Amnesiacs -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Trials -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
The evening grew late. A very light breeze moved the tops of the
hemlocks and their pointed heads moved darkly like nodding cowls,
their brooding spell took the restlessness out of Shipman and he gazed
lovingly up into their fronded gloom. "Thank God for trees, the great
brotherhood of the woodland priests," he murmured. Watts filled his
pipe, gazing affectionately at those dark brothers, saying softly, "The
Greeks got you better than we do, the souls and conscience of you; they
trained their minds to regard you as some great principle connected
with man and woman and so it was easy for them to imagine you as gods
and goddesses. But we," grumbled the lawyer, "we with our superb logic
and 'practical' minds have crystallized you into just 'trees,' things
that we plant for our shade and cut down for our fuel and on which we
grow fruit. Friends," said the man softly, as he went to one tree trunk
and laid his arm around it, "walk with us like teachers; be one with
us, take us farther and farther into your counsels and your mysteries
and your reticences." Watts Shipman laughed a little, then a guttural
sound from Friar Tuck roused him from his revery.
"You did that before," pointing his pipe at the russet head and solemn
eyes. "You," accusingly, "did that before." Friar Tuck groveled and
whined. Watts, leaning over to pat him, laughed.
"Tuck, old chap, why do you cringe so? I've never hit you, nor as far
as I know has any other man. Why do you act so humbly? You know as much
as I do, the only difference is that you don't know you know, and I do;
but, after all, I only think I know, and that doesn't prove anything,
so cheer up, _mon vieux_;" but at a distinctly menacing growl from
the dog, Watts walked to the edge of the cliff to where his lamp was
placed, and stared into the darkness.
"Shut up, you old barometer, no one can be coming up the mountain
road at this hour, anyway not on this spur." The man peered at his
leather-cased wrist-watch. "After eleven o'clock, and no one uses that
mountain road at night; the driving's rotten and the walking's too
craggy and storm-bitten for anything but snakes and foxes. Unless----"
Watts thought of the mysterious ways of moving-picture campers. Going
to the edge of the height on which the organ builder's house stood,
he peered down to the road curving far underneath. "By all that's
American!" he breathed; "by the Great Original Flapper!"
For a long line of cars was ascending the steep mountain road, winding
in and out of the turns. The young drivers, leaning out, cheered to
each other, calling challenges, experimenting with different gears,
and bawling advice and congratulations on the climbing power of their
machines. The lateness of the hour seemed no curb to their haste
or their assurance, nor did the impassable road rouse a feeling of
insecurity. They were merely interested in the one car that should
reach the top first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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