Оглавление
Stewart Edward White. The Forest
The Forest
Table of Contents
I
THE CALLING
II
THE SCIENCE OF GOING LIGHT
III
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE
IV
ON MAKING CAMP
V
ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT
VI
THE 'LUNGE
VII
ON OPEN-WATER CANOE TRAVELLING
VIII
THE STRANDED STRANGERS
IX
ON FLIES
X
CLOCHE
XI
THE HABITANTS
XII
THE RIVER
XIII
THE HILLS
XIV
ON WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS
XV
ON WOODS INDIANS
XVI
ON WOODS INDIANS (continued)
XVII
THE CATCHING OF A CERTAIN FISH
XVIII
MAN WHO WALKS BY MOONLIGHT
XIX
APOLOGIA
SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT
THE END
Отрывок из книги
Stewart Edward White
Published by Good Press, 2019
.....
The man was short. He wore a felt hat, so big that it rested on his ears. A gray wool shirt hung below his neck. A cutaway coat miles too large depended below his knees and to the first joints of his fingers. By way of official uniform his legs were incased in an ordinary rough pair of miller's white trousers, on which broad strips of red flannel had been roughly sewn. Everything was wrinkled in the folds of too-bigness. As though to accentuate the note, the man stood very erect, very military, and supported in one hand the staff of an English flag. This figure of fun, this man made from the slop-chest, this caricature of a scarecrow, had been put forth by heavy-handed facetiousness to the post of greatest honour. He was Standard-Bearer to the occasion! Surely subtle irony could go no further.
A sudden movement caused the man to turn. One sleeve of the faded, ridiculous old cutaway was empty. He turned again. From under the ear-flanging hat looked unflinchingly the clear, steady blue eye of the woodsman. And so we knew. This old soldier had come in from the Long Trail to bear again the flag of his country. If his clothes were old and ill-fitting, at least they were his best, and the largeness of the empty sleeve belittled the too-largeness of the other. In all this ribald, laughing, irreverent, commonplace, semi-vicious crowd he was the one note of sincerity. To him this was a real occasion, and the exalted reverence in his eye for the task he was so simply performing was Smith's real triumph--if he could have known it. We understood now, we felt the imminence of the Long Trail. For the first time the little brick, tawdry town gripped our hearts with the well-known thrill of the Jumping-Off Place. Suddenly the great, simple, unashamed wilderness drew near us as with the rush of wings.
.....
