310
PART~SAN
REVIEW
you don't go any faster, I'm going to have to leave you and go on
by myself.''
I was afraid he would really do that, and I walked with the
longest and quickest strides I could manage. George began
to
draw
me up by nasty spots and set me upon my feet again where the
space was flat and clear. The sun bore down more and more strongly,
and I remembered the time George held a magnifying-glass over
my hand and let the sun glint through until I had a terrible pain
and a wisp of smoke rose up, but George didn't release me before
Mamma came: he just pressed me down on my hammock there, in
our back-yard, while I suffered from that magnifying-glass set above
me in a merciless poise.
I was pricked by the scraggy leaves of a bush. George forced
his
fingers deeper into my flesh. I would surely have been glad to be
with Mamma, but I had dwelt upon the lake for many months,
with great desire, and now, seeing it, I was willing to accept any
exhaustion and any difficulty to reach it; and I thought George
might row me, and I wanted that very much.
"This is the last chance I'm giving you," said George. "Are you
going to hurry, or aren't you? Get going, damn
it,"
he said, squeezing
my shoulders.
"I'll tell Mamma you're using dirty language," I said.
"I rlon't give a damn. Come on!"
I succeeded in walking slightly quicker, but my toes very often
snagged and tripped, and George had to be careful that I did not
fall. I turned my head to rub my cheek on George's stomach, getting
rid of a fly that was too far down for my tongue to chase it; I felt
how tense his muscles were. George once held his breath and, for
the bet of a nickel, allowed another boy to hit him in his stomach;
George had smiled after the blow, and then stood on his head for a
minute, and refused the nickel. He intended to become an athlete.
But Daddy said he wasn't clever, and I liked to know I calculated
small sums better than George.
He finally burst out:
"I'm leaving you here, damn you! You're just stalling to look
at those cows. I'm leaving you here." He didn't move, though; but
I could tell how furious he had become.
"Please, George," I said. "I'll go faster. I promise I will. I'll be
there in a minute. It's not late yet. Mamma'd be awful mad at you."
He thought for a short while, as though he were afraid of
his
