The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1909-11-12

terrible secret drain upon the strength
of our better classes. We come over to
rest, and if 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 Chartres 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
in! / was thinking about it while ]
was waiting for you this morning
Will you consider what it must have
been to put on 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 1 tell you, child, I 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 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. we'll!
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. I re-
member Shell is have broken my left
Leg and 'Shell-fish' is have broken
my right leg, and Shawl is-wait a
bit-keep still, Yvonne; no one in the
wide world can study code and
listen at the
ooh, well, I'll leave it till tonight
Not that I'm irritated at your inter.
ruption, for I never let anything ruffle
me, and when you write home the
first thing I 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. I want you to make them under
stand in particular how cheerful am
Some men would turn synical al
waking up paralyzed, but not me.
feel as if 1 might get about quite g
little in Caen, maybe, even get tt
Falaise again some time; but you car
bank on one thing, and that is that il
1 ever go back to Falaise I won't &C
up that tower again. / was wondering
this morning as lay here waiting fol
you how in thunder you were holding
that candle to spill so much grease or
my hat. You can't say that didn't
know I 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. 1 know the rule
is for man to go first going down 6
staircase, but I don't call that business
we were on any staircase; it was more
like series of cascades with us form
ing the merry, leaping part. tell yor
what, Yvonne, the next time it's up tt
your Uncle John to play the chamois
that springs from crag to crag over al
old middle-aged staircase while his
niece pours candle-grease on his hat
you can excuse me.
What I like is clean, open-to-the
daylight ruins like that old one a
Jumieges! No peril, no anxiety-al
on a level, and time to look up a
what wasn't. I tell you, wouldn'
have missed seeing Jumieges for any
thing. was thinking this morning a.
I lay here waiting for you that have
a good mind to write book about my
travels, and that when / do I shall
have the frontispiece, me in front o.
Jumieges. I could take an artis
down there on purpose, and while hi
wasn't doing me, could look it al
over again. Maybe I could go there
alone with kodak and get satisfac
tory frontispiece, only those rocks
were so thick that most people would
think it was a defective plate.
shouldn't like to have them think that
for if I was going to have book Al
all, I should have it in good style
gold edges, bevel-plate, and so forth
don't you know. I'd like to write 9
book about Europe, I VOW. I haven't
been here very long, but I'll swear
know ten times more than any bool
ever tells. 1t 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
;no orb fn "a In
well, child, it must be nearing
noon, and feel like taking nap be
fore dinner. Suppose you 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
ten days to know all. / wish you'd
ring and tell them to bring me some
hot water before you go; tell them
want it in a pitcher. Make them un
derstand a pitcher. They brought II
last night in sort of brass cylinder
and I couldn't get the thing open any
way-had to use it for hot-water bag
in bed in the end. 1t worked fine fol
that
There, now, you go on and leave
me to sleep. You haven't the faintest
idea of how used-up I feel. Don't for
get to write your mother how cheerful
1 am; don't forget the hot water. I'll
send for you when want you. There
therein all right, child, don't you
worry. Just pull the curtains ana lei
me Sleep"