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| title
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|---|---|---|---|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The fellow's not very prepossessing, he told me, of an evening when he had dined with us,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Reasonably,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Laurence tells me Madame and Mary Virginia _like_ the fellow. H'm! Well, I've acquired a little faith in the intuition of women--some women, understand, and some times. And mark you, I didn't say _judgment_. Let us hope that this is one of the times when faith in intuition will be justified."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I suppose he's all right, if you think so, father. But I'd watch out for him, anyway,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That is exactly what I intend to do."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Rather he fell into your hands than mine. Better for him,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dead, huh? he grunted, and stared about him, with a slow, twisting movement of the head."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well--I might just as well be, as buried alive in a jay-dump at the tail-end of all creation!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What am _I_ doing here, anyhow? he snarled with his lips drawn back from his teeth."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Piddling with bugs--_Me!_ Patching up their dinky little wings and stretching out their dam' little legs and feelers--me being what I am, and they being what they are! Say, I've got to quit this, once for all I've got to quit it. I'm not a _man_ any more. I'm a dead one, a he-granny cutting silo for lady-worms and drynursing their interesting little babies. My God! _Me!_"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hanging on here like a boob--no wonder they think I'm dead! If I could just make a getaway and pull off one more good job and land enough--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You couldn't keep it, if you did land it--your sort can't. You know how it went before--the women and the sharks got it. There'd be always that same incentive to pull off just one more to keep you going--until you'd pulled yourself behind bars, and stayed there. And there's the drug-danger, too. If you escaped so far, it was because so far you had the strength to let drugs alone. But the drugs get you, sooner or later, do they not? Have you not told me over and over again that 'nearly all dips are dopes'? That first the dope gets you--and then the law? No. You can't pull off anything that won't pull you into hell. We have gone over this thing often enough, haven't we?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, we haven't. And I haven't had a chance to pull off anything--except leaves for bugs. _Me!_ I want to get my hand in once more, I tell you! I want to pull off a stunt that'll make the whole bunch of bulls sit up and bellow for fair--and I can do it, easy as easy. Think I've croaked, do they? And they can all snooze on their peg-posts, now I'm a stiff? Well, by cripes, I just want half of a half of a chance, and I'll show 'em Slippy McGee's good and plenty alive!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come out into the garden, my son, and feel that you are good and plenty alive. Come out into the free air. Hold on tight, a little while longer!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want to feel like a live man! he gritted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A live man, not a one-legged mucker with a beard like a Dutch bomb-thrower's, puttering about a skypilot's backyard on the wrong side of everything!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Stick it out a little longer, John Flint; hold fast!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hold fast to what? he demanded savagely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To a bug stuck on a needle?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. And to me who trusts you. To Madame who likes you. To the dear child who put bug and needle into your hand because she knew it was good work and trusted your hand to do it. And more than all, to that other Me you're finding--your own true self, John Flint! Hold fast, hold fast!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm believing him again! said he, grievously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've been sat on while I was hot, and my number's marked on me, 23. I'm hoodooed, that's what!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All right, devil-dodger, said he wearily, after a long sullen silence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll stick it out a bit longer, to please you. You've been white--the lot of you. But look here--if I beat it some night ... with what I can find, why, I'm warning you: don't blame _me_--you're running your risks, and it'll be up to _you_ to explain!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When you want to go, John Flint--when you really and truly want to go, why, take anything I have that you may fancy, my son. I give it you beforehand."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't want anything given to me beforehand! he growled."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want to take what I want to take without anybody's leave!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Very well, then; take what you want to take, without anybody's leave! I shall be able to do without it, I dare say."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, yes, I guess you can! You'd do without eating and breathing too, I suppose, if you could manage it! You do without too blamed much right now, trying to beat yourself to being a saint! Of course I'd help myself and leave you to go without--you're enough to make a man ache to shoot some sense into you with a cannon! And for God's sake, _who_ are you pinching and scraping and going without _for_? A bunch of hickey factory-shuckers that haven't got sense enough to talk American, and a lot of mill-hands with beans on 'em like bone buttons! They ain't worth it. While I'm in the humor, take it from me there ain't anybody worth anything anyhow!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Mr. Flint! What a shame and a sin! called another voice."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, Mr. Flint, I'm ashamed of you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I came over, said she,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, well, miss, I wasn't thinking of the like of you--and him, he jerked his head at me, half apologetically,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, no, we aren't, really, said Mary Virginia, puckering her brows adorably."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We only _seem_ to be different--but we are just exactly like everybody else, only _we_ know it, and some people never can seem to find it out--and there's the difference! You see?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come and shake hands with Mr. Flint, Kerry, said she to the setter."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I want you to help make him understand things it's high time he should know. Nobody can do that better than a good dog can."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There! said Mary Virginia, delightedly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now, don't you see how horrid it was to talk the way you talked? Why, Kerry _likes_ you, and Kerry is a sensible dog."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, miss,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Aren't you sorry you said that?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Y-e-s, seeing you seem to think it was wrong."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, you'll know better from now on,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Flint, said Mary Virginia,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, miss, I can't see but that I've just got to stay on--for awhile. Until he's tired of me and my ways, anyhow,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you know, said she earnestly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've had the funniest idea about you, from the very first time I saw you? Well, I have. I've somehow got the notion that you and the Padre _belong_. I think that's why you came. I think you belong right here, in that darling little house, studying butterflies and mounting them so beautifully they look alive. I think you're never going to go away anywhere any more, but that you're going to stay right here as long as you live!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I feel so sure of it, said she, confidently,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The scorn of the real dog-lover was in her voice."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Kerry's used to the Parish House. He loves the Padre, he'll soon love you, and he likes to play with Pitache, so Madame wouldn't mind his being here. And--I'd be more satisfied in my mind if he were with somebody that--that needed him--and would like him a whole lot--somebody like you,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "he gasped."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You mean you're willing to let me keep your dog for you? Yours?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want to _give_ him to you, said Mary Virginia bravely enough, though her voice trembled."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am perfectly sure you'll love him--better than any one else in the world would, except me myself. I don't know why I know that, but I do know it. If you wanted to go away, later on, why, you could turn him over to the Padre, because of course you wouldn't want to have a dog following you about everywhere. They're a lot of bother. But--somehow, I think you'll keep him. I think you'll love him. He--he's a darling dog."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now I come to think of it, said John Flint slowly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I never had anything--anything alive, I mean--belong to me before."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's just exactly why you thought nobody was worth anything,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Kerry, dear, said she,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Kerry, dear Kerry, you don't belong to me any more. I--I've got to go away to school--and you know you wouldn't be happy at home without me. You belong to Mr. Flint now, and I'm sure he needs you, and I know he'll love you almost as much as I do, and he'll be very, very good to you. So you're to stay with him, and--stand by him and be his dog, like you were mine. You'll remember, Kerry? Good-by, my dear, dear, darling dog!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go--good-by, everybody!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's wet--where she dropped tears on it! Parson ... she's given me her dog ... that she loves enough to cry over!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He's a very fine dog, and she has had him and loved him from his puppyhood, I reminded him. And I added, with a wily tongue:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can always turn him over to me, you know--if you decide to take to the road and wish to get rid of a troublesome companion. A dog is bad company for a man who wishes to dodge the police."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Parson, said he, hesitatingly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, I agreed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've felt--caught by that Something, too. And it is at first a terrifying sensation. Until--you learn to be glad."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're caught--and you know under your hat you're never going to be able to get away any more. It'll hold you till you die! said he, a little wildly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My God! I'm caught! First It bit off a leg on me, so I couldn't run. Then It wished you and your bugs on me. And now--Yes, sir; I'm done for. That kid got my goat this morning. My God, who'd believe it? But it's true: I'm done for. She gave me her dog and she got my goat!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "THY SERVANT WILL GO AND FIGHT WITH THIS PHILISTINE"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When I come back, Mary Virginia said to him at parting,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I expect you'll know more about moths and butterflies than anybody else in the world does. You're that sort. I'd love to be here, watching you grow up into it, but I've got to go away and grow up into something myself. I'm very glad you came here, Mr. Flint. You've helped me, lots."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You, of course, said the child, serenely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because you are such a good man, Mr. Flint, and so patient, and you stick at what you try to do until you do it better than anybody else does. Often and often when I've been trying to do sums--I'm frightfully stupid about arithmetic--and I wanted to give up, I'd think of you over here just trying and trying and keeping right on trying, until you'd gotten what you wanted to know; and then _I'd_ keep on trying, too. The funny part is, that I like you for making me do it. You see, I'm a very, very bad person in some things, Mr. Flint, she said frankly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, when my mother has to tell me to look at so and so, and see how well they behave, or how nicely they can do certain things, and how good they are, and why don't I profit by such a good example, a perfectly horrid raging sort of feeling comes all over me, and I want to be as naughty as naughty! I feel like doing and saying things I'd never want to do or say, if it wasn't for that good example. I just can't seem to _bear_ being good-exampled. But you're different, thank goodness. Most really good people are different, I guess."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm glad you're sorry I'm going away, said she, with the directness that was so engaging."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I perfectly love people to feel sorry to part with me. I hope and _hope_ they'll keep on being sorry--because they'll be that much gladder when I come back. I don't believe there's anything quite so wonderful and beautiful as having other folks like you, except it's liking other folks yourself!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never had to be bothered about it, either way,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Maybe that's because you never stayed still long enough in any one place to catch hold,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good-by, Mr. Flint! I'll never see a butterfly or a moth, the whole time I'm gone, without making believe he's a messenger from Madame, and the Padre, and you, and Kerry. I'll play he's a carrier-butterfly, with a message tucked away under his wings: 'Howdy, Mary Virginia! I've just come from flying over the flowers in the Parish House garden; and the folks are all well, and busy, and happy. But they haven't forgotten you for a single solitary minute, and they miss you and wish you'd come back; and they send you their dear, dear love--and I'll carry your dear, dear love back to them!' So if you see a big, big, beautiful, strange fellow come sailing by your window some morning, why, that's mine, Mr. Flint! Remember!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish, he grumbled to Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'd rather stay up--the air's better, and you can see so much farther, said Laurence. And he added hospitably:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's plenty of room--come on up, yourself!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "With one leg?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And two eyes, said the boy."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come on up--the sky's fine!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When I got pitched into this burg, said the lame man thoughtfully,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I landed all there--except a leg, but I never carried my brains in my legs. I hadn't got any bats in my belfry. But I'm getting 'em. I'm getting 'em so bad that when I hear some folks talk bughouse these days it pretty near listens like good sense to me. Why, kid, I'm nut enough now to dangle over the edge of believing you know what you're talking about!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fall over: I _know_ I know what I'm talking about,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm double-crossed, said John Flint, soberly and sadly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Anyway I look at it-- he swept the horizon with a wide-flung gesture,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "he tossed his head bull-like in my direction,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He glared at Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "he gulped."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ain't I the nut, though?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, supposing? said Laurence, laughing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Buck up! You _could_ be a bad egg instead of a good nut, you know!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Can you beat it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Beating a bad egg would be a waste of time I wouldn't be guilty of, said I amusedly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I hope to live to see the good nut grow into a fine tree."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do your damnedest--excuse me, parson! said he contritely."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I mean, don't stop for a little thing like _me_!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Man, said he, impressively,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Huh!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Padre, said he, when we walked up and down in the garden, after an old custom, after dinner,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Put 'Mayne & Son' on the judge's shingle and walk around the block forty times a day to look at it!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Of course, said he."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That first. But a legal shingle can be turned into as handy a weapon as one could wish for, Padre, and _I'm_ going to take that shingle and spank this sleepy-headed old town wide awake with it!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's my town, with his chin out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It could be a mighty good town. It's going to become one. I expect to live all my life right here, among my own people, and they've got to make it worth my while. I don't propose to cut myself down to fit any little hole: I intend to make that hole big enough to fit my possible measure."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "May an old friend wish more power to your shovel?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It'll be a steam shovel!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Padre! I'm sick of the way things are run in Appleboro! I've talked with other boys and they're sick of it, too. You know why they want to get away? Because they think they haven't got even a fighting chance here. Because towns like this are like billion-ton old wagons sunk so deep in mudruts that nothing but dynamite can blow them out--and they are not dealers in dynamite. If they want to do anything that even _looks_ new they've got to fight the stand-patters to a finish, and they're blockaded by a lot of reactionaries that don't know the earth's moving. There are a lot of folks in the South, Padre, who've been dead since the civil war, and haven't found it out themselves, and won't take live people's word for it. Well, now, I mean to _do_ things. I mean to do them right here. And I certainly shan't allow myself to be blockaded by anybody, living or dead. You've got to fight the devil with fire;--I'm going to blockade those blockaders, and see that the dead ones are decently buried."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You have tackled a big job, my son."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I like big jobs, Padre. They're worth while. Maybe I'll be able to keep some of the boys home--the town needs them. Maybe I can keep some of those poor kids out of the mills, too. Oh, yes, I expect a right lively time!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course I can't clean up the whole state, and I can't reorganize the world, said the boy sturdily."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm not such a fool as to try. But I can do my level best to disinfect my own particular corner, and make it fit for men and safe for women and kids to live and breathe in. Padre, for years there hasn't been a rotten deal nor a brazen steal in this state that the man who practically owns and runs this town hadn't a finger in, knuckle-deep. _He's got to go_."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Goliath doesn't always fall at the hand of the son of Jesse, my little David,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's about what my father says, said the boy."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He wants me to be a successful man, a 'safe and sane citizen.' He thinks a gentleman should practise his profession decently and in order. But to believe, as I do, that you can wipe out corruption, that you can tackle poverty the same as you would any other disease, and prevent it, as smallpox and yellow fever are prevented, he looks upon as madness and a waste of time."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He has had sorrow and experience, and he is kind and charitable, as well as wise,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's exactly where the hardest part comes in for us younger fellows. It isn't bucking the bad that makes the fight so hard: it's bucking the wrong-idea'd good. Padre, one good man on the wrong side is a stumbling-block for the stoutest-hearted reformer ever born. It's men like my father, who regard the smooth scoundrel that runs this town as a necessary evil, and tolerate him because they wouldn't soil their hands dealing with him, that do the greatest injury to the state. I tell you what, it wouldn't be so hard to get rid of the devil, if it weren't for the angels!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And how, said I, ironically,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Flatten 'em out, said he, briefly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Politics. First off I'm going to practice general law; then I'll be solicitor-general for this county. After that, I shall be attorney-general for the state. Later I may be governor, unless I become senator instead."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, said I, cautiously,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I couldn't very well make a worse one than some we've already had,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I guess you'd better tell me good-by now, Padre, said he, presently."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And bless me, please--it's a pretty custom. I won't see you again, for you'll be saying mass when I'm running for my train. I'll go tell John Flint good-by, too."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good-by, John Flint said Laurence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good luck to you and your leggy friends! When I come back you'll probably have mandibles, and you'll greet me with a nip, in pure Bugese."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good-by, said John Flint, lifting his head. Then, with unwonted feeling:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm horrible sorry you've got to go--I'll miss you something fierce. You've been very kind--thank you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mind you take care of the Padre, said the boy, waiving the thanks with a smile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't let him work too hard."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who, me? Flint's voice took the knife-edge of sarcasm."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, sure! It don't need but one leg to keep up with a gent trying to run a thirty-six hour a day job with one-man power, does it? Son, take it from me, when a man's got the real, simonpure, no-imitation, soulsaving bug in his bean, a forty-legged cyclone couldn't keep up with him, much less a guy with one pedal short."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's nothing to be done with the Padre, then, I'm afraid,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I _might_ soak him in the cyanide jar for ten minutes a day without killing him, mused Mr. Flint."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, disgustedly,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can stand a man, suh, that likes to get along in this world--within proper bounds. But Inglesby hasn't got any proper bounds. He's a--a cross between a Republican mule and a party-bolting boa-constrictor, an' a hybrid like that hasn't got any place in nature. On top of that he drinks ten cents a bottle grape juice and smokes five cent cigars. And he's got the brazen and offensive effrontery to offer 'em to self-respectin' men!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get up there on those leaves, you horn-tailed horror! Move on,--you lepidopterous son of a wigglejoint, or I'll pull your real name on you in a minute and paralyze you stiff! He drew a long breath."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You know how I'm beginning to remember their real names? I swear 'em half an hour a day. Next time you have trouble with those hickeys of yours, try swearing caterpillar at 'em, and you'll find out."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Say, said he, abruptly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've been listening with both my ears to what that boy was talking to you about awhile ago. Thinks he can buck the Boss, does he?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps he may,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Look here, that Mayne kid's dead right. It's you good guys that are to blame. We little bad ones see you kowtowing to the big worse ones, and we get to thinking _we_ can come in under the wires easy winners, too. However, let me tell you something while I'm in the humor to gas. It's this: _sooner or later everybody gets theirs_. My sort and Inglesby's sort, we all get ours. Duck and twist and turn and sidestep all we want, at the end it's right there waiting for us, with a loaded billy up its sleeve: _Ours!_ Some fine day when we're looking the other way, thinking we've even got it on the annual turnout of the cops up Broadway for class, why, Ours gets up easy on its hind legs, spits on its mitt, and hands us exactly what's coming to us, biff! and we wake up sitting on our necks in the middle of day-before-yesterday and year-after-next. I got mine. If I was you I wouldn't be too cock-sure that kid don't give Inglesby his, some of these days, good and plenty."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Maybe so,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Gee, that'd be fly-time for all the good guys in this tank, wouldn't it? he grinned."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure! I can see 'em now, patting the bump on their beams where they think the brain-patch sprouts, and handing out hunks of con to the Lord about his being right on his old-time job of swatting sinners in their dinners. Yet they'll all of them go right on leading themselves up to be trimmed by the very next holdup that's got the nerve to do them! Friend, believe a goat when he tells you that you stillwater-and-greenpasture sheep are some bag of nuts!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Keep the change, said he, unabashed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wasn't meaning _you_, anyhow. I've got more manners, I hope, than to do such. And, parson, you don't need to have cold feet about young Mayne. If you ask me, _I'd_ bet the limit on him. Why, I think so much of that boy that if he was a rooster I'd put the gaffs and my last dollar on him, and back him to whip everything in feathers clean up to baldheaded eagles. Believe me, he'd do it!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yep, ten orders in to-day's mail and seven in yesterday's; and good orders for the wasp-moths, single or together, and that house in New York wants steady supplies from now on. And here's a fancy shop wants a dozen trays, like that last one I finished. We're looking up,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He may have only one leg, said Westmoreland, when Flint had helped him all of one night with a desperately ill millworker,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because it'd sort of give you a black eye if I didn't, he explained."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Skypiloting's your lay, father, and I'll see you through with it as far as I can. I couldn't fall down on any man that's been as white to me as you've been."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can't seem to stand a man dolled-up in skirts, he confessed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Any more than I'd be stuck on a dame with whiskers. It don't somehow look right to me. Put the he-saints in pants instead of those brown kimonas with gold crocheting and a rope sash, and I'd have more respect for 'em."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's all right, father, that's all right. If you say it's so, I guess it's so. I'll take your word for it. If it's good enough for you and Madame, there's got to be something in it, and it's sure good enough for me. Look here: the little girl and young Mayne have got a different brand from yours, haven't they?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Neither of them is of the Old Faith."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Huh! Well, I tell you what you do: you just switch me in somewhere between you and Madame and him and her. That'll give me a line on all of you--and maybe it'll give all of you a line on me. See?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And yet this thing will answer a call no ears can hear and crawl out of its coffin something entirely different from what went into it! I've seen it with my own eyes, but how it's done I don't know; no, nor no man since the world was made knows, or could do it himself. What does it? What gives that call these dead-alive things hear in the dark? What makes a crawling ugliness get itself ready for what's coming--how does it _know_ there's ever going to be a call, or that it'll hear it without fail?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Some of us call it Nature: but others call it God,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Search me! I don't know what It is--but I do know there's got to be Something behind these things, anyhow, said he, and turned the chrysalis over and over in his palm, staring down at it thoughtfully. He had used Westmoreland's words, once applied to his own case!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, yes, there's Something, because I've watched It working with grubs, getting 'em ready for five-inch moths and hand-colored butterflies, Something that's got the time and the patience and the know-how to build wings as well as worlds."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's come to the point, parson, where I've just _got_ to know more. I know enough now to know how much I don't know, because I've got a peep at how much there is to know. There's a God's plenty to find out, and it's up to me to go out and find it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Some of the best and brightest among men have given all the years of their lives to just that finding out and knowing more--and they found their years too few and short for the work. But such help as you need and we can get, you shall have, please God!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm ready for the word to start, chief."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What can my government do for me? he had to answer:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It can put me in prison and keep me there; it can even send me to the Chair."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where'd you get this?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I asked for it, and the Bureau sent it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh! You've got a friend there!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No. The bulletins are free to any one interested enough to ask for them."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You mean to say the government gets up things like this--pays men to find out and write 'em up--pays to have 'em printed--and then gives 'em away to _anybody_? Why, they're valuable!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes; but they are nevertheless quite free. I have a number, if you'd like to go over them. Or you can send for new ones."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But why do they do it? Where's the graft?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The graft in this case is common sense in operation. If farms can be run with less labor and loss and more profit and pleasure, why, the whole country is benefited, isn't it? Don't you understand, the government is trying to help those who need help, and therefore is willing to lend them the brains of its trained and picked experts? It isn't selfish thwart that aim, is it?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It can help me to make good."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, you mean the Butterfly Man! Sure. You'll find him about somewhere with the kids."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was twenty-five years old when I landed here, he reminded me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So I've got twenty-five years' back-work to catch up with."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, my, my, my, what a surgeon gone to waste! Westmoreland would lament, watching the long, sure fingers at work."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, I suppose it's all for the best that Father De Rancé beat me to you--at least you've done less damage learning your trade."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He smells my Unitarian soul, confound him! said the major."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "An' he's so orthodox he thinks he'll get chucked out of dog-heaven, if he doesn't show his disapproval."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Parson, he rasped,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've bucked this thing for fair, but I've got to go back and see it and smell it and taste it and feel it and know it all again, or I'll go crazy. You're all of you so good down here you're too much for me. _I'm home-sick for hell_. It--it comes over me like fire over the damned. You don't fool yourself that folks who know what it is to be damned can stay on in heaven without freezing, do you? Well, they can't. I can't help it! I can't! I've got to go--this time I've got to go!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've got to go! I've got to go, and try myself out!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You--understand your risks,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here you are safe. You are building up an honored name. You are winning the respect and confidence of all decent people--and you wish to undo it all. You wish to take such desperate chances--now!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've got to go! he burst forth, white-lipped."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You've never seen a dip cut off from his dope, have you? Well, I'm it, when the old town calls me loud enough for me to hear her plain. I've stood her off as long as I could--and now I'm that crazy for her I could wallow in her dust. Besides, there's not such a lot of risks. I don't have to leave my card at the station-house to let 'em know I'm calling, do I? They haven't been sitting on what they think is my grave to keep me from getting up before Gabriel beats 'em to it, have they? No, they're not expecting _me_. What I could do to 'em now would make the Big Uns look like a bunch of pikers--and their beans would have to turn inside out before they fell for it that _I'd_ come back to my happy home and was on the job again."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If--if you hadn't been so white, I'd have cut and run for it without ever putting you wise. But I want to play fair. I'd be a hog if I didn't play fair, and I'm trying to do it. I'm going because I can't stay. I've got enough of my own money, earned honest, saved up, to pay my way. Let me take it and go. And if I can come back, why, I'll come."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll leave on the three-o'clock, he flung over his shoulder to me, standing disconsolate in the door."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll stop at the bank on my way."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very well, said I, forcing myself to face the inevitable without noise,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've got to go! I've got to go! He repeated it as one repeats an incantation."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've got to go!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He really needs the change. A short trip will do him a world of good, she concluded equably."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is still quite a young man, and I'm sure it must be dull for him here at times, in spite of his work. Why, he hasn't been out of this county for over three years, and just think of the unfettered life he must have led before he came here! Yes, I'm sure New York will stimulate him. A dose of New York is a very good tonic. It regulates one's mental liver. Don't look so worried, Armand--you remind me of those hens who hatch ducklings. I should think a duckling of John Flint's size could be trusted to swim by himself, at his time of life!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Such an--aberrant! he panted. He was still breathing so rapidly he had to jerk his words out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've got the--biggest, handsomest--most perfect and wonderful--specimen of--an aberrant swallow-tail--any man ever laid--his eyes on! I thought at first--I wasn't seeing things right. But I was. Parson, parson, I've seen many--butterflies--but never--another one like--this!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She led me the devil's own chase, for I'd nothing but my hat to net her with. A dozen times I thought I had her, and missed. It was heart-breaking. I felt I'd go stark crazy if she got away from me. I had to get her. And the Lord was good and rewarded me for my patience, for I caught her at the end of a mile run. I was so blown by then that I had to lie down in the grass by the roadside and get my wind back. Then I slid my handkerchief easy-easy under my hat, tilted it up, and here she is! She hasn't hurt herself, for she's been quiet. She's perfect. She hasn't rubbed off a scale. She's the size of a bat. Her upper wings, and one lower wing, are black, curiously splotched with yellow, and one lower wing is all yellow. She's got the usual orange spots on the secondaries, only bigger, and blobs of gold, and the purple spills over onto the ground-color. She's a wonder. Come on in and let's gloat at our ease--I haven't half seen her yet! She's the biggest and most wonderful Turnus ever made. Why, Gabriel could wear her in his crown to make himself feel proud, because there'd be only one like her in heaven!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But you didn't go! I stammered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, John Flint, John Flint, you didn't go!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Catch me running away like a fool when a six-inch off-color swallow-tail flirts herself under my nose and dares me to catch her! You'd better believe I didn't go!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Father! ... _Father!_"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My son ... I was afraid ... you were lost ... gone ... into a far country.... It would have broken my heart!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I had the station agent wire for my grip, said Flint casually."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And I gave the darky I knocked down fifty cents to soothe his feelings. He offered to let me do it again for a quarter."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Father, said he, quietly, and looked at me with steady eyes,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Remember what that little girl said when she gave me her dog? Well, I reckon she was right. I reckon I'm here for keeps. I reckon, father, that you and I do belong."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, said I; and looked over the cases of our butterflies, and the books we had gathered, and the table where we worked and studied together."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes; you and I belong."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you sure, she asked,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, I am sure."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My boy's forever boasting of your Butterfly Man, said the judge, falling into step with me one morning on the street."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He tells me Flint's been made a member of several learned societies; and that he's gotten out a book of sorts, telling all there is to tell about some crawling plague or other. And it seems this isn't all the wonderful Mr. Flint is capable of: Laurence insists that biologists will have to look Flintward pretty soon, on account of observations on what he calls insect allies--whatever _they_ are."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, you see, his work on insect allies is really unique and thorough, and it opens a door to even more valuable research, said I, as modestly as I could."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Flint is one of its great pioneers, and he's blazing the way. Some day when the real naturalist comes into his own, he will rank far, far above tricky senators and mutable governors!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Spoken like a true bughunter, said he."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As a matter of fact, this fellow is a remarkable man. Does he intend to remain here for good?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, said I,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think he intends to remain here--for good."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your goose turned out a butterfly, said the judge."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One may well be pardoned a little natural vanity when one has engineered a feat like that! Common tramp, too, wasn't he?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, he wasn't. He was a most uncommon one."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I could envy the man his spontaneity and originality, admitted the judge, rubbing _his_ nose."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, father, I'm perfectly satisfied, so far, to have my only son tramp with him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So is my mother,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When such a lady approves of any man, said he, gallantly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We shall have to consider John Flint knighted, then, said my mother merrily, when I repeated the conversation."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let's see, she continued gaily."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We'll put on his shield three butterflies, or, rampant on a field, azure; in the lower corner a net, argent. Motto, '_In Hoc Signo Vinces_.' There'll be no sign of the cyanide jar. I'll have nothing sinister shadowing; the Butterfly Man's escutcheon!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Gosh, pal, I've sure had some meal! said the bluejay to John Flint."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Chase that skirt, over there, please--she makes too much noise to suit me!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My nest! he cried tragically."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My beautiful nest with the four eggs, that I've been watching day by day! And the little mother-thing that knew me, and let me touch her, and feed her, and wasn't afraid of me! Oh, you blue devil! You thief! You murderer!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But he doesn't know he's a thief and a murderer,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're a thief and a robber! raged the Butterfly Man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're a damn little bird-killer, that's what you are! I ought to wring your neck for you, and I'd do it if it would do the rest of your tribe any good. But it wouldn't. It wouldn't bring back the lost eggs nor the spoiled nest, either. Besides, you don't know any better. You're what you are because you were hatched like that, and there wasn't Anything to tell you what's right and wrong for a decent bird to do. The best one can do for you is to get wise to your ways and watch out that you can't do more mischief."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Damn little thief! he muttered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you don't even have to care! No! It's not right. There ought to be some way to save the mothers and the nests from your sort--without having to kill you, either. But good Lord, how? That's what I want to know!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Beat 'em to it and stand 'em off, said Laurence, staring at the ravaged nest, the unhappy mother, the gorged impenitent thief."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Think so? said John Flint."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Huh! And what'd you do with _him_?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let him alone, so long as he behaved. Shoo him outside when he didn't--and see that he kept outside, said Laurence."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You see, the idea isn't so much to reform bluejays--it's to save the other birds from them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's all a muddle, anyhow, said he."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can't blame the bluejay, because he was born so, and it's bluejay nature to act like that when it gets the chance. But there's the other bird--it looks bad. It is bad. For a thief to come into a little nest like that, that she'd been brooding on, and twittering to, and feeling so good and so happy about--Man, I'd have given a month's work and pay to have saved that nest! It's not fair. God! Isn't there _some_ way to save the good ones from the bad ones?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think there is a way, said Laurence, gravely,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You've got a devil of a way of twisting things into parables. I'm talking birds and thinking birds, and here you must go and make my birds people! I wasn't thinking about people--that is, I wasn't, until you have to go and put the notion into my head. It's not fair. The thing's bad enough already, without your lugging folks into it and making it worse!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You've got to think of people, when you see things like that, said he, slowly;"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The pillar of cloud by day, said he"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Padre, the Butterfly Man's seen something this morning that will sink to the bottom of his soul and stay there: didn't you see his eyes? Now, which of those two have taught him the most--the happy thief and murderer, or the innocent unhappy victim? The bluejay's not a whit the worse for it, remember; in fact, he's all the better off, for his stomach is full and his mischief satisfied, and that's all that ever worries a bluejay. And there isn't any redress for the mother-bird. The thing's done, and can't be undone. But between them they've shown John Flint something that forces a man to take sides. Doesn't the bluejay deserve some little credit for that? And is there _ever_ any redress for the mother-bird, Padre?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, the Church teaches--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, Padre, I know all that. But it can't teach away what's always happening here and now. At least not to the Butterfly Man and me, ... nor yet the mother-birds, Padre. No. We want to be shown how to head off the bluejays."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A fellow with pull behind him, said John Flint,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A Christian wife and offspring seven Mourn for John Peters who has gone to heaven. But as for him we are sure he can weep no more, He is happy with the lovely angels on that bright shore."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miss Matty, I watched thee laid in the gloomy grave's embrace, Where nobody can evermore press your hand or your sweet face. When you were alive I often thought of thee with fond pride, And meant to call around some night & ask you to be my loving Bride."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ain't that sad and sweet, though? said the Butterfly Man admiringly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't you hope those loving feet will be extra loving when Broken-hearted makes 'em a present of his fond heart, parson? Wouldn't it be something fierce if they stepped on it! Gee, I cried in my hat when I first read that!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did you know, he remarked to Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Folks in this county will sort of miss the _Clarion_, he reflected."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "After all, it's the one county paper. Seems to me, he mused,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hasn't Inglesby got a mortgage on it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If he had would he let it die in its bed so nice and ladylike? Not much! It'd kick out the footboard and come alive. Inglesby must be getting rusty in the joints not to reach out for the _Clarion_ himself, right now. Maybe he figures it's not worth the price. Maybe he knows this town so well he's dead sure nobody that buys a newspaper here would have the nerve to print anything or think anything he didn't approve of. Yes, I guess that's it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Which is your gentle way, cut in Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Me? The Butterfly Man looked pained."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm not telling you to buy anything. _I'm_ only thinking of the obituaries. Ask the parson. I'm--I'm addicted to 'em, like some people are to booze. But if you'd promise to keep open the old corner for them, why, I might come out and _beg_ you to buy the _Clarion_, now it's going so cheap. Yep--all on account of the obituaries!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's just about as much as I can stand of that, my son!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The parson's got an awful tender heart,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, as I was about to say: I happened to think Inglesby would be brute enough to choke out my pet column, or make folks pay for it, and things like that haven't got any business to have price tags on 'em. So I got to thinking of you. You're young and tender; also a college man; and you're itching to wash and iron Appleboro--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did you also get to thinking, said Laurence, crisply,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The _Clarion_ is the county paper, he explained patiently."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It was here first. It's been here a long time, and people are used to it. It knows by heart how they think and feel and how they want to be told they think and feel. And you ought to know Carolina people when it comes right down to prying them loose from something they're used to!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There's no reason why the _Clarion_ should keep on being a dead one, is there? There's plenty room for a live daily right here and now, if it was run right. Why, this town's blue-molded for a live paper! Look here: You go buy the _Clarion_. It won't cost you much. Believe me, you'll find it mighty handy--power of the press, all the usual guff, you know! I sha'n't have to worry about obituaries, but I bet you dollars to doughnuts some people will wake up some morning worrying a whole lot about editorials. Mayne--people like to think they think what they think themselves. They don't. They think what their home newspapers tell them to think. And this is your great big chance to get the town ear and shout into it good and loud."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nevertheless, said the Butterfly Man to me, complacently,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "LET'S GET TOGETHER!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here, said the Butterfly Man to me,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Book of Rules for Employees."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is he, or isn't he, a hypocrite pure and simple, or are such men self-deceived? mused my mother, puckering her brows."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He will do nothing, I know, that he can well avoid. But--he gave me of his own accord his personal check for fifty dollars, for that poor consumptive Shivers woman."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She contracted her disease working in his mill and living in one of his houses on the wages he paid her, said I,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I might remind you to beware of the Greeks when they come bearing gifts."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Proverb for proverb, said she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The hair of the dog is good for its bite."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fifty dollars isn't much for a woman's life."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Fifty dollars buys considerable comfort in the shape of milk and ice and eggs. When it's gone--if poor Shivers isn't--I shall take the Baptist minister's wife and Miss Sally Ruth Dexter with me, and go and ask him for another check. He'll give it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'll make him bitterly repent ever having succumbed to the temptation of appearing charitable,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let's think this thing out, said John Flint to Laurence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Cutting out ads is a bad habit. It costs good money. It should be nipped in the bud. You've got to go after advertisers like that and make 'em see the thing in the right light. Say, parson, what's that thing you were saying the other day--the thing I asked you to read over, remember?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise; and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's it, exactly. You see, he explained,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Inglesby, said the Butterfly Man to me one night, casually,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "His arrival, said he,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, it's this way, said he, slowly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I--hear things. A bit here and there, you see, as folks tell me. I put what I've heard together, and think it over. Of course I didn't need anybody to tell me Inglesby was sore because the _Clarion_ got away from him. He expected it to die. It didn't. He thought it wouldn't pay expenses--well, the sheriff isn't in charge yet. And he knows the paper is growing. He's too wise a guy to let on he's been stung for fair, once in his life, but he don't propose to let himself in for any more body blows than he can help. So he looks about a bit and he gets him an agent--older than you, Mayne, but young enough, too--and even better looking. That agent will be everywhere pretty soon. The town will fall for him. Say, how many of you folks know what Inglesby really wants, anyhow?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Everything in sight,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And something around the corner, too. He wants to come out in the open and be IT. He intends to be a big noise in Washington. Gentlemen, Senator Inglesby! Well, why not?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He hasn't said so, has he?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He doesn't have to say so. He means to be it, and that's very much more to the point. However, it happens that he did peep, once or twice, and it buzzed about a bit--and that's how I happened to catch it in my net. This Johnny he's just got to help him is the first move. Private Secretary now. Campaign manager and press agent, later. Inglesby's getting ready to march on to Washington. You watch him do it!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No? The Butterfly Man lifted his eyebrows."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, what are you going to do about it? Fight him with your pretty little _Clarion_? It's not big enough, though you could make it a handy sort of brick to paste him in the eye with, if you aim straight and pitch hard enough. Go up against him yourself? You're not strong enough, either, young man, whatever you may be later on. You can prod him into firing some poor kids from his mills--but you can't make him feed 'em after he's fired 'em, can you? And you can't keep him from becoming Senator Inglesby either, unless, he paused impressively,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't take it so hard, he grinned."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And don't let the whole salvation of South Carolina hang too heavy on your shoulders. Leave _something_ to God Almighty--He managed to pull the cocky little brute through worse and tougher situations than Inglesby! Also, He ran the rest of the world for a few years before you and I got here to help Him with it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're a cocky brute yourself,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can afford to be, because I can open my hand this minute and show you the button. Why, the very man you need is right in your reach! If you could get _him_ to put up his name against Inglesby's, the Big Un wouldn't be in it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look here, said he slowly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You remember my nest, and what that bluejay did for it? And what you said? Well, I've looked about a bit, and I've seen the bluejay at work.... Oh, hell, I can't talk about this thing, but I've watched the putty-faced, hollow-chested, empty-bellied kids--that don't even have guts enough left to laugh.... Somebody ought to sock it to that brute, on account of those kids. He ought to be headed off ... make him feel he's to be shoo'd outside! And I think I know the one man that can shoo him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The man I mean hates politics. I've been told he has said openly it's not a gentleman's game any more. You've got to make him see it can be made one. You've got to make him see it as a duty. Well, once make him see _that_, and he'll smash Inglesby."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can't mean--for heaven's sake--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do mean. James Eustis."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Lord! said he,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Bughunter, said Laurence, respectfully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you ever take the notion to make me president, will you stand behind and show me how to run the United States on greased wheels?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I? John Flint was genuinely astounded."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The boy's talking in his sleep: turn over--you 're lying on your back!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You won't?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will not! said the Butterfly Man severely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have got something much more important on my hands than running states, I'll have you know. Lord, man, I'm getting ready some sheets that will tell pretty nearly all there is to tell about Catocala Moths!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Accept it, then, my child, with your old friend's love. Use it in your happy hours, dream over it a little, sigh lightly; and then smile to remember that this is your Hour, that you are young, and life and love are yours. It is in such youthful and happy smiles that we whose day declines may relive for a brief and bright space our golden noon. Shall I tell you a secret, before your time to know it? _Youth alone is eternal and immortal!_ How do I know? _'Et Ego in Arcadia vixi!'_"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She will never, never again be at home in little Appleboro, said my mother, regretfully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That dear, simple, passionate, eager child we used to know has gone forever--life has taken her. This beautiful creature's place is not here--_she_ belongs to a world where the women wear titles and tiaras, and the men wear kings' orders. No, we could never hope to hold her any more."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But we could love her, could we not? Perhaps even more than those fine ladies with tiaras and titles and those fine gentlemen with orders, whom your fancy conjures up for her,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Love her? Oh, but of course! But--love counts for very, very little in the world which claims Mary Virginia now, Armand. Ambition stifles him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Lord! To think I had nerve to send _her_ a few butterflies last year ... told _her_ to play like they meant more! I somehow couldn't get the notion in my head that she'd grown up.... I never could think of her except as a sort of kid-angel, because I couldn't seem to bear the idea of her ever being anything else but what she was. Well ... she's not, any more. And I've had the nerve to give a few insects to the Queen of Sheba!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Bosh! said Laurence, sturdily."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She ought to be glad and proud to get that tray, and I'll bet you Mary Virginia's delighted with it. She's her father's daughter as well as her mother's, please. As for Appleboro not being good enough for her, that's piffle, too, p'tite Madame, and I'm surprised at you! Her own town is good enough for any girl. If it isn't, let her just pitch in and help make it good enough, if she's worth her salt. Not that Mary Virginia isn't scrumptious, though. Lordy, who'd think this was the same kid that used to bump my head?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She turns heads now, instead of bumping them,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, she's not the only head-turner Appleboro can boast of! said the young man grandly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We've always been long on good-lookers in Carolina, whatever else we may lack. They're like berries in their season."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But the berry season is short and soon over, my son: and there are seasons when there are no berries at all--except preserved ones,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dare you to tell that to the Civic League! chortled Laurence."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll grant you that Mary Virginia's the biggest berry in the patch, at the height of a full season. But look at her getup! Don't doodads and fallals, and hen-feathers in the hair, and things twisted and tied, and a slithering train, and a clothesline length of pearls and such, count for something? How about Claire Dexter, for instance? She mayn't have a Figure like her Aunt Sally Ruth, but suppose you dolled Claire up like this? A flirt she was born and a flirt she will die, but isn't she a perfect peach? That reminds me--that ungrateful minx gave two dances rightfully mine to Mr. Howard Hunter last night. I didn't raise any ructions, because, to tell you the truth, I didn't much blame her. That fellow really knows how to dance, and the way he can convey to a girl the impression that he's only alive on her account makes me gnash my teeth with green-and-blue envy. No wonder they all dote on him! No home complete without this handsome ornament!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is a great mistake to figure Mephistopheles as a rather blasé brunette, she remarked crisply."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am absolutely certain that if you could catch the devil without his mask you'd find him a perfect blonde."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nietzsche's blonde beast, then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That same blonde beast is perhaps the most magnificent of animals,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But you wish to deal with human beings as with figures in a sum,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Figures, he smiled equably,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My dear friend, he added, laughing,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The day of the great god Gouge, he had said to Inglesby,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If he even had the semblance of a heart! said she, regretfully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But he is all head, that one."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That great blonde! said Madame, wonderingly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is so designedly fascinating I wonder you fail to see the wheels go 'round. However, let me admit that I thank God devoutly I am no longer young and susceptible. Consider the terrible power such a man might exert over an ardent and unsophisticated heart!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are sure to like Bridges, he told me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I love all beautiful things: I seek and adore them. God has no better praise, And man in his hasty days, Is honored for them."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will not let thee go except thou tell me thy name!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why don't you admire Mr. Hunter?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I do admire him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then if you admire him, why don't you like him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't like the expression of his teeth, he admitted."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They're too pointed. He looks like he'd bite. I don't think he'd care much who he bit, either; it would all depend on who got in his way."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm not saying he oughtn't to put his best foot foremost, he agreed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We'd all do that, if we only knew how. And I'm not saying he ought to tell on himself, or that anybody's got any business getting under his guard. I don't hanker to know anybody's faults, or to find out what they've got up their sleeves besides their elbows, unless I have to. Why, I'd as soon ask a fellow to take off his patent leathers to prove he hadn't got bunions, or to unbutton his collar, so I'd be sure it wasn't fastened onto a wart on the back of his neck. Personally I don't want to air anybody's bumps and bunions. It's none of my business. I believe in collars and shoes, myself. _But_ if I see signs, I can believe all by my lonesome they've got 'em, can't I?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Exactly. Your deductions, my dear Sherlock, are really marvelous. A gentleman wears good shoes and clean collars--wherefore, you don't like the expression of his teeth!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Slap me on the wrist some more, if it makes you feel good, he offered brazenly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "For he may--and I sure don't."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Parson, maybe the truth is I'm not crazy over him because people like him get people like me to seeing too plainly that things aren't fairly dealt out. Why, think a minute. That man's got about all a man can have, hasn't he? In himself, I mean. And if there's anything more he fancies, he can reach out and get it, can't he? Well, then, some folks might get to thinking that folks like him--get more than they deserve. And some ... don't get any more than they deserve,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you like him yourself?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I admire him immensely."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Does Madame like him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Madame is a woman, I said, cautiously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Also, you are to remember that if Madame doesn't, she is only one against many. All the rest of them seem to adore him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, the rest of them! grunted John Flint, and scowled."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Huh! If it wasn't for Madame and a few more like her, I'd say women and hens are the two plum-foolest things God has found time to make yet. If you don't believe it, watch them stand around and cackle over the first big dunghill rooster that walks on his wings before them! There are times when I could wring their necks. Dern a fool, anyhow!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Liver, said I, outraged."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You'd better see Dr. Westmoreland about it. When a man talks like you're talking now, it's just one of two things--a liver out of whack, or plain ugly jealousy."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do sound like I've got a grouch, don't I? he admitted, without shame."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well ... maybe it's jealousy, and maybe it's not. The truth is, he rubs me rather raw at times, I don't know just how or why. Maybe it's because he's so sure of himself. He can afford to be sure. There isn't any reason why he shouldn't be. And it hurts my feelings. He looked up at me, shrewdly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He looks all right, and he sounds all right, and maybe he might be all right--but, parson, I've got the notion that somehow he's not!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good heavens! Why, look at what the man has done for the mill folks! Whatever his motives are, the result is right there, isn't it? His works praise him in the gates!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The first road don't give you anything you can put your hands on; except that you think and hope maybe there's that light at the end of it. But, parson, I guess if _you're_ man enough to foot it without a pay-envelope coming in on Saturdays, why, it's plenty good enough for _me_--and Kerry. But while I'm legging it I'll keep a weather eye peeled for crooks. That big blonde he-god is one of 'em. You soak that in your thinking-tank: he's one of 'em!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But look at what he's doing! said I, aghast."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What he's doing is _good_. Even Laurence couldn't ask for more than good results, could he?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't get stung, parson. Why, you take me, myself. Suppose, parson, you'd been on the other side, like Hunter is, when I came along? Suppose you'd never stopped a minute, since you were born, to think of anything or anybody but yourself and your own interests--where would I be to-day, parson? Suppose you had the utility-and-nothing-but-business bug biting you, like that skate's got? Why, what do you suppose you'd have done with little old Slippy? I was considerable good business to look at then, wasn't I? No. You've got to have something in you that will let you take gambler's chances; you've got to be willing to bet the limit and risk your whole kitty on the one little chance that a roan will come out right, if you give him a fair show, just because he _is_ a man; or you can't ever hope to help just when that help's needed. Right there is the difference between the Laurence-and-you sort and the Hunter-men,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Padre! said she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, dear, dear, Padre!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I remembered this place, and I knew--I just knew in my heart--you'd be sitting here, with your breviary in your hand. I knew just how you'd be looking up, every now and then, smiling at things because they're lovely and you love them. So I stole around by the back gate--and there you were! said she, her eyes searching me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Padre, Padre, how more than good to see you again! And I'm sure that's the same cassock I left you wearing. You could wear it a couple of lifetimes without getting a single spot on it--you were always such a delightful old maid, Padre! Where and how is Madame? Who's in the Guest Rooms? How is John Flint since he's come to be a Notable? Has Miss Sally Ruth still got a Figure? How are the judge's cats, and the major's goatee? How is everything and everybody?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did you know you'd have to make room for me, Padre? Well, you will. I picked up and fairly ran away from everything and everybody, because the longing for home grew upon me intolerably. When I was in Europe, and I used to think that three thousand miles of water lay between me and Appleboro, I used to cry at nights. I hope John Flint's butterflies told him what I told them to tell him for me, when they came by! How beautiful the old place looks! Padre, you're _thin_. Why will you work so hard? Why doesn't somebody stop you? And--you're gray, but how perfectly beautiful gray hair is, and how thick and wavy yours is, too! Gray hair was invented and intended for folks with French blood and names. Nobody else can wear it half so gracefully. Now tell me first of all you're glad as glad can be to see me, Padre. Say you haven't forgotten me--and then you can tell me everything else!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mother complained that I should at least have the decency to wire you I was coming--she said I was behaving like a child. But I wanted to walk in unannounced. I was so sure, you see, that there'd be welcome and room for me at the Parish House."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The little room you used to like so much is waiting for you,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Next to yours, all in blue and white, with the Madonna of the Chair over the mantelpiece and the two china shepherdesses under her?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then you shall see the new baby in the bigger Guest Room, and the crippled Polish child in the small one, said my mother."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The baby's name is Smelka Zurawawski, but she's all the better for it--I never saw a nicer baby. And the little boy is so patient and so intelligent, and so pretty! Dr. Westmoreland thinks he can be cured, and we hope to be able to send him on to Johns Hopkins, after we've got him in good shape. Where is your luggage? How long may we keep you? But first of all you shall have tea and some of Clélie's cakes. Clélie has grown horribly vain of her cakes. She expects to make them in heaven some of these days, for the most exclusive of the cherubim and seraphim, and the lordliest of the principalities and powers."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've half a dozen gorgeous Madras head-handkerchiefs for you, Clélie, and a perfect duck of a black frock which you are positively to make up and wear now--you are _not_ to save it up to be buried in!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No'm, Miss Mary Virginia. I won't get buried in it. I'll maybe get married in it,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Married! Clélie! said my mother, in consternation."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you mean to tell me you're planning to leave me, at this time of our lives?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You think I have no mo'sense than to leave you and M'sieu Armand, for some strange nigger? Not me!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who are you going to marry, Clélie? Mary Virginia was delighted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And hadn't you better let me give you another frock? Black is hardly appropriate for a bride."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm not exactly set in my mind who he's going to be yet, Miss Mary Virginia, but he's got to be somebody or other. There's been lots after me, since it got out I'm such a grand cook and save my wages. But I've got a sort of taste for Daddy January. He's old, but he's lively. He's a real ambitious old man like that. Besides, I'm sure of his family,--I always did like Judge Mayne and Mister Laurence, and I do like 'ristocratic connections, Miss Mary Virginia. That big nigger that drives one of the mill trucks had the impudence to tell me he'd give me a church wedding and pay for it himself, but I told him I was raised a Catholic; and what you think he said? He said, 'Oh, well, you've been christened in the face already. We can dip the rest of you easy enough, and then you'll be a real Christian, like me!' I'd just scalded my chickens and was picking them, and I was that mad I upped and let him have that dish pan full of hot water and wet feathers in his face. 'There,' says I, 'you're christened in the face now yourself,' I says. 'You can go and dip the rest of yourself,' says I, 'but see you do it somewhere else besides my kitchen,' I says. I don't think he's crazy to marry me any more, and Daddy January's sort of soothing to my feelings, besides being close to hand. Yes'm, I guess you'd better give me the black dress, Miss Mary Virginia, if you don't mind: it'd come in awful handy if I had to go in mourning."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The black dress it shall be, said Mary Virginia, gaily. She turned to my mother."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And what do you think, p'tite Madame? I've a rare butterfly for John Flint, that an English duke gave me for him! The duke is a collector, too, and he'd gotten some specimens from John Flint. The minute he learned I was from Appleboro he asked me all about him. He said nobody else under the sky can 'do' insects so perfectly, and that nobody except the Lord and old Henri Fabre knew as much about certain of them as John Flint does. Folks thought the duke was taken up with _me_, of course, and I was no end conceited! I hadn't the ghost of an idea you and John Flint were such astonishingly learned folks, Padre! But of course if a duke thought so, I knew I'd better think so, too--and so I did and do! Think of a duke knowing about folks in little Appleboro! And he was such a nice old man, too. Not a bit dukey, after you knew him!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We come in touch with collectors everywhere,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And so John Flint has written some sort of a book, describing the whole life history of something or other, and _you've_ done all the drawings! Isn't it lovely? Why, it sounds like something out of a pleasant book. Mayn't I see collector and collection in the morning? And oh, where's Kerry?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Kerry, said my mother gravely,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, Laurence, said Mary Virginia."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll be so glad to see Laurence again, if only to quarrel with him. Is he just as logical as ever? Has he given the sun a black eye with his sling-shot? My father's always praising Laurence in his letters."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Laurence generally looks in upon us during the evening, if he is not too busy, she said, non-committally."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You see, people are beginning to find out what a really fine lawyer Laurence is, so cases are coming to him steadily."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, it's Mary Virginia!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, Laurence! What a Jack-the-Giant-killer! Mercy, how big the boy's grown!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, Mary Virginia! What a heart-smasher! Mercy, how pretty the girl's grown! he came back, holding her hand and looking down at her with equally frank delight."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When I remember the pigtailed, leggy, tonguey minx that used to fetch me clumps over the head--and then regard this beatific vision--I'm afraid I'll wake up and you'll be gone!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you'll kindly give me back my hand, I might be induced to fetch you another clump or two, just to prove my reality,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "burbled Laurence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lordy, I wish I could tell her how more than good it is to see her again--and to see her as she is!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don't know how much obliged to you I should be, for if he hadn't accidentally learned I was from Appleboro, the town in which dwelt his most greatly prized correspondent--that's what he said, Mr. Flint!--why, I'm sure he wouldn't have noticed me any more than he noticed any other girl--which is, not at all; he being a toplofty and serious Personage addicted to people who do things and write things, particularly things about things that crawl and fly. And if he hadn't noticed me so pointedly--he actually came to see us!--why, I shouldn't have had such a perfectly gorgeous time. It was a great feather in my cap, she crowed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Everybody envied me desperately!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If the little book served you for one minute it was well worth the four years it took me to gather the materials together and write it,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I choose the Book of Obituaries first!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, by the way, Flint! Hunter came by this morning to see Dabney. He is going to give a series of Plain Talks to Workingmen this winter, and of course he wants the _Clarion_ to cover them. What do you think, Padre?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think they will be eminently sensible talks and well worth listening to,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Of course, said Laurence, easily."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where's your father these days, Mary Virginia?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He was at the plantation this morning, but he'll be here to-morrow, because I wired him to come. I've just got to have him for awhile, business or no business."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You did me a favor, then. I want to see him, too."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Anything very particular?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Politics."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How silly! You know very well he never meddles with politics, thank goodness! He thinks he has something better to do."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's just what I want to see him about,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You mentioned a--a Mr. Hunter. Mary Virginia spoke after a short pause."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is the first time I've heard of any Mr. Hunter in Appleboro. Who is Mr. Hunter?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Inglesby's right-bower, and the king-card of the pack,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One of them which set up golden images in high places and make all Israel for to sin, said my mother."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, ... Howard Hunter! said she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What sort of a person may he be? And what is he doing here in Appleboro?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And you'll meet him everywhere, finished my mother."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He's everything a man should be to the naked eye, and I sincerely hope, she added piously,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, said she, as if to herself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There couldn't by any chance be two such men in this one world. That is he, himself. And she lifted her head, and glanced at my mother, with a level and proud look."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think I have met this Mr. Hunter, said she, smiling curiously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And if that is true, your hope is realized, p'tite Madame. I shan't."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have saved enough out of my house-money to meet the expenses--and I am _not_ going to be charitable and do my Christian duty with that money! I'm going to entertain. I really owe that much attention to Mary Virginia. She laid her hand on my arm."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I must see John Flint; go over to his rooms, and bring him back with you."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, said the Butterfly Man cheerfully, unconsciously falling under the spell of this feminine charm,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Flint, said she artlessly, ignoring his questions,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Flint, you've been with Armand and me quite a long time now, have you not?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A couple of lifetimes,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A couple of lifetimes, she mused, still holding his eyes,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am going, said my mother, with apparent irrelevance,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You, with deadly softness."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That jaw tooth must come out at once. Open your mouth wider, please, so I can get a grip!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don't need to look as if I were sentencing you to be hanged before sundown. I am merely inviting you to be present at a very pleasant affair."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Armand: nobody respects Holy Orders more than I do: but there isn't anybody alive going to get born or baptized or married or buried, or anything else, in this parish, on that one afternoon. If they are selfish enough to do it anyhow, why, they can do it without your assistance. You are going to stay home with me: both of you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My _dear_ mother--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Lord! Madame--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am not to be dearmothered nor goodlorded! Heaven knows I ask little enough of either of you. _I_ am at _your_ beck and call, every day in the year. It does seem to me that when I wish to be civilized, and return for once some of the attentions I have received from my friends, I might at least depend upon you two for one little afternoon!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, but Madame--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Particularly, continued my mother, inexorably,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, it is indeed high time to reclaim you! she decided, with the fearsome zeal of the female reformer of a man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You silly man, you! Have you no proper pride? Have you absolutely no idea of your own worth? Well, then, if you haven't, _I_ have. You _shall_ take your place and play your part!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, said Flint, and a gleam of hope irradiated his stricken face,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nonsense! said my mother."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Clothes, indeed! I shouldn't worry about clothes, if I were you, John Flint. You came into this world knowing exactly what to wear and how to wear it. Why, you have an air! That is a very great mercy, let me tell you, and one not always vouchsafed to the deserving, either."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have a cage full of grubs--most awfully particular grubs, and they've got to be watched like a sick kid with the--with the whatever it is sick kids have, anyhow. Why, if I were to leave those grubs one whole afternoon--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You just let me see a single solitary grub have the temerity to hatch himself out that one afternoon, that's all! They have all the rest of their nasty little lives to hatch out!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Besides, there's a boy lives about five miles from here, and he's likely to bring me word any minute about something I simply have to have--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want to see that boy!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are coming to my affair! said she, sternly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you have no regard whatsoever for Mary Virginia and me, you shall have some for yourself; if you have none for yourself, then you shall have some for _us!_"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All right! he gulped, and committed himself irremediably."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I--I'll be right here. You say so, and of course I've got to!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course you will, said my mother, smiling at him charmingly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I knew I had only to present the matter in its proper light, and you'd see it at once. You are so sensible, John Flint. It's such a comfort, when the gentlemen of one's household are so amenable to reason, and so ready to stand by one!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Parson! The Butterfly Man seemed to come out of a trance."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Remember the day you made me let a caterpillar crawl up my hand?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, my son."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Parson, there's a horrible big teaparty crawling up my pants' leg this minute!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Just keep still, I couldn't help laughing at him,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Some of 'em stung like the very devil,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, but those were the hairy fellows. This is a stingless, hairless, afternoon party! It won't hurt you at all!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's walking up my pants' leg, just the same. And I'm scared of it: I'm horrible scared of it! My God! _Me!_ At a jane-junket! ... all the thin ones diked out with doodads where the bones come through ... stoking like sailors on shore leave ... all the fat ones grouchy about their shapes and thinking it's their souls. ..."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, you look here: I can stand 'em single-file, but if I'm made to face 'em in squads, why, you blame nobody but yourself if I foam at the mouth and chase myself in a circle and snap at legs, you hear me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hear you, said I, coldly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You didn't get your orders from _me_. _I_ think your proper place is in the woods. You go tell Madame what you've just told me--or should you like me to warn her that you're subject to rabies?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "For the love of Mike, parson! Have a heart! Haven't I got troubles enough?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are behaving more like an unspanked brat than a grown man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wasn't weaned on teaparties, said he, sulkily,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Whining, I finished for him. And I added, with a reminiscent air:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Rule 1: Can the Squeal!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All right, said he, resignedly. And after an interval of dejected silence, he remarked:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've sort of got a glimmer of how Madame feels about this. She generally knows what's what, Madame does, and I haven't seen her make a mistake yet. If she thinks it's my turn to come on in and take a hand in any game she's playing, why, I guess I'd better play up to her lead the best I know how ... and trust God to slip me over an ace or two when I need them. You tell her she can depend on me not to fall down on her ... and Miss Eustis."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No need to tell Madame what she already knows."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Huh!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What are you laughing at?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Everything, said the Butterfly Man, succinctly, and stood up and shook himself."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And everybody. And me in particular. _Me!_ Oh, good Lord, think of _Me!_"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes; it is high time for that man to know his proper place!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And does he not?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, I suppose so, Armand. In a man's way, though--not a woman's. It's the woman's way that really matters, you see. When women acknowledge that man socially--and I mean it to happen--his light won't be hidden under a bushel basket. He will climb up into his candlestick and shine."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, said I, making room for him beside me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No. I'm glad I was let in for it, he admitted frankly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The same as everybody else."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The same as everybody else, he repeated, soberly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not but what there's lots of difference between folks. And there are things it's good to know, too ... things that women like Madame ... and Miss Mary Virginia Eustis ... expect a man to know, if they're not going to be ashamed of him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I tell you what, father, he remarked, tentatively,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, yes, said I,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But what's written inside wouldn't be any the worse if it was written clearer and better, and the outside was cleaner and on nice paper? And in pen-and-ink, not lead-pencil scratches?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Of course not."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's what I've been thinking lately, father. Somehow, I always did like things to have some class to 'em. I remember how I used to lean against the restaurant windows when I was a kid, and watch the folks inside, how they dressed and acted, and the way the nicest of 'em handled table-tools. They weren't swells, of course, and plenty of 'em made plenty of mistakes--I've seen stunts done with a common table-knife that had the best of the sword-swallowing gents skinned a mile--but I wasn't a fool, and I learned some. Then when I--er--began to make real money (parson, I made it in wads and gobs and lumps those days!) why, I got me the real thing in glad rags from the real thing in tailors, and I used to blow a queen that'd been a swell herself once, to the joint where the gilt-edged bunch eat and show off their clothes and the rest of themselves. My jane looked the part to the life, I had the kale and the clothes and was chesty as a head-waiter, being considerably stuck on yours truly along about then, so we put it over. I had the chance to get hep to the last word in clothes and manners; that's what I'd gone for, though I didn't tell that to the skirt I was buying the eats for. And it was good business, too, for more than once when some precinct bonehead that pipe-dreamed he was a detective was pussy-catting some cold rat-hole, there was me vanbibbering in the white light at the swellest joints in little old New York! Funny, wasn't it? And handy! And I was learning, too--learning things worth good money to know. I saw that the best sort didn't make any noise about anything. They went about their business, whatever it was, easy-easy, same as me in my line. But, parson, though I'd got hep to the outside, and had sense enough to copy what I'd seen, I wasn't wise to the inside difference--the things that make the best what it is, I mean--because I'd never been close enough to find out that there's more to it than looks and duds and manners. It took the Parish House people to soak that into me. People aren't anything but people--but the best are--well, different."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here you are, cuddling that old pirate of a black cat! said she, briskly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I told Madame you'd be mooning about somewhere. Here's some cocoanut cake for you both. Father, Madame's been looking for you. Did you know, she sank her voice to a piercing whisper,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "(Miss Sally Ruth has a free and fetterless tongue)"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes'm, you certainly have a whole lot to be thankful for,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get along with you, you impudent fellow! said she, in high good humor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go and look at that old scamp of an Inglesby making eyes at a girl young enough to be his daughter! I heard this morning that Mr. Hunter has orders to get him, by hook or crook, an invitation to anything Mary Virginia goes to. I declare, it's scandalous! Come to think of it, though, I never saw any man yet, no matter how old or ugly or outrageous he might be, who didn't really believe he stood a perfectly good chance to win the affections of the handsomest young woman alive! If you ask _me_, _I_ think George Inglesby had better join the church and get himself ready to meet his God, instead of gallivanting around girls. If he feels he has to gallivant, why don't he pick out somebody nearer his own age?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why should you make him choose mutton when he wants lamb?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Because he's an old bellwether, that's why! snapped Miss Sally Ruth, scandalized."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wonder at Annabelle Eustis allowing him to come near Mary Virginia, millionaire or no millionaire. I bet you James Eustis will have something to say, if Mary Virginia herself doesn't!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now what in the name of heaven, I wondered,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Suppose we stroll about a bit?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I thought, said my mother, when we approached her,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We were afraid to, said John Flint."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We knew you'd make us go to bed without supper."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did you know, said my mother, hurriedly, for Clélie was making signs to her,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look yonder! And turning, I saw Hunter. He was for the moment alone, and stood with his head bent slightly forward, his bright cold glance intent upon the two persons approaching--Mary Virginia and George Inglesby. His white teeth showed in a smile. I remembered, disagreeably, Flint's"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't like the expression of his teeth: he looks like he'd bite."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He looks like a day coach in July,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My good right hand, Miss Eustis, I assure you! he beamed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I am sure you two need no dissertations upon each other's merits!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "None whatever,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Miss Eustis and I are really old acquaintances! smiled the secretary."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We know each other very well indeed."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Father De Rancé and I, said he, easily,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And I've been looking for you both."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And this, said Inglesby in the sort of voice some people use in addressing strange children to whom they desire to be patronizingly nice and don't know how,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Out came the jovial smile in its full deadliness. The Butterfly Man's lips drew back from his teeth and his eyes narrowed to gimlet points behind his glasses."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have heard of you from Mr. Hunter. And so you collect butterflies! Very interesting and active occupation for any one that--ahem! likes that sort of thing. Very."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He collects obituaries, too, said Hunter, immensely amused."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You mustn't overlook the obituaries, Mr. Inglesby."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Trifling sort of fellow! Idiotic! Very."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Singular taste. Very. Collecting obituaries, eh?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Fascinating things to collect. Very, said the Butterfly Man, sweetly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not to be laughed at. I might add yours to 'em, too, you know, some of these fine days!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dilly, Dilly, come and be killed!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My obituary? he spluttered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure, if it's worth while,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Madame would like to see you, Miss Eustis,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's been a lovely afternoon, and I've enjoyed it all--except Mr. Inglesby. I don't _like_ Mr. Inglesby, Padre. He's amusing enough, I suppose, at times, but one can't seem to get rid of him--he's a perfect Old Man of the Sea, she told us, confidentially."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you can't imagine how detestably youthful he is, Mr. Flint! He told me half a dozen times this afternoon that after all, years don't matter--it is the heart which is young. And he takes cold tubs and is proud of himself, and plays golf--for exercise!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's the use of being a millionaire, if you have a shape like the rainbarrel?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You got the straight tip from Miss Sally Ruth, father, he said, coming out of a brown study."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What do you suppose that piker's trying to crawl out of his cocoon for? He never wanted to caper around Appleboro women before, did he? No. And here he's been muldooning to get some hog-fat off and some wind and waistline back. Now, why? To please himself? _He_ don't have to care a hoot what he looks like. To please some girl? That's more likely. Parson: that girl's Mary Virginia Eustis. He added, through his teeth:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hunter knows. Hunter's steering. And then, with quiet conviction:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They're both as crooked as hell!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But the thing's absurd on the face of it! Why, the mere notion is preposterous!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have seen worse things happen, said he, shortly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But there,--keep your hair on! Things don't happen unless they're slated to happen, so don't let it bother you too much. You go turn in and forget everything except that you need a night's sleep."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "EACH IN HIS OWN COIN"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish you'd look up Petronovich's boy, father, he might tell me, or,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Madame, have a woman-talk with Lovena Smith's girl at the mills, will you? Lovena's a fool, and that girl's up against things."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is the Boss who beats Michael, Meester Fleent, a man volunteered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The Boss, he is much drunk. Karski's woman, she did not like the ways of him in her house, and Michael said, 'I will to send for the police.' So Big Jan beats Michael, and Michael's woman, she hollers like hell."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now! Sen' for those policemens, you!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Meester Fleent! For God's love, save my man, Meester Flint!"
}
]
|
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