The Broad Highway | Page 8

and twig, from every blade of grass,
there hung a flashing jewel.
With the mists my doubts of the future vanished too, and I strode upon
my way, a very god, king of my destiny, walking through a tribute
world where feathered songsters carolled for me and blossoming
flowers wafted sweet perfume upon my path. So I went on gayly down
the hill, rejoicing that I was alive.
In the knapsack at my back I had stowed a few clothes, the strongest
and plainest I possessed, together with a shirt, some half-dozen favorite
books, and my translation of Brantome; Quintilian and Petronius I had
left with Mr. Grainger, who had promised to send them to a publisher, a
friend of his, and in my pocket was my uncle George's legacy,--namely,
ten guineas in gold. And, as I walked, I began to compute how long
such a sum might be made to last a man. By practising the strictest
economy, I thought I might manage well enough on two shillings a day,
and this left me some hundred odd days in which to find some means of
livelihood, and if a man could not suit himself in such time, then
(thought I) he must be a fool indeed.
Thus, my thoughts caught something of the glory of the bright sky
above and the smiling earth about me, as I strode along that "Broad
Highway" which was to lead me I knew not whither, yet where disaster
was already lying in wait for me--as you shall hear.
CHAPTER III

CONCERNS ITSELF MAINLY WITH A HAT
As the day advanced, the sun beat down with an ever-increasing heat,
and what with this and the dust I presently grew very thirsty; wherefore,
as I went, I must needs conjure up tantalizing visions of ale--of ale that
foamed gloriously in tankards, that sparkled in glasses, and gurgled
deliciously from the spouts of earthen pitchers, and I began to look
about me for some inn where these visions might be realized and my
burning thirst nobly quenched (as such a thirst deserved to be). On I
went, through this beautiful land of Kent, past tree and hedge and
smiling meadow, by hill and dale and sloping upland, while ever the
sun grew hotter, the winding road the dustier, and my mighty thirst the
mightier.
At length, reaching the brow of a hill, I espied a small inn or hedge
tavern that stood back from the glare of the road, seeming to nestle in
the shade of a great tree, and joyfully I hastened toward it.
As I approached I heard loud voices, raised as though in altercation,
and a hat came hurtling through the open doorway and, bounding into
the road, rolled over and over to my very feet. And, looking down at it,
I saw that it was a very ill-used hat, frayed and worn, dented of crown
and broken of brim, yet beneath its sordid shabbiness there lurked the
dim semblance of what it had once been, for, in the scratched and
tarnished buckle, in the jaunty curl of the brim, it still preserved a
certain pitiful air of rakishness; wherefore, I stooped, and, picking it up,
began to brush the dust from it as well as I might.
I was thus engaged when there arose a sudden bull-like roar and,
glancing up, I beheld a man who reeled backwards out of the inn and
who, after staggering a yard or so, thudded down into the road and so
lay, staring vacantly up at the sky. Before I could reach him, however,
he got upon his legs and, crossing unsteadily to the tree I have
mentioned, leaned there, and I saw there was much blood upon his face
which he essayed to wipe away with the cuff of his coat. Now, upon his
whole person, from the crown of his unkempt head down to his broken,
dusty boots, there yet clung that air of jaunty, devil-may-care
rakishness which I had seen, and pitied in his hat.

Observing, as I came up, how heavily he leaned against the tree, and
noting the extreme pallor of his face and the blank gaze of his sunken
eyes, I touched him upon the shoulder.
"Sir, I trust you are not hurt?" said I.
"Thank you," he answered, his glance still wandering, "not in the
least--assure you--merely tap on the nose, sir--unpleasant--damnably,
but no more, no more."
"I think," said I, holding out the battered hat, "I think this is yours?"
His eye encountering it in due time, he reached out his hand somewhat
fumblingly, and took it from me with a slight movement of the head
and shoulders that might have been a bow.
"Thank you--yes--should know it among a thousand," said he dreamily,
"an old friend and a tried--a