FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   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   >>   >|  
beloved hardware store would be the death of him. It was a neighborly crowd that waited for the 10:27. And as it waited Jim Tumley started singing "Auld Lang Syne." He began very softly but soon the melody swelled to a clear sweetness that hushed the laughing chatter and stilled the shuffling feet of the Pullman passengers who crowded the train vestibules or strolled in weary patience along the station platform. Then the 10:27 swung around the curve and the good-bys began. "So long, dear folks! I shall write. Don't you dare cry, Grandma. I'll be back next lilac time. Remember, oh, just remember, all you Green Valley folks, that I'll be back when the lilacs bloom again!" Nanny's voice, husky with laughter and tears, rippled back to the cluster of old neighbors waving hats and handkerchiefs. They watched her standing in the golden light of the car doorway until the train vanished from their sight. Then they drifted away in twos and threes. From the dimmest corner of the observation platform a man had witnessed the departure of Nanny Ainslee. He had heard Jim's song, had caught the girl's farewells. And now he was delightedly repeating to himself her promise--"I'll be back when the lilacs bloom again." Then quite suddenly he stepped from the train and made his way to where the magenta-pink and violet lights of Martin's drugstore glowed in the night. He bought a soda and some magazines and asked the druggist an odd question. "When," asked the stranger, smiling, "will the lilacs bloom again in this town?" Martin, who for hours had been rushing madly about, waiting on the thirsty crowd of stalled visitors, stopped to stare. But he answered. Something in the mysteriously rich face of the big, brown boy made him eager to answer. "From the middle of next May on into early June." The stranger smiled his thanks in a way that made Martin look at his clerk with a mournful eye. "Jee-rusalem! Now, Eddie, why can't you smile like that? Say, if I had _that_ fellow behind this soda counter I'd be doing a rushing business every night." When the Limited was again winging its way toward the Golden West and train life had settled down to its regular routine, one dining-car waiter was saying to another: "Yes, sah--the gentleman in Number 7 is sure the mighty-nicest white man I eber did see. And he sure does like rice. Says he comes from India where everybody eats it all the time. I ain' sure but wh
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

lilacs

 

Martin

 

rushing

 
platform
 

stranger

 

waited

 

middle

 

answer

 

waiting

 
smiling

question

 

bought

 

magazines

 
druggist
 

answered

 

Something

 

mysteriously

 

stopped

 

smiled

 

thirsty


stalled

 
visitors
 
gentleman
 

Number

 
routine
 

regular

 

dining

 

waiter

 

mighty

 

nicest


settled

 
glowed
 

rusalem

 

mournful

 
fellow
 
winging
 

Golden

 

Limited

 
counter
 
business

station

 

patience

 

vestibules

 

crowded

 
strolled
 
hardware
 
Grandma
 

Remember

 
beloved
 

passengers