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Dreamland By: Julie Mathilde Lippmann (1864-) |
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DREAMLAND by JULIE M. LIPPMANN Author of "Miss Wildfire," "Dorothy Day," etc. The Penn Publishing Company
Philadelphia MCMXIV TO LULU AND MARIE.
CONTENTS. THE WAKING SOUL
BETTY'S BY AND BY
THE WHITE ANGEL
IN THE PIED PIPER'S MOUNTAIN
MARJORIE'S MIRACLE
WHAT HAPPENED TO LIONEL
MARIE AND THE MEADOW BROOK
NINA'S CHRISTMAS GIFTS
DREAMLAND. THE WAKING SOUL Larry lay under the trees upon the soft, green grass, with his hat
tilted far forward over his eyes and his grimy hands clasped together
beneath his head, wishing with all his might first one thing and then
another, but always that it was not so warm. When the children had gone to school in the morning, they had seen
Larry's figure, as they passed along the street, stretched out
full length beneath the trees near the gutter curbstone; and when they
returned, there he was still. They looked at him with curiosity; and
some of the boys even paused beside him and bent over to see if he were
sunstruck. He let them talk about him and discuss him and wonder at
him as they would, never stirring, and scarcely daring to breathe, lest
they be induced to stay and question him. He wanted to be alone. He
wanted to lie lazily under the trees, and watch the sunbeams as they
flirted with the leaves, and hear the birds gossip with one another,
and feel the breeze as it touched his hot temples and soothed him with
its soft caresses. Across the street, upon some one's fence rail, climbed a honeysuckle
vine; and every now and then Larry caught a whiff of a faint perfume as
the breeze flitted by. He wished the breeze would carry heavier loads
of it and come oftener. It was tantalizing to get just one breath and
no more in this way. But then, that was always the case with Larry; he seemed to get a hint
of so many things, and no more than that of any. Often when he was
lying as he was now, under green trees, beneath blue skies, he would
see the most beautiful pictures before his eyes. Sometimes they were
the clouds that drew them for him, and sometimes the trees. He would,
perhaps, be feeling particularly forlorn and tired, and would fling
himself down to rest, and then in a moment just for all the world as
though the skies were sorry for him and wanted to help him forget his
troubles he would see the white drifts overhead shift and change, and
there would be the vision of a magnificent man larger and more
beautiful than any mortal; and then Larry would hold his breath in
ecstasy, while the man's face grew graver and darker, and his strong
arm seemed to lift and beckon to something from afar, and then from out
a great stack of clouds would break one milk white one which, when
Larry looked closer, would prove to be a colossal steed; and in an
instant, in the most remarkable way, the form of the man would be
mounted upon the back of the courser and then would be speeding off
toward the west. And then Larry would lose sight of them, just at the
very moment when he would have given worlds to see more; for by this
time the skies would have grown black, perhaps, and down would come the
rain in perfect torrents, sending Larry to his feet and scuttling off
into somebody's area way for shelter. And there he would crouch and
think about his vision, fancying to himself his great warrior doing
battle with the sea; the sea lashing up its wave horses till they rose
high upon their haunches, their gray backs curving outward, their foamy
manes a quiver, their white forelegs madly pawing the air, till with a
wild whinny they would plunge headlong upon the beach, to be pierced by
the thousand rain arrows the cloud god sent swirling down from above,
and sink backward faint and trembling to be overtaken and trampled out
of sight by the next frenzied column behind. Oh! it sent Larry's blood tingling through his veins to see it all so
plainly; and he did not feel the chill of his wet rags about him, nor
the clutch of hunger in his poor, empty stomach, when the Spirit of the
Storm rode out, before his very eyes, to wage his mighty war... Continue reading book >>
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Kids |
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Teen/Young adult |
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