Booth Tarkington

“ Lucius dangled the ferule of the long-handled blue parasol over the glowing head of a dandelion in the grass. “Not so much,” he answered. “And old Doc Worley and his wife don't drive in their surrey in the summer evenings any more. They're both out in the cemetery now, and the surrey's somewhere in the air we breathe, because it was burnt on a trash-heap the other day, though I've seemed to see it driving home in the dusk a hundred times since it fell to pieces. Nowadays hardly any, even of the old folks, ride in surreys. These ten years have changed the world, Lucy. ”

“ She saw him telling Lucius—and she remembered what Lucius had said: “I'm afraid to meet Maud and Bill!”
She began to feel strickenly sure that Lucius would return her parasol by a messenger. If he did that (she thought) what was the use of coming all the way from California to five in a town like Marlow!
“NOBODY,” SAID MR. ALLEN, “TAKES MUCH NOTICE OF A CHUNKY KIND OF MAN WITH A REDDISH HEAD AND GETTING A LITTLE BALD.”
But the parasol was not sent, nor did Lucius bring it. It remained, as did Mr. Allen himself, obscured from her sight and from her knowledge. ”

“ Do the girls and boys still sit out on front steps and porches, or under the trees in the yard in the evenings the way we used to? Do you remember how wed always see old Doctor Worley jogging by in his surrey exactly as the courthouse-bell rang nine, every night; his wife on the back seat and the old doctor on the front one, coming home from their evening drive? There are so many things I remember like that, and they all seem lovely now—and I believe they must be why I've come back here to live—though I didn't think much about them at the time. ”

“ A LUCIUS BRUTUS ALLEN STORY
IN MAY, when the maple leaves an growing large, the Midland county seat and market town called Marlow so disappears into the foliage that travelers. gazing from Pullman windows, wonder why a railroad train should stop to look at four or five preoccupied chickens in a back yard. On the other hand, this neighborly place is said to have a population numbering more than three thousand. At least, this is what a man from Marlow will begin to claim as soon as he has journeyed fifteen or twenty miles from home ”

“ As a being possessed of reason, he understood that a spanking applied to his sister in order to emphasize the immunity of houses, might well be thought to indicate that stables and fences were also morally unpaintable. Little appeared to remain at the disposal of a person who had just providentially acquired a can of red paint and a brush. Shrubberies were obviously impracticable, and Bill had his doubts about the trunks of trees: they were made of wood, he knew, like many houses and fences and stables. ”

“ Yes, sir; there isn't a soul raises the question but what their mother is the finest-lookin' lady that ever lived here, or but what she does every last thing any mortal could do in the line o disciplinn; but much as everybody'd enjoy to git better acquainted with her and begin to see somep'n of her, they all think she's liable to lead kind of a lonesome life in our community unless—” Mortimer paused with his hand upon the door-knob—“unless somep'n happens to Maud and Bill!” ”

“ Rolfo Williams, to describe this mood of Lucius Allen's, made free use of the word “sag.”
Mr. Williams stood upon the corner with his wife, that amiable matron, and P. Borodino Thompson, all three staring unaffectedly. “That's Lu Allen's lady-walk,” said Rolfo, as E. J. Fuller and Mortimer joined them. “He always kind o' sags when he goes out walkin' with the girls. Sags toeward 'em. I'll say this much: I never see him sag deeper than what he is right now. Looks to me like he's just about fixin' to lean on her!” ”

“ The kind old horse, worried by the fly and the heat, was pleased to have the fly chased away; and after the first stroke of the cool wet brush on his right foreleg, he closed one eye in hushed ecstasy and stood motionless, lest he break the spell. ”

“ Money and gasoline. Even Marlow's got into the world; and in the evenings they go out snorting and sirening and blowing-out and smoking blue oil all over creation. Bore Thompson's about the only man in town that's still got any use for a hitching-post. He drives an old white horse to a phaeton, and by to-morrow afternoon at the latest you'll find that old horse and phaeton tied to the ring in the hand of that little old cast-iron stripe-shirted nigger-boy in front of your gate yonder.”
Mrs. Ricketts glanced frowningly at the obsolete decoration he mentioned ”

“ Well, sir, I almost let out a holler: first thing I thought was they must of been in the worst accident this town had ever saw. Why, pore ole General—honest, he looked more like a slaughter-house than he did like a horse, Lu! 'What in the name of God is the matter, Bore!' I says, and you never hear a man take on the way he done.
“Seems Maud and Bill had painted ole General red, and they painted him thick, too, while Bore was in the house fixin' to take their mother out on this here buggy-ride. And, well, sir, to hear him take on, you'd of thought I was responsible for the whole business! ”

“ Especially”— she gave her husband a compassionate glance—“especially the fat, old ones! Mrs. Cal Burns come past my house while ago; says, 'Mrs. Williams, I expect you better go on up-town look after your husband,' she says. 'I been lookin' fer mine,' she says, 'but I couldn't locate him, because he knows better than to let me to,' she says, 'after what P. Borodino Thompson's just been tellin' me about him! Lucy Cope Ricketts is back in town,' she says, 'and none the men reckanized her yet,' she says, 'and you better go on up to the Square and take a look for yourself how they're behavin'! ”

“ ALLEN WAS MARCHING UP PAWPAW STREET WITH LUCY COPE'S BLUE PARASOL OVER HIS RIGHT SHOULDER.
“No, sir,” Mr. Fuller returned, rather indifferently. “What's she look like, Mortimore?”
“Well, sir, I can give you a right good notion about that,” said Mortimer. “I expect I'm perty much the only man in town that could, too. ”

“ Lucius had brought the parasol down from his shoulder and stood regarding it seriously. “No; it isn't out of order. I—I just brought it with me. What's the news?”
“Well, I don't know of much,” said Mortimer, likewise staring attentively at the parasol. “Some wall-paperin' goin' on here and there over town, E. J. Fuller says. Ed says P. Borodino Thompson told him he was goin' to drop round and call this evening, he says; but afterwards I was up at the hardware store, and Bore come in there and Rolfo Williams's wife talked him out o' goin'. ”

“ Says it might as well be all over town, now he'd ran into me! Truth is, he talked like he was out of his mind, but I kind o' soothed him down, and last I fixed it up with him to give me credit fer a little insurance my wife's been wantin' to take out on her stepmother, if I'd put General and the phaeton in George Coles's empty barn, there in the alley, until after dark, and not say nothin' to George or anybody 'bout it, and then drive him over to Bore's, and unhitch him and wash him off with turpentine that night. ”

“ But Bore never went back there, and ain't goin' to, you bet, any more than what Henry Ledyard is! There ain't hardly a man in town but what Maud and Bill's got buffaloed, Lu.”
Mr. Allen occupied himself with the sharpening of a pencil. “What did they do to Thompson?” he asked casually.
“Well, sir, fer the first few days I expect I was the only man in town knowed what it was.” Mr. ”

“ Mortimer interrupted firmly. “They come up-town to the Square, the next afternoon after they busted Henry's twelve-dollar hat, and they went into E. J. Fuller's store and Ed says they come mighty near drivin' him crazy, walkin' up and down behind him singin 'Gran'mammy Tipsytoe.' Then they went on over to Milo Carter's, and they had a dollar and forty cents with 'em that they'd went and got out of their little bank. They et seven big ice-cream sodies apiece and got sick right in the store. Milo had to telephone fer their mother, and her and the Norwegian come and had to carry 'em home. ”