Parnassus on Wheels Read Online Free PDF Page B

might be on us.
So while Mifflin was putting Pegasus into the shafts again I picked
out seven or eight books that I thought would fit the needs of the
Masons. Mr. Mason insisted that "Happiness and Hayseed" be included
among them, and gave me a crisp five-dollar bill, refusing any
change. "No, no," he said, "I've had more fun than I get at a grange
meeting. Come round again, Miss McGill; I'm going to tell Andrew
what a good show this travelling theayter of yours gives! And you,
Professor, any time you're here about road-mending season, stop in
an' tell me some more good advice. Well, I must get back to the
field."
    Bock fell in under the van, and we creaked off down the lane.
Mifflin filled his pipe and was chuckling to himself. I was a little
worried now for fear Andrew might overtake us.
    "It's a wonder Sam Mason didn't call up Andrew," I said. "It must
have looked mighty queer to him for an old farm hand like me to be
around, peddling books."
    "He would have done it straight off," said Mifflin, "but you see, I
cut his telephone wire!"

Chapter Five
*
    I gazed in astonishment at the wizened little rogue. Here was a
new side to the amiable idealist! Apparently there was a streak of
fearless deviltry in him besides his gentle love of books. I'm bound
to say that now, for the first time, I really admired him. I had
burnt my own very respectable boats behind me, and I rather enjoyed
knowing that he, too, could act briskly in a pinch.
    "Well!" I said. "You are a cool hand! It's a good job for you that
you didn't stay a schoolmaster. You might have taught your pupils
some fine deviltries! And at your age, too!"
    I'm afraid my raillery goes a little too far sometimes. He flushed
a bit at my reference to his age, and puffed sharply at his pipe.
    "I say," he rejoined, "how old do you think I am, anyway? Only
forty-one, by the bones of Byron! Henry VIII was only forty-one
when he married Anne Boleyn. There are many consolations in history
for people over forty! Remember that when you get there.
    "Shakespeare wrote 'King Lear' at forty-one," he added, more
humorously; and then burst out laughing. "I'd like to edit a series
of 'Chloroform Classics,' to include only books written after forty.
Who was that doctor man who recommended anaesthetics for us at that
age? Now isn't that just like a medico? Nurse us through the
diseases of childhood, and as soon as we settle down into permanent
good health and worldly wisdom, and freedom from doctors' fees, why
he loses interest in us! Jove! I must note that down and bring it
into my book."
    He pulled out a memorandum book and jotted down "Chloroform
Classics" in a small, neat hand.
    "Well," I said (I felt a little contrite, as I was sincerely
sorry to have offended him), "I've passed forty myself in some
measurements, so youth no longer has any terrors for me."
    He looked at me rather comically.
    "My dear madam," he said, "your age is precisely eighteen. I think
that if we escape the clutches of the Sage of Redfield you may
really begin to live."
    "Oh, Andrew's not a bad sort," I said. "He's absentminded, and hot
tempered, and a little selfish. The publishers have done their best
to spoil him, but for a literary man I guess he's quite human. He
rescued me from being a governess, and that's to his credit. If only
he didn't take his meals quite so much as a matter of course...."
    "The preposterous thing about him is that he really can
write
,"
said Mifflin. "I envy him that. Don't let him know I said so, but
as a matter of fact his prose is almost as good as Thoreau. He
approaches facts as daintily as a cat crossing a wet road."
    "You should see him at dinner," I thought; or rather I meant to
think it, but the words slipped out. I found myself thinking aloud
in a rather disconcerting way while sitting with this strange
little person.
    He looked at me. I noticed for the first time that his eyes were
slate blue, with funny birds' foot wrinkles at the corners.
    "That's so," he said. "I never thought