FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   188   189   190   >>  
used the hot and cold water, and didn't use the illumination." "That's so," said poppa. "Well, then the fellow said it was done all on my account, or words to that effect, and that it was a beautiful illumination and worth twice the money, and as it was the rule of the hotel he'd have to trouble me for the price of it." "Did you oblige him?" asked poppa. "Yes, I did. I hated to awfully, but you never can tell where the law will land you in a foreign country, especially when you can't converse with the judge, and I don't expect any stranger could get justice in Schaffhausen against an hotel anyway. But I sent for my party's trunks, and we moved--down there to that little thing like a castle overhanging the Falls. It was a castle once, I believe, but it's a deception now, for they've turned it into an hotel." "Find it comfortable there?" inquired the Senator. "Well, I'm telling you. Pretty comfortable. You could sit in the garden and get as wet as you liked from the spray, and no extra charge; and if you wanted to eat apricots at the same time they only cost you a franc apiece. So when I saw how moderate they were every way, I didn't think I'd have any trouble about the illumination, specially as I heard that the three hotels which compose Schaffhausen subscribed to run the electric plant, and I'd already helped one hotel with its subscription." "When did you move in here?" asked poppa. "I am coming to that. Well, I saw the show that night. I happened to be on an outside balcony when it came off, and I couldn't help seeing it. I wouldn't let myself out so far as to enjoy it, for fear it might prejudice me later, but I certainly looked on. You can't keep your eyes shut for three-quarters of an hour for the sake of a principle valued at a franc a head." "I expect you had to pay," said poppa. "You're so impatient. I looked coldly on, and between the different coloured acts I made a calculation of the amount the hotel opposite was losing by its extortion. I took considerable satisfaction in doing it. You can get excited over a little thing like that just as much as if it were the entire Monroe Doctrine; and I couldn't sleep, hardly, that night for thinking of the things I'd say to the hotel clerk if the illumination item decorated the bill next day. Cut myself shaving in the morning over it--thing I never do. Well, there it was--'_Illumination de la chute de la Rhin_,' same old French story, a franc apie
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   188   189   190   >>  



Top keywords:

illumination

 

expect

 

Schaffhausen

 

comfortable

 

castle

 
looked
 
couldn
 

trouble

 

Illumination

 

wouldn


morning

 

shaving

 

prejudice

 

subscription

 
helped
 

coming

 

balcony

 

happened

 

French

 
things

extortion
 

thinking

 
losing
 

electric

 

calculation

 

amount

 
opposite
 

considerable

 

Doctrine

 

entire


excited

 

satisfaction

 

valued

 

principle

 

quarters

 

Monroe

 

coloured

 

coldly

 

impatient

 

decorated


charge

 

foreign

 

country

 

converse

 

trunks

 

stranger

 

justice

 
oblige
 

fellow

 

account