“For let Philosopher and Doctor preachOf what they will and what they will not,–eachIs but one link in an eternal chainThat none can slip nor break nor over-reach.” “Crimson nor yellow roses norThe savour of the mounting seaAre worth the perfume I adoreThat clings to thee.The languid-headed lilies tire,The changeless waters weary me;I ache with […]

“Et tout les jours passes dans la tristesseNous sont comptes comme des jours heureux!” I The street is not fashionable, neither is it shabby. It is a pariah among streets–a street without a Quarter. It is generally understood to lie outside the pale of the aristocratic Avenue de l’Observatoire. The students of the Montparnasse Quarter […]

“Be of Good Cheer, the Sullen Month will die,And a young Moon requite us by and by:Look how the Old one, meagre, bent, and wanWith age and Fast, is fainting from the sky.” The room was already dark. The high roofs opposite cut off what little remained of the December daylight. The girl drew her […]

“Ferme tes yeux a demi,Croise tes bras sur ton sein,Et de ton coeur endormiChasse a jamais tout dessein.” “Je chante la nature,Les etoiles du soir, les larmes du matin,Les couchers de soleil a l’horizon lointain,Le ciel qui parle au coeur d’existence future!” I The animal paused on the threshold, interrogative alert, ready for flight if […]

“If but the Vine and Love Abjuring BandAre in the Prophets’ Paradise to stand,Alack, I doubt the Prophets’ Paradise,Were empty as the hollow of one’s hand.” THE STUDIO He smiled, saying, “Seek her throughout the world.” I said, “Why tell me of the world? My world is here, between these walls and the sheet of […]

“Mais je croy que jeSuis descendu on puizTenebreux onquel disoitHeraclytus estre Verete cachee.” “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: “The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the […]

“Let the red dawn surmiseWhat we shall do,When this blue starlight diesAnd all is through.” I There are so many things which are impossible to explain! Why should certain chords in music make me think of the brown and golden tints of autumn foliage? Why should the Mass of Sainte Cecile bend my thoughts wandering […]

“Oh, thou who burn’st in heart for those who burnIn Hell, whose fires thyself shall feed in turn;How long be crying–‘Mercy on them.’ God!Why, who art thou to teach and He to learn?” In the Church of St. Barnabe vespers were over; the clergy left the altar; the little choir-boys flocked across the chancel and […]

I “Ne raillons pas les fous; leur folie dure plus longtemps que la notre…. Voila toute la difference.” Toward the end of the year 1920 the Government of the United States had practically completed the programme, adopted during the last months of President Winthrop’s administration. The country was apparently tranquil. Everybody knows how the Tariff […]

I Like a man who reenters a closed and darkened house and lies down; lying there, remains conscious of sunlight outside, of bird-calls, and the breeze in the trees, so had Drene entered into the obscurity of himself. Through the chambers of his brain the twilit corridors where cringed his bruised and disfigured soul, there […]

TOJOSEPH LEEOF NEEDWOOD FOREST I It was now almost too dark to distinguish objects; duskier and vaguer became the flat world of marshes, set here and there with cypress and bounded only by far horizons; and at last land and water disappeared behind the gathered curtains of the night. There was no sound from the […]

I Through the open window the spring sunshine fell on Calvert’s broad back. Tennant faced the window, smoking reflectively. “I should like to ask a favor,” he said; “may I?” “Certainly you may,” replied Calvert; “everybody else asks favors three hundred and sixty-five times a year.” Tennant, smoking peacefully, gazed at an open window across […]

The steady flicker of lightning in the southwest continued; the wind freshened, blowing in cooler streaks across acres of rattling rushes and dead marsh-grass. A dull light grew through the scudding clouds, then faded as the mid-day sun went out in the smother, leaving an ominous red smear overhead. Gun in hand, Haltren stood up […]

I Before the members of the Sagamore Fish and Game Association had erected their handsome club-house, and before they had begun to purchase those thousands of acres of forest, mountain, and stream which now belonged to them, a speculative lumberman with no capital, named O’Hara, built the white house across the river on a few […]

I “Do you desire me to marry him?” asked Miss Castle, quietly. “Let me finish,” said her uncle. “Jane,” he added, turning on his sister, “if you could avoid sneezing for a few moments, I should be indebted to you.” Miss Jane Garcide, a sallow lady of forty, who suffered with colds all winter and […]

I “And of course what I buy is my own,” continued Burleson, patiently. “No man here will question that, I suppose?” For a moment there was silence in the cross-roads store; then a lank, mud-splashed native arose from behind the stove, shoving his scarred hands deep into the ragged pockets of his trousers. “Young man,” […]

A warm October was followed by a muggy, wet November. The elm leaves turned yellow but did not fall; the ash-trees lighted up the woods like gigantic lanterns set in amber; single branches among the maples slowly crimsoned. As yet the dropping of acorns rarely broke the forest silence in Sagamore County, although the blue-jays […]

“The bankrupt can always pay one debt, but neitherGod nor man can credit him with the payment.” I When Dingman, the fate game-warden, came panting over the mountain from Spencers to confer with young Byram, road-master at Foxville, he found that youthful official reshingling his barn. The two men observed each other warily for a […]

The long drought ended with a cloud-burst in the western mountains, which tore a new slide down the flank of Lynx Peak and scarred the Gilded Dome from summit to base. Then storm followed storm, bursting through the mountain-notch and sweeping the river into the meadows, where the haycocks were already afloat, and the gaunt […]

“Soyez tranquilles, mesdames…. Je suis un jeune hommepresse…. Mais modeste.”–LABICHE. At ten minutes before five in the evening the office doors of the Florida and Key West Railway Company flew open, and a young man emerged in a hurry. Suit-case in one hand, umbrella in the other, he sped along the corridor to the elevator-shaft, […]