interest that the ship's kettles,
all but one, had been "placed." Three Lake County families, at least,
endowed for life with a ship's kettle. Come, this was no misspent
Sunday. The absence of the kettles told its own story: our Jews said
nothing about them; but, on the other hand, they said many kind and
comely things about the people they had met. The two women, in
particular, had been charmed out of themselves by the sight of a young
girl surrounded by her admirers; all evening, it appeared, they had been
triumphing together in the girl's innocent successes, and to this
natural and unselfish joy they gave expression in language that was
beautiful by its simplicity and truth.
Take them for all in all, few people have done my heart more good; they
seem so thoroughly entitled to happiness, and to enjoy it in so large a
measure and so free from after-thought; almost they persuaded me to be a
Jew. There was, indeed, a chink of money in their talk. They
particularly commended people who were well to do. "_He_ don't
care--ain't it?" was their highest word of commendation to an individual
fate; and here I seem to grasp the root of their philosophy--it was to
be free from care, to be free to make these Sunday wanderings, that
they so eagerly pursued after wealth; and all this carefulness was to be
careless. The fine good-humour of all three seemed to declare they had
attained their end. Yet there was the other side to it; and the
recipients of kettles perhaps cared greatly.
No sooner had they returned, than the scene of yesterday began again.
The horses were not even tied with a straw rope this time--it was not
worth while; and Kelmar disappeared into the bar, leaving them under a
tree on the other side of the road. I had to devote myself. I stood
under the shadow of that tree for, I suppose, hard upon an hour, and had
not the heart to be angry. Once some one remembered me, and brought me
out a half a tumblerful of the playful, innocuous American cocktail. I
drank it, and lo! veins of living fire ran down my leg; and then a focus
of conflagration remained seated in my stomach, not unpleasantly, for a
quarter of an hour. I love these sweet, fiery pangs, but I will not
court them. The bulk of the time I spent in repeating as much French
poetry as I could remember to the horses, who seemed to enjoy it hugely.
And now it went--
"O ma vieille Font-georges
Ou volent les rouges-gorges":
and again, to a more trampling measure:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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