[Prairie Folks by Hamlin Garland]@TWC D-Link book
Prairie Folks

PART IV
11/64

It looked like a den, was low and long, and had but one door in the end.
The cow-yard held ten or fifteen cattle of various kinds, while a few calves were bawling from a pen near by.

Behind the barn, on the west and north, was a fringe of willows forming a "wind-break." A few broken and discouraged fruit trees standing here and there among the weeds formed the garden.

In short, he was spoken of by his neighbors as "a hard-working cuss, and tol'ably well fixed." No grace had come or ever could come into his life.

Back of him were generations of men like himself, whose main business had been to work hard, live miserably, and beget children to take their places when they died.
His courtship had been delayed so long on account of poverty that it brought little of humanizing emotion into his life.

He never mentioned his love-life now, or if he did, it was only to sneer obscenely at it.
He had long since ceased to kiss his wife or even speak kindly to her.
There was no longer any sanctity to life or love.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books