FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  
l employment. I hungered to join the army or go to sea. But here again were the wife and boy. I felt like going into the Northwest and preempting a homestead. That was a saner idea, but it took capital and I didn't have enough. I was tied hand and foot. It was like one of those nightmares where in the face of danger you are suddenly struck dumb and immovable. I was beginning to look wild-eyed. Ruth and I were living on bread, without butter, and canned soup. I sneaked in town with a few books and sold them for enough to keep the boy supplied with meat. My shoes were worn out at the bottom and my clothes were getting decidedly seedy. The men with whom I was in the habit of riding to town in the morning gave me as wide a berth as though I had the leprosy. I guess they were afraid my hard luck was catching. God pity them, many of them were dangerously near the rim of this same hell themselves. One morning my wife came to me reluctantly, but with her usual courage, and said: "Billy, the grocery man didn't bring our order last night." It was like a sword-thrust. It made me desperate. But the worst of the middle-class hell is that there is nothing to fight back at. There you are. I couldn't say anything. There was no answer. My eyes must have looked queer, for Ruth came nearer and whispered: "Don't go in town to-day, Billy." I had on my hat and had gathered up two or three more volumes in my green bag. I looked at the trim little house that had been my home for so long. The rent would be due next month. I looked at the other trim little houses around me. Was it actually possible that a man could starve in such a community? It seemed like a satanic joke. Why, every year this country was absorbing immigrants by the thousand. They did not go hungry. They waxed fat and prosperous. There was Pasquale, the bootblack, who was earning nearly as much as I ever did. We were standing on the porch. I took Ruth in my arms and kissed her. She drew back with a modest protest that the neighbors might see. The word neighbors goaded me. I shook my fist at their trim little houses and voiced a passion that had slowly been gathering strength. "Damn the neighbors!" I cried. Ruth was startled. I don't often swear. "Have they been talking about you?" she asked suddenly, her mouth hardening. "I don't know. I don't care. But they hold you in ransom like bloody Moroccan pirates." "How do they, Billy?" "They won't let me wor
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

looked

 

neighbors

 
houses
 

suddenly

 

morning

 

starve

 

immigrants

 
community
 

country

 

satanic


absorbing

 

volumes

 

gathered

 
thousand
 
standing
 

talking

 

startled

 
gathering
 

slowly

 

strength


hardening
 

pirates

 
Moroccan
 

ransom

 

bloody

 

passion

 

voiced

 

earning

 

whispered

 
bootblack

hungry

 

prosperous

 

Pasquale

 
goaded
 

kissed

 
modest
 
protest
 

living

 

butter

 
canned

struck

 
immovable
 
beginning
 

sneaked

 

bottom

 

clothes

 

supplied

 
danger
 
Northwest
 

employment