FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  
ated railroad or the Aquarium Building, and the Coney Island steamer dock with the barkers yelling and gesturing, and the loafers on the benches in between, and from that I'd look down the bay and see the Statue of Liberty--some morning that would be, maybe, when the sun was lighting up New York Bay as it does some mornings, or maybe it would be on a late afternoon, with the sun setting over on the Jersey shore, the dark smoke from a hundred chimneys smooching across the pink and purple of it, and, if 'twas summer, a haze like a bridal veil over it all, and between that and the Battery the life of a hundred craft--ferry-boats, tow-boats, lighters, windjammers, steam-yachts, ocean-liners, harbor, coastwise and foreign bound, a hundred different kinds coming and going, the Lord knows where, but to where no four walls will bound 'em for a time, be sure of that. And if ever I did look and looked long enough, be sure the earth would look like it was rolling by too slow and I'd want to get out and give it a push to speed it up. No, no. That"--he looked up at the serene blue--"for my ceiling. And that"--he pointed to the dimpling green sea--"for my office floor. And that"--he waved a hand to space--"for a window. And let all the bruising bosuns and bucko ship's officers afloat jump on me, but give me that and I'll take a chance. And--" He stopped short and sighed. "I do get going sometimes, don't I?" He looked around the deck. In a bucket of water by the rail the bosun was bathing his battered features. "The bosun reminds me. To-day I promised him I'd finish my Flying Walrus song." "Go ahead and finish it--that first verse was pretty good." "The second's better--or I think so. And"--he grinned at the passenger--"I composed it myself, too, to an air running in my head. And I suppose I ought to finish it. And yet"--the bosun was pouring, very quietly, his bucket of wash water into the scuppers--"that would be sort of rubbing it in, wouldn't it?" "What of it? It will do them all good." "I don't know about that. If it"--and just then three bells struck, and three bells on the _Rapidan_ meant supper for the watch below. Kieran left to go to supper, and the passenger noted the deference of the crew toward him. Not one who found himself in his way but hopped swiftly aside to give him gangway. "How conducive to high judgment, how accelerating to respect is success," mused the passenger. "Two hours ago hardly one of them
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

passenger

 
looked
 

finish

 

hundred

 

supper

 

bucket

 
running
 
composed
 

Walrus

 

grinned


reminds

 

sighed

 

Flying

 

bathing

 

battered

 
pretty
 

promised

 
features
 

hopped

 

swiftly


gangway

 

deference

 

conducive

 
success
 

judgment

 

accelerating

 

respect

 

scuppers

 
rubbing
 

wouldn


stopped

 

quietly

 
suppose
 

pouring

 

Kieran

 

Rapidan

 
struck
 
purple
 

summer

 

smooching


Jersey
 

chimneys

 

bridal

 

windjammers

 

yachts

 

liners

 

lighters

 
Battery
 

setting

 
afternoon