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Search - Love - or a Name

Love or a Name
Author: Julian Hawthorne

an excerpt from: CHAPTER I. WARREN BELL. — Warren Bell, though not more than twenty-five or -six years old, had already trained himself to observe certain rules of conduct, one of which was, before embarking upon an adventure, to find out all he could about it. This was the more creditable to him, because he was by nature ... more »impetuous and sudden. When he was quite a small boy he had been prone to wild outbursts of passion, in which he became uncontrollable. In the midst of one of these paroxysms his father caught him up, as he was raging and tearing on the floor, and put him on the mantelpiece. The mantelpiece was of an old-fashioned design, five feet above the floor, and scarce as many inches wide. It was a ticklish place to balance oneself on at the best of times, but as a stage for a boy of six to kick out his frenzy in, it was acutely dangerous; and Warren had sense enough left to understand it. By an effort that brought out a cold sweat on his heated skin, he controlled himself, and stood bolt upright and perfectly still-except that the thumping of his heart shook him a little. His father said: ' That proves you can behave yourself if you choose to. Mind I never catch you in a rage again !' Warren stood there for an hour and thought it over. Then his father took him down and his mother caressed and comforted him. But he never forgot the insight into himself which the incident had given him. His passions and impulses were strong, but, if he chose, he was stronger. And for the most part, though with certain important exceptions, as we shall see, he did so choose, in the future. I have actually begun this story with a digression. In accordance with his acquired habit of looking ahead, instead of first jumping, Warren Bell had studied the railway time-table in New York before taking the Down-East train; and he had found that he would have to wait nearly four hours at Pinetree Junction. He was still too young to believe that he could afford time to wait anywhere, and certainly not four hours at Pinetree Junction, of all places in the world. Meditating upon the matter, therefore, he made up his mind to make the distance from the Junction to Hickory on foot. It was not more than sixteen miles, and three years ago a tramp like that had been nothing to Warren Bell. The road was familiar to him from of old, and, if he compassed the journey even in four hours, he would gain nearly a fourth of that time upon the train. Besides, although the month was early May, and spring in New England has acquired a bad name, it happened on this occasion to be very fine weather. The air was cool but soft, the morning sun was bright, the sky was pale at the horizon and blue at the zenith, and the youthful sap was flowing in every tree and plant, and in the veins of every rightly constituted human being as well. It was just the day for a walk; and, moreover, Warren had an idea that the exercise would help him to turn thoroughly over in his mind the several aspects of the errand on which he was revisiting the home of his boyhood. Accordingly, when he reached Pinetree Junction, he left directions with the elderly and rheumatic personage who, with a three-days' beard on his meagre jaws, a black coat that had become greenish about the shoulders, and a pessimistic eye, performed the duties of station-master, ticket-seller, railway-gate lifter, and baggage-smasher, to forward his-trunk to Hickory by the next opportunity; while he himself stretched his legs, buttoned up his coat, grasped his cane, and prepared for his journey. ' Ain't your name Bell ?' demanded the elderly factotum, not looking at the person he was addressing, but at right angles away from him. ' Yes; and you are Major Witherbee, airn't you ? ' 'Well, I guess everybody knows who I am. Le's see,-father's dead, ain't he ?'

ISBN-13: 9780559568787
ISBN-10: 0559568789
Publication Date: 11/13/2008
Pages: 282
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: BiblioBazaar
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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