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WILLIS, I didnt want you here to-day: | |
The lawyers coming for the company. | |
Im going to sell my soul, or, rather, feet. | |
Five hundred dollars for the pair, you know. | |
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With you the feet have nearly been the soul; | 5 |
And if youre going to sell them to the devil, | |
I want to see you do it. Whens he coming? | |
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I half suspect you knew, and came on purpose | |
To try to help me drive a better bargain. | |
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Well, if its true! Yours are no common feet. | 10 |
The lawyer dont know what it is hes buying: | |
So many miles you might have walked you wont walk. | |
You havent run your forty orchids down. | |
What does he think?How are the blessed feet? | |
The doctors sure youre going to walk again? | 15 |
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He thinks Ill hobble. Its both legs and feet. | |
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They must be terribleI mean to look at. | |
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I havent dared to look at them uncovered. | |
Through the bed blankets I remind myself | |
Of a starfish laid out with rigid points. | 20 |
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The wonder is it hadnt been your head. | |
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Its hard to tell you how I managed it. | |
When I saw the shaft had me by the coat, | |
I didnt try too long to pull away, | |
Or fumble for my knife to cut away, | 25 |
I just embraced the shaft and rode it out | |
Till Weiss shut off the water in the wheel-pit. | |
Thats how I think I didnt lose my head. | |
But my legs got their knocks against the ceiling. | |
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Awful. Why didnt they throw off the belt | 30 |
Instead of going clear down in the wheel-pit? | |
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They say some time was wasted on the belt | |
Old streak of leatherdoesnt love me much | |
Because I make him spit fire at my knuckles, | |
The way Ben Franklin used to make the kite-string. | 35 |
That must be it. Some days he wont stay on. | |
That day a woman couldnt coax him off. | |
Hes 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. | 40 |
You can hear the small buzz saws whine, the big saw | |
Caterwaul to the hills around the village | |
As they both bite the wood. Its all our music. | |
One ought as a good villager to like it. | |
No doubt it has a sort of prosperous sound, | 45 |
And its our life. | |
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Yes, when its not our death. | |
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You make that sound as if it wasnt so | |
With everything. What we live by we die by. | |
I wonder where my lawyer is. His trains in. | 50 |
I want this over with; Im hot and tired. | |
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Youre getting ready to do something foolish. | |
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Watch for him, will you, Will? You let him in. | |
Id rather Mrs. Corbin didnt know; | |
Ive boarded here so long, she thinks she owns me. | 55 |
Youre bad enough to manage without her. | |
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And Im going to be worse instead of better. | |
Youve got to tell me how far this is gone: | |
Have you agreed to any price? | |
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Five hundred. | 60 |
Five hundredfivefive! One, two, three, four, five. | |
You neednt look at me. | |
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I dont believe you. | |
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I told you, Willis, when you first came in. | |
Dont you be hard on me. I have to take | 65 |
What I can get. You see they have the feet, | |
Which gives them the advantage in the trade. | |
I cant get back the feet in any case. | |
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But your flowers, man, youre selling out your flowers. | |
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Yes, thats one way to put itall the flowers | 70 |
Of every kind everywhere in this region | |
For the next forty summerscall it forty. | |
But Im not selling those, Im giving them, | |
They never earned me so much as one cent: | |
Money cant pay me for the loss of them. | 75 |
No, the five hundred was the sum they named | |
To pay the doctors bill and tide me over. | |
Its that or fight, and I dont want to fight | |
I just want to get settled in my life, | |
Such as its going to be, and know the worst, | 80 |
Or bestit may not be so bad. The firm | |
Promise me all the shooks I want to nail. | |
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But what about your flora of the valley? | |
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You have me there. But thatyou didnt think | |
That was worth money to me? Still I own | 85 |
It goes against me not to finish it | |
For the friends it might bring me. By the way, | |
I had a letter from Burroughsdid I tell you? | |
About my Cyprepedium reginæ; | |
He says its not reported so far north. | 90 |
There! theres the bell. Hes rung. But you go down | |
And bring him up, and dont let Mrs. Corbin. | |
Oh, well, well soon be through with it. Im tired. | |
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Willis brought up besides the Boston lawyer | |
A little barefoot girl who in the noise | 95 |
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. | |
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Well, and how is Mister | 100 |
The lawyer was already in his satchel | |
As if for papers that might bear the name | |
He hadnt at command. You must excuse me, | |
I dropped in at the mill and was detained. | |
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Looking round, I suppose, said Willis. | 105 |
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Yes, | |
Well, yes. | |
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Hear anything that might prove useful? | |
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The Broken One saw Anne. Why, here is Anne. | |
What do you want, dear? Come, stand by the bed; | 110 |
Tell me what is it? Anne just wagged her dress | |
With both hands held behind her. Guess, she said. | |
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Oh, 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. | 115 |
Er, let me see. I think Ill take the right. | |
Thats sure to be right even if its wrong. | |
Come, hold it out. Dont change.A Rams Horn orchid! | |
A Rams Horn! What would I have got, I wonder, | |
If I had chosen left. Hold out the left. | 120 |
Another Rams Horn! Where did you find those, | |
Under what beech tree, on what woodchucks knoll? | |
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Anne looked at the large lawyer at her side, | |
And thought she wouldnt venture on so much. | |
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Were there no others? | 125 |
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There were four or five. | |
I knew you wouldnt let me pick them all. | |
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I wouldntso I wouldnt. Youre the girl! | |
You see Anne has her lesson learned by heart. | |
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I wanted there should be some there next year. | 130 |
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Of course you did. You left the rest for seed, | |
And for the backwoods woodchuck. Youre the girl! | |
A Rams Horn orchid seedpod for a woodchuck | |
Sounds something like. Better than farmers beans | |
To a discriminating appetite, | 135 |
Though the Rams Horn is seldom to be had | |
In bushel lotsdoesnt come on the market. | |
But, Anne, Im troubled; have you told me all? | |
Youre hiding something. Thats as bad as lying. | |
You ask this lawyer man. And its not safe | 140 |
With a lawyer at hand to find you out. | |
Nothing is hidden from some people, Anne. | |
You dont tell me that where you found a Rams Horn | |
You didnt find a Yellow Ladys Slipper. | |
What did I tell you? What? Id blush, I would. | 145 |
Dont you defend yourself. If it was there, | |
Where is it now, the Yellow Ladys Slipper? | |
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Well, waitits commonits too common. | |
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Common? | |
The Purple Ladys Slippers commoner. | 150 |
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I didnt bring a Purple Ladys Slipper | |
To Youto you I meantheyre both too common. | |
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The lawyer gave a laugh among his papers | |
As if with some idea that she had scored. | |
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Ive broken Anne of gathering bouquets. | 155 |
Its not fair to the child. It cant be helped though: | |
Pressed into service means pressed out of shape. | |
Somehow Ill make it right with hershell see. | |
Shes going to do my scouting in the field, | |
Over stone walls and all along a wood | 160 |
And by a river bank for water flowers, | |
The floating Heart, with small leaf like a heart, | |
And at the sinus under water a fist | |
Of little fingers all kept down but one, | |
And that thrust up to blossom in the sun | 165 |
As if to say, You! Youre the Hearts desire. | |
Anne has a way with flowers to take the place | |
Of that shes lost: she goes down on one knee | |
And lifts their faces by the chin to hers | |
And says their names, and leaves them where they are. | 170 |
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The lawyer wore a watch the case of which | |
Was cunningly devised to make a noise | |
Like a small pistol when he snapped it shut | |
At such a time as this. He snapped it now. | |
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Well, Anne, go, dearie. Our affair will wait. | 175 |
The lawyer man is thinking of his train. | |
He wants to give me lots and lots of money | |
Before he goes, because I hurt myself, | |
And it may take him I dont know how long. | |
But put our flowers in water first. Will, help her: | 180 |
The pitchers too full for her. Theres no cup? | |
Just hook them on the inside of the pitcher. | |
Now run.Get out your documents! You see | |
I have to keep on the good side of Anne. | |
Im a great boy to think of number one. | 185 |
And you cant blame me in the place Im in. | |
Who will take care of my necessities | |
Unless I do? | |
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A pretty interlude, | |
The lawyer said. Im sorry, but my train | 190 |
Luckily terms are all agreed upon. | |
You only have to sign your name. Rightthere. | |
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You, Will, stop making faces. Come round here | |
Where you cant make them. What is it you want? | |
Ill put you out with Anne. Be good or go. | 195 |
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You dont mean you will sign that thing unread? | |
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Make yourself useful then, and read it for me. | |
Isnt it something I have seen before? | |
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Youll find it is. Let your friend look at it. | |
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Yes, but all that takes time, and Im as much | 200 |
In haste to get it over with as you. | |
But read it, read it. Thats right, draw the curtain: | |
Half the time I dont know whats troubling me. | |
What do you say, Will? Dont you be a fool, | |
You! crumpling folkses legal documents. | 205 |
Out with it if youve any real objection. | |
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Five hundred dollars! | |
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What would you think right? | |
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A thousand wouldnt be a cent too much; | |
You know it, Mr. Lawyer. The sin is | 210 |
Accepting anything before he knows | |
Whether hes ever going to walk again. | |
It smells to me like a dishonest trick. | |
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I thinkI thinkfrom what I heard to-day | |
And saw myselfhe would be ill-advised | 215 |
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What did you hear, for instance? Willis said. | |
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Now the place where the accident occurred | |
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The Broken One was twisted in his bed. | |
This is between you two apparently. | |
Where I come in is what I want to know. | 220 |
You stand up to it like a pair of cocks. | |
Go outdoors if you want to fight. Spare me. | |
When you come back, Ill have the papers signed. | |
Will pencil do? Then, please, your fountain pen. | |
One of you hold my head up from the pillow. | 225 |
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Willis flung off the bed. I wash my hands | |
Im no matchno, and dont pretend to be | |
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The lawyer gravely capped his fountain pen. | |
Youre doing the wise thing: you wont regret it. | |
Were very sorry for you. | 230 |
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Willis sneered: | |
Whos we?some stockholders in Boston? | |
Ill go outdoors, by gad, and wont come back. | |
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Willis, bring Anne back with you when you come. | |
Yes. Thanks for caring. Dont mind Will: hes savage. | 235 |
He thinks you ought to pay me for my flowers. | |
You dont know what I mean about the flowers. | |
Dont stop to try to now. Youll miss your train. | |
Good-bye. He flung his arms around his face. | |
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