FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161  
162   163   164   165   166   167   >>  
our head. A vacation just now would only aggravate the difficulty. I wouldn't have a moment's peace knowing this South American business might be bungled. I'd worry myself to death." * * * * * The funeral of Mr. Crandall was certainly one of the most splendid spectacles the city had seen for many a day. The papers all spoke highly of the qualities of the dead manufacturer, whose growth had been typical of the growth of the city. The eloquent minister spoke of the inscrutable ways of Providence in cutting off a man in his prime, and in the very height of his usefulness. THE FAILURE OF BRADLEY. The skater lightly laughs and glides, Unknowing that beneath the ice On which he carves his fair device A stiffened corpse in silence glides. It glareth upward at his play; Its cold, blue, rigid fingers steal Beneath the tracings of his heel. It floats along and floats away. --Unknown Poem. "If I only had the courage," said Bradley, as he looked over the stone parapet of the embankment at the dark waters of the Thames as they flashed for a moment under the glitter of the gaslight and then disappeared in the black night to flash again farther down. "Very likely I would struggle to get out again the moment I went over," he muttered to himself. "But if no help came it would all be done with, in a minute. Two minutes perhaps. I'll warrant those two minutes would seem an eternity. I would see a hundred ways of making a living, if I could only get out again. Why can't I see one now while I _am_ out. My father committed suicide, why shouldn't I? I suppose it runs in the family. There seems to come a time when it is the only way out. I wonder if he hesitated? I'm a coward, that's the trouble." After a moment's hesitation the man slowly climbed on the top of the stone wall and then paused again. He looked with a shudder at the gloomy river. "I'll do it," he cried aloud, and was about to slide down, when a hand grasped his arm and a voice said: "_What_ will you do?" In the light of the gas-lamp Bradley saw a man whose face seemed familiar and although he thought rapidly, "Where have I seen that man before?" he could not place him. "Nothing," answered Bradley sullenly. "That's right," was the a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161  
162   163   164   165   166   167   >>  



Top keywords:
moment
 

Bradley

 

glides

 

growth

 
minutes
 

floats

 
looked
 

committed

 
suicide
 
father

suppose

 

family

 

shouldn

 

vacation

 

aggravate

 
minute
 
difficulty
 

wouldn

 

eternity

 
hesitated

hundred

 

making

 

warrant

 

living

 

trouble

 

familiar

 

thought

 

rapidly

 
answered
 
sullenly

Nothing

 
paused
 

climbed

 

slowly

 

coward

 

hesitation

 

shudder

 
grasped
 

gloomy

 
Unknowing

funeral

 

beneath

 

laughs

 
lightly
 
FAILURE
 

BRADLEY

 

skater

 

corpse

 

silence

 

glareth