FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   >>  
e without a drop," I heard one call out. "No; not to save your lives, I wouldn't!" he shouted back, his boat striking the beach. Springing out and catching Emily by the shoulder, pushing her before him,--"Go into the Hulk, child." Then, lowering his voice to me, "They are all alike, d--- them, all alike. Just such a gang! I know 'em, I know 'em. Get you a drink? I'll see you dead first, d--- you. See you dead first; do you hear?" His face was livid, his eyes blazing with anger. The crew turned and shot up the river, grumbling as they went. Brockway unloaded his boat, clutching the tongs as if they were weapons; then, tying the painter to a stake, sat down and watched me at work. Soon Emily crept back and slipped one hand around her grandfather's neck. "Do you think you can ever do that, little Frowsy-head?" he said, pointing to my sketch. I looked up. His face was as serene and sunny as that of the child beside him. Gradually I came to know these people better. I never could tell why, our tastes being so dissimilar. I fancied, sometimes, from a remark the old man once made, that he had perhaps known some one who had been a painter, and that I reminded him of his friend, and on that account he trusted me; for I often detected him examining my brushes, spreading the bristles on his palm, or holding them to the light with a critical air. I could see, too, that their touch was not new to him. As for me, the picturesqueness of the Hulk, the simple mode of life of the inmates, their innate refinement, the unselfish devotion of little Emily to the old man, the conflicting elements in his character, his fierceness--almost brutality--at times, his extreme gentleness at others, his rough treatment of every stranger who attempted to land on his shore, his tenderness over the child, all combined to pique my curiosity to know something of his earlier life. Moreover, I constantly saw new beauties in the old Hulk. It always seemed to adapt itself to the changing moods of the weather,--being grave or gay as the skies lowered or smiled. In the dull November days, when the clouds drifted in straight lines of slaty gray, it assumed a weird, forbidding look. When the wind blew a gale from the northeast, and the back water of the river overflowed the marsh,--submerging the withered grass and breaking high upon the foot-bridge,--it seemed for all the world like the original tenement of old Noah himself, derelict ever since his di
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   >>  



Top keywords:

painter

 
holding
 
gentleness
 

treatment

 
tenderness
 
brushes
 
combined
 

bristles

 

stranger

 

spreading


attempted
 

picturesqueness

 

unselfish

 

devotion

 
simple
 
innate
 

refinement

 

conflicting

 

elements

 
brutality

extreme
 

inmates

 

character

 

fierceness

 
critical
 

northeast

 

overflowed

 
withered
 

submerging

 
forbidding

breaking
 

tenement

 

derelict

 

original

 

bridge

 
assumed
 

changing

 

weather

 

beauties

 
earlier

Moreover

 

constantly

 

clouds

 

drifted

 
straight
 

November

 

lowered

 
examining
 

smiled

 

curiosity