Covington

“ During this time Allen found Covington's attitude toward him completely changed. It would have hurt the older man's self-respect to admit that the boy could in any way be looked upon as a rival; but young girls are uncertain quantities, and it had been necessary for Alice to prove that she was beyond this danger-point before Covington decided that Allen was a promising youngster, after all, and, as Stephen Sanford's son, entitled at least to being noticed. ”

“ John Covington will have more of a position to live up to even than Miss Alice Gorham."
"That's just it," she said, slowly. "It doesn't seem to me that I am ready to assume any 'position,' as you call it. Until you and daddy gave me this chance to do something else besides dances and theatre-parties and all those things we girls fill our time with, I was drifting hopelessly. This tiny bit of responsibility has been just the anchor I needed. What I read means so much more to me, what people talk about is of increased interest because I am just that much more conversant with what is going on ”

“ The way was barred, by whooping, panting old men, hornet-hot. Everybody took a hand or tried to. The color-bearer shoved the staff of the flag between his legs and half tripped him, and as he regained his feet Sergeant Jimmy Bagby, jumping on a seat to get at him over the bobbing heads of his comrades, dealt him a glancing, clumsy blow on the shoulder with the muzzle of his old musket. Major Covington and Judge Priest were still right on him, bearing their not inconsiderable bulk down upon his shoulders. ”

“ Covington continued, calmly. "I should judge that everything was all right."
"Then he's been wastin' time," growled Brady, "and he can have all the pink teas he wants with Littleton and Graham. We directors have the authority, anyhow; nobody could stop us. Who the devil is Gorham to dictate to me? He thinks he's the whole show, he does. It makes me sick to see him swellin' around with that girl wife of his. She's a stunner all right, and I don't blame him; but who the devil is she? Somebody's divorced wife, ain't she, Covington? Does anybody know anything about her? He ain't so much." ”

“ He did not wish Gorham to yield, and he found that the more he urged him to compromise, the more firmly set he was against doing it. Thus he could accomplish his purpose, and at the same time put himself on record without risk of being called disloyal, while advising him for his own best good. The others were working hard, and Covington could have posted his chief upon many interesting points had he chosen to do so. Instead, he preferred to bring added pressure upon Alice to name an early date for their wedding. ”

“ Gorham still stood to Allen as the epitome of the best that a man could express. The shock which had come to him when Gorham admitted a knowledge of Covington's investment of Alice's money, did not weaken his respect for the man, but rather was the final event to convince him that his own conception of business must be entirely wrong. ”

“ Mary Holbrook Covington married George H. Bates, a native of Farmington, Maine, and the wife of Rev. Dr. Mann, the present rector of Trinity church in Boston, is her granddaughter. Capt. Covington died May 28, 1835, at the age of forty-four. After the death of Capt. Covington the house in question came into the occupancy of Josiah Robbins, who has already been noticed, and later of Thomas Prince, who occupied it as a boarding house. The next occupant was Peter Holmes, who was the son of Peter and Sally (Harlow) Holmes, and was born in 1804. Mr. ”

“ Gorham," he forced himself to say. "It is not you who have defeated me, it is I who have defeated myself. I offer no defence. I despised myself before I did this, I despise myself still further for having done it. I could not believe you sincere,—I could not believe any man capable of living the creed you preached. I accept the penalty which you or other men may impose upon me."
"You have imposed your own penalty, Covington," Gorham replied. "You, who have destroyed the way-marks to misguide others, now find yourself adrift because of your own act. ”

“ The two girls fanned themselves with their handkerchiefs and constantly brushed cinders off their starched blouses. Mrs. Mc-Laurin, buttoned in to her rounded throat, sat bolt-upright, the better to keep wrinkles from marring the flawless fit of her regimentals. She suffered like a Christian martyr of old, smiling with a sweet content—as those same Christian martyrs are said to have suffered and smiled. Judge Priest, sitting one seat to the rear of her, with Major Covington alongside him, napped lightly with his head against the hot red plush of the seat-back. ”

“ With the present strained relations between Gorham and the Executive Committee, his confidential relations with both sides might prove disagreeable. But with Gorham himself entangled in a domestic complication, serious consequences to himself from such a catastrophe might be averted, or, at least, mitigated. And, best of all, Levy was quite ready to proceed in the matter with Buckner as his client. Surely Opportunity never offered herself with more brazen coquetry to any one than she did to John Covington. ”

“ McLaurin and tall Miss Lyon were emerging from their fainting fits, and little Rita Covington, now that the danger was over and past, wept in a protecting crook of her father's arm. Judge Priest's Jeff was salvaging a big revolver, with one chamber fired, from under a seat. Eight or nine old men were surrounding old Press Harper, all talking at once, and all striving to pat him on the bade with clumsy, caressing slaps. And out on the rear platform, side by side, stood Sergeant Jimmy Bagby and Corporal Jake Smedley ”

“ Judge Priest's Jeff was everywhere that things were happening. He did two men's part in holding the bulging bag down to earth until the spangled aeronaut yelled out for everybody to let go. When the man dropped, away over by the back fence, Jeff was first on the spot to brush him off and to inquire in a voice of respectful solicitude how he was feeling, now that he'd come down. Up in the grandstand, Mrs. Major Joe Sam Covington, who was stout and wore a cameo breastpin as big as a coffee saucer at her throat, expressed to nobody in particular a desire for a glass of cool water ”

“ Her dark hair sweeping backward showed a forehead broad and white;
And a passion born of heaven gave her eyes undying light.
'Round her white soul lingered all the virtues, honor, love and truth,
All the stainlessness of woman in the loveliness of youth. ”

“ Now I know why that fellow has always acted like he was answerable to no one but himself. And I thought him yellow! And next I thought he was a spy. Well, I was right about that–but the wrong way around. I take my hat off to him! It takes nerve to fill his job.”
“It does indeed!” Cowan agreed fervently. “Perhaps you recall how I bawled him out for cutting formation over Vitry that day when we were on our way up for our first action? And how I sent him over the lines on a mission to locate von Herzmann’s Circus?”
McGee nodded. “I certainly do remember it. You sure said plenty!” ”

“ The strike tears off the mask of things,
To mass and class the issue brings.
Say what ye will, the strike is good:
It clears things long misunderstood:
It jolts the social mind awake:
It forces men a stand to take. ”

“ FAITHLESS
They tell me you are faithless; that you love me now no more;
That love's lodestar shines no longer on the dreamer's temple door;
That my heart misread in reading the illuming of your eye ”

“ Met the icy kiss of death,
Isabel;
And the world will never view
One more gentle or more true,
Fairer, lovelier than you,
Isabel.
In this narrow coffin lies
All there is of earth and skies,
Isabel ”

“ The casualties had been high, Cowan admitted, but not higher than might be expected and not without giving even heavier losses to the enemy. The squadron losses could have been held down had the members been less keen about scoring a personal victory over von Herzmann. Every pursuit pilot along the entire front was willing to take the most desperate chances in the hope of plucking the crest feathers of this German war eagle. ”

“ He can point to the holes and say, ‘Count von Herzmann, the German ace and spy, was just behind these holes.’”
Every man in the room felt awed and a trifle uneasy. Here was a man whose cool courage they could envy. Not every man can face death with so grim a jest.
“However,” von Herzmann turned to Cowan, “it gives me pleasure to report that I foresaw the possibility of this very thing and so arranged matters that a certain Mr. Schwarz, whom you call Siddons, will be shot five days from now.” ”

“ Besides, he has some sort of a drag with someone. Cowan thinks he is a great flyer. He is, too. Knows more about both the technical and practical side of the game than any of the others. That’s what’s wrong with him. He is so self-satisfied, so arrogant, and so cocksure of every word he utters and every movement he makes. He is the coldest fish I ever met. He reminds me of someone–but I can’t remember who it is. Sometimes I think he is–Listen! What’s that?”
McGee’s question went unanswered as the shrill blasts of the air raid siren shattered the peace of the village with its frenzied warning. ”

“ Ever close and near to thee;
Oversoul and heart of things,
Shade me always with thy wings;
Even in the vale of death,
Breathe on me thy honeyed breath.
Mother Nature, guard me when
Life is strong, and after then ”

“ O the days that long have vanished! O the light that died away,
When the mystic lovelight faded from her dreamy eyes for aye!
O the fading of the roses! O the ages that have flown,
And the sorrow and the shadow that the dreamer's heart has known! ”

“ The church spreads like a upas over heart and soul and mind,
Grows powerful and fattens as the race grows stooped and blind;
Forever and forever it is siding with the kings,
Is at the throat of Labor and is breaking Freedom's wings. ”

“ We shall hunt around the fences where your ox-men sweat and gape
Till they stampede down your stockades in their panic to escape;
We shall steal up thru the darkness, we shall prowl the wood and town,
Till they waken to their power and arise and ride you down. ”

“ They crack up those crates too fast. And Siddons is just the kind to do that sort of trick. He’s a good flyer, certainly, but–what would you do with him, McGee?”
“Oh, I say now–”
“Rats! Mullins, how would you handle him? He’s a cold fish, you know.”
Mullins gulped. He was not accustomed to having Cowan ask his opinion about anything. However, here was a golden opportunity.
“Cold or hot, I’d let that bird cool off a little more on the ground. He’s been joy-riding ever since we drew ships. We’ll go into action soon, don’t you think?” ”

“ Into the strain
The world-free spirit heard.
I would go out there, and gaze
Through the haze
That comes drifting o'er the skies
When the sunshine dies,
And watch night
Kiss to sleep the tired eyes of light. ”

“ And for your full forgiveness, dear, I plead.
The days are long without you, dear; so long
The hours between the dark and dawn! The song
You sang has melted to an undertone,
And shadows linger where the sunlight shone;
And darkness hastens, dear, to blight
The world you made so beautiful and bright. ”

“ The sunshine and the shadow lengthen with the dying day,
And, like a dream, the daylight vanishes from earth away.
The western sky is covered with a web of beauty spun
By fairy hands, and woven from the life-tide of the sun. ”

“ I don't want to see him crushed, his children made the prey
Of every wolf that howls along the Anglo-Saxon way;
Of every low-browed, heartless thing that bays him with the scream:
"I am the Anglo-Saxon and I am the white supreme!" ”

“ You who know no other kingdom save this sorrow-stricken earth,
Where you wander in the barrens 'neath the curse of mortal birth!
Lo! how dare you call me crazy? You who live down in the plain,
Far beneath the dazzling empire of the man you call insane! ”

“ Cowan seemed so unduly disturbed over so remote a prospect that McGee found himself again doubting the Major’s courage.
“I do. Why, look at our strength! The Boche prefers to have the numerical superiority on his side.”
“But you’d take up combat formation, of course?”
136“Yes, and in echelon, one flight above another by a margin of three thousand feet. Then, if the beggar wants to jump on that sort of buzz saw, let him come–and welcome.”
“There will be time enough to welcome him when we reach our new base–all present or accounted for,” Cowan replied. ”

“ Drink, brothers, drink!
Drink, brothers, drink!
Let us cease to grieve and sigh;
Let us keep oblivion by
For the tear and for the sigh;
Let us drink, drink, drink,
Till we cease to sob and think ”

“ But the workers gathered 'round you, and the Revolution spread,
And the priesthood and the masters for a moment were afraid.
Down the high-road of the ages marched your resurrected soul,
And the pagan powers trembled as their strong hands lost control ”

“ A LITTLE SOLILOQUY
We come into this little world,
And we live our little day;
And we speak our little prologue,
And we act our little play.
And we blow our little trumpets,
Give our little horns a toot ”

“ Cowan explained, “but the order that takes us to La Ferte, to-morrow morning, was highly confidential. I did not disclose it until the moment of our departure, and only then so that anyone forced down would know our destination. There is to be a considerable concentration of air forces on the apex of the salient between la Chapelle, this side of Chateau-Thierry, and Villers-Cotterets, on the other side. It is the beginning of a movement of concentration to drive the enemy back beyond the Vesle. Hence the secrecy, and the effort to mislead the enemy as to our movements.” ”