FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   >>   >|  
d her to the utterance of a warning--she could not help herself,--and I--I should have been more careful!--I should not have left my little one for a moment,--but I never thought any harm could come to him--no, never to _him_! I was always sure God was too good for that!" Moaning drearily, he rocked the dead boy to and fro. "Kiddie--my Kiddie!" he murmured--"Little one with my love's eyes!--heart's darling with my love's face! Don't go to sleep, Kiddie!--not just yet!--wake up and kiss me once!--only once again, Kiddie!" "Oh, Tom!" sobbed Elizabeth,--"Oh, poor, poor Tom!" At the sound of her voice he raised his head and looked up at her. There was a strange expression on his face,--a fixed and terrible stare in his eyes. Suddenly he broke into a wild laugh. "Ha-ha!" he cried. "Poor Tom! Tom o' the Gleam! That's me!--the me that was not always me! Not always me--no!--not always Tom o' the Gleam! It was a bold life I led in the woods long ago!--a life full of sunshine and laughter--a life for a man with man's blood in his veins! Away out in the land that once was old Provence, we jested and sang the hours away,--the women with their guitars and mandolines--the men with their wild dances and tambourines,--and love was the keynote of the music--love!--always love! Love in the sunshine!--love under the moonbeams!--bright eyes in which to drown one's soul,--red lips on which to crush one's heart!--Ah, God!--such days when we were young! 'Ah! Craignons de perdre un seul jour, De la belle saison de l'amour!'" He sang these lines in a rich baritone, clear and thrilling with passion, and the men grouped about him, not understanding what he sang, glanced at one another with an uneasy sense of fear. All at once he struggled to his feet without assistance, and stood upright, still clasping the body of his child in his arms. "Come, come!" he said thickly--"It's time we were off, Kiddie! We must get across the moor and into camp. It's time for all lambs to be in the fold;--time to go to bed, my little lad! Good-night, mates! Good-night! I know you all,--and you all know me--you like fair play! Fair play all round, eh? Not one law for the rich and another for the poor! Even justice, boys! Justice! Justice!" Here his voice broke in a great and awful cry,--blood sprang from his lips--his face grew darkly purple,--and like a huge tree snapped asunder by a storm, he reeled heavily to the ground. One of the const
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Kiddie
 

sunshine

 

Justice

 

baritone

 

understanding

 
saison
 
glanced
 

upright

 
assistance
 

passion


uneasy

 

grouped

 
struggled
 

thrilling

 
sprang
 

darkly

 
justice
 
purple
 

heavily

 

ground


reeled

 

snapped

 

asunder

 

thickly

 

perdre

 

clasping

 

Provence

 

murmured

 

Little

 

darling


looked

 
strange
 

raised

 

sobbed

 

Elizabeth

 
careful
 

utterance

 
warning
 

moment

 
Moaning

drearily
 

rocked

 
thought
 
expression
 

tambourines

 

keynote

 
dances
 

mandolines

 
guitars
 

moonbeams