Johnnie; A Memory of Boyhood (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1903 Excerpt: ... XVI THE RALLY It was on a Saturday afternoon late in October that Johnnie went into the woods in a halffanciful search for his destined lone retreat. Whether under guidance of his dreaming consciousness, or directed by the unerring hand of fate, it happened that his steps led him to the very spot where he and Mabel had met some months before. He was not slow to recognize his surroundings, and, racked by contending emotions, he threw himself on the ground to meditate. Reclining listlessly on his elbow, he gazed about. Here was where the snake had been; over there was where Mabel had stood. The screen of hazel through which he had peered still inclosed the cherished nook. The same trees arched above, the same grass formed its carpet. And yet nothing was the same after all. Already time's most ruthless token, the yellow blight of autumn, was becoming visible everywhere. Bleak winds came and went mournfully through the tree-tops, filling the forest with the clatter of descending nuts and the flutter of falling leaves, and the grass was harsh and withered, retaining scarcely more of its former color than the flecks of sodden sky above. To Johnnie this universal fading of things seemed most fitting, and his own breast heaved with sighs with every moan of the forest. He was, indeed, the very embodiment of the autumnal spirit. The morbid melancholy of boyhood is a painful thing. The height of sentimental spirituality, to which lovelorn youth oftentimes ascends, would be sublime, were it not so ridiculous. In the midst of his maunderings Johnnie became aware of a presence, and, starting up in confusion, whom should he behold but the fair Mabel herself, standing with downcast eyes and folded hands before him "Howd'y, John," she said, demurely stepping forward. "Howd...