FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   925   926   927   928   929   930   931   932   933   934   935   936   937   938   939   940   941   942   943   944   945   946   947   948   949  
950   951   952   953   954   955   956   957   958   959   960   961   962   963   964   965   966   967   968   969   970   971   972   973   974   >>   >|  
er and sugar, and a certain suspicion of strong waters, over which a little nutmeg being grated, and in it the hot iron being then allowed to sizzle, there results a peculiar singed aroma, which the wise regard as a warning to remove themselves at once out of the reach of temptation. But the bar of Pollard's Tahvern no longer presented its old attractions, and the loggerheads had long disappeared from the fire. In place of the decanters, were boxes containing "lozengers," as they were commonly called, sticks of candy in jars, cigars in tumblers, a few lemons, grown hard-skinned and marvellously shrunken by long exposure, but still feebly suggestive of possible lemonade,--the whole ornamented by festoons of yellow and blue cut flypaper. On the front shelf of the bar stood a large German-silver pitcher of water, and scattered about were ill-conditioned lamps, with wicks that always wanted picking, which burned red and smoked a good deal, and were apt to go out without any obvious cause, leaving strong reminiscences of the whale-fishery in the circumambient air. The common schoolhouses of Rockland were dwarfed by the grandeur of the Apollinean Institute. The master passed one of them, in a walk he was taking, soon after his arrival at Rockland. He looked in at the rows of desks, and recalled his late experiences. He could not help laughing, as he thought how neatly he had knocked the young butcher off his pins. "A little science is a dangerous thing, 'as well as a little 'learning,'" he said to himself; "only it's dangerous to the fellow you' try it on." And he cut him a good stick, and began climbing the side of The Mountain to get a look at that famous Rattlesnake Ledge. CHAPTER VI. THE SUNBEAM AND THE SHADOW. The virtue of the world is not mainly in its leaders. In the midst of the multitude which follows there is often something better than in the one that goes before. Old generals wanted to take Toulon, but one of their young colonels showed them how. The junior counsel has been known not unfrequently to make a better argument than his senior fellow,--if, indeed, he did not make both their arguments. Good ministers will tell you they have parishioners who beat them in the practice of the virtues. A great establishment, got up on commercial principles, like the Apollinean Institute, might yet be well carried on, if it happened to get good teachers. And when Master Langdon came to see its manag
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   925   926   927   928   929   930   931   932   933   934   935   936   937   938   939   940   941   942   943   944   945   946   947   948   949  
950   951   952   953   954   955   956   957   958   959   960   961   962   963   964   965   966   967   968   969   970   971   972   973   974   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

strong

 

dangerous

 
fellow
 

wanted

 

Rockland

 

Apollinean

 

Institute

 
recalled
 

experiences

 

Mountain


Rattlesnake

 

CHAPTER

 

famous

 

Master

 
looked
 

climbing

 

science

 

laughing

 

thought

 

neatly


butcher

 

knocked

 
learning
 
Langdon
 
parishioners
 

ministers

 
arguments
 

practice

 
virtues
 
carried

principles
 

commercial

 
teachers
 
establishment
 

senior

 

multitude

 
happened
 
leaders
 

SHADOW

 
virtue

unfrequently

 

argument

 

counsel

 

junior

 

generals

 

Toulon

 
colonels
 

showed

 
SUNBEAM
 

grandeur