FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115  
116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   >>   >|  
A sudden swelling of his heart, a sudden rush of blood through his brain, a sudden thrill of his lean strong body that seemed to extend to the very heart of the desert, brought Roger to pause in his walking. He gazed for a long moment at the little blue figure astride the horse, and at the tall figure in khaki beside Dick. The March afternoon was hot but with a clear tang that was as exhilarating as winter frost. The range back of the ranch house was brown where the sky line shone clear. But the gashed and eroded sides of the mountains were filled with drifts of purple clouds that melted now in soft blue billows into the sky, now in ragged streams of crimson into canyons black in the distance. The little sounds of the camp were as nothing. The pygmy figures in the alfalfa field were infinitesimal. A new sense of the immensity of the universe poured into Roger's soul with devastating force and for the first time in his life Roger realized his own lack of importance. A moment of this and then the instinct that has lifted man above the brutes spoke in him again. He would not belong to life only through children. He would make himself immortal through his work, work by which men should live and think and have their being for ages to come. With a long sigh, Roger tossed his black hair back from his face and returned to his brick making. CHAPTER VII THE RUNAWAY The three men toiled arduously for two days on the brick making. At the end of that time the desert all about the camp was paved with adobe brick, baking in the sun until Dick should come to start them on their house building. On the evening of the second day, Roger tramped up to the ranch house and proposed to Dick that they exchange work for half a day; Roger to finish Dick's grading, while Dick instructed Gustav and Ernest in the gentle art of adobe laying. But Dick would not strike the bargain. "I've only an hour's work before I'm ready to start the seeding," he said, "and I won't trust any one to attend to that but myself. I'll just ride over to the Sun Plant in the morning and it won't take half an hour to teach you fellows all I know about putting up the house." "I'm going too," said Felicia. She was sitting, cuddling her doll before the fire, for the nights were still cool. "Almost your bedtime, Felicia," warned Charley. The child gave Roger an agonized look. "I brought you a present, Felicia," he said, and pulled the tiny olla
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115  
116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

sudden

 

Felicia

 

figure

 

brought

 

moment

 
desert
 

making

 

Gustav

 

Ernest

 
RUNAWAY

toiled

 
arduously
 

instructed

 

building

 

baking

 

gentle

 

evening

 

finish

 

grading

 

exchange


proposed

 

tramped

 

nights

 

Almost

 

sitting

 

cuddling

 

bedtime

 

present

 

pulled

 

agonized


warned

 
Charley
 

putting

 

attend

 

seeding

 
laying
 

strike

 

bargain

 

fellows

 

morning


belong

 

eroded

 

gashed

 

mountains

 

filled

 

drifts

 
purple
 

crimson

 

canyons

 

distance