Lucy Crown Read Online Free PDF

“It’s too close to civilization. We ought to go to the North Woods. Except for the mosquitoes and the moose. You have to be careful of the moose. And you have to carry the canoe in on your head, Bert says. There’re so many fish, Bert says, they splinter the paddles.”
    “Tony,” Oliver said gravely, “do you know what a grain of salt is?”
    “Sure,” the boy said.
    “That’s what you need for Bert.”
    “Do you mean he’s a liar?” Tony asked.
    “Not exactly,” said Oliver. “Just that he should be taken salted, like peanuts.”
    “I’ve got to tell him that,” Tony said. “Like peanuts.”
    They stopped in front of Patterson and Bunner. “Mr. Bunner,” Oliver said, “my wife. And Tony.”
    “How do you do?” Lucy said. She nodded briefly and buttoned her sweater up to the neck.
    Tony went over to Bunner and politely shook hands.
    “Hello, Tony,” Bunner said.
    “Hello,” said Tony. “Boy, your hand is calloused.”
    “I’ve been playing tennis.”
    “I bet in four weeks I can beat you,” Tony said. “Maybe five weeks.”
    “Tony …” Lucy said warningly.
    “Is that boasting?” Tony turned toward his mother.
    “Yes,” she said.
    Tony shrugged and turned back to Bunner. “I’m not allowed to boast,” he said. “I have a hot forehand, but my backhand has flaws. I don’t mind telling you,” he said candidly, “because you’d find it out anyway, in the first game. I once saw Ellsworth Vines play.”
    “What did you think of him?” Bunner asked.
    Tony made a face. “Overrated,” he said carelessly. “Just because he comes from California and he can play every day. You’ve been swimming.”
    “Yes, I have,” Bunner said, puzzled and amused. “How do you know?”
    “Easy. I can smell the lake on you.”
    “That’s his one parlor trick,” Oliver said, coming over and ruffling the boy’s hair. “He had his eyes bandaged when he was sick and he developed the nose of a bloodhound.”
    “I can swim, too. Like a streak,” Tony said.
    “Tony …” It was Lucy again, with the tone of warning.
    Tony smiled, caught out. “But only for ten strokes. Then I go under. I don’t know how to breathe.”
    “We’ll work on that,” Bunner said. “You can’t go through life not knowing how to breathe.”
    “I have to put my mind to it,” Tony said.
    “Jeff’ll teach you, Tony,” Oliver said. “He’s going to stay with you until the end of the summer.”
    Lucy glanced sharply at her husband, then dropped her eyes. Tony, too, stared at Oliver, carefully, with guarded suspicion, remembering nurses, medicines, regimes, pain, captivity. “Oh,” he said. “Is he going to take care of me?”
    “Not exactly,” Oliver said. “Just help you catch up on a couple of things.”
    Tony examined Oliver for a long moment, trying to discover just how candid his father was being. Then he turned and silently inspected Bunner, as though now that their connection had been announced it was necessary to start the process of judgment immediately.
    “Jeff,” Tony said finally, “how are you as a fisherman?”
    “When the fish see me coming,” Bunner said, “they roar with laughter.”
    Patterson looked at his watch. “I think we’d better be going, Oliver. I have to pay my bill and throw on some clothes and I’m ready.”
    “You said there was something you wanted to tell Tony,” Oliver said.
    Lucy glanced from his face to Patterson’s, distrustfully.
    “Yes,” Patterson said. Now that the moment had come he was sorry he had given into Oliver’s demand. “Still,” he said, conscious that he was being cowardly, “don’t you think it could wait for another time?”
    “I think this is the very best time, Sam,” Oliver said evenly. “You’re not going to see Tony for another month, at least, and Tony after all is the one who’s finally responsible for taking care of himself and I think it’d be better if he knew just what he has to expect and why …”
    “Oliver