登陆注册
15483200000034

第34章 CHAPTER VII A SEAT IN UNION SQUARE(1)

Within a day's journey of Kennedy Square lay another wide breathing-space, its winding paths worn smooth by countless hurrying feet.

Over its flat monotony straggled a line of gnarled willows, marking the wanderings of some guileless brook long since swallowed up and lost in the mazes of the great city like many another young life fresh from green fields and sunny hill-sides. This desert of weeds and sun-dried, yellow grass, this kraal for scraggly trees and broken benches, breasted the rush of the great city as a stone breasts a stream, dividing its current--one part swirling around and up Broadway to the hills and the other flowing eastward toward Harlem and the Sound. Around its four sides, fronting the four streets that hemmed it in, ran a massive iron railing, socketed in stone and made man-proof and dog-proof by four great iron gates. These gates were opened at dawn to let the restless in, and closed at night to keep the weary out.

Above these barriers of stone and iron no joyous magnolias lifted their creamy blossoms; no shy climbing roses played hide-and-seek, blushing scarlet when caught. Along its foot-worn paths no drowsy Moses ceased his droning call; no lovers walked forgetful of the world; no staid old gentlemen wandered idly, their noses in their books.

All day long on its rude straight-backed benches and over its thread-bare turf sprawled unkempt women with sick babies from the shanties; squalid, noisy children from the rookeries; beggars in rags, and now and then some hopeless wayfarer--who for the moment had given up his search for work or bread and who rested or slept until the tap of a constable's club brought him to consciousness and his feet.

At night, before the gates were closed--ten o'clock was the hour--there could always be found, under its dim lamps, some tired girl, sitting in the light for better protection while she rested, or some weary laborer on the way home from his long day's work, and always passing to and fro, swinging his staff, bullying the street-rats who were playing tag among the trees, and inspiring a wholesome awe among those hiding in the shadows, lounged some guardian of the peace awaiting the hour when he could drive the inmates to the sidewalk and shut the gates behind them with a bang.

Here on one of these same straight-backed wooden seats one September night--a night when the air was heavy with a blurred haze, through which the lamps peered as in a fog, and the dust lay thick upon the leaves--sat our Oliver.

Outside the square--all about the iron fence, and surging past the big equestrian statue, could be heard the roar and din of the great city--that maelstrom which now seemed ready to engulf him. No sound of merry laughter reached him, only rumbling of countless wheels, the slow thud of never-ending, crowded stages lumbering over the cobbles, the cries of the hucksters selling hot corn, and the ceaseless scrapings of a thousand feet.

He had sat here since the sun had gone down watching the crowds, wondering how they lived and how they had earned their freedom from such cares as were now oppressing him. His heart was heavy.

A long-coveted berth, meaning self-support and independence and consequent relief to his mother's heart, had been almost within his grasp. It was not the place he had expected when he left home. It was much more menial and unremunerative. But he had outlived all his bright hopes. He was ready now to take anything he could get to save him from returning to Kennedy Square, or what would be still worse --from asking his mother for a penny more than she had given him. Rather than do this he would sweep the streets.

As he leaned forward on the bench, his face in his hands, his elbows on his knees, his thoughts went back to his father's house. He knew what they were all doing at this hour; he could see the porches crowded with the boys and girls he loved, their bright voices filling the night-air, Sue in the midst of them, her curls about her face. He could see his father in the big chair reading by the lamp, that dear old father who had held his hands so tenderly and spoken with such earnestness the day before he had left Kennedy Square.

"Your mother is right," Richard had said. "I am glad you are going, my son; the men at the North are broader-minded than we are here, and you will soon find your place among them. Great things are ahead of us, my boy. I shall not live to see them, but you will."

He could see his mother, too, sitting by the window, looking out upon the trees. He knew where her thoughts lay. As his mind rested on her pale face his eyes filled with tears. "Dear old mother," he said to himself--"I am not forgetting, dear. I am holding on. But oh, if I had only got the place to-day, how happy you would be to-morrow."

A bitter feeling had risen in his heart, when he had opened the letter which had brought him the news of the loss of this hoped-for situation. "This is making one's way in the world, is it?" he had said to himself with a heavy sigh. Then the calm eyes of his mother had looked into his again, and he had felt the pressure of the soft hand and heard the tones of her voice:

"You may have many discouragements, my son, and will often be ready to faint by the way, but stick to it and you will win."

His bitterness had been but momentary, and he had soon pulled himself together, but his every resource seemed exhausted now. He had counted so on the situation--that of a shipping-clerk in a dry-goods store--promised him because of a letter that he carried from Amos Cobb's friend. But at the last moment the former clerk, who had been laid off because of sickness, had been taken back, and so the weary search for work must begin again.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 西游之永生

    西游之永生

    谢震两世轮回,重生到西游世界成为隐雾山上一只小妖。
  • 凤起兮

    凤起兮

    “梧桐树引来金凤凰”是千古佳话,那么,为什么只有梧桐树才能引来凤凰呢?原来是这样的:圣兽小凤凰被人从圣界打落,流浪于仙庭,结识仙帝一家;后下到人间界,历经喜、怒、哀、乐后,涅槃重生,并喜获人生知己。重回仙庭,修得“三花聚顶”,两体一神,一个回到圣界,一个在仙庭。至于为什么会栖息在梧桐树上,请看——
  • 神迹之原罪

    神迹之原罪

    我们从未知晓的这个世界的真相,人类与精灵王,渡灵者与游魂。崩坏的世界,重生的世界。命运的重逢,我们注定相遇。
  • 钢琴恋曲:樱花萌芽成爱

    钢琴恋曲:樱花萌芽成爱

    搞什么?好歹她也是一代众人膜拜女神,剽悍女汉子!怎么能被蓝俊熙这个恶魔王子给打倒呢?校园决战,校园王子vs钢琴公主,谁胜谁负?在两人战斗的过程中,感情悄悄升温,爱情种子在悄悄萌芽但却在战斗的过程中,她的心越来越偏向那个讨厌的家伙……当爱情开始,面对霸气十足帅气王子的追求,钢琴公主会不会同意?樱花树下熟悉的钢琴恋曲,唤起了谁的恋情?指间的旋律,醉心的乐曲,谁……敲醒了她的音符?谁……奏响了她的心之门?倾dream樱花,浪漫幻想成曲,这一季,如雪一般的樱花恋情,是否会在花期中结束?当爱情种子懵懂悄悄发芽,才知道他们的爱情,苦涩于咖啡……
  • 浅婚惊爱

    浅婚惊爱

    一夜巨变,她从万人瞻仰的富家千金,变成人见人厌的私生女,落魄街头,穷困潦倒。他,万众瞩目的豪门太子爷,冷傲狂狷,人见人惧,却独独只宠她一人。“做你的秘书,这是要潜了我的节奏吗?”她嘴角扯动,灵动的眼神紧紧盯着他。“潜不潜,这辈子,你都只能是我的人。”他吻住她的唇,宣示主权。一纸浅浅的婚约却经不住风吹雨打……“离婚吧。”临别时,他面前的,只有一张薄薄的纸,让男人彻底震怒。“敢跑?!天涯海角都把你抓回来!”
  • 绝世无双废柴逆天四小姐

    绝世无双废柴逆天四小姐

    人人都说洛汐寒冷漠高傲,,可谁知她的冷漠、她的高傲来源于孤独寂寞,父母皆为科技研究所所长,对她这个女儿忽视的不能再忽视。一次研讨,一把古剑,她洛汐寒竟也成为穿越大军的一员!算了,穿越就穿越吧,姐怎么说也是天之骄子啊!怎么也得穿越到一个绝代天才身上吧,咋让姐穿越到一个任人欺凌的废柴身上吧!废柴就废柴,姐上一辈子还渴望父爱母爱呢?怎么的也得给姐安排个父母吧!没爹没娘算怎么回事!算了算了,这一切姐也忍了,废柴是吧?那就看她乌鸦变凤凰,废柴变天才!洛汐寒鄙夷:贼老天,你出来,给姐搞劳什子穿越?姐保证不打死你!
  • 校园欢聚

    校园欢聚

    三个校园的闺蜜,两个转校生的兄弟。五年二班的几个小鬼,到底会弄出什么样的笑话?敬请期待!
  • 蠡测汇钞

    蠡测汇钞

    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。
  • 遗失的彼岸

    遗失的彼岸

    一个改变人类未来的计划被中途打乱,一个丧尸的时代来临,实力的碰撞,智力的比拼,是苟延残喘还是一往无前?人类的希望将会在何方?
  • 末世之战气生

    末世之战气生

    2016年8月1日,末世降临,当身边一个个亲人爬起来冲向你时,你会怎么办?如果是她,她会告诉你:“当亲人变成丧尸,不杀,就跟他们同归于尽,但是没有人会赞美你的伟大!”