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Read Ebook: Selected Poems by Frost Robert
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Ebook has 400 lines and 23951 words, and 8 pages
"Yes, what else but home?
It all depends on what you mean by home. Of course he's nothing to us, any more Than was the hound that came a stranger to us Out of the woods, worn out upon the trail."
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in."
"I should have called it Something you somehow haven't to deserve."
"He never told us that."
"We know it though."
"I wonder what's between them."
"I'd not be in a hurry to say that."
"I haven't been. Go, look, see for yourself. But, Warren, please remember how it is: He's come to help you ditch the meadow. He has a plan. You mustn't laugh at him. He may not speak of it, and then he may. I'll sit and see if that small sailing cloud Will hit or miss the moon."
It hit the moon. Then there were three there, making a dim row, The moon, the little silver cloud, and she.
"Warren," she questioned.
"Dead," was all he answered.
A SERVANT TO SERVANTS
THE SELF-SEEKER
"Willis, I didn't want you here to-day: The lawyer's coming for the company. I'm going to sell my soul, or, rather, feet. Five hundred dollars for the pair, you know."
"With you the feet have nearly been the soul; And if you're going to sell them to the devil, I want to see you do it. When's he coming?"
"I half suspect you knew, and came on purpose To try to help me drive a better bargain."
"He thinks I'll hobble. It's both legs and feet."
"I haven't dared to look at them uncovered. Through the bed blankets I remind myself Of a starfish laid out with rigid points."
"The wonder is it hadn't been your head."
"Awful. Why didn't they throw off the belt Instead of going clear down in the wheel-pit?"
"Yes, when it's not our death."
"You make that sound as if it wasn't so With everything. What we live by we die by. I wonder where my lawyer is. His train's in. I want this over with; I'm hot and tired."
"You're getting ready to do something foolish."
"Watch for him, will you, Will? You let him in. I'd rather Mrs. Corbin didn't know; I've boarded here so long, she thinks she owns me. You're bad enough to manage without her."
"And I'm going to be worse instead of better. You've got to tell me how far this is gone: Have you agreed to any price?"
"I don't believe you."
"I told you, Willis, when you first came in. Don't you be hard on me. I have to take What I can get. You see they have the feet, Which gives them the advantage in the trade. I can't get back the feet in any case."
"But your flowers, man, you're selling out your flowers."
"But what about your flora of the valley?"
Willis brought up besides the Boston lawyer A little barefoot girl who in the noise Of heavy footsteps in the old frame house, And baritone importance of the lawyer, Stood for a while unnoticed with her hands Shyly behind her.
"Looking round, I suppose," said Willis.
Well, yes." "Yes,
"Hear anything that might prove useful?"
The Broken One saw Anne. "Why, here is Anne What do you want, dear? Come, stand by the bed; Tell me what is it?" Anne just wagged her dress With both hands held behind her. "Guess," she said.
Anne looked at the large lawyer at her side, And thought she wouldn't venture on so much.
"Were there no others?"
"There were four or five. I knew you wouldn't let me pick them all."
"I wanted there should be some there next year."
"Common? The Purple Lady's Slipper's commoner."
The lawyer gave a laugh among his papers As if with some idea that she had scored.
The lawyer wore a watch the case of which Was cunningly devised to make a noise Like a small pistol when he snapped it shut At such a time as this. He snapped it now.
"You, Will, stop making faces. Come round here Where you can't make them. What is it you want? I'll put you out with Anne. Be good or go."
"You don't mean you will sign that thing unread?"
"Make yourself useful then, and read it for me. Isn't it something I have seen before?"
"You'll find it is. Let your friend look at it."
"Five hundred dollars!"
"What would you think right?"
"A thousand wouldn't be a cent too much; You know it, Mr. Lawyer. The sin is Accepting anything before he knows Whether he's ever going to walk again. It smells to me like a dishonest trick."
"What did you hear, for instance?" Willis said.
The Broken One was twisted in his bed. "This is between you two apparently. Where I come in is what I want to know. You stand up to it like a pair of cocks. Go outdoors if you want to fight. Spare me. When you come back, I'll have the papers signed. Will pencil do? Then, please, your fountain pen. One of you hold my head up from the pillow."
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