Best Short StoriesHoughton Mifflin Company, 1926 - Short stories |
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Popular passages
Page 176 - That was another of his gags, callin' head bean and callin' crazy people cuckoo. Only poor Paul ain't crazy, but just silly. You can imagine that Jim used to have all kinds of fun with Paul. He'd send him to the White Front Garage for a left-handed monkey wrench. Of course they ain't no such a thing as a left-handed monkey wrench. And once we had a kind of a fair here and they was a baseball game between the fats and the leans and before the game started Jim called Paul over and sent him way down...
Page 175 - But he wasn't satisfied with just outwittin' her. He was sore the way she had acted, tryin' to grab off his pay. And he made up his mind he'd get even. Well, he waited till Evans's Circus was advertised to come to town. Then he told his wife and two kiddies that he was goin
Page 175 - ... day. His wife and the kids waited and waited and of course he didn't show up. His wife didn't have a dime with her, or nowhere else, I guess. So she finally had to tell the kids it was all off and they cried like they wasn't never goin
Page 177 - ... Paul was always kind of suspicious of people, maybe on account of how Jim had kept foolin' him. Paul wouldn't have much to do with anybody only his own mother and Doc Stair and a girl here in town named Julie Gregg. That is, she ain'ta girl no more, but pretty near thirty or over. When Doc first...
Page 172 - City and besides that, most of the boys works all day and don't have no leisure to drop in here and get themselves prettied up. You're a newcomer, ain't you? I thought I hadn't seen you round before. I hope you like it good enough to stay.
Page 177 - ... but pity on her side. Doc done all he could to improve Paul's mind and he told me once that he really thought the boy was gettin' better, that they was times when he was as bright and sensible as anybody else. But I was goin' to tell you about Julie Gregg. Old Man Gregg was in the lumber business, but got to drinkin' and lost the most of his money and when he died, he didn't leave nothin...
Page 177 - ... but the house and just enough insurance for the girl to skimp along on. Her mother was a kind of a half invalid and didn't hardly ever leave the house. Julie wanted to sell the place and move somewheres else after the old man died, but the mother said she was born here and would die here.
Page xv - I am not at all interested in formulae, and organized criticism at its best would be nothing more than dead criticism, as all dogmatic interpretation of life is always dead. What has interested me, to the exclusion of other things, is the fresh, living current which flows through the best American work, and the psychological and imaginative quality which American writers have conferred upon it.
Page 173 - I wouldn't even mind if it was wood alcohol." Then Hod Meyers would say, "Neither would your wife." That would set everybody to laughin' because Jim and his wife wasn't on very good terms. She'd of divorced him only they wasn't no chance to get alimony and she didn't have no way to take care of herself and the kids. She couldn't never understand Jim. He was kind of rough, but a good fella at heart. Him and Hod had all kinds of sport with Milt Sheppard. 1 don't suppose you've seen Milt. Well, he's...
Page 115 - Dope. Coke, milk, dice — anything. Name your price. Got to have it." "Dope?" Tony was entirely at a loss. "What's a dis, dope?" "Aw, lay off, brother. We're in on this. Here." He handed Tony a piece of paper. "Froggy gave us a coupon. Come on. You can't go wrong." "I no got," insisted the perplexed Tony; nor could he be budged on that point. Quite suddenly the manner of both men changed. "All right," said the first angrily, in a voice as robust as his body.