Saunterings
SAUNTERINGS By Charles Dudley Warner MISAPPREHENSIONS CORRECTED I should not like to ask an indulgent and idle public to saunter about with me under a misapprehension. It would be more agreeable to invite it to go nowhere than somewhere; for almost every one has been somewhere, and has written about it. The only compromise I can suggest is, that we shall go somewhere, and not learn anything about it. The instinct of the public against any thing like information in a volume of this kind is perfectly justifiable; and the reader will perhaps discover that this is illy adapted for a text-book in schools, or for the use of competitive candidates in the civil-service examinations. Years ago, people used to saunter over the Atlantic, and spend weeks in filling journals with their monotonous emotions. That is all
I
"Aye, it's a bit dampish," said Dixon, as he brought a couple more logs
to replenish a fire that seemed to have no heart for burning.
The absurd moderation of the statement irritated the person to whom it
was addressed.
"What I'm thinkin'"--said Mrs. Dixon, impatiently, as she moved to the
window--"is that they'll mappen not get here at all! The watter'll be
over t' road by Grier's mill. And yo' know varra well, it may be runnin'
too fasst to get t' horses through--an' they'd be three pussons inside,
an' luggage at top."
"Aye, they may have to goa back to Pengarth--that's varra possible."
"An' all t' dinner spoilin', an' t' fires wastin'--for nowt." The speaker
stood peering discontentedly into the gloom without: "But you'll not
trouble yoursen, Tammas, I daursay."
"Well, I'm not Godamighty to mak' t' rain gie over," was the man's
cheerful reply, as he took the bellows to the damp wood which lay feebly
crackling and fizzing on the wide hearth. His exertions produced a
spasmodic flame, which sent flickering tongues of light through the wide
SAUNTERINGS By Charles Dudley Warner MISAPPREHENSIONS CORRECTED I should not like to ask an indulgent and idle public to saunter about with me under a misapprehension. It would be more agreeable to invite it to go nowhere than somewhere; for almost every one has been somewhere, and has written about it. The only compromise I can suggest is, that we shall go somewhere, and not learn anything about it. The instinct of the public against any thing like information in a volume of this kind is perfectly justifiable; and the reader will perhaps discover that this is illy adapted for a text-book in schools, or for the use of competitive candidates in the civil-service examinations. Years ago, people used to saunter over the Atlantic, and spend weeks in filling journals with their monotonous emotions. That is all