FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1020   1021   1022   1023   1024   1025   1026   1027   1028   1029   1030   1031   1032   1033   1034   1035   1036   1037   1038   1039   1040   1041   1042   1043   1044  
1045   1046   1047   1048   1049   1050   1051   1052   1053   1054   1055   1056   1057   1058   1059   1060   1061   1062   1063   1064   1065   1066   1067   1068   1069   >>   >|  
lip did not desire a room at that hour, he was invited to wash himself at the nasty sink, a feat somewhat easier than drying his face, for the towel that hung in a roller over the sink was evidently as much a fixture as the sink itself, and belonged, like the suspended brush and comb, to the traveling public. Philip managed to complete his toilet by the use of his pocket-handkerchief, and declining the hospitality of the landlord, implied in the remark, "You won'd dake notin'?" he went into the open air to wait for breakfast. The country he saw was wild but not picturesque. The mountain before him might be eight hundred feet high, and was only a portion of a long unbroken range, savagely wooded, which followed the stream. Behind the hotel, and across the brawling brook, was another level-topped, wooded range exactly like it. Ilium itself, seen at a glance, was old enough to be dilapidated, and if it had gained anything by being made a wood and water station of the new railroad, it was only a new sort of grime and rawness. P. Dusenheimer, standing in the door of his uninviting groggery, when the trains stopped for water; never received from the traveling public any patronage except facetious remarks upon his personal appearance. Perhaps a thousand times he had heard the remark, "Ilium fuit," followed in most instances by a hail to himself as "AEneas," with the inquiry "Where is old Anchises?" At first he had replied, "Dere ain't no such man;" but irritated by its senseless repetition, he had latterly dropped into the formula of, "You be dam." Philip was recalled from the contemplation of Ilium by the rolling and growling of the gong within the hotel, the din and clamor increasing till the house was apparently unable to contain it; when it burst out of the front door and informed the world that breakfast was on the table. The dining room was long, low and narrow, and a narrow table extended its whole length. Upon this was spread a cloth which from appearance might have been as long in use as the towel in the barroom. Upon the table was the usual service, the heavy, much nicked stone ware, the row of plated and rusty castors, the sugar bowls with the zinc tea-spoons sticking up in them, the piles of yellow biscuits, the discouraged-looking plates of butter. The landlord waited, and Philip was pleased to observe the change in his manner. In the barroom he was the conciliatory landlord. Standing behind his gue
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1020   1021   1022   1023   1024   1025   1026   1027   1028   1029   1030   1031   1032   1033   1034   1035   1036   1037   1038   1039   1040   1041   1042   1043   1044  
1045   1046   1047   1048   1049   1050   1051   1052   1053   1054   1055   1056   1057   1058   1059   1060   1061   1062   1063   1064   1065   1066   1067   1068   1069   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Philip
 
landlord
 
wooded
 

remark

 
breakfast
 

narrow

 
barroom
 
public
 

appearance

 

traveling


clamor

 
Anchises
 

inquiry

 

instances

 

apparently

 
increasing
 

AEneas

 

unable

 

replied

 

repetition


dropped

 

irritated

 

senseless

 

formula

 

growling

 

rolling

 

recalled

 

contemplation

 
yellow
 
biscuits

discouraged

 
sticking
 

spoons

 

plates

 

conciliatory

 

Standing

 

manner

 

change

 

butter

 

waited


pleased

 
observe
 

castors

 

extended

 

length

 
spread
 
dining
 

informed

 

plated

 
nicked