Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1909-11-25

vice OF the american oDfOaus lLb the
terrible secret drain upon the strength
Of our better classes. We come over to
rest, and II we don't do two countries
a week we feel we've wasted our
money. The idea Of leaving Paris in
the morning and doing Charities and
Dreux and getting to Argentan that
night Why, Hercules himself would
have been used up. And then that
castle at Falaise. No, I'm not sorry.
Yvonne, there was something about
that castle that I'll never get over. ]
tell you those were the days to live
inl I was thinking about It while ]
was waiting for you this morning.
| Will you consider what It must have
been to put on a suit that you couldn't
be punched through, and then get out
with an ak that faced two ways and
have full freedom to hack at people
you hated. tell you, child, / should
have been one Of those who barricaded
themselves behind the dead bodies
they had killed and kept on firing over
the top. And to-day my armor would
be hanging up somewhere all full of
dents and rusty blood-stains, and I'd
be q sight In some cathedral with your
Aunt Jane wearing funnel and an
accordion beside me. We'd both be in
marble, Of course. some worn by time
and Clipped by tourists-ah. well!
Cant you find anything suitable in
that cookbook? Here, I've been
waiting a quarter Of an hour for you
to hunt-hand me that book. ] re-
member Shell is have broken my left
leg and 'Shell-flsh' is have broken
my right leg, and Shawl is-wait
bit-keep still, Yvonne; no one in the
wide world can study q code and
listen at the
"Oh, well, I'll leave 1t till tonight.
Not that I'm irritated at your inter
tuptiUn, for I never let anything ruftie
me, and when you write home the
first thing / want you to tell your
mother is that being paralyzed has not
changed me one particle. Same even
disposition, same calm outlook on life,
same disinclination to ever bother any
one. want you to make them under
stand In particular how cheerful l am.
Some men would turn synical at
waking up paralyzed, but not me. i
feel as If I might get about quite
little in Caen, maybe, even get to
Falaise again some time; but you can
bank on one thing, and that is that If
ever go back to Falaise / won't go
up that tower again. was wondering
this morning as / lay here waiting for
you how in thunder you were holding
that candle to spill SO much grease on
my hat. You can't say that didn't
know l was there, for every second
step you took your foot hit me in the
small of the back. You ought to have
gone first, anyhow. I know the rule
is for q man to go first going down
staircase, but don't call that business
we were on any staircase; 1t was more
like a-series of cascades with us form
ing the merry, leaping part. ] tell you
what, Yvonne, the next time it's up to
your Uncle John to play the chamois
that springs from crag to crag over an
old middle-aged staircase while his
niece pours candle-grease on his hat
you can excuse me.
what Like is clean, Open-to-the-
daylight ruins like that old one at
Jumieges! No peril, no anxiety-all
on a level, and time to look up at
what wasn't. tell you, wouldn't
have missed seeing Jumieges for any
thing. was thinking this morning as
lay here waiting for you that have
a good mind to write abook about my
travels, and that when / do ] shall
have the frontispiece, me in front OF
Jumieges. / could take artist
down there on purpose, and while he
wasn't doing me, / could look 1t all
over again. Maybe / could go there
alone with kodak and get a satisfac-
tory frontispiece, only those rocks
were so thick that most people would
think 1t was a defective plate. j
shouldn't like to have them think that,
for II was going to have book at
all, / should have 1t in good style
gold edges, bevel-plate, and SO forth,
don't you know. I'd like to write a
book about Europe, / vow. l haven't
been here very long, but I'll swear !
know ten times more than any book
ever tells. It never said a word In
Baedeker about there not being any
cabs at Dreux, or about the condition
Of those steps in Talbot's Tower, and
such things ought to be known.
well, child, 1t must be nearing
noon. and I feel like taking nap be-
fore dinner. Suppose yon go in and
write to your mother and Mrs. Clary,
After your mother gets the cable,
she'll naturally be anxious for details,
and she won't want to wait longer than
n