Hopscotch

“ Hopkins saw I was wholly irresponsible and reckless, and he decided to use me to spy upon the people here at Elmhurst and report to him what they said and did. I agreed to this readily, prompted by a spirit of mischief, for I cared nothing for Hopkins and had nothing against Mr. Forbes. Also Hopkins paid me money, which I had sufficient knowledge to realize was necessary to me.
"Oh, how happy and gay I was in those first few days! There was not a thought of the past, not an ambition or desire of any sort to bother me. Just to live seemed pleasure enough. I enjoyed eating and sleeping ”

“ There is a man in this house who has treated me with insult and abuse. I have complained to my aunt, and she laughs at me. Armand says you are brave. In these prosaic days men who are both brave and chivalrous are few. May I count upon your assistance?”
John Hopkins thrust the remains of his cigar into his coat pocket. He looked upon this winning creature and felt his first thrill of romance. It was a knightly love, and contained no disloyalty to the flat with the flea-bitten terrier and the lady of his choice. ”

“ Will Hopkins can take an axe and a few tools into the green woods in the fall, and sail down the bay in a new schooner in the spring when the ice goes. To see him steaming the planking in the open in his own improvised boxes on the top of six feet of snow made me stand and take off my hat to him. He is no good at speech-making; he does not own a dress-suit, and he cannot dance a tango; but he is quite as useful a citizen as some who can, and his type of education is one which endears him to all. ”

“ Every scheme known to politicians must be worked, and none knew the intricate game better than Hopkins. This was why he held several long conferences with his friend Marshall, the manager at the mill. And this was why Kenneth and Beth discovered him conversing with the young woman in the buggy. Mr. Hopkins had picked her up from the path leading from the rear gate of the Elmhurst grounds, and she had given him accurate information concerning the movements of the girl campaigners. ”

“ Hopkins, feeling very hot, found himself saying, with a nervous derangement of aspirates, “If I might have the honour—” and began to push both the bicycles while she limped at his side. He was walking home with her—a terrific adventure.
On the way he discovered many things. To begin with one of the last, her name was Lucy Fuller. She was a nursery governess and did not much like it. She loved children in general, but the particular children whom she had to love were harassing. Or not so much the children as their mother, who spoilt them till they were both sick and sickening. ”

“ Hopkins seized Goritz’s arm, the Professor Hopkins’ coat tail—what there was of it—and ingloriously, with crash and whisking flight from branch to branch, we four hopeless Argonauts slumped from the top of the lofty pine, with arresting scramblings and maniacal clutchings, to the bottom, and were spilled to the roadway; four voiceless, bedraggled, ragged, bushy-haired, wild eyed, grimy men, more savage in our destitution than the savages we had fallen amongst. ”

“ I am not cold. It is horrible to think of a man's being blotted out so utterly—as if he had never been."
"There are many horrible things," William Henry observed, "but that particular thing does not seem so bad. It's better than—oh, well, many things—some ways they have of putting a man out."
Lydia turned and glanced at him, at his scarred face. Then she stared forward again. The schooner drove through the seas, throwing the spray high at every plunge. Helena and even Gotthard had been giving more attention to William Henry than to the boat and her way upon the waters. ”

“ Hopkins, then, uncompromisingly groups together evolutionism, with its mechanistic nature, its continuity, uniformity, necessity, law, monism, immanence, and tendency to pantheism, over against a scale of being that rises into personality, with its freedom, its choice of ends, its discontinuity, its movement per saltum, its realism as to species, its supernatural man, and its transcendent Deity. The sum of God’s attributes, indeed, is that he is a person; and for Hopkins religion is faith in a person. ”

“ Hopkins got a letter from the real estate agent informing her he had been able to secure a large cottage, close to the beach. It was on a small cove, and there was a boathouse near by.
“Fine!” cried Jerry when he heard of it. “Now to get the Dartaway ready. Whoop! But life is worth living, I tell you!” and he began to dance a jig with such vigor that the dishes on the sideboard rattled.
“Jerry, you’ll smash some of my fine cut glass!” exclaimed Mrs. Hopkins in alarm, yet she could not help being glad that she was able to provide a summer’s outing for her son and his chums. ”

“ Sometimes, as you doubtless know, the simplest actions result in the most remarkable complications. When Jerry Hopkins picked up a lump of common-looking clay on some swamp land that his mother owned he had no idea what a strange series of events was to transpire from his simple act. Before he realized it he and his chums were involved in a strange secret, and they had set off on a trip that had, as its ultimate object, the saving of the life of Professor Snodgrass. ”

“ I thought Hopkins had been drinking—or looking at "Her Eyes." He pulled up a chair and lit a cigar.
"John," said he, "it isn't every man that can understand what my wife says. Only [Pg 114] kindred spirits can read the language of the eyes. She hasn't spoken an audible word in ten years, but she talks with her eyes, even her picture talks. We, rather she, is a mystery here; people believe all kinds of things about her and us; but we don't care. I want you to come up to the house some evening and know her better. We'll be three chums, I know it, but don't ask questions ”

“ Another called her ‘imps’ ‘Ilemauzar’ (or ‘Elemauzer’) , ‘Pyewackett,’ ‘Pecke in the Crowne,’ and ‘Griezzell Greedigutt,’ names, says Hopkins, ‘which no mortal could invent.’ At Hoxne, Suffolk, a poor creature, kept sleepless and fasting, confessed an ‘imp Nan;’ after a night's rest she said she knew of no ‘Nan’ but a pullet she sometimes called by that name. In case this inquisition failed, the victim was thrown into a pool, with thumbs and toes bound together crosswise; the possession of a ‘teat’ prevented the body from sinking, hence those who ‘swam’ were hanged. ”

“ Giles Hopkins we only know was the son of his father’s first wife, and “about 15.” An error (of the types presumably) makes Griffis (“The Pilgrims in their Three Homes,” p. 176) give the name of Oceanus Hopkins’s father as Giles, instead of Stephen. Constance (or Constantia) Hopkins was apparently about eleven years old in 1620, as she married in 1627, and probably was then not far from eighteen years old. Damaris Hopkins, the younger daughter of Master Hopkins, was probably a very young child when she came in the MAY-FLOWER, but her exact age has not been as certained. ”

“ She was the second wife of Stephen Hopkins, who was one of the leaders with Winslow and Standish on early expeditions. With her stepchildren, Constance and Giles, and her little daughter, Damaris, she bore the rigors of those first years, bore other children,—Caleb, Ruth, Deborah and Elizabeth,—and cared for a large estate, including servants and many cattle. The inventory of the Hopkins estate revealed an abundance of beds and bedding, yellow and green rugs, curtains and spinning-wheels, and much wearing apparel. ”

“ No doubt Hopkins thought that a young lady who was capable of borrowing a chemise from a housemaid was capable of calling her by her Christian name, and since she did not wish to encourage her ladyship's niece to thwart her ladyship's express wishes, she hurried away without replying.
While Hopkins was out of the room Jasmine attacked the crates, tearing them to pieces with her slim, brown, boyish hands as a monkey sheds a coconut. ”

“ Joy surged in Freshmayer’s heart. Here was corroboration of his belief that the world was rotten and man a peripatetic evil. Without a word he rounded the end of his counter and made earnest onslaught upon his customer. Hopkins was no man to serve as a punching-bag for a pessimistic tobacconist. He quickly bestowed upon Freshmayer a colorado-maduro eye in return for the ardent kick that he received from that dealer in goods for cash only.
The impetus of the enemy’s attack forced the Hopkins line back to the sidewalk. ”

“ Keep your eyes open, Doc. If we've got to fight we won't shirk it; but I don't look for much trouble from a parcel of girls."
Mr. Hopkins was quite cheerful by this time, for he had thought out the situation and his "fighting blood was up," as he expressed it.
He walked away whistling softly to himself and decided that he would go over to the livery stable, get a horse and buggy, drive out into the country, and spend the day talking with the farmers. ”

“ She is proud and she is stubborn—but they come a month early. No, I have no fear.”
And I looked out to my pine, where the hole was scooped in the ground and the seat was builded against the tree. The hole was filled full with dried leaves and other rubbish, and the seat needed some repairing.
[211] “It behooves me to see to my oven,” I said, “for as it seems to me, we are like to have a clambake soon. And I have a mind to ask Judson—and his wife.” Eve beamed at me for that. “And I may have to get some new stones.”
Eve slipped her hand within my arm. “Do the stones grow cold, Adam?” ”

“ To Hopkins’s thinking, the evolutionary philosophy threatened the destruction of personality, the personality of God and of man, both of whom seemed about to be swallowed up in a mechanistic nature. Hopkins has no illusions on the subject. Charm she never so wisely, Nature cannot persuade him of her virtue. ”

“ And I did not stop to reflect that it was not my heart at all, but some ganglion or plexus or what not. What cared I for ganglion or plexus?
“Fisherman,” said the sweet voice, “you are early.”
“Eve,” said I,—and my voice was steady,—“may a man come too early to Paradise? The woman comes after—though I have all my ribs.”
“Fisherman,” she said, “you are a strange man.”
“So I have heard,” I answered. “But you forget. A governess should [28] have a better memory. I wonder that you can teach.”
“I am but a passable teacher, Adam. I cannot even teach well enough for one.” ”

“ Suddenly he dropped the spoon and made a grab for Dr. Hopkins's wine-glass.
“What vivacity he has!” remarked Professor Shanks, as if addressing a roomful of students interested in a zoölogical specimen.
“He seems to know a rare vintage when he sees it,” suggested Dr. Hopkins, intending, of course, to compliment his hostess.
“I think, my dear—” began Tom, nervously.
“Don't go any further, Mr. Minturn,” cried Elinor Scarsdale, playfully. “The baby is so much more interesting than——”
“Protoplasm,” added Dr. Hopkins, under his breath.
Dr. Plätner was gazing at the baby searchingly. ”

“ But, though he did not look on his companions, he could hear their voices distinctly. Alden it was [261] who spoke first: "We are not heading for home the quickest way, are we, sir? We follow the shore—"
"'Tis that the Captain holds it best that we stand in to land and get fresh water," Hopkins made answer. "After that we are to hasten our shortest way unto Plymouth. For there's ill news astir at Nauset."
"What might that be?"
"They tell us the Narragansetts, that fierce tribe to southward, have risen and spoiled some of Massasoit's men and taken the King himself prisoner." ”

“ She ran races with a professional trainer, and she studied the principles of Delsarte, and solemnly whirled on one foot and swayed her body and rolled her head and hopped and kicked and genuflected in company with eleven other stout and earnest matrons and one slim and giggling girl who almost choked at every lesson. In all these exercises Miss Hopkins faithfully kept her company, which was the easier as Miss Hopkins lived in the next house, a conscientious Colonial mansion with all the modern conveniences hidden beneath the old-fashioned pomp. ”

“ Hopkins, or some name of that kind, a neighbour. "To be sure, young people are right not to run into debt; but I cannot fancy putting up with anything second rate myself, indeed the Baron would not hear it from me, he always says, 'Nothing second rate for you, Baroness, whatever money can buy, you can have, only let it be the best.'"
"Well, if money can buy a Mrs. Hopkinson," said Dr. Ayscough, drily, "it can do more than I have ever supposed. Mrs. Hopkinson has been a valuable friend to Lady Chester, who required constant and great care for ten days ”

“ Now Hopkins and I believed Goritz harbored the intention to gather his belongings at a favorable moment, mostly the gold objects and the radium, and, trusting blindly in his great strength, experience, and resources, to force his way back to the Krocker Land Rim, regain the coast, hunt up the naphtha launch and possibly make some attempt to sail back to Point Barrow. It was sheer madness. We had had few occasions to argue it with him, as he rather avoided us, and his secretiveness and stealthy activity strengthened our suspicions. Hopkins half feared the unfortunate man was losing his mind. ”

“ Hopkins and the Vicar’s wife began to wander about the room.
They stopped simultaneously before the row of bottled frogs.
“Poor creatures!” said Mrs. Hopkins unsteadily. “Poor, patient, suffering creatures—once so beautiful and lovable and free.”
(It was only the week before that Mrs. Hopkins had screamed for help on meeting a frog in her larder.)
Mrs. Gerald Fitzgerald had by this time discovered the skeleton. She adjusted her glasses and looked slowly and closely up and down it several times. ”