mrs. elizabeth crawford
Being harassed all the while by Longstreet, that wretch who resides near the askew bench.
roger bevins iii
Mark you, gentlemen, my subtle understanding of the significant aspects of the costuming: the hooks-and-eyes, the Ellis-In, the intricate Rainy Daisy skirt, I tell you, Scudder, it’s like peeling an onion: unlacing, unhooking, cajoling, until one gets, at last, hardly at a fast pace, to the center of the drama, the jewel — as one would say — its bosky dell—
sam “smooth-boy” longstreet
Who groped and pawed her continually as we went along, Mrs. Crawford remaining blessedly oblivious to his disgusting attentions.
the reverend everly thomas
The lad, overawed, followed close behind us, looking this way and that.
hans vollman
Well now I will give you A part of, or all of, if you like it, a Song my dear husband used to sing. Cauld it Adam and Eaves wedding Song. This Song was Sung by him at my sister’s wedding. He was much in the habit of making Songs and Singing of them and—
Oh no, I won’t go no closer.
Good day to you, sirs.
mrs. elizabeth crawford
We had reached the edge of an uninhabited wilderness of some several hundred yards that ended in the dreaded iron fence.
hans vollman
That noxious limit beyond which we could not venture.
roger bevins iii
How we hated the thing.
hans vollman
The Traynor girl lay as usual, trapped against, and part of, the fence, manifesting at that moment as a sort of horrid blackened furnace.
roger bevins iii
I could not help but recall her first day here, when she uninterruptedly manifested as a spinning young girl in a summer frock of continually shifting color.
the reverend everly thomas
I called out to her and asked her to speak to the lad. About the perils of this place. For the young.
hans vollman
The girl was silent. The door of the furnace she was at that moment only opened, then closed, affording us a brief glimpse of the terrible orange place of heat within.
roger bevins iii
She rapidly transmuted into the fallen bridge, the vulture, the large dog, the terrible hag gorging on black cake, the stand of flood-ravaged corn, the umbrella ripped open by a wind we could not feel.
the reverend everly thomas
Our earnest pleadings did no good. The girl would not talk.
hans vollman
We turned to go.
roger bevins iii
Something about the lad had touched her. The umbrella became the corn; the corn the hag; the hag the girl.
hans vollman
She gestured for him to step forward.
roger bevins iii
The lad approaching cautiously, she began to speak in a low voice we could not hear.
hans vollman
XIII.
Younge Mr Bristol desired me, younge Mr Fellowes and Mr Delway desired me, of an evening they would sit on the grass around me and in their eyes burned the fiercest kindest Desire. In my grape smock I would sit in the wikker chair amid that circle of admiring fierce kind eyes even unto the night when one or another boy would lay back and say, Oh the stars, and I would say, O yes, how fine they look tonight, while (I admit) imagining reclining there beside him, and the other boys, seeing me looking at the reklining one, would also imagine going down to recline there beside me.
It was all very
Then Mother would send Annie to come get me.
I was too early departed. From that party, from that
Brite promise of nights and nights of that, culminating in a choise, and the choise being made, it would be rite, and would become Love, and Love would become baby, and that is all I ask
I want ed so much to hold a dear Babe.
I know very wel I do not look as prety as I onseh. And over time, I admit, I have come to know serten words I did not formerly
Fuk cok shit reem ravage assfuk
And to know, in my mind, serten untoward kwarters where such things
Dim rum swoggling plases off bakalleys
Kome to love them
Crave them plases. And feel such anger.
I did not get any. Thing.
Was gone too soon
To get
Only forteen.
Yrs of aje
Plese do come again sir it has been a pleasure to make your
But fuk yr anshient frends (do not bring them agin) who kome to ogle and mok me and ask me to swindle no that is not the werd slender slander that wich I am doing. Wich is no more than what they are doing. Is it not so? What I am doing, if I only cary on fathefully, will, I am sure, bring about that longed-for return to
Green grass kind looks.
elise traynor
XIV.
Leaving that place the lad went quiet.
That will happen to me? he said.
It most certainly will, Mr. Vollman said.
It is — it is somewhat happening already, the Reverend added delicately.
roger bevins iii
We had reached the place where the dirt path drops down.
the reverend everly thomas
Near Freeley. Near Stevens. Near the four infant Nesbitts and their head-bent Angel.
roger bevins iii
Near Masterton. Near Ambusti. Near the obelisk and the three benches and the high-mounted bust of arrogant Merridale.
hans vollman
I believe, then, that I must do as you say, the boy said.
Good lad, said Mr. Vollman.
roger bevins iii
XV.
We embraced the boy at the door of his white stone home.
hans vollman
He gave us a shy smile, not untouched by trepidation at what was to come.
the reverend everly thomas
Go on, Mr. Bevins said gently. It is for the best.
hans vollman
Off you go, Mr. Vollman said. Nothing left for you here.
roger bevins iii
Goodbye then, the lad said.
Nothing scary about it, Mr. Bevins said. Perfectly natural.
hans vollman
Then it happened.
roger bevins iii
An extraordinary occurrence.
hans vollman
Unprecedented, really.
the reverend everly thomas
The boy’s gaze moved past us.
hans vollman
He seemed to catch sight of something beyond.
roger bevins iii
His face lit up with joy.
hans vollman
Father, he said.
the reverend everly thomas
XVI.
An exceedingly tall and unkempt fellow was making his way toward us through the darkness.
hans vollman
This was highly irregular. It was after hours; the front gate would be locked.
the reverend everly thomas
The boy had been delivered only that day. That is to say, the man had most likely been here—
roger bevins iii
Quite recently.
hans vollman
That afternoon.
roger bevins iii
Highly irregular.
the reverend everly thomas
The gentleman seemed lost. Several times he stopped, looked about, retraced his steps, reversed course.
hans vollman
He was softly sobbing.
roger bevins iii
He was not sobbing. My friend remembers incorrectly. He was winded. He did not sob.
hans vollman
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