登陆注册
5184300000014

第14章 THE WINNING OF THE BISCUIT-SHOOTER(4)

We all bowed at each other beneath the florid expanse of these recommendations,and I was proceeding to murmur something about its being a long journey and a fine day when Miss Peck cut me short,gaily: "Well,"she exclaimed to Tommy,"I guess I'm pretty near ready for them eggs you've spoke so much about."I have not often seen Mr.McLean lose his presence of mind.He needed merely to exclaim,"Why,Tommy,you told me your hens had not been laying since Christmas!"and we could have sat quiet and let Tommy try to find all the eggs that he could.But the new girl was a sore embarrassment to the cow-puncher's wits.Poor Lin stood by the wheels of the wagon.He looked up at Miss Peck,he looked over at Tommy,his features assumed a rueful expression,and he wretchedly blurted,"Why,Tommy,I've been and eat 'em.""Well,if that ain't!"cried Miss Peck.She stared with interest at Lin as he now assisted her to descend.

"All?"faltered Tommy."Not the four nests?"

"I've had three meals,yu'know,"Lin reminded him,deprecatingly.

"I helped him,"said I."Ten innocent,fresh eggs.But we have left some ham.Forgive us,please.""I declare!"said Miss Peck,abruptly,and rolled her sluggish,inviting eyes upon me."You're a case,too,I expect."But she took only brief note of me,although it was from head to foot.In her stare the dull shine of familiarity grew vacant,and she turned back to Lin McLean."You carry that,"said she,and gave the pleased cow-puncher a hand valise.

"I'll look after your things,Miss Peck,"called Tommy,now springing down from his horse.The egg tragedy had momentarily stunned him.

"You'll attend to the mail first,Mr.Postmaster!"said the lady,but favoring him with a look from her large eyes."There's plenty of gentlemen here."With that her glance favored Lin.She went into the cabin,he following her close,with the Taylors and myself in the rear.

"Well,I guess I'm about collapsed!"said she,vigorously,and sank upon one of Tommy's chairs.

The fragile article fell into sticks beneath her,and Lin leaped to her assistance.He placed her upon a firmer foundation.Mrs.Taylor brought a basin and towel to bathe the dust from her face,Mr.Taylor produced whiskey,and I found sugar and hot water.Tommy would doubtless have done something in the way of assistance or restoratives,but he was gone to the stable with the horses.

"Shall I get your medicine from the valise,deary?"inquired Mrs.Taylor.

"Not now,"her visitor answered;and I wondered why she should take such a quick look at me.

"We'll soon have yu'independent of medicine,"said Lin,gallantly."Our climate and scenery here has frequently raised the dead.""You're a case,anyway!"exclaimed the sick lady with rich conviction.

The cow-puncher now sat himself on the edge of Tommy's bed,and,throwing one leg across the other,began to raise her spirits with cheerful talk.

She steadily watched him--his face sometimes,sometimes his lounging,masculine figure.While he thus devoted his attentions to her,Taylor departed to help Tommy at the stable,and good Mrs.Taylor,busy with supper for all of us in the kitchen,expressed her joy at having her old friend of childhood for a visit after so many years.

"Sickness has changed poor Katie some,"said she."But I'm hoping she'll get back her looks on Bear Creek.""She seems less feeble than I had understood,"I remarked.

"Yes,indeed!I do believe she's feeling stronger.She was that tired and down yesterday with the long stage-ride,and it is so lonesome!But Taylor and I heartened her up,and Tommy came with the mail,and to-day she's real spruced-up like,feeling she's among friends.""How long will she stay?"I inquired.

"Just as long as ever she wants!Me and Katie hasn't met since we was young girls in Dubuque,for I left home when I married Taylor,and he brought me to this country right soon;and it ain't been like Dubuque much,though if I had it to do over again I'd do just the same,as Taylor knows.Katie and me hasn't wrote even,not till this February,for you always mean to and you don't.Well,it'll be like old times.Katie'll be most thirty-four,I expect.Yes.I was seventeen and she was sixteen the very month I was married.Poor thing!She ought to have got some good man for a husband,but I expect she didn't have any chance,for there was a big fam'ly o'them girls,and old Peck used to act real scandalous,getting drunk so folks didn't visit there evenings scarcely at all.And so she quit home,it seems,and got a position in the railroad eating-house at Sidney,and now she has poor health with feeding them big trains day and night.""A biscuit-shooter!"said I.

Loyal Mrs.Taylor stirred some batter in silence."Well,"said she then,"I'm told that's what the yard-hands of the railroad call them poor waiter-girls.You might hear it around the switches at them division stations."I had heard it in higher places also,but meekly accepted the reproof.

If you have made your trans-Missouri journeys only since the new era of dining-cars,there is a quantity of things you have come too late for,and will never know.Three times a day in the brave days of old you sprang from your scarce-halted car at the summons of a gong.You discerned by instinct the right direction,and,passing steadily through doorways,had taken,before you knew it,one of some sixty chairs in a room of tables and catsup bottles.Behind the chairs,standing attention,a platoon of Amazons,thick-wristed,pink-and-blue,began immediately a swift chant.It hymned the total bill-of-fare at a blow.In this inexpressible ceremony the name of every dish went hurtling into the next,telescoped to shapelessness.Moreover,if you stopped your Amazon in the middle,it dislocated her,and she merely went back and took a fresh start.The chant was always the same,but you never learned it.As soon as it began,your mind snapped shut like the upper berth in a Pullman.You must have uttered appropriate words--even a parrot will--for next you were eating things--pie,ham,hot cakes--as fast as you could.

同类推荐
  • A New England Girlhood

    A New England Girlhood

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 北斗七星念诵仪轨

    北斗七星念诵仪轨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 急救便方

    急救便方

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 论书

    论书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Desperate Remedies

    Desperate Remedies

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 国学养生密码:国学精粹与百姓养生

    国学养生密码:国学精粹与百姓养生

    《国学养生密码:国学精粹与百姓养生》取国学中养生文化的精髓,编录成一套可运用于实际的养生方案,使之成为您身边的保健医生和养生导师,使您真正做到内修外炼,在压力和忙碌中运用国学并学会养生。“养生”一词,始见于道家的《庄子·内篇》。我国是一个非常注重养生的国度,儒、释、道等国学在形成过程中,养生文化都是其中最为重要的内容之一。
  • 异界的死修

    异界的死修

    普通的少年李莱昂,在一个偶然的时机下穿越到了异世界。面对异世界各种潜伏的危险,李莱昂只能凭借他天选之人的未知力量,重生强化的天赋技能一点一点强大起来。<死亡窃取>,<本源赋予>,<魅惑气息>...各种天赋技能,或主动,或被动,不断被李莱昂所捕获。他是异世界的主宰,也是最变态的存在!为了遵循内心的指引,为了保护自己珍惜的人,勇敢的少年不断地和命运抗争,最终创造出了一个完美的异世界。
  • 大墓主

    大墓主

    天似大墓,笼盖四野.这是一个无尽的世界,每一个人都活在大墓之中……在这里,每一位修者都怀抱着一个梦想,演绎着令人向往的传奇……在这里,每一个修者都在追求武道极境,以摆脱天命的束缚……在这里,有着一层层巨墓,吞噬着每一个想摆脱天命,获得自由的人…………
  • 妨害社会管理秩序罪

    妨害社会管理秩序罪

    本书是中华人民共和国重要基本法律知识宣讲系列丛书之一,具体内容是对我国刑法分则第6章所规定的妨害社会管理秩序罪,以及与其相关的司法解释等内容进行宣讲和普及。
  • 人生的成功定律(走向成功丛书)

    人生的成功定律(走向成功丛书)

    怎样走向成功?成功的要素有哪些?有理想的青少年朋友都会思考这样的问题。为此,我们组织编译了世界著名的成功学大师们的代表作,希望用大师们自己的成功灾例和经验,帮助青少年朋友塑造自己,一步步走向成功之路,成为人生的赢家。
  • 浮光祸世

    浮光祸世

    魔疆有女,唤颌天,身无歇,沦乡甸。玄中一世,颜如玉,命多舛,陷辗转。邂逅相遇,何由系?乾坤寄,玲珑碧。颠沛流离,逐通缉,舍生弃,擒入狱。女中豪杰,被豹击,现奇能,斩其毙。歹贼寇欺,共下地,正惨凄,他怜惜。阴阳昏醒,润愁绪,身不知,她无依。暧昧啼鸣,骤生情,两相趣,缠绵忆。雨落独泪,心无忌,雨打萍,叹伶仃。催婚在即,无能逆,晓身份,贵为稀。何去何从,岂可提?天本泠,地无心。
  • 非你不可之恶少追妻

    非你不可之恶少追妻

    她的初恋是学生时代,一次简单的邂逅,一段波折和饱受命运捉弄的感情,当她决然选择逃离的时候,却又陷入了另一场的感情纠葛。在经历了一次次的磨难和两次失去孩子的身心重创后,她害怕了,在恢复记忆后,她最后的选择会是什么?
  • 步步倾心:天才俏伪娘

    步步倾心:天才俏伪娘

    中央美院毕业的墨语在欣赏一幅画的时候,竟然离奇的失踪了。穿越到了古代。成为了‘少爷’。画院专员在秘密绘制先帝的画像时,中途离奇死亡。随着一桩一桩的迷案。墨语与她的师傅深陷其中,在画场上她被处处排挤压制。墨言为救她,一次次神仙囹圄。那次命定的邂逅,一场相遇,一眼相中,一世情深。当男装褪去,那是绝世容颜。当她展露才华,那是万丈光芒,震惊世人!他说:不论走多远,只要你偶尔回回头,我一直都在。爱就象是在摇曳的罂粟,美的让人惊艳,同时又欲罢不能。她想说:可不可以少爱一点点。但是她无语落泪.....
  • 暴君又被逼婚了

    暴君又被逼婚了

    新书《太子妃求您别作妖了》已出~~求支持~~“主子,七皇子又来逼婚了!”“关门,放大黄。”“大黄拦不住……”某女扮男装的皇子踹门入屋,直接将当朝第一大宦官壁咚在榻!“嫁本王或本王娶你,二选一!”“本座,对男人不感兴趣。”她暗嗤,一太监,不信还撩不到手了!她医毒双绝的现代少女,赶上了穿越大潮,成了最废物皇子,照样混的风生水起!她的任务很简单:夺帝位,败国库,灭此国!本想寻个大反派抱大腿,助她毁国大业,应该很快狗带,哪想……大佞臣竟一跃成了隔壁国暴君?!某日。大暴君揪着她:“现在,你该娶了朕。”
  • 爱德华·巴纳德的堕落(毛姆短篇小说全集1)

    爱德华·巴纳德的堕落(毛姆短篇小说全集1)

    即使一切消亡,仍然会有一个作家讲述的世界留存下来,它将完全而且永远属于毛姆。中文世界首个毛姆短篇小说全集计划,全新译本首卷上市!短篇小说在毛姆的创作中占有重要地位,安东尼·伯吉斯就曾评价他写下了“英语文学中最好的短篇故事”。《人性的枷锁》《刀锋》等长篇小说使毛姆名闻世界,而他的短篇则以编织故事的精湛技巧,对人性和社会生活的敏锐洞察,为其赢得了更多读者,成为一种全球现象。毛姆作品中文译本繁多,短篇小说多以精选集形式出版。本次计划推出的《毛姆短篇小说全集》(四卷本)将首次以精彩译文再现毛姆短篇作品的全貌。本书为第一卷。