Edy Blog

There it briefly beamed

— Autor edybro @ 22:00
There it briefly beamed upon the busy life of our square with its bland and hypocritical face, and there, thrice and no more, it sounded the passing of the hours with its sweet and false voice, biding the stroke of nine. Meantime willy woolly settled down to keep watch on it and could not be moved from that duty. Every time it struck the half he growled. At the hour he barked and raged. When stepfather time sought to draw him away to dinner he committed the unpardonable sin of dogdom, he snarled at his master. Turning this strange manifestation over in his troubled mind, the collector decided that willy woolly must be ill, and

wideeyed, whitefaced, and silent.

— Autor edybro @ 22:00
wideeyed, whitefaced, and silent. The mob, for it was that now, bore him with jeers and jokes and ribaldry along the edge of the park. When they came within my ken he was riding high, and the mob was being augmented momentarily from every quarter. I looked about for terry the cop. But terry was elsewhere. It is not beyond the bounds of reasonable probability that he had absented himself on purpose. God hates a coward is a tenet of terrys creed. I confess to a certain sympathy with it myself. After all, a harsh lesson might not be amiss for plooie, the recusant. Composing my soul to a nonintervention policy, i leaned

Heres our little eero.

— Autor edybro @ 21:59
Heres our little eero. Looka the frenchy that wont fight. Safety first, hey, plooie. Charge umbrellasbackward, march. Plooie did his best to break for a run through, which was the worst thing he could have tried. They collared him. By that contact he became their captive, their prey. What to do with him. To loose a prisoner, once in the hand, is an unthinkable anticlimax. Somebody developed an inspirational thought ride him on a rail. Near by, a house front under repair supplied a scantling. Plooie was hustled upon it. He fell off. They jammed him back again. He clung,

looked ill for the

— Autor edybro @ 21:58
looked ill for the garins. The evil came to a head the week after david and jonathan broke off all relations. Perhaps that tragedy of shattered friendship afterward rejoined through the agency of the great peacemaker, death had got on our nerves. Ordinarily, had plooie chased a small boy who had tipped a barrel down his basement steps, nothing would have come of it. But the chase took him into the midst of a group of the younger and more boisterous element, returning from a business meeting of the gentlemens sons of avenue b, and before he could turn, they had surrounded him.

He can carry a

— Autor edybro @ 21:56
He can carry a load all day. He wont leave annie oombrella, then. Or perhaps she wont let him. When i asked her, she cried harder than ever and said that her mother was french and she would go and fight herself, if theyd have her. Then i give it up. What does your olympian wisdom make of it. I dont know. But im afraid the garins are going to have trouble. Within a few days plooie reappeared and his strident falsetto appeal for trade rang shrill in the space of our square. Trouble developed at once. Small boys booed at him, called him yellow, and advised him to go

carefully, there was a

— Autor edybro @ 21:56
carefully, there was a german behind the next tree. Henri dumain, our little old french david who fought the tragic duel of tooth and claw with his german jonathan in thornsens lite restaurant, stung him with that most insulting word in any known tonguelche.and threatened him with uplifted cane and poor plooie slunk away. But i think it was the fact that he who stayed at home when others went forward had set a picture of albert of belgium in the window of his cubbyhole that most exasperated us against him. Tactless, to say the least. His call grew quavery and furtive. Annie oombrella ceased to sing at work. Matters

Really. I expostulated. You

— Autor edybro @ 21:55
Really. I expostulated. You come to me with accusations against the poor fellow and then undertake to make me responsible for them. I dont believe its true at all, averred the bonnie lassie loyally. I dont believe plooie is a coward. Theres some reason why he doesnt go over and help. I want to know what it is. Perceiving that i was expected to provide excuses for the erring one, i did my best. Over age, i suggested. Hes only thirtytwo. Bless me. He looks sixty. Wellphysical infirmity.

Of course you do.

— Autor edybro @ 21:53
Of course you do. Never a morning but he stops at your bench and asks if you have an umbrella to mend. I never have. What of him. Have you any influence with him. Not compared with yours. The bonnie lassie made a little gesture of despair. I cant find him. And annie oombrella wont tell me where he is. She only cries. Thats bad. You think hehe is why dont you say it outright, dominie. You think hes hiding.

peaceful and sunny with

— Autor edybro @ 21:52
peaceful and sunny with companionship. Then came the war. The calamitous quality of a great world tragedy is that it brings to so many helpless little folk bitter and ignoble tragedies of shame and humiliation and misunderstanding. With a few racial exceptions, our square was vehemently proally. In spirit we fought with valiant france and prayed for heroic belgium. What a godspeed we gave to the few sons of gaul who, in those early days, left us to fight the good fight. How sourly we looked upon plooie continuing his peaceful rounds. Whence

me

— Autor edybro @ 21:51
trade cry parapluieeeeeeeees raccommoder. As for annie oombrella, having some one to look after quite transformed her. She grew plump and chirpy, and bustling as a blithe little sparrow, though perhaps duck would be a happier comparison, for she was dabbling and splashing in water all the day long, making the stairs and porches of her curatorship fairly glisten with cleanliness. Her rates went up to twenty cents an hour. There were rumors that she had started a savings account. Life stretched out before the little couple, smooth and

meat. They were rising

— Autor edybro @ 21:50
meat. They were rising in the social scale. Habitude is the real secret of tolerance. As we became accustomed to plooie, our square ceased to resent his invincible outlandishness we endured him with equanimity, although it would be exaggeration to say that we accepted him, and we certainly did not patronize him professionally. Nevertheless, in a minor degree, he nourished. Annie oombrella must have lavished care upon him. His pinchedin shoulders broadened perceptibly. His gait, still a halting shuffle, grew noticeably brisker. There was even a heartier note in his lamentable

beneath the landlords wrinkled

— Autor edybro @ 21:49
beneath the landlords wrinkled and covetous nose. The landlord capitulated. Willy woolly, sniffing at the clock with fur abristle, lifted up his voice and wailed. Perhaps his delicate nose had already detected the faint, unhallowed odor of the chemicals within. He stubbornly refused to ride back in the cart with the new acquisition, and was accused of being sulky and childish. The relic of the late unlamented lukisch was temporarily installed in a high chair before the open window giving on the areaway of number 37.

came of it. Luckily

— Autor edybro @ 21:48
came of it. Luckily that is all that did come of it. What disposition the pair would have made of children, had any arrived, it is difficult to conjecture. Only by miraculous compression of ribs, handles, and fabrics was space contrived in the basement cubbyhole for annie oombrella to squeeze in. However, she set up housekeeping cheerily as a bird, with an odd lot of pots and pans which schepstein had picked up at an auction and resold to them at not more than two hundred per cent profit, plus a kerosene stove, the magnificent wedding gift of the bonnie lassie and her husband, cyrus the gaunt. Twice a week they had

mistrusts that any marriage

— Autor edybro @ 21:47
mistrusts that any marriage is really made in heaven unless she acts as earthly agent of it. What had those two povertystricken little creatures to marry on. She put the question rhetorically to our square in general and to the two people most concerned in particular. Courts of law might have rejected their replies as irrelevant. Humanly, however, they were convincing enough. Said plooie who will have a care of that little one if i have not. Said annie oombrella he is so lonely. So those two unfortunates united their misfortunes, and lo. Happiness

understand. But even without

— Autor edybro @ 21:46
understand. But even without hearing their words, i could have guessed. It was very simple and direct, and rather touching. Plooie said if one marries themselves. And she replied i believe it well. They kissed solemnly, and their faces, in the gleam of the electric light which at that moment spluttered into illtimed and tactless activity, were transfigured so that i marveled at the dim splendor of them. But the bonnie lassie was scandalized. On general principles she

where is fancy bred

— Autor edybro @ 21:44
where is fancy bred or wherein romance consists. Whenever plooie saw the drabbled little worker busy on a doorstep, he would cross over and open the conversation according to an invariable formula. Annie oombrella for mend. Annie oombrella. Thereby the little swiss became known as, and ever will be called locally, annie oombrella. Like most closeknit, centripetal communities, we have a fatal penchant for nicknames in our square. She would look up and smile wanly, and shake her head. Where, indeed, should the like of her get an umbrella to be mended.

by no means the

— Autor edybro @ 21:43
by no means the only one of its kind. I have a notion that the bonnie lassie, to whom any variety of want or helplessness is its own sufficient recommendation, drummed up trade for him among her uptown friends. Something certainly enlisted his gratitude, for he invariably took off his frowsy cap when he passed her house, whether or not she was there to see, and he once unbosomed himself to me to the extent of declaring that she was a kind lady. This is the only commentary i ever heard him make upon any one in our square, which in turn completely ignored him until the development of his love affair stimulated our

eyes and he was

— Autor edybro @ 21:42
eyes and he was incurably an outlander. For five years he had lived among us, occupying a cubbyhole in schepsteins basement full of ribs, handles, crooks, patches, and springs, without appreciably improving his speech or his position. It was said that his name was garinnobody really knew or caredand it was assumed from his speech that he was french. Few umbrellas came his way. Those of us affluent enough to maintain such nonessentials patch them ourselves until they are beyond reclamation. Why plooie did not starve is one of the mysteries of our square, though

forever fixed the nickname

— Autor edybro @ 21:41
forever fixed the nickname whereby our square knew plooie parapluieeeeeeeees raccommoder. He would then recapitulate in english, or rather that unreproducible dialect which was his substitute for it. Oombrella for mend. Annie oombrella for mend. So he would pass on his way, shattering the peaceful air at halfminute intervals with his bilingual disharmonies. He was pallid, meagerly built, stoopshouldered, bristlyhaired, pockmarked, and stiffgaited, with a face which would have been totally insignificant but for an obstinate chin and a pair of velvetblack, pathetically questioning

hello

— Autor edybro @ 21:39
Plooie of our square whenever plooie went shuffling by my bench, i used to think of an old and melancholy song that my grandfather sang and his skin was so thin you could almost see his bones as he ran, hobblehobblehobble over the stones. Before i could wholly recapture the quaint melody, my efforts would invariably be nullified by the raucous shriek of his trade which had

me with his observation

— Autor edybro @ 21:37
me with his observation about two young fools and an old one. Oh, well. Likely enough. Most unwise, and rash and inexcusable, that headlong mating and there will be a reckoning to pay. Babies, probably, and new needs and pressing anxieties, and love will perhaps flutter at the window when want shows his grim face at the door and wisdom will be justified of his forebodings, and yetand yetwho am i, old and lonely and uncompanioned, yet once touched with the spheral music and the sacred fire, that i should subscribe to the dour orthodoxies of maclachan and that ilk.

prudence and caution and

— Autor edybro @ 21:36
prudence and caution and delay, and have pointed outthe wind blew the door open young spring was in the park, and the wet odor of little burgeoning leaves was borne in, wakening unwithered memories in my withered heart. Bless you, my children. Said i. It was actually for this, as holding out encouragement to their reckless, feckless plans, that wisdom, in the person of maclachan, the tailor, reprehended me, rather than for my historical intentions regarding the pair.

Pictures of barbran, said

— Autor edybro @ 21:35
Pictures of barbran, said young phil. And were going to burn the wheel sign in effigy, and wipe off the walls and make the place a success, said barbran. And were going to be married right away, said phil. Next week, said barbran. What do you think. Said both. Now i know what i ought to have said just as well as maclachan himself. I should have pointed out the folly and recklessness of marrying on twentyfive dollars a week and a dowry of debts. I should have preached

would help business. See

— Autor edybro @ 21:34
would help business. See how much that reporter made of it. Phil. Whwhwhy are you treating me like aaadumbbell. For he had thrust her away from him at armslength again. Theres one other thing between us, barbran. If there is, its your fault. What is it. Harvey wheelwright, he said solemnly. Do you really like that sickening slushslinger. She raised to him eyes in which a righteous hate quivered. I loathe him. Ive always loathed him. I despise the very ink he writes with and

he isnt. Cried barbran.

— Autor edybro @ 21:33
he isnt. Cried barbran. And you canyou will. He isnt. Ejaculated phil. What is he. Hes a schoolteacher, and i havent got a thing but debts. Phil received this untoward news as if a flock of angels, ringing joy bells, had just brought him the gladdest tidings in history. After an interlude he said but, why because, said barbran, burrowing her nose in his coat i thought it would be an asset. I thought people would consider it romantic and it

pathetic, but somehow faithful

— Autor edybro @ 21:32
pathetic, but somehow faithful and reliable and altogether lovable. So she kissed it. Then she tried to run away. The attempt failed. It was not barbrans nose that got kissed next. Nor, for that matter, was it young phils. Then he held her off and shut his eyes, for the untrammeled exercise of his reasoning powers, and again demanded of barbran and the fates whats the use. Whats the use of what. Returned barbran tremulously. Of all this. Your fathers a millionaire, and i wonti cant

Stepnadel, the auctioneer, would

— Autor edybro @ 21:31
Stepnadel, the auctioneer, would pay me much money for it. I will pay you much money for it. How much. Seven dollars. That is one months rent that he owed. Two months rent i must have. One, said stepfather time firmly. Two, said the landlord insistently. Urff. Grrrrrrrrff. Said willy woolly in emphatic dissuasion. Stepfather time was scandalized. Expert opinion was quite outside of

I dont want you

— Autor edybro @ 21:30
I dont want you not to come back, said barbran, in a queer, frightened voice. She put out her hand to him and hastily withdrew it. He said desperately whats the use. I cant sit here forever looking at you andand dreaming ofof impossible things, and eating my heart out with my nose painted green. The poor nose. Murmured barbran. With one of her homelaundered handkerchiefs dipped in turpentine, she gently rubbed it clean. It then looked as she said later in a feeble attempt to palliate her subsequent conduct very pink and boyish and

for a funeral. How

— Autor edybro @ 21:29
for a funeral. How does he want his musicroom decorated. Young phil put his head in his hands. Scenes from moody and sankey, he said in a muffled voice. Good gracious. You arent going to do it. I am, retorted the other gloomily. Its good money. Almost immediately he added, damn the money. No no you mustnt do that. You must go, of course. Wouldwill it take long. Im not coming back.

tta

— Autor edybro @ 21:28
Kansas city. Oh. What for. Do you remember a fat old grandpa who was here last month and came back to ask about the decorations. Yes. Hes built him a new househe calls it a mansionand he wants me to paint the musicroom. He likesphil gulped a littlemy style of art. Isnt that great. Said barbran in the voice of one giving three cheers

does not make a

— Autor edybro @ 21:27
does not make a summer nor does one youth with a vernal proboscis convince a skeptical public that it is enjoying the fearful companionship of a subversive and revolutionary cult. Patronage ebbed out as fast as it had flooded in. Barbrans eyes were as soft and happy as ever in the evenings, when she and phil sat in a less and less interrupted solitude. But in the mornings palpable fear stalked her. Phil never saw it. He was preoccupied with a dread of his own. One evening of howling wind and hammering rain, when all was cosy and homelike for two in the little firelit wrightery, she nerved herself up

other matters on hand

— Autor edybro @ 21:26
other matters on hand for their evenings than sitting about in a dim cellar gazing crosseyed at their own scandalous noses. Maclachan was the first defection. He said that he thought he was going crazy and he knew he was going blind. The little red doctor was unreliable owing to the pressure of professional calls. He complained with some justice that a green nose on a practicing physician tended to impair confidence. Then leon coventry went away, and boggs discovered or invented an important engagement with a growing family of clothesmoths in a connecticut country house. So there remained only the faithful phil. One swallow

Yes i wouldnt wonder.

— Autor edybro @ 21:25
Yes i wouldnt wonder. Well, i wont give him away, said the kindly journalist. Now, as to the membership of your circle. The sunday story covered a full page. The millionairess feature was played up conspicuously and repeatedly, and the illustrations did what little the text failed to do. It was a joshstory from beginning to end. Ill kill that pious fraud of a reporter, declared phil. Now the place is ruined, mourned barbran. Wait and see, advised the wiser cyrus.

the visitor pleasantly. Just

— Autor edybro @ 21:24
the visitor pleasantly. Just what youre putting over i dont know. Some kind of new grease paint, perhaps. Dont tell me. Its good enough, anyway. Ill fall for it. Its worth a page story. Of course ill want some photographs of the mural paintings. Theyre almost painfully beautiful. Whats wrong with our young friend is he sick. He added, looking with astonishment at phil stacey who was exhibiting subnauseous symptoms. He painted em, explained cyrus, grinning. And hes sorry, supplemented barbran.

to a green

— Autor edybro @ 21:23
to a green thought in a green shade. Wait a minute, said the visitor, and made a note on an envelopeback. Accordingly, miss barbran, the daughter and heiress of a millionaire cattle owner in wyoming here the reporter made his second note, has established this center where we meet to renew and refresh our souls. Good. Said the benevolent reporter. Fine. Of course its all bunk bunk. Echoed barbran and phil, aghast, while cyrus sat with his lank jaw drooping. You dont see any of your favorite color in my eye, do you. Inquired

inanimate nature is green.

— Autor edybro @ 21:21
inanimate nature is green. But we poor fellow creatures have gotten away from the universal mothercolor. We must get back to it. We must learn to think greenly. But first we must learn to see greenly. How shall we accomplish this. Put green in our eyes. Impossible, unfortunately. But, our nosesthere is the solution. In direct proximity to the eye, the color, properly applied, tints ones vision of all things. Green shadows in a green world, mooned cyrus the gaunt poetically. As the bard puts it annihilating all thats made

I hope to, said

— Autor edybro @ 21:20
I hope to, said the reporter politely. Why on the nose. I will explain that, returned cyrus, getting his second wind but first let me get the central idea in your mind. Its a nature movement a readjustment of art to nature. All nature is green. Look about you. Here he paused for effect, which was unfortunate. Quite so, agreed the reporter. The cablecar, for instance, and the dollar bill, not to mention the croton bug and the polar bear. But, pardon me, i interrupt the flow of your eloquence. You do, said cyrus severely. Inanimate nature i speak of. All

sunday world magazineand where

— Autor edybro @ 21:19
sunday world magazineand where was the rest of the circle. In a flurry of excitement, the pair sent for cyrus the gaunt to do the talking. Cyrus arrived, breathless and a trifle off color the bonnie lassie had unfortunately got a touch of bronze scenic paint mixed with the green, so that he smelled like an overripe banana, and proceeded to exposition. This, he explained, is a new cult. It is based on the backtothespring idea. The wellspring of life, you know. Theerspring of eternal youth, andand so forth. You understand.

present, but sent word

— Autor edybro @ 21:18
present, but sent word characteristically that they must have done it all wrong men had no sense, anyway. The party then sent out for turpentine and broke up to reassemble no more. Only phil stacey, inventor of the great idea, was still faithful to and hopeful of it. Each evening he conscientiously greened himself and went to eat with barbran. Time justified his faith. One evening there dropped in a plump man who exhaled a mild and comforting benevolence, like a gentle country parson. He smiled sweetly at phil, and introduced himself as a reporter for the

Erin go bragh. Offcer,

— Autor edybro @ 21:17
Erin go bragh. Offcer, yeve exceeded yer jooty. D ye think this is downtrodden an sufferin oireland an yerself the tyrant gineral french. Let em paint their noses anny color they loike but green for preference. Im tellin ye, this is the land of freedom an equality, an ivery citizen thereof is entitled to life, liberty, and the purshoot of happiness, an a mans nose is his castle, an dont ye fergit it. Discharrrrged. Go an sin no more. I mane, let the good worruk go awn. Now watch for the evening papers, said young phil stacey exultantly. The wrightery will get some free advertising thatll crowd it
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