A clean smell of trees, a smell of the earth at morning, hung in
the air. Regularly, every day, there was a single bird, not
singing, but awkwardly chirruping among the green madronas, and the
sound was cheerful, natural, and stirring. It did not hold the
attention, nor interrupt the thread of meditation, like a blackbird
or a nightingale; it was mere woodland prattle, of which the mind
was conscious like a perfume. The freshness of these morning
seasons remained with me far on into the day.
As soon as the kettle boiled, I made porridge and coffee; and that,
beyond the literal drawing of water, and the preparation of
kindling, which it would be hyperbolical to call the hewing of
wood, ended my domestic duties for the day. Thenceforth my wife
laboured single-handed in the palace, and I lay or wandered on the
platform at my own sweet will. The little corner near the forge,
where we found a refuge under the madronas from the unsparing early
sun, is indeed connected in my mind with some nightmare encounters
over Euclid, and the Latin Grammar. These were known as Sam's
lessons. He was supposed to be the victim and the sufferer; but
here there must have been some misconception, for whereas I
generally retired to bed after one of these engagements, he was no
sooner set free than he dashed up to the Chinaman's house, where he
had installed a printing press, that great element of civilization,
and the sound of his labours would be faintly audible about the
canyon half the day.
Pages:
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120