Lafe

“ He was probably one of Red Pete's victims. The others could not be far away, among them Lafe's problematical kinsman with the presentation watch.
But finding a possible uncle was just now of less importance than finding a safe way out of the thicket. The smoke grew visibly thicker, and Lafe could detect, off to the left, the distinct crackling noise of flames. He dropped on one knee again, and patted the officer's shoulder with decision.
The young man moved his head restlessly, then opened his eyes and stared dully at Lafe.
"Which way is the creek?" the drummer-boy shouted. ”

“ Moreover, his legs had the liveliest scorn one for the other. The boss always compelled interest and respect, it is true; but so does a bulldog. Yet he owned the Lazy L and all its herds; he had the prettiest wife in the country, and there were those who said she adored him; and he had a son and heir, two years old. All of which set Lafe to marveling over the inscrutable contrivings of Providence. ”

“ Then he married, and now he talked like this: "I swan, Dan, when I think of what I married Hetty on, it sure makes me shake like a leaf. It's a wonder we didn't starve. A man's pluckier or he don't think of these things when he's younger—don't you reckon? I'd never dare do it over again now."
"Pluckier? No. Simply irresponsible—that's all. A lot of 'em hope for a miracle—these young people," said I.
"And damn my eyes if they don't usually get it," Lafe said. "It's most amazing how things will turn up to help people who can't help themselves—just when you think you're done for, too." ”

“ I know so much, if I do blay mid the band."
"There'd be rations in the knapsacks," mused Lafe, after a pause. He had never been so hungry before in his life.
"What do you say to sneaking down there, and trying to find something to eat?" he suggested. "Come on!" he added persuasively. "There's nobody down there that—nobody that we need be afraid of."
"Vell, I am afraid, dot's all," responded Foldeen.
"They can't do more than make us prisoners," urged the boy, "and that's better than starving to death. Come on! I'm going to make a try." ”

“ Ven he is dead, den he is good tied up. Ven he is alife, den he is much better tied up. Now ve eat us our breakfast in kviet. Bread, you say? Show me dot bread."
Foldeen needed no showing, but was on the instant wolfing huge mouthfuls from the half-loaf which the nearest haversack furnished. Lafe leaned back and watched him, his mind filled with formless emotions of thanksgiving. ”

“ Johnson to have laid up for himself.
The Wolf place is a heavenly retreat in a brown, stern land. The day was warm, and old man Horne, who thought a good deal of his comfort, proposed that we wait until sundown before starting for home. Everybody was agreeable except, perhaps, Lafe, and he said nothing. He spent the entire afternoon in wake of Mrs. Vining—such a very evident victim, though, that she gave up in disgust and went to sit beside Mrs. Horne and the Proutys. Lafe affected not to watch Hetty and Peck, who were gathering wild flowers and behaving like two children released from school. ”

“ Oftentimes they decided such matters as who should perform certain duties by drawing lots, using three twigs, the man getting the shortest being named for the job.
“All right, now,” said Garry. “Who has suggestion number one?”
“I believe that I have a hunch,” answered Phil. “Perhaps I am all wrong and am just trying to paint a villain blacker than he is; but I cannot get it out of my head that the halfbreed is mixed up in this some way. Perhaps he is not the brains of the organization, but Lafe Green might be. ”

“ This produced the effect of a guitar and was very popular with those ladies who were a bit hazy as to the time of a measure.
Oh-oo-oo, ladies to the left and gents to the right.
All hands round; now hold 'em tight.
Lafe had been designated master of ceremonies and he stood near the orchestra to call off the square dances. Never more than twenty couples were on the floor at one time, but the rhythmical beat of their feet and the welling dust were sufficient to make an onlooker dizzy. Whenever a gentleman swung a lady, he really swung her—no mincing or faint-hearted gyration. ”

“ He thanked me and considered this for some minutes. "Perhaps you're right," he said. "Sometimes when these old rocks take to hopping up and down, it keeps a man on the move not to lose track of 'em."
"It must be right hard doing that 'rithmetic all day long?" Johnson ventured.
"Oh, yes. I get hungry frequently. Have you boys got anything to eat? Well, if you haven't, you'd best be on your way."
Complying with the suggestion, Lafe turned his horse. "It's that ol' prospector who lives up on the shoulder of The Hatter," he told me. ”

“ Foldeen concluded with a chuckle.
Lafe gazed down with loathing upon this burly and powerful desperado, lying in such utter helplessness. He told Foldeen in turn how he had seen this very man in the Fifth Corps "quod" only last winter, condemned to death.
"So-o!" exclaimed the German. "I remember dot. All five deserters und bounty-chumpers dug deir vay out, und gilled a sentinel, und skipped in the night. So-o! Ve don't have us dot private Ghristmas-dree, after all. Ve make Red Pete a bresent to Cheneral Boyce, instead."
"Yes, but where shall we find General Boyce?" Lafe put in. ”

“ Hastily Phil went over the details of what had happened to him since leaving the boys the day before.
"Now the key to the entire matter seems to be the conference that is going to be held tonight at the home of this Lafe Green. He seems to be the leader of the entire business, but LeBlanc holds some sort of position of authority and will probably take the lead tonight, as he has some sort of a scheme to tell the others. They are planning a fur smuggling trip in the very near future, because Anderson is now in Canada buying skins for the trappers. ”

“ Garry’s last words to the tramp were to bid him to keep silent about his having told them about Ruth and LeBlanc, threatening if he opened his mouth to forget his promise to plead for special immunity for him. The tramp readily agreed to keep his silence.
“Now gather round here fellows. I’m going to stock up on provisions, and start for the river. You fellows had better arrange between yourselves to keep an eye on the engineer and Green. Decide who will take the engineer, and the other one watch Lafe. Either one may lead you to a clue. ”

“ Old Ferguson is a tight Scotchman and won’t pay out any more than he can help in spite of the fact he’s the wealthiest man around here.”
Having gotten their desired information, they left the store and held a conclave.
“See how this strikes you, Dick. I’ll find some way to get on that freight train without being observed, and after we get started I’ll get near the engine and watch if the engineer throws any letters out to anyone, or makes a stop to let some confederate on.
“In the meantime you keep watch on Lafe Green, and perhaps you could go to the lean-to and see if your camera trap worked. ”

“ Bertram was living with his mother, the widowed countess, when Lafeu, an old lord of the French court, came to conduct him to the king. The king of France was an absolute monarch, and the invitation to court was in the form of a royal mandate, or positive command, which no subject, of what high dignity soever, might disobey; therefore though the countess, in parting with this dear son, seemed a second time to bury her husband, whose loss she had so lately mourned, yet she dared not to keep him a single day, but gave instant orders for his departure. ”

“ As I have stopped it, the sense quadrates with the context: and surely it is one unalterable property of philosophy to make seeming strange and preternatural phenomena familiar and reducible to cause and reason."
Does not Mr. Theobald, in his closing remark, turn what in Lafeu is really an ironical outburst on would-be philosophers, into something like a serious common-place?
A. ROFFE.
Query, In a work entitled Philosophy of Shakspeare, by W.H. Roukin, Lafeu's speech is quoted, and one word changed; "and we have our philosophical persons," &c., becomes "yet we have," &c. ”

“ The most of them go staggering under hampers, bundles of waterproofs, and so forth. Their voices are clamant of feats to be accomplished: they will row, they will punt, they will paddle, till they weary out the sun. All this the Loafer hears through the open door of his cottage, where in his shirt-sleeves he is dallying with his bacon, as a gentleman should. He is the only one who has had a comfortable breakfast—and he knows it. Later he will issue forth and stroll down in their track to the bridge. ”

“ Just as Mr Laffan and I returned home my father came in, tired out by the arduous labours in which he had all night been engaged. On my telling him of the fears I entertained of what had happened at Egido, he, after some hesitation, gave me leave to ride out and ascertain if the inmates had escaped.
“I will go with you, Duncan,” said Mr Laffan; “two heads are of more value than one, and so are two swords, and if we fall in with enemies we shall have a better chance of cutting; our way through them.” ”

“ But the irritation of the strepitant metal has jarred the Loafer’s always exquisite nerves: he is fain to climb a gate and make his way towards solitude and the breezy downs.
Up here all vestiges of a sordid humanity disappear. The Loafer is alone with the south-west wind and the blue sky. ”

“ Loafer. “Well, now, they calls me Wilkes. I’m known all around by the gentlemen that comes here. They all knows old Wilkes.”
Listwell. “Well, Wilkes, you seem to be acquainted here, and I see you have a strong liking for a horse. Be so good as to speak a kind word for mine to the hostler to-night, and you’ll not lose anything by it.”
Loafer. “Well, sir, I see you don’t say much, but you’ve got an insight into things. It’s alloys wise to get the good will of them that’s acquainted about a tavern; for a man don’t know when he goes into a house what may happen, or how much he may need a friend.” ”

“ The Count of Africa had thrown for the empire of the world—and lost.
'Brave old Sun!' said Raphael, 'how merrily he flashes off the sword-blades yonder, and never cares that every tiny spark brings a death-shriek after it! Why should he? It is no concern of his. Astrologers are fools. His business is to shine; and on the whole, he is one of my few satisfactory sensations. ”

“ King Olaf's guard
Saw the sea-mist slowly creeping
O'er the sands, and up the hill,
Gathering still
Round the house where they were sleeping.
It was not the fog he saw,
Nor misty flaw,
That above the landscape brooded;
It was Eyvind Kallda's crew
Of warlocks blue,
With their caps of darkness hooded!
[91] Round and round the house they go,
Weaving slow
Magic circles to encumber
And imprison in their ring
Olaf the King,
As he helpless lies in slumber. ”

“ One evening Raphael had fallen asleep on a sofa, after creeping about on the floor till sleep overcame him. His pretty mouth, like a blooming rose-bud, was half open, showing two new teeth, and his long white robe swept along the sofa as he lay;—as I sat near him, listening to his gentle breathing, I heard a light step on the carpet, and turning, saw the count. He sat down on the sofa, at the feet of Raphael, and looking at him, said:
“How sweetly he slumbers; how innocent is the sleep of a child.”
“Yes, their unsuspicious innocence is a charming attribute which they soon lose.” ”

“ No fear of that, to my thinking; but, alas! great fear of our losing the power and the means of loafing. Time was when John Bull, in his own isle, was the best loafer in Christendom— (I may say in the world, the Turk and Otaheitan loafer doing nothing else, and he who does nothing but loaf loses the whole flavour of it) —and I can remember the time when at the seaside—for instance, Cromer, and inland, Betwys-y-Coed, Penygurd, and the like—the true loafer might be happy, gleaning “the harvest of a quiet eye,” and far from any one who wanted to go anywhere or do anything in particular. ”

“ Who was that old man over there, sitting beside a dancing-girl that Raphael had seen at Taillefer's? The owner of the curiosity shop! He had at last fallen in love, as Raphael had jestingly desired. No doubt the magic skin had shrunk under that wish before Raphael had measured it. A beautiful woman entered the theatre with a peer of France at her side. A murmur of admiration arose as she took her seat. She smiled at Raphael. In spite of the distorted image on his opera-glass, Raphael knew her. ”

“ They marched gravely, with half pikes in their hands; and in the midst of them appeared Queen Labe, on a horse glittering with diamonds, with a golden saddle, and a housing of inestimable value. All the young ladies saluted the old man as they passed him; and the queen, struck with the good mien of King Beder, stopped as soon as she came before the shop. "Abdallah," (so was the old man named) said she to him, "tell me, I beseech thee, does that beautiful and charming slave belong to thee? and hast thou long been in possession of him?" ”

“ Beside him, on a low stool almost at his feet, was a young girl of singular beauty,—the plastic grace of her figure, the easy motion of the head, as from time to time she raised it to throw upwards a look of affectionate reverence, and the long, loose masses of her hair, which, accidentally unfastened, fell on either shoulder, making rather one of those ideals which a Raphael can conceive than a mere creature of every-day existence. ”