| | 161 | Author: | Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, 1858-1932 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The House Behind the Cedars  | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | TIME touches all things with destroying hand;
and if he seem now and then to bestow the bloom
of youth, the sap of spring, it is but a brief
mockery, to be surely and swiftly followed by the
wrinkles of old age, the dry leaves and bare branches
of winter. And yet there are places where Time
seems to linger lovingly long after youth has
departed, and to which he seems loath to bring the
evil day. Who has not known some even-tempered
old man or woman who seemed to have
drunk of the fountain of youth? Who has not
seen somewhere an old town that, having long
since ceased to grow, yet held its own without
perceptible decline?
You may think it
strange that I should address you after what has
passed between us; but learning from my mother
of your presence in the neighborhood, I am
constrained to believe that you do not find my
proximity embarrassing, and I cannot resist the wish
to meet you at least once more, and talk over the
circumstances of our former friendship. From a
practical point of view this may seem superfluous,
as the matter has been definitely settled. I have
no desire to find fault with you; on the contrary,
I wish to set myself right with regard to my own
actions, and to assure you of my good wishes. In
other words, since we must part, I would rather we
parted friends than enemies. If nature and society
—or Fate, to put it another way—have decreed
that we cannot live together, it is nevertheless
possible that we may carry into the future a pleasant
though somewhat sad memory of a past friendship.
Will you not grant me one interview? I
appreciate the difficulty of arranging it; I have
found it almost as hard to communicate with you
by letter. I will suit myself to your convenience
and meet you at any time and place you may
designate. Please answer by bearer, who I think is
trustworthy, and believe me, whatever your answer may be, Dear Sir,—I have requested your messenger
to say that I will answer your letter by mail, which
I shall now proceed to do. I assure you that
I was entirely ignorant of your residence in this
neighborhood, or it would have been the last place
on earth in which I should have set foot. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 162 | Author: | Chekhov, Anton | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Mire | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | GRACEFULLY swaying in the saddle, a young man wearing the snow-white
tunic of an officer rode into the great yard of the vodka distillery
belonging to the heirs of M. E. Rothstein. The sun smiled carelessly on
the lieutenant's little stars, on the white trunks of the birch-trees,
on the heaps of broken glass scattered here and there in the yard. The
radiant, vigorous beauty of a summer day lay over everything, and
nothing hindered the snappy young green leaves from dancing gaily and
winking at the clear blue sky. Even the dirty and soot-begrimed
appearance of the bricksheds and the stifling fumes of the distillery
did not spoil the general good impression. The lieutenant sprang gaily
out of the saddle, handed over his horse to a man who ran up, and
stroking with his finger his delicate black moustaches, went in at the
front door. On the top step of the old but light and softly carpeted
staircase he was met by a maidservant with a haughty, not very youthful
face. The lieutenant gave her his card without speaking. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 166 | Author: | Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, 1858-1932 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Partners | | | | Published: | 1999 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | AMONG the human flotsam and jetsam that followed in the wake of the
Civil War, there drifted into a certain Southern town, shortly after the
surrender, two young colored men, named respectively William Cain and
Rufus Green. They had made each other's acquaintance in a refugee camp
attached to an army cantonment, and when the soldiers went away, William
and Rufus were thrown upon their own resources. They were fast friends,
and discussed with each other the subject of their future. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 168 | Author: | Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, 1858-1932 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The March of Progress | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE colored people of Patesville had at length gained the object
they had for a long time been seeking—the appointment of a
committee of themselves to manage the colored schools of the town.
They had argued, with some show of reason, that they were most
interested in the education of their own children, and in a
position to know, better than any committee of white men could,
what was best for their children's needs. The appointments had
been made by the county commissioners during the latter part of the
summer, and a week later a meeting was called for the purpose of
electing a teacher to take charge of the grammar school at the
beginning of the fall term. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 169 | Author: | Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, 1858-1932 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Po' Sandy | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ON the northeast corner of my vineyard in central North Carolina,
and fronting on the Lumberton plank-road, there stood a small frame
house, of the simplest construction. It was built of pine lumber, and
contained but one room, to which one window gave light and one door
admission. Its weather-beaten sides revealed a virgin innocence of paint.
Against one end of the house, and occupying half its width, there stood a
huge brick chimney: the crumbling mortar had left large cracks between
the bricks; the bricks themselves had begun to scale off in large flakes,
leaving the chimney sprinkled with unsightly blotches. These evidences
of decay were but partially concealed by a creeping vine, which extended
its slender branches hither and thither in an ambitious but futile attempt
to cover the whole chimney. The wooden shutter, which had once
protected the unglazed window, had fallen from its hinges, and lay
rotting in the rank grass and jimson-weeds beneath. This building, I
learned when I bought the place, had been used as a school-house for
several years prior to the breaking out of the war, since which time it
had remained unoccupied, save when some stray cow or vagrant hog had
sought shelter within its walls from the chill rains and nipping winds of
winter. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 173 | Author: | Chopin, Kate | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Ozeme's Holiday | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | OZÈME often wondered why there was not a special dispensation
of providence to do away with the necessity for work. There seemed
to him so much created for man's enjoyment in this world, and so
little time and opportunity to profit by it. To sit and do nothing
but breathe was already a pleasure to Ozème; but to sit in the
company of a few choice companions, including a sprinkling of
ladies, was even a greater delight; and the joy which a day's
hunting or fishing or picnicking afforded him is hardly to be
described. Yet he was by no means indolent. He worked faithfully
on the plantation the whole year long, in a sort of methodical way;
but when the time came around for his annual week's holiday, there
was no holding him back. It was often decidedly inconvenient for
the planter that Ozème usually chose to take his holiday during
some very busy season of the year. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 176 | Author: | Clinton, William Jefferson | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Inaugural Presidential Address | | | | Published: | 1993 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | My fellow citizens, today we celebrate the mystery of American
renewal. This ceremony is held in the depth of winter, but by the
words we speak and the faces we show the world, we force the
spring. A spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy, that
brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent America. When
our founders boldly declared America's independence to the world,
and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew that America, to
endure, would have to change. Not change for change sake, but
change to preserve America's ideals: life, liberty, the pursuit
of happiness. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 177 | Author: | Clouston, J. Storer | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Count Bunker | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IT is only with the politest affectation of interest,
as a rule, that English Society learns the arrival
in its midst of an ordinary Continental nobleman;
but the announcement that the Baron Rudolph
von Blitzenberg had been appointed attaché to the German
embassy at the Court of St. James was unquestionably
received with a certain flutter of excitement. That
his estates were as vast as an average English county,
and his ancestry among the noblest in Europe, would
not alone perhaps have arrested the attention of the
paragraphists, since acres and forefathers of foreign
extraction are rightly regarded as conferring at the most a
claim merely to toleration. But in addition to these he
possessed a charming English wife, belonging to one of
the most distinguished families in the peerage (the Grillyers
of Monkton-Grillyer), and had further demonstrated
his judgment by purchasing the winner of the
last year's Derby, with a view to improving the horse-flesh of his native land. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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