THUNDER ON THE LEFT OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR _Fiction_ PARNASSUS ON WHEELS THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP KATHLEEN TALES FROM A ROLLTOP DESK WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS PANDORA LIFTS THE LID (_with Don Marquis_) _Essays_ SHANDYGAFF MINCE PIE PIPEFULS PLUM PUDDING TRAVELS IN PHILADELPHIA THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY INWARD HO! RELIGIO JOURNALISTICI _Poetry_ SONGS FOR A LITTLE HOUSE THE ROCKING HORSE HIDE AND SEEK CHIMNEYSMOKE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE CHINESE PARSONS’ PLEASURE _Plays_ ONE ACT PLAYS _Thunder_ ON The LEFT _A_mong the notionable dictes of antique Rome was the fancy that when men heard thunder on the left the gods had somewhat of speciall advertisement to impart. _T_hen did the prudent pause and lay down their affaire to studye what omen Jove intended. --SIR EUSTACE PEACHTREE. _THE DANGERS OF THIS MORTALL LIFE._ _By_ CHRISTOPHER MORLEY [Illustration] _Garden City_ _New York_ DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1925 COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY HARPER & BROTHERS. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. FIRST EDITION TO S. A. E. The undertaking a comedy not merely sentimental was very dangerous. --OLIVER GOLDSMITH. On parla des passions. “Ah! qu’elles sont funestes!” disait Zadig.--“Ce sont les vents qui enflent les voiles du vaisseau,” repartit l’ermite: “elles le submergent quelquefois; mais sans elles il ne pourrait voguer. La bile rend colère et malade; mais sans la bile l’homme ne saurait vivre. Tout est dangereux ici-bas, et tout est nécessaire.” --VOLTAIRE, _Zadig_. “Your mind had to be tormented and fevered and exalted before you could see a god.” “It was cruel of you to do this,” she said. --JAMES STEPHENS, _In the Land of Youth_. THUNDER ON THE LEFT Thunder on the Left I Now that the children were getting big, it wasn’t to be called the Nursery any longer. In fact, it was being repapered that very day: the old scribbled Mother Goose pattern had already been covered with new strips, damp and bitter-smelling. But Martin thought he would be able to remember the gay fairy-tale figures, even under the bright fresh paper. There were three bobtailed mice, dancing. They were repeated several times in the procession of pictures that ran round the wall. How often he had studied them as he lay in bed waiting for it to be time to get up. It must be excellent to be Grown Up and able to dress as early as you please. What a golden light lies across the garden those summer mornings.