"Cather, Willa - O Pioneers!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cather Willa Sibert)

innocently and foolishly. She stabbed him with
a glance of Amazonian fierceness and drew in
her lower lip--most unnecessary severity. It
gave the little clothing drummer such a start
that he actually let his cigar fall to the side-
walk and went off weakly in the teeth of the
wind to the saloon. His hand was still unsteady
when he took his glass from the bartender. His
feeble flirtatious instincts had been crushed
before, but never so mercilessly. He felt cheap
and ill-used, as if some one had taken advan-
tage of him. When a drummer had been knock-
ing about in little drab towns and crawling
across the wintry country in dirty smoking-
cars, was he to be blamed if, when he chanced
upon a fine human creature, he suddenly wished
himself more of a man?

While the little drummer was drinking to
recover his nerve, Alexandra hurried to the
drug store as the most likely place to find Carl
Linstrum. There he was, turning over a port-
folio of chromo "studies" which the druggist
sold to the Hanover women who did china-
painting. Alexandra explained her predica-
ment, and the boy followed her to the corner,
where Emil still sat by the pole.

"I'll have to go up after her, Alexandra. I
think at the depot they have some spikes I can
strap on my feet. Wait a minute." Carl thrust
his hands into his pockets, lowered his head,
and darted up the street against the north
wind. He was a tall boy of fifteen, slight and
narrow-chested. When he came back with the
spikes, Alexandra asked him what he had done
with his overcoat.

"I left it in the drug store. I couldn't climb
in it, anyhow. Catch me if I fall, Emil," he
called back as he began his ascent. Alexandra
watched him anxiously; the cold was bitter
enough on the ground. The kitten would not
budge an inch. Carl had to go to the very top
of the pole, and then had some difficulty in tear-
ing her from her hold. When he reached the
ground, he handed the cat to her tearful little
master. "Now go into the store with her, Emil,
and get warm." He opened the door for the
child. "Wait a minute, Alexandra. Why can't