The Century Volume 17 (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. 1878 Excerpt: ... old school that is now the town-house, wrung permission from his reluctant father to go upon the stage, the good schoolmaster, William Payne, stood in tears behind the coulisses, irrepressibly weeping, while the public frantically applauded. He could hardly bear the spectacle of that dazzling first night. "Whether Payne was a duffer or a brick," said the " Owl," with unusual solemnity, after the tourists had left Mr. Mulford's hospitable house, "and whether 'Home, Sweet Home, ' is a consecrated liturgy or a detected bore, I move we give the old boy a chorus. Let's sing Payne's cradle-song around Payne's cradle " But the culpable levity with which they treated poor Payne and his legend, marked as it was by night, could not stand before the evidence accumulated by the daylight. It faded gradually away, and gave place to a vivid interest, an eager and even a fierce partisanship. "Fellows I've found his house " burst out "Polyphemus," triumphantly, in the morning. "That house last night was an infamous pretender." "Where is it to-day, if you please?" said the "Griffin," languidly, stuffing a quinze-centimes edition of "Manon Lescaut" into his pocket. "I like these nomadic monuments. Their perturbations always touch me deeply." So they trooped off to see the genuine home of Howard Payne, the hearth where he was really cradled and dandled and reared. They marched in a body down the village street to a certain distance eastward from the inn, singing in half-voice as they went their jingling balderdash: "Cr-rack snap goes the whip; I whistle and I sing. I sit upon the wagon, I am happy as a king. My horse is always willing; as for me, I'm never sad. There's n...