Part 59 (1/2)
At home I found Eleanore asleep. For a time I sat at my desk and made some notes for my writing. I read and smoked for a little, then undressed and went to bed. But still I lay there wide awake--thinking of this home of mine and of where I might be in a few months more, in this year that no man can see beyond. For all the changes in the world seemed gathering in a cyclone now.
I was nearly asleep when I was roused by a thick voice from the harbor.
Low in the distance, deep but now rising blast on blast, its waves of sound beat into the city--into millions of ears of sleepers and watchers, the well, the sick and the dying, the dead, the lovers, the schemers, the dreamers, the toilers, the spenders and wasters. I shut my eyes and saw the huge liner on which Joe was sailing moving slowly out of its slip. Down at its bottom men shoveling coal to the clang of its gong. On the decks above them, hundreds of cabins and suites de luxe--most of them dark and empty now. Bellowing impatiently as it swept out into the stream, it seemed to be saying:
”Make way for me. Make way, all you little men. Make way, all you habits and all you inst.i.tutions, all you little creeds and G.o.ds. For I am the start of the voyage--over the ocean to heathen lands! And I am always starting out and always bearing you along! For I am your molder, I am strong--I am a surprise, I am a shock--I am a dazzling pa.s.sion of hope--I am a grim executioner! I am reality--I am life! I am the book that has no end.”
JOHN FOX, JR'S.
STORIES OF THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.
Ill.u.s.trated by F. C. Yohn.
The ”lonesome pine” from which the story takes its name was a tall tree that stood in solitary splendor on a mountain top. The fame of the pine lured a young engineer through Kentucky to catch the trail, and when he finally climbed to its shelter he found not only the pine but the _foot-prints of a girl_. And the girl proved to be lovely, piquant, and the trail of these girlish foot-prints led the young engineer a madder chase than ”the trail of the lonesome pine.”
THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME
Ill.u.s.trated by F. C. Yohn.
This is a story of Kentucky, in a settlement known as ”Kingdom Come.” It is a life rude, semi-barbarous; but natural and honest, from which often springs the flower of civilization.
”Chad,” the ”little shepherd” did not know who he was nor whence he came--he had just wandered from door to door since early childhood, seeking shelter with kindly mountaineers who gladly fathered and mothered this waif about whom there was such a mystery--a charming waif, by the way, who could play the banjo better that anyone else in the mountains.
A KNIGHT OF THE c.u.mBERLAND.
Ill.u.s.trated by F. C. Yohn.
The scenes are laid along the waters of the c.u.mberland, the lair of moons.h.i.+ner and feudsman. The knight is a moons.h.i.+ner's son, and the heroine a beautiful girl perversely christened ”The Blight.” Two impetuous young Southerners fall under the spell of ”The Blight's”
charms and she learns what a large part jealousy and pistols have in the love making of the mountaineers.
Included in this volume is ”h.e.l.l fer-Sartain” and other stories, some of Mr. Fox's most entertaining c.u.mberland valley narratives.
STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY GENE STRATTON-PORTER
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list