. Two girls on a barge. gain that morning we got messagesfrom Somebody, delivered by passing barges, andour curiosity waxed great. At intervals, in a gene-rally experimental attempt on the part of the 71VO GIRLS ON A BARGE 91 entire crew to tie Talbots foot up scientifically inaccordance with the Ambulance ideas that we allhad in embryo our theories about Somebody rangedwidely from brigands to the Tax Collector, andback again to brigands. Perhaps he was onlya Doctor! But the Cadet entirely refused tobe a doctors object. An Esmark triangularbandage he had no objection to, but lace-edgedhandkerc
. Two girls on a barge. gain that morning we got messagesfrom Somebody, delivered by passing barges, andour curiosity waxed great. At intervals, in a gene-rally experimental attempt on the part of the 71VO GIRLS ON A BARGE 91 entire crew to tie Talbots foot up scientifically inaccordance with the Ambulance ideas that we allhad in embryo our theories about Somebody rangedwidely from brigands to the Tax Collector, andback again to brigands. Perhaps he was onlya Doctor! But the Cadet entirely refused tobe a doctors object. An Esmark triangularbandage he had no objection to, but lace-edgedhandkerchiefs and lotions and the most com-fortable chair he avoided with a persistency onlyequalled in the number of times he sat in it bymistake. And such is the contrariety of the-military mind, which cannot see much in Howells,that though he read The Lady of Aroostook aloudfor several hours, nobody was bored. But then itis true that Somebody occasionally intervened be-tween the sentences. 92 TWO GIRLS ON A BARGE CHAPTEE VII. E were black-ing our Cadetsfoot was bet-but still hecouldnt use it much,and this was one ofour ideas for keeping^^C™!^l ^ mm amused ! Now, the blacking of boots,as you will find ifyou experiment, isconversationally amost elaborating pro-cess, a sort of running commentary on the sub-ject i-n hand, full of parentheses and mazes ofexpression—of a glacial nature. We found it a TWO GIRLS ON A BARGE 93 most interesting and intellectual occupation, forthe Cadet meanwhile was expatiating on the tariffsof barge life to a bargee. 1 Would you like to know, he said, what anordinary bargees wages are? and he dabbed asmudge of blacking with minute attention to detailon the point of the topmost button of the slipper inhis hand. Well, whatever his wages are, I think hellhave to raise them if we often indulge in his black-ing; responded Mr. Squif, focussing the last effectof polish on his artistic toe with half-closed eyesover the back of the blacking brush. A bar
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