Two Bites at a Cherry; With Other Tales [Paperback]

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2012

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1894. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... MY COUSIN THE COLONEL. MRS. WESLEY frequently embarrasses me by remarking in the presence of other persons--our intimate friends, of course--"Wesley, you are not brilliant, but you are good." From Mrs. Wesley's outlook, which is that of a very high ideal, there is nothing uncomplimentary in the remark, nothing so intended, but I must confess that I have sometimes felt as if I were paying a rather large price for character. Yet when I reflect on my cousin the colonel, and my own action in the matter, I am ready with gratitude to accept Mrs. Wesley's estimate of me, for if I am not good, I am not anything. Perhaps it is an instance of my lack of brilliancy that I am willing to relate certain facts which strongly tend to substantiate this. My purpose, however, is not to prove either my goodness or my dulness, but to leave some record, even if slight and imperfect, of my only relative. When a family is reduced like ours to a single relative, it is well to make the most of him. One should celebrate him annually, as it were. One morning in the latter part of May, a few weeks after the close of the war of the rebellion, as I was hurrying down Sixth Avenue in pursuit of a heedless horse-car, I ran against a young person whose shabbiness of aspect was all that impressed itself upon me in the instant of collision. At a second glance I saw that this person was clad in the uniform of a Confederate soldier--an officer's uniform originally, for there were signs that certain insignia of rank had been removed from the cuffs and collar of the threadbare coat. He wore a wide-brimmed felt hat of a military fashion, decorated with a tarnished gilt cord, the two ends of which, terminating in acorns, hung down over his nose. His butternut trousers were tucked into the tops of a pair of h...

Product Details

• Paperback: 46 pages
• Publisher: General Books LLC (January 4, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0217412645
• ISBN-13: 978-0217412643
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.4 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

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