Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-06-25


him up and down the sunlit platform.
The two mOn seemed to be learning
polka mazourkas together, and the bur
den of their song, borne by one deep
voice, was, What did you give me the
drink fOr?'
saw the flash of silver in the doc
tors hand. The navy took it, and
pocketed it with his left, but never for
an instant did his strong right leave the
DOCTORS coat collar, and as the crisis
approached louder and louder rose his
bull-like roar, "What did you give me
the drink for?"
They drifted under the great , inch
pinned timbers Of the footbridge toward
the bench, and, gathered, the time was
very near at hand. The stuff was get
ting in its work. Blue, white and blue
again rolled over the navvys face in
waves, till all settled to one rich clay
bank yellow and-that fell which fell
thought of the blowing up of He'll
Gate, of the geysers i'll the Yellowstone
park, of Jonah and his whale, but the
lively original, as 1 watched it fore
shortened from above, exceeded all
these things He staggered to the bench,
the heavy wooden seat champed with
iron cramps into the enduring stone,
and chung there with his left hand 1t
quivered and shook, as a breakwater
pile quivers to the rush Of landward
racing seas. Nor was there lacking when
he caught his breath the scream of "a
maddened beach dragged down by the
ti1n ~ His riuht hand fta
doctors collar, so that the two shook to
one paroxysm, pendulums vibrating to-
gether, while l, apart, shook with them.
1t was colossal, immense, but of GER
tain manifestations the English Ian
guage stops short. French only, tho
oaryatid French Of Victor Hugo, would
have described it, so | mourned while |
laughed, hastily shutting and discard
ing inadequate adjectives. The vehe-
mence of the shock spent itself, and the
sufferer half fell, half knelt across tho
bench. He was calling now upon God
and his wife, huskily, as the wounded
bull calls upon the unscathed herd to
stay. Curiously enough, he used no bad
language; that had gone from him with
the rest. The doctor exhibited gold 1t
was taken and retained So, too, was
the grip on the coat collar.
''If l could stand, " doomed the giant,
despairingly, "I'd smash you-you an
your drinks. I'm yin-dyin--dyin"
That's what you think, said the
doctor You'll find it will do you lot
of good" and, making virtue Of "a
somewhat imperative necessity, he add
ed: "I'll stay by you. If you d let 90 of
me a minute, I'd give you something
that would settle you.
you've settled me now, you Id
anarchist. Takin the bread out Of the
mouth of an English workin man. But
I'll keep old of you till I'm well or
dead. / never did you no arm. S'pose
I were little full. They pumped me
out once at Guys with stummick
pump. / could see that, but can't see
this ere, an it's KILN of me by slow
degrees. ~
You'll be all right in half an hour.
What do you suppose I'd want to kill
you for?'' said the doctor, who came Of
logical breed.
" 'Ow do know Tell 'em in court.
= va ~ S'N oNNNh III llllSt NOu
body snatcher. That's what you area
bloomin body snatcher. There's justice,
tell you, III England, and my unionll
prosecute too. We don stand no tricks
with peoples insides era They give
woman ten years for a sight less than
this. An you'll ave TO pay 'undreds All
'undreds of pounds, besides pension to
the missus. You'll see, you physickin
furriner. Where's your license to do
such? You'll catch 1t, tell you. "
Then l observed what / have fire.
Quently observed before, that man
who is reasonably afraid Of an alterca-
ton with an alien has most poignant
dread Of the operations of foreign law.
The doctors voice was flutelike in its
exquisite politeness as he answered:
but I've given you II very great deal
of money, fif-f3, think.
IAN what's e3 for poisonin the likes
of me? They told me at Guys I'd fetch
90-cold-on tSAslates. Duh, it's comm
again.
A second time he was cut down by
the foot, as it were, and the straining
bench rocked to and fro as | averted my
eyes.
1t was the very point Of perfection in
the heart of an English May day. The
unseen tides of the air had turned, and
all nature was setting its face with the
shadows of the horse chestnuts toward
the peace of the coming night. But
there were hours yet, l knew-long,
long hours of the eternal English twi-
hght--to the ending of the day. 1 was
well content to be alive-to abandon
myself to the drift Of time and fate; to
absorb great peace through my skin, and
to love my country with the devotion
that 5000 miles Of intervening sea
bring to fullest flower. And what a
garden of Eden it was this fatted, clip
ped and washed land A man could
camp in any open field with more sense
of home and security than the stateliest
buildings Of foreign cities could afford.
And the joy was that it was all mine
alienably-groomed hedgerow, spot
less road, decent gray stone cottage,
serried spinney, tasseled copse, apple
bellied hawthorn and well grown tree.
! A light puff of wind-it scattered fakes
of may over the cleaning rails-gave
me faint Whit as it might have been
of fresh cocoanut, and 1 knew that the
golden gorse was in bloom somewhere
out of sight. Linn@us had thanked God
on his Bonded knees when he first saw Q
| Reld Of il and bV the WaV the NAVY