Puck Volume 72 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ...Perk could have been right about the advantages of city ife. But, dear me, I/n't wuz too long ago t' think about. Ezra's romance 'as all in the far-away. It was like the memory of a delicate color; the F-nought of a long-ago twilight; the fragrance of the flowers that garlanded a i ttle girl's May basket, when you ran and caught her, and kissed her. I ' Ezra's face was wistful. He shaved it clean and went to New York, )ctober first. 7 Ezra Perk bought a newspaper and looked for rooms to rent. He picked t an advertisement that said: Elegantly furnished front and back rooms, gly or en suite; breakfast optional.. _ The maid showed him one singly that would cost twelve dollars per ek to occupy. At first he thought she meant per month; discovering _mistake, he requested the honor of being shown to a less pretentious ' ' ndoir. He took a top-floor back at $4.50 per week. The maid departed. b' Ezry said Mr. Perk, as he sat on the edge of his narrow bed, yeou tir a-beginnin' t' spend money i Ezra Perk had a sensitive ear. A voice-culture studio was in full blast within thirty feet of Mr. Perk's top-floor back. He didn't mind that; there was an interesting-looking girl there, who often stuck her head out at the swinging window. And she smiled at Mr. Perk. What really worried Mr. Perk, what worried everybody in the vicinity, what worried the pleasant-faced girl who had smiled at Mr. Perk, was a fiend who dwelt in the studio directly under that of the pleasant-faced girl. This person had a piano that was criminal, a touch like a battering-ram, and an insane desire to practise Strengthening exercises from about 8:30 till...