Sudden Jim Author:Clarence Budington Kelland Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III UPPER at the Diversity House surprised Jim Ashe so much that it almost ruined his appetite. He had expected the food to match the general effici- ... more ». ency of the place, and had vaguely figured on the possibility of dining on crackers and cheese. This teaches us that, whereas man judges from the outward appearance, he should wait till he sees what comes out of the kitchen. It was the sort of meal you might expect to eat in a prosperous farm-house—plentiful, well cooked, and topped by apple pie that made Jim wish he had started with dessert, continued with dessert, and ended up with a final helping of it. There are few things in this world more delightful than a splendid meal that takes you by surprise. He went out to sit on the porch, cool now with the evening breeze off Lake Michigan. Sitting with his back against a post, and looking as if he had not shifted his position since Jim saw him early in the afternoon, was the gentleman of the white socks and calico shirt. He did not look up as Jim passed to take a chair at the end of the piazza. Presently there drew up before the hotel a ramshackle buggy drawn by an animal that was un- doubtedly still a horse. It was a very Methuselah among horses. The old man who rode in the buggy appeared comparatively youthful beside it. Jim smiled at the turnout, then frowned a trifle, for the old man was the same individual who had rebuffed him so bruskly at the depot. "Hey!" called the old gentleman, without straightening himself from the amazing position in which he sat. "Hey, Dolf—Dolf Springer!" "Eh?" the gentleman in the white socks grunted, sitting erect and gazing about him owlishly. "Was you at the depot to see the six-o'clock come in, Dolf? Eh?" "Calc'lated to be." "Anybody git off, Dolf? Anybody specia...« less