Sachet

“ What if I don't get that air lion? What if I die down there, Siegfried unprovided for?
Kerr's voice sounded: "I think I see one."
"Need anything?" Nils asked.
"Not so far. But I think there's something moving down there."
"Good luck," Nils said. But his voice was empty. He was thinking of himself. There were so many things that might happen to him down there, and he had only now begun to think of them.
An air lion was a big creature. If one charged you, it could rip you right away from any one or all three of the vital strands that connected you with the surface—cable, air hose, or radio wire. ”

“ But suddenly Sashka's narrow eyes gleamed with astonishment, and his face in a moment resumed its ordinary expression of audacity and self-confidence. On the side of the tree turned towards him—which was the back of it, and less brightly illumined than the other side—he discovered something such as had never come within the circle of his existence, and without which all his surroundings appeared as empty as though peopled by persons without life. It was a little angel in wax carelessly hung in the thickest of the dark boughs, and looking as if it were floating in the air. ”

“ Some say in your world that sack is a word used in all tongues, and justly admitted in the same sense among all nations; for, as Aesop’s fable hath it, all men are born with a sack at the neck, naturally needy and begging of each other; neither can the most powerful king be without the help of other men, or can anyone that’s poor subsist without the rich, though he be never so proud and insolent; as, for example, Hippias the philosopher, who boasted he could do everything. Much less can anyone make shift without drink than without a sack. ”

“ A muslin sack large enough to contain a boy of fourteen is handed out for examination, and after the audience are satisfied that the seams are not only secure and perfect, but that its only opening is at the mouth, the performer's assistant gets inside. The sack is gathered over his head, and the mouth tied fast with a silk handkerchief, and then with a tape, the knots of the latter being not only sealed in any way that seems best to the audience, but the ends, which are left long, given to some one to hold. ”

“ Eshley,” said Adela in a shaking voice, “I asked you to drive that beast out of my garden, but I did not ask you to drive it into my house. If I must have it anywhere on the premises I prefer the garden to the morning-room.”
“Cattle drives are not in my line,” said Eshley; “if I remember I told you so at the outset.” “I quite agree,” retorted the lady, “painting pretty pictures of pretty little cows is what you’re suited for. Perhaps you’d like to do a nice sketch of that ox making itself at home in my morning-room?” ”

“ Fig. H.—This type of work makes a rather more open background than some of the others; it is very suitable for filling in small spaces, for handkerchief sachets, nightdress bags or borders for collars or handkerchiefs.
It should be worked with a fine coloured or white lace thread, sufficiently strong to draw the strands firmly together, yet fine enough to leave the spaces as clear as possible. As a filling it is easily and quickly worked, as no threads are drawn out, which is a recommendation. ”

“ Even those women whose purchases were of modest proportions dawdled over them as though they had brutal, drunken husbands to go home to. The afternoon had dragged uneventfully on, and there was a distinct buzz of unpent excitement when a dark-eyed boy carrying a brass bowl entered the shop. The excitement seemed to have communicated itself to Mr. Scarrick; abruptly deserting a lady who was making insincere inquiries about the home life of the Bombay duck, he intercepted the newcomer on his way to the accustomed counter and informed him, amid a deathlike hush, that he had run out of quail seed. ”

“ For six of them you man the pumps or the radio equipment or the cable drum while the other men plunge, and you make your plunges in the other two.
When Nils went on duty that day, he was on the radio, and Kerr was down below. The optimism he had felt after his talk with the captain was dissipated. He realized that, after all, the air lions were a disappearing species. He had been here hunting them for six months and had bagged only six. One a month—yet that was the best record of any of the men. ”

“ It’s the only thing to do.”
On the morrow an alert watch was kept by the conspirators behind half-closed doors, and when Wilfrid, clad in a gorgeous bath-robe, had made his way to the bath-room, there was a swift and furtive rush by two excited individuals towards the principal guest-chamber. Mrs. Peter kept guard outside, while her husband first made a hurried and successful search for the keys, and then plunged at the portmanteau with the air of a disagreeably conscientious Customs official. The quest was a brief one; a silver cream jug lay embedded in the folds of some zephyr shirts. ”

“ Sashka replied, still more surprised.
The Svetchnikovs were rich people, who had put him to the grammar school, and after his expulsion had forbidden him their house.
His father once more took his oath to the truth of his statement, and Sashka became meditative.
"Well then, move, shift a bit," he said to his father, as he leapt upon the short bench, adding:
"I won't go to those devils. I should prove jolly well too much for them, if I were to turn up. Depraved boy," drawled Sashka in imitation of his patrons. "They are none too good themselves, the smug-faced prigs!" ”

“ The farm, she soon found out, had that faculty common to farmyards of swallowing up and losing its human population. The poultry followed her in interested fashion, and swine grunted interrogations at her from behind the bars of their styes, but barnyard and rickyard, orchard and stables and dairy, gave no reward to her search. Then, as she retraced her steps towards the kitchen, she came suddenly on her cousin, young Mr. Jim, as every one called him, who divided his time between amateur horse-dealing, rabbit-shooting, and flirting with the farm maids. ”

“ Erskine said as he climbed into the scout and clanged the door shut behind him. He pressed a button which cleared out the faint traces of Uranian atmosphere in the cabin and pumped in an Earth-type mixture. Then he unscrewed his helmet and grinned at Nils, who by then was struggling with his own. "I hear you got your sixth one today," he said, starting up the jets.
"That's right," Nils answered self-consciously.
"Well, that's good. There aren't many men with six lions to their credit." He took off, and Nils could feel the scout rising, heading out into space. ”

“ The frost had become more intense, and when Sashka reached the circle of light cast by the lamp, he saw that fine dry flakes of snow were floating slowly on the air. It was high time to be getting home.
“Where have you been knocking about all night, puppy?” exclaimed his mother doubling her fist, without, however, striking. Her sleeves were turned up, exposing her fat white arms, and on her forehead, almost devoid of eyebrows, stood beads of perspiration. As Sashka passed by her he recognized the familiar smell of vodka. ”

“ Nils said, grinning. That was another bonus, and each time Nils got a bonus, one of his kids had enough money to get through college. He threw the harpoon and snagged the beast just behind it's right foreflipper. Pulling in the harpoon cable, he made certain that the weapon was firmly embedded in the lion's flesh.
"Pull away," he said.
"We think you'd better come up, too," they said on the raft.
"Okay," Nils said. There was only one more child to earn an education for, and then he was going to quit. ”

“ In the first place there are easier ways of terminating one’s life; in the second place a man can jump into the river with perfect ease without going to the trouble [Pg 337] of sewing himself in a sack; and in the third place it is exceedingly difficult for a man to sew himself into a sack. It is almost impossible.
To sew himself into a sack a man must have no little skill, and he must have a large, roomy sack. He takes, let us say, a sack-needle, threaded with a good length of twine ”

“ Ah! what a stupid you are! I will give you what you want, but why could you not wait till the New Year?”
“Stand up! And never,” she added in a didactic tone, “never kneel to any one: it is humiliating. Kneel before God alone.”
“Talk away!” thought Sashka, trying to get in front of her, and merely succeeding in treading on her dress.
When she had taken the toy from the tree, Sashka devoured her with his eyes, but stretched out his hands for it with a painful pucker of the nose. It seemed to him that the tall lady would break the little angel. ”

“ His eyes unblinkingly regarded the little angel, and under his steadfast gaze it seemed to grow larger and brighter, and its wings to tremble with a noiseless trepidation, and all the surroundings—the timber-built, soot-stained wall, the dirty table, Sashka—everything became fused into one level grey mass without light or shade. It seemed to the broken man that he heard a pitying voice from the world of wonders, wherein once he had dwelt, and whence he had been cast out forever. ”

“ Andrews," said Sackett, loudly. "Put that weapon up. It is no use to kill to satisfy a murderous heart. The fish would leave us in a few moments if it were fed."
"Watch the Lord's anointed feed it then," snarled the ruffian, with a fierce oath. "Say a pater for its soul, for it's on its way to hell." ”

“ The wizard sachem was succeeded by a line of chiefs, of whom nothing remarkable remains on record. The last who makes any figure in history is the one who ruled here at the time of the discovery of the country by the white man. This sachem is said to have been a renowned trencherman, who maintained almost as potent a sway by dint of good feeding as his warlike predecessor had done by hard fighting. He diligently cultivated the growth of oysters along the aquatic borders of his territories, and founded those great oyster-beds which yet exist along the shores of the Tappan Zee. ”

“ The sacci are interesting, for English nurses frighten children with a threat that the chimney-sweep (here as in the May-game inheriting the tradition on account of his black face) will put them in his sack. The beneficent Christmas wanderers use the sack to bring presents in; cf. the development of the sack in the Mummers’ play (p. 215) . ”

“ A man, dressed in the hunting costume of some remote period, had just transfixed a stag with an arrow; it could not have been a difficult shot because the stag was only one or two paces away from him; in the thickly-growing vegetation that the picture suggested it would not have been difficult to creep up to a feeding stag, and the two spotted dogs that were springing forward to join in the chase had evidently been trained to keep to heel till the arrow was discharged. ”

“ Mr. Sackett came on with a shuffling gait. He did not seem to observe the three boys, and they were thinking in what manner they could get even with the miser for the mean trick he had played on them, when the grizzled old farmer, addressing [82] one of the men outside the blacksmith shop, said:
“Well, Jason Stearn, have ye made up yer mind t’ take my flock of buff Cochins? I’ve got t’ know right away, fer I’ve got another offer fer ’em, an’ I can’t wait on ye any longer. There’s two hundred of th’ finest hens in Tewkesbury Township, an’ I’m lettin’ ye have ’em at a bargain.” ”

“ Sashka shuffled contemptuously, and went behind the partition, from whence might be heard the heavy breathing of his father, Ivan Savvich, who was in a chronic state of shivering, and was now trying to warm himself by sitting on the heated bench of the stove with his hands under him, palms downwards.
"Sashka! the Svetchnikovs have invited you to the Christmas tree. The housemaid came," he whispered.
"Get along with you!" said Sashka with incredulity.
"Fact! The old woman there has purposely not told you, but she has mended your jacket all the same." ”

“ His hair was brushed back in a smoothness as of ribbon seaweed and seamed with a narrow furrow that scarcely aimed at being a parting. His aunt particularly noted this item of his toilet when they met at the appointed rendezvous, because he was standing waiting for her bareheaded. ”

“ The aunt maintained the frozen muteness of one who has suffered undignified and unmerited detention in a rain-water tank for thirty-five minutes. As for Nicholas, he, too, was silent, in the absorption of one who has much to think about; it was just possible, he considered, that the huntsman would escape with his hounds while the wolves feasted on the stricken stag. ”

“ The men halted where they were and sent Saget back to camp to tell La Salle that if he would send horses they would bring the meat home. No one having returned by nightfall the six men slept upon the ground. The next day they cut up the buffaloes and placed the meat upon scaffolds to dry. Then, as was the custom of hunters, they laid aside the marrow bones and some other portions for their own use.
Saget returned from the camp with three men—Moranget, De Marie, and Meusnier—and with horses on which to pack the meat. ”

“ The wonderful sack occurs in another Venetian story, Widter-Wolf, No. 14, "Der Höllenpförtner" ("The Porter of Hell") . The gifts are: a gun that never misses, a violin that makes every one dance, and a sack into which every one must spring when commanded by the owner. See Köhler's notes to this story, Jahrb. VII. 268. A Corsican version is in Ortoli, p. 155. The episode [Pg 369] of the Devil beaten in the sack is also found in Comparetti, No. 49, "Il Ramaio." A wandering smith gives alms to St. Peter and the Lord, and receives in return a pouch like the above. ”