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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"Drift from Two Shores"


When I called again in the evening he was better; so much better
that, against the doctor's orders, he had talked to her quite
cheerfully and hopefully for an hour, until suddenly raising her
bowed head in his two hands, he said, "Do you know, dear, that in
looking for help and influence there was one, dear, I had
forgotten; one who is very potent with kings and councilors, and I
think, love, I shall ask Him to interest Himself in my behalf. It
is not too late yet, darling, and I shall seek Him to-morrow."
And before the morrow came he had sought and found Him, and I doubt
not got a good place.

A SLEEPING-CAR EXPERIENCE

It was in a Pullman sleeping-car on a Western road. After that
first plunge into unconsciousness which the weary traveler takes on
getting into his berth, I awakened to the dreadful revelation that
I had been asleep only two hours. The greater part of a long
winter night was before me to face with staring eyes.
Finding it impossible to sleep, I lay there wondering a number of
things: why, for instance, the Pullman sleeping-car blankets were
unlike other blankets; why they were like squares cut out of cold
buckwheat cakes, and why they clung to you when you turned over,
and lay heavy on you without warmth; why the curtains before you
could not have been made opaque, without being so thick and
suffocating; why it would not be as well to sit up all night half
asleep in an ordinary passenger-car as to lie awake all night in a
Pullman.


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