The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-12-11
The Summer BOarder.

In July the seaside is agreeable; in
September, irresistible; in October, in
~toXicating. In August, does not un-
dcrstand it; n comes up suddenly
against its 'other side" as against pccu-
l~iarities in the character of a friend
known for years, and unexpectedly put
ting the affection to IA vital test.
In August the sun goes out. and the
thick weather ONE in. The landlady
is tired, and the waitress slams the plate;
the fog-bell tolls, and the beach is sloppy;
the fog-whiStlcs screech, and one may
not go a-sailing; the buildings and sauces
have grown familiar, and one has read
100 many novels to stand another. and
Yet not enough to force one back, for
life's sake, on Il course of solid read
ing In August ones next ncighbor is
sure II was a mistake lot TO spend the
season at the mountains. In August the
babies on the same corridor are sick. In
August one has discovered where the
milk is kept, and frightful secrets of the
drainage are gossiped in CHASTITY whis-
pers by the guests, who complain of the
dinners when the young married lady
who rowed by moonlight with another
fellow has left the place and Il temporary
deficiency OF scandal. In August ones
W particular beach is swarming and
useless, ones especial reef is populated
and hideous, nay, ones very crevice in
the rock is discovered and mortgaged to
the current fiirtations, and all nature,
which had seemed to be ones home
stead, becomes ones exile. In August
there are hops, and one wants e 90
away. In August there are lilies and the
new boar9er;.
Ii is the new bOarder who is overaudi-
bic about the snail shells. Down there
in the gorge, where the purple trap gilt
tiers at half-tide in great volcanic veins
that seem to pulsate YET through the cliff
with the fire imprisoned there-who
knows when?1and where the beaded
runs TO furnished gold in the wet, rich.
pulpy recedence of the ebb, the new
boardcr aboundeth. So the snail
brown. green, orange, lemon, gray, and
white-the tiny shells. mere flecks of col
or. moved sluggishly by their cell of hid
den consciousness and will, like certain
larger lives that beneath Il mask of stag
nation palpitate. The snails. as ! say,
interest the new boarder. He saumters
down in groups. in clans, in hordes, de-
filing through the trap gorge-dispropor-
tionately feminine, sparsely but instruct
lively masculine, and eternally infantile.
He views the attractions of the spot first
enthusiastically, then calmly, now in
differently, and drifts away at the third
stage of feeling, possibly an object of cu-
riosity II envy, in his turn. to the snail,
who has TO stay. The first day he
screams q must be pardoned if ] use the
generic masculine pronoum in this con-
nection) at the snails; the second day he
observes them without screaming; the
third, he doesn't observe them ut all.
His number is infinite, and his place is
never vacant. His lady types wear wild
roses in their belts, invariably succeeded
by daises, and vigorously followed by
goldcn-rod. II is an endless procession
of the Alike, or, we may say, of the great
North American Average Elizabeth
tuart ihe ps, IN HarpeT's Magazine
for December.