Tramping on
章节目录
共 190 题- TRAMPING ON LIFE
- AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE
- HARRY KEMP
- GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
- BONI AND LIVERIGHT, INC.
- First Printing, September, 1922
- Second Printing, November, 1922
- Third Printing, January, 1923
- Fourth Printing, April, 1923
- Fifth Printing, July, 1923
- Sixth Printing, September, 1923
- Seventh Printing, November, 1923
- Eighth Printing, May, 1924
- Ninth Printing, November, 1924
- Tenth Printing, July, 1925
- Eleventh Printing, March, 1926
- Twelfth Printing, February, 1927
- MARY PYNE
- TRAMPING ON LIFE
- I was four years old when my mother died.
- I returned to bed and found Minnie lying stiff and mute with fury.
- I dropped the gun in the grass, sullenly, never speaking.
- I took my seat again. Soon my tears dried.
- I knew him instantly though it had been years since I had seen him.
- I was absent several weeks.
- I told him I would be careful....
- I trembled, answered nothing, was silent.
- From time to time Flora went on "trips."
- Your loving
- FLORA."
- I told her I was just sixteen.
- I did not listen, but stood.
- I could hardly speak to my father that night. I avoided him.
- I obeyed him in humiliated silence.
- At last I ventured, "and how--how did she come to die?"
- I visited Aunt Millie last.
- I started aft.
- I straightened up to ease a kink in my back.
- I looked at him. "No, we haven't."
- I peeked into Schantze's cabin to announce breakfast.
- I kept to the cabin while the butchering was going on.
- I promised to keep a good look-out.
- I came along the net, drenched and forlorn.
- I never saw such courage of its kind.
- I looked the captain straight in the eye.
- I must be telling the truth to be behaving so differently.
- I obeyed.
- I lie. I must tell the truth in these memoirs.
- I had told on him.
- Dear Captain:--
- JOHN GREGORY.
- I was soon to wish that I had listened to the old tramp's wisdom.
- Then--
- We rose and sang, "There is a green hill far away--"
- I think that summer I learned Shelley and Whitman by heart.
- I felt a confidence in myself I had never known before....
- I got my room.
- I flung myself on my face.
- I was being carried about on their shoulders.
- I waved the compliment aside rather wearily.
- I expressed, in plain terms, my opinion of their espionage system.
- I stood in front of the Eos Artwork Studios.
- I saw a boy coming down the path from one of the buildings.
- I was reported to Spalton as having been a first-rate cook.
- I went to work in the bindery again.
- Then Spalton began adding words of his own, in praise of the deceased--
- I never saw so happy a man as Pfeiler was that winter.
- I spoke to Spalton about it.
- I gave him a swift glance. "I would like it very much."
- I threw my few belongings together.
- I took a chair.
- I let him rise, almost palsied with horror.
- I had at last arrived at a definite plan of action.
- I grew so angry at him I could hardly bridle my anger in.
- I found myself in the outskirts of Newark again.
- While I was hesitating, a voice at my elbow--
- I said I'd gladly share his lunch.
- I had told him, in the course of my talking, about them both.
- But now old Sowerby read nothing. "I have no time left for a book."
- I dropped off a freight, one morning, in the Eos yards....
- I asked who was Dorothy....
- Again Spalton asked me to stay, "we need a poet for Eos!"
- I couldn't imagine how much.
- I had talked much of college being my next aim.
- I enquired my way to the university.
- I was waiting in the storm porch.
- I sat humming softly to myself, studying my first lessons.
- LAUREL ENROLLS BOX-CAR STUDENT."
- I am trying to give you the flavour of the town.
- I thought of the couplet of Gay:
- I thought of my Southern widow, Mrs. Tighe.
- I imagined myself posing, nude, for her canvases....
- I was charmed.
- I returned a quick, angry look.
- I staggered to my feet.
- I was going to lick everybody in the jail, if I must.
- I took a big swallow and it braced me up instantly.
- I was made into a sort of hero--"a real, honest-to-God guy."
- I looked innocent. "Do what?"
- I went down to speak with Randall about it....
- I was the tramp, as ever, only I was stationary.
- I glanced through a vista of bushes.
- I lay there, happy in being near her, the unknown.
- It was what the boys called "a sight for sore eyes."
- I was introduced as their friend, as the coloured man's friend.
- I spoke. I read my poems simply and unaffectedly.
- I ignored Matty with a face like a stone wall.
- Coach Shaughnessy declared himself boldly--
- I already owed him fifteen dollars.
- I assured him that I would not fail.
- I didn't know whether the trainer was jesting or serious.
- I was in among them. The door clanged behind me.
- I turned to the trainer before I went to my room over the tin-shop.
- I pulled myself together. Deliberately I turned my back on them.
- I gave the lunch, inviting the professors I liked best.
- I asked Hammond if he knew Penton Baxter.
- I pitched hay, I loaded lumber, I dug, I planted, I reaped.
- I signed on, on a big ore boat, as porter....
- I saw fright in the captain's face....
- I rushed up to him. His drawers sagged pitiably with wet.
- I ordered a steak, and persuaded Dan, finally, to have one too.
- I laughed at the boy's frank philosophy....
- I rehearsed and rehearsed.
- I asked Dineen please to believe in me, and watch results.
- I hurried down to Locker, the clothier....
- I knew something had gone wrong.
- I _had_ them....
- I could hardly stand, from the weakness of excitement and exertion.
- After the play was over--
- I wrote that I could do with seven dollars a week....
- I replied that I could only take enough to fill my simplest wants....
- I settled down to consecutive literary work.
- I had soon completed the first act of my apostolic play....
- I drank but sparingly, as I loafed about the joints and "houses."
- He headed his editorial "A Youthful Interim ... Youth Must Be Served!"
- I wrote a poem for the Scoop Club Edition of the Laurel _Globe_ ...
- And Hammond had, he told me, replied--
- I was thoroughly aroused. I jumped to my feet.
- Farewell to Laurel!--
- I spoke ardently in favour of free love.
- I hopped off at Argentine, just outside of Kansas City.
- I spoke to them of my projected trip to Europe.
- I knocked vigorously. No one came. I waited a long while.
- I read my sonnet to Penton, in a grave, respectful voice.
- I took her hand and helped her rise to a sitting posture.
- I stooped over, hunching my back.
- I leaned toward my friend's wife, calling her again by her first name.
- I smiled to myself. If Ruth had seen us that preceding afternoon!
- I put my arm around the girl's waist, and she wept on my shoulder.
- I read them many love poems--those I had written for Vanna....
- I flushed and sat silent.
- I read.
- Outside--
- I was trembling all over....
- I buried my head in her lap and sobbed hysterically.
- Then I apologised--"forgive me if I have been too frank!"
- I was on my feet beside her, as she rose.
- I put my arms about her, to steady her going, for she stumbled.
- I rose. It seemed hardly an hour had passed.
- I had put all thought of narrative poetry out of my head.
- I found myself on my knees by the door.
- I had to laugh at her exact mimicry....
- I stroked her hair....
- I returned to my tent in a blissful daze.
- I had not the least feeling of having betrayed a friend.
- I ate a long time, dreaming.
- I leaped alert. It was Hildreth, at my tent door....
- I stepped out beside her. We stood locked in a long embrace.
- The upshot--
- I dried myself in the sun, using its morning heat for a towel....
- I took her hands in mine, with mind and soul made up at last....
- I stopped reading, in pretended astonishment.
- I rose, laying the book down carefully.
- I knelt by the bed, thrusting my head into the lap of my First Woman.
- Then--
- I had been asleep....
- I never had such a vision in my life....
- I described it to Hildreth, as she lay, thrilled, beside me.
- I had come in, casting a dead fawn down from my shoulder....
- I was almost as frightened as she was.
- As her favourite sonneteer, Santayana, writes--lines she often quoted--
- I thought I would escape without saying good-bye.
- I was, in other words, following the accepted mode.
- I wrote Miller to come down, that I had an exclusive interview for him.
- And at twelve o'clock--
- I learned how little a summer cottage was worth--in winter.
- I ate my food from open cans, not taking the trouble to cook.
- I looked up from the page over which my frosty fingers crawled....
- I was at the long-distance phone.
- THE END