North of Boston Robert Frost (desktop ebook reader TXT) đ
![](/uploads/posts/books/2/8/4/6/4/kniga-north-of-boston.jpg)
- Author: Robert Frost
Book online «North of Boston Robert Frost (desktop ebook reader TXT) đ». Author Robert Frost
âYou donât seeâ âIâve a child here by the hand.â
âWhatâs a child doing at this time of nightâ â?â
âOut walking. Every child should have the memory
Of at least one long-after-bedtime walk.
What, son?â
âThen I should think youâd try to find
Somewhere to walkâ ââ
âThe highway as it happensâ â
Weâre stopping for the fortnight down at Deanâs.â
âBut if thatâs allâ âJoelâ âyou realizeâ â
You wonât think anything. You understand?
You understand that we have to be careful.
This is a very, very lonely place.
Joel!â She spoke as if she couldnât turn.
The swinging lantern lengthened to the ground,
It touched, it struck it, clattered and went out.
âWillis, I didnât want you here today:
The lawyerâs coming for the company.
Iâm going to sell my soul, or, rather, feet.
Five hundred dollars for the pair, you know.â
âWith you the feet have nearly been the soul;
And if youâre going to sell them to the devil,
I want to see you do it. Whenâs he coming?â
âI half suspect you knew, and came on purpose
To try to help me drive a better bargain.â
âWell, if itâs true! Yours are no common feet.
The lawyer donât know what it is heâs buying:
So many miles you might have walked you wonât walk.
You havenât run your forty orchids down.
What does he think?â âHow are the blessed feet?
The doctorâs sure youâre going to walk again?â
âHe thinks Iâll hobble. Itâs both legs and feet.â
âThey must be terribleâ âI mean to look at.â
âI havenât dared to look at them uncovered.
Through the bed blankets I remind myself
Of a starfish laid out with rigid points.â
âThe wonder is it hadnât been your head.â
âItâs hard to tell you how I managed it.
When I saw the shaft had me by the coat,
I didnât try too long to pull away,
Or fumble for my knife to cut away,
I just embraced the shaft and rode it outâ â
Till Weiss shut off the water in the wheel-pit.
Thatâs how I think I didnât lose my head.
But my legs got their knocks against the ceiling.â
âAwful. Why didnât they throw off the belt
Instead of going clear down in the wheel-pit?â
âThey say some time was wasted on the beltâ â
Old streak of leatherâ âdoesnât love me much
Because I make him spit fire at my knuckles,
The way Ben Franklin used to make the kite-string.
That must be it. Some days he wonât stay on.
That day a woman couldnât coax him off.
Heâs on his rounds now with his tail in his mouth
Snatched right and left across the silver pulleys.
Everything goes the same without me there.
You can hear the small buzz saws whine, the big saw
Caterwaul to the hills around the village
As they both bite the wood. Itâs all our music.
One ought as a good villager to like it.
No doubt it has a sort of prosperous sound,
And itâs our life.â
âYes, when itâs not our death.â
âYou make that sound as if it wasnât so
With everything. What we live by we die by.
I wonder where my lawyer is. His trainâs in.
I want this over with; Iâm hot and tired.â
âYouâre getting ready to do something foolish.â
âWatch for him, will you, Will? You let him in.
Iâd rather Mrs. Corbin didnât know;
Iâve boarded here so long, she thinks she owns me.
Youâre bad enough to manage without her.â
âAnd Iâm going to be worse instead of better.
Youâve got to tell me how far this is gone:
Have you agreed to any price?â
âFive hundred.
Five hundredâ âfiveâ âfive! One, two, three, four, five.
You neednât look at me.â
âI donât believe you.â
âI told you, Willis, when you first came in.
Donât you be hard on me. I have to take
What I can get. You see they have the feet,
Which gives them the advantage in the trade.
I canât get back the feet in any case.â
âBut your flowers, man, youâre selling out your flowers.â
âYes, thatâs one way to put itâ âall the flowers
Of every kind everywhere in this region
For the next forty summersâ âcall it forty.
But Iâm not selling those, Iâm giving them,
They never earned me so much as one cent:
Money canât pay me for the loss of them.
No, the five hundred was the sum they named
To pay the doctorâs bill and tide me over.
Itâs that or fight, and I donât want to fightâ â
I just want to get settled in my life,
Such as itâs going to be, and know the worst,
Or bestâ âit may not be so bad. The firm
Promise me all the shooks I want to nail.â
âBut what about your flora of the valley?â
âYou have me there. But thatâ âyou didnât think
That was worth money to me? Still I own
It goes against me not to finish it
For the friends it might bring me. By the way,
I had a letter from Burroughsâ âdid I tell you?â â
About my Cyprepedium reginĂŠ;
He says itâs not reported so far north.
There! thereâs the bell. Heâs rung. But you go down
And bring him up, and donât let Mrs. Corbin.â â
Oh, well, weâll soon be through with it. Iâm tired.â
Willis brought up besides the Boston lawyer
A little barefoot girl who in the noise
Of heavy footsteps in the old frame house,
And baritone importance of the lawyer,
Stood for a while unnoticed with her hands
Shyly behind her.
âWell, and how is Misterâ ââ
The lawyer was already in his satchel
As if for papers that might bear the name
He hadnât at command. âYou must excuse me,
I dropped in at the mill and was detained.â
âLooking round, I suppose,â said Willis.
âYes,
Well, yes.â
âHear anything that might prove useful?â
The Broken One saw Anne. âWhy, here is Anne.
What do you want, dear? Come, stand by the bed;
Tell me what is it?â Anne just wagged her dress
With both hands held behind her. âGuess,â she said.
âOh, guess which hand? My my! Once on a time
I knew a lovely way to tell for certain
By looking in the ears. But I forget it.
Er, let me see. I think Iâll take the right.
Thatâs sure to be right even if itâs wrong.
Come, hold it out. Donât change.â âA Ramâs Horn orchid!
A Ramâs Horn! What would I have got, I wonder,
If I had chosen left. Hold out the left.
Another Ramâs Horn! Where did you find those,
Under what beech tree, on what woodchuckâs knoll?â
Anne looked at the large lawyer at her side,
And thought she wouldnât venture on so
Comments (0)