The Angel of the Odd by Edgar Allen Poe. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Angel of the Odd at Extravaganza. It was a chilly November afternoon. I had just consummated an unusually hearty dinner, of which the dispeptic truffle formed not the least important item, and was sitting alone in the dining room, with my feet upon the fender, and at my elbow a small table which I had rolled up to the fire, and upon which were some apologies for dessert, with some miscellaneous bottles of wine, spirit, and liqueur. In the morning I had been reading Glover's Leonidas, Wilkie's Epigoniad, LaMartine's Pilgrimage, Barlow's Columbiaad, Tuckerman's Sifli, and Griswold's Curiosity.  I made effort to arouse myself by aid of frequent lafite, and, all failing, I betook myself to a stray newspaper in despair. Having carefully perused the column of houses to let, and the column of dogs lost, and then the two columns of wives and apprentices have run away, I attacked with great resolution the editorial matter, and, reading it from beginning to end, without understanding a syllable, conceived the possibility of it being Chinese, and so re-read it from the end to the beginning, but with no more satisfactory result. I was about throwing away, in disgust, this folio of four pages' happy work which not even critics criticize. When I felt my attention somewhat aroused by the paragraph which follows, the avenues to death are numerous and strange. A London paper mentions the decease of a person from a singular cause. He was playing at Puff the Dart, which is played with a long needle inserted in some worsted, and blown at a target through a tin tube. He placed the needle at the wrong end of the tube, and, drawing his breath strongly to Puff the Dart forward with force, drew the needle into his throat. It entered the lungs, and in a few days killed him. Upon seeing this, I fell into a great rage, without exactly knowing why. This thing, I exclaimed, is a contemptible falsehood, a poor hoax, the lease of the invention of some pitiable penny-liner, of some wretched concoctor of accidents and cocaine. These fellows, knowing the extravagant gullibility of the age, set their wits to work in the imagination of improbable possibilities, of odd accidents as they term them. But to a reflecting intellect, like mine I added in parentheses, putting my forefinger unconsciously to the side of my nose, to a contemplative understanding, such as myself possess, it seems evident at once that the marvelous increase of late in these odd accidents is by far the oddest accident of all. For my own part, I intend to believe nothing henceforward that has anything of the singular about it. Mein Gott denn, wat a furio beast for that! replied one of the most remarkable voices I had ever heard. At first I took it for a rumbling in my ears, such as a man sometimes experiences when getting very drunk. But upon second thought, I considered the sound as more nearly resembling that which proceeds from an empty barrel beaten with a big stick. And, in fact, this I should have concluded it to be, but for the articulation of the syllables and words. I am by noon means naturally nervous, and the very few glasses of lafite which I had sipped served to embolden me no little, so that I felt nothing of trepidation, but merely uplifted my eyes with a leisurely movement and looked carefully around the room for the intruder. I could not, however, perceive anyone at all. Humph! resumed the voice as I continued my survey. You must be so drunk as to pig, then, for not see me as I see here at your side. Hereupon I bethought me of looking immediately before my nose, and there, sure enough, confronting me at the table sat a personage nondescript, though not altogether indescribable. His body was a wine pipe, or a rum punchin, or something of that character, and had a truly falstaffian air. In its nether extremity were inserted two kegs, which seemed to answer all the purposes of legs. For arms there dangled from the upper portion of the carcass two tolerably long bottles, with the necks outward for hands. All the head that I saw the monster possessed of was one of those hessian canteens, which resemble a large snuff box with a hole in the middle of the lid. This canteen, with a funnel on top, like a cavalier lid slouched over the eyes, was set on edge upon the punchin, with the hole toward myself, and through this hole, which seemed puckered up like the mouth of very precise old maid, the creature was emitting certain rumbling and grumbling noises which he evidently intended for intelligible talk. I say, said he, you must be drunk as the pig, for sit there, and not see me sit here, and I say do you must be piggerful as the goose, for to disbelieve what is print in the print. This is truth, that it is, every word of it. Who are you, pray, said I, with much dignity, although somewhat puzzled. How did you get here? And what is it you were talking about? As for how I come here, replied the figure, that is none of your peaseness, and as for what I be talking about, I be talk about what I think proper, and as for who I be, by that is the very thing I come here for to let you see for yourself.  Hee hee hee, said the fellow. That you can't do. Can't do, said I, what do you mean? I can't do what.  Upon this I made an effort to get up, in order to put my threat into execution, but the ruffian just reached across the table very deliberately and hitting me a tap on the forehead with the neck of one of the long bottles knocked me back into the armchair from which I had half a reason. I was utterly astounded, and for a moment was quite at a loss to what to do. In the meantime, he continued his talk. You see, said he, it is tepes for zeet still, and now you shall know who I be. Look at me, see, I am the angel of the odd. And odd enough too, I ventured to reply, but I was always under the impression that an angel had wings. The wing, he tried, highly incensed. What I be do with the wing? My God, do you take me for a chicken? No, oh no, I replied, much alarmed. You are no chicken, certainly not.  It is the chicken of the wing, or the owl of the wing, or the imp of the wing, or the ebbed tooth of the wing. The angel ebbed, not the wing, and I am the angel of the odd. And your business with me at present is... My business, ejaculated the thing, vaivate is a low-bred puppy, you must be, vorto ask a gentleman with an angel about his business. This language was rather more than I could bear, even from an angel. So, plucking up courage, I seized a salt cellar which lay within reach, and hurled it at the head of the intruder. Either he dodged, however, or my aim was inaccurate, for all I accomplished was the demolition of the crystal, which protected the dial of the clock upon the mantelpiece. As for the angel, he evinced his sense of my assault by giving me two or three hard consecutive wraps upon my forehead as before. These reduced me at once to submission, and I am almost ashamed to confess that either through pain or vexation there came a few tears to my eyes. Mein Gott, said the angel of the odd, apparently very much softened at my distress, Mein Gott, the man is either very drunk or very sorry. You must not drink it so straw, you must put the water in the wine. Here, drink this, like a good fella, and don't grind now, don't. Hereupon, the intro of the odd replenished my goblet, which was about a third full of port, with a colorless fluid that he poured from one of his hand-bottles. I observed that these bottles had labels around their necks, and that these labels were inscribed by Kirchenwasser. The considerable kindness of the angel modified me in no little measure, and aided by the water which he diluted in my port more than once. I at length regained sufficient temper to listen to his very extraordinary discourse. I cannot pretend to recount all that he told me, but I gleaned from what he said that he was the genius who presided over the contra-toms of mankind and whose business it was to bring about the odd accidents which are continually astonishing the skeptic. Once or twice, upon my venturing to express my total incredulity in respect to his pretensions, he grew very angry indeed so that at length I considered the wiser policy to say nothing at all and let him have his own way.  But by and by, the angel suddenly construed this behavior of mine into contempt. He arose in a terrible passion, slouched his funnel down over his eyes, swore a vast oath, uttered a threat of some character which I did not precisely comprehend and finally made me a low bow and departed, wishing me in the language of the Archbishop in Gilblass, Bercoupe de Bonheur est une pure plus de bon sens. His departure afforded me relief. The very few glasses of lafite that I had sipped had the effect of rendering me drowsy and I felt inclined to have a nap of some fifteen or twenty minutes, as is my custom after dinner. At six I had an appointment of consequence which was quite indispensable that I should keep. The policy of insurance for my dwelling house had expired the day before and, some dispute having arisen, it was agreed that at six I should meet the board of directors at the company and settle the terms of a renewal. I was pressing upward at the clock on the mantelpiece for I felt too drowsy to take out my watch. I had the pleasure to find that I still had twenty-five minutes to spare. It was half past five I could easily walk to the insurance office in five minutes and my usual siestas had never known to exceed five and twenty. I felt sufficiently safe therefore and composed myself to my slumber with forthwith. Having completed them to my satisfaction I again looked toward the timepiece to believe in the possibility of other accidents when I found that instead of my ordinary fifteen or twenty minutes I had been dozing only three for it still wanted seven and twenty of the appointed hour. I betook myself again to my nap and at length a second time awoke when to my utter amazement it still wanted twenty-seven minutes of six. I jumped up to examine the clock and found that it had ceased running. My watch informed me that it was half past seven and two hours I was too late for my appointment. It will make no difference I said. I can call at the office in the morning and apologize. In the meantime what can be the matter with the clock? Upon examining I discovered that one of the raisin stems which I had been flipping around the room during the discourse of the angel of the odd had flown through the fractured crystal and lodging singularly enough in the keyhole with an end projecting outward had thus arrested the revolution of the minute hand. Ah! said I. I see how it is. This thing speaks for itself. A natural accident a natural accident such as will happen now and then. I gave the matter no further consideration and at my usual hour retired to bed. Here having placed a candle upon a reading stand at the bed head and having made an attempt to peruse some pages of the omnipresence of the deity I unfortunately fell asleep in less than twenty seconds leaving the light burning as it was. My dreams were terrifically disturbed by visions of the angel of the odd. Me thought he stood at the foot of the couch drew aside the curtains and in the hollow detestable tones of a rum punchin menaced me with bitterest vengeance for the contempt with which I had treated him. He concluded a long harangue by taking off his funnel cap inserting the tube into my gullet and thus deluging me with an ocean of Cushion water which he poured into continuous flood from one of the long neck bottles and then stood him in sediment arm. My agony was at length insufferable and I awoke just in time to perceive that a rat had ran off with a lighted candle from the stand but not in season to prevent his making his escape with it through the hole. Very soon a strong suffocating odor assailed my nostrils. The house I clearly perceived was on fire. In a few minutes the blaze broke forth with violence and in an incredibly brief period the entire building was wrapped in flames. All the egress from my chamber except through a window was cut off. The crowd however quickly procured and raised a long ladder. By means of this I was descending rapidly and in apparent safety when a huge hog about whose rotund stomach and indeed about whose whole air and physiognomy there was something which reminded me of the Angel of the Odd. When this hog I say which hitherto had been quietly slumbering in the mud took it suddenly into his head that his left shoulder needed scratching and could find no more convenient rubbing post than that was afforded by the foot of the ladder. In an instant I was precipitated and had the misfortune to fracture my arm.  There was a rich widow disconsolate from the loss of her seventh husband and to her winded spirit I offered the balm of my vows. She yielded a reluctant consent to my prayers. I knelt at her feet in gratitude and adoration. She blushed and bowed her luxuriant tresses into close contact with those supplied me temporarily by grand jean. I know not how the entanglement took place but so it was. I arose with a shining paint wigless. She in disdain half bathed half buried in alien hair. Thus ended my hopes of the widow by an accident which could not have been anticipated to be sure but which the natural sequence of events had brought about. Without despairing however I undertook the siege of a less implacable heart. The fates were again propitious for a brief period but again a trivial incident interfered meaning my betrothed in an avenue thronged with the elite of the city I was hastening to greet her with one of my best considered bows when a small particle of some foreign matter lodging in the corner of my eye rendered me for the moment completely blind. Before I could recover my sight the lady of my love had disappeared irreparably affronted at what she chose to consider my premeditated rudeness in passing by her ungreeded. While I stood bewildered at the suddenness of this incident which might have happened nevertheless under the sun, while I still continued incapable of sight I was accosted by the angel of the odd who proffered me his aid with the civility which I had no reason to expect. He examined my disordered eye and with much gentleness and skill informed me that I had a drop in it and, whatever a drop was took it out and afforded me relief. I considered it high time to die since fortune had so determined to persecute me and accordingly made my way to the nearest river. Here, divesting myself of my clothes for there is no reason where we cannot die as we were born, I threw myself headlong into the current the sole witness of my fate being a solitary crow that had been seduced into the eating of brandy saturated corn and so had staggered away from its fellows. No sooner had I entered the water than this bird took into its head to fly away with the most indispensable portion of my apparel. Postponing therefore for the present of my suicidal design, I just slipped my nether extremities into the sleeves of my coat and took myself to a pursuit of the felon with all the nimbleness which the case required and the circumstances would admit. But my evil destiny attended me still. As I ran at full speed with my nose up in the atmosphere an intent only upon the perloyner of my property I suddenly perceived that my feet rested no longer on terra firma. The fact is I had thrown myself over a precipice and inevitably have been dashed pieces but for my good fortune in grasping the end of a long guide row which descended from a passing balloon. As soon as I sufficiently recovered my senses to comprehend the terrific predicament in which I stood or rather hung I exerted all the power of my lungs to make that predicament known to the iranaut overhead. But for a long time I exerted myself in vain. Either the fool could not or the villain would not perceive me. Meantime the machine rapidly soared while my strength even more rapidly failed. I was soon upon the point of resigning myself to my fate and dropping quietly to the sea when my spirits were suddenly revived by hearing a hollow voice from above which seemed to be lazily humming an opera air. Looking up I perceived the angel of the odd. He was leaning with his arms folded over the rim of the car and with a pipe in his mouth at which he puffed leisurely himself in the universe. I was much too exhausted to speak so I merely regarded him with an imploring air. For several minutes although he looked me full in the face he said nothing. At length removing carefully his mere charm from the right to the left corner of his mouth he condescended to speak. Who be you? he asked. And what the two for you be to dare? To this piece of impudence cruelty and affectation I could reply only by ejaculating the monosyllable help. Help! echoed the ruffian, not I. That is the pose. Help yourself and be damned. With these words he let fall a heavy bottle of Kirchenwasser which dropping precisely on the crown of my head caused me to imagine that my brains were entirely knocked out. Impressed with this idea I was about to relinquish my hold and give up the ghost with a good grace. When I was arrested by the cry of the angel all done he said Don't be into Uri, don't. Will you protect the other bottle or have you got the sober yet and combed your senses? I made haste there upon to nod my head twice once in the negative meaning thereby that I would prefer not taking the other bottle at present and once in the affirmative intending thus to imply that I was sober and had positive to come to my senses. By these means I somewhat softened the angel. Would you believe then he inquired, at the last you believe then in the possibility of the odd I again nodded my head in the center. Would you ask belief in me the angel of the odd? I nodded again. Would you acknowledge that you be the blind drunk and the fool? I nodded once more. Put your right hand into your left hand breeches pocket then of your full submission onto the angel of the odd. This thing, for very obvious reasons I found it quite impossible to do. In the first place my left arm had been broken in my fault in the latter and therefore had I let go of my hold with the right hand I must have let go altogether. In the second place I could have no breeches until I came across the crow. I was therefore obliged much to my regret to shake my head in the negative intending thus to give the angel to understand that I found it inconvenient just at that moment to comply with his very reasonable demand. No sooner however had I ceased shaking my head then God to the two for the then! roared the angel of the odd. In pronouncing these words he drew a sharp knife across the guide rope by which I was suspended and as we then happened to be precisely over my own house which, during my perignations and surprisingly rebuilt it so occurred that I tumbled headlong down the ample chimney at a lit upon the dining room hearth. Upon coming to my senses for the fall had very thoroughly stunned me I found it about four o'clock in the morning. I lay outstretched where I had fallen from the balloon.  Thus, he avenged himself the angel of the odd. End of The Angel of the Odd by Edgar Allan Poe Aunt Cynthia's Persian Cat by L. M. Montgomery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Missy Guangzhou, China Aunt Cynthia's Persian Cat from Further Chronicles of Avonlea Max always blesses the animal when it is referred to and I don't deny that things have worked together for good after all. But when I think of the anguish of mind which Isme and I underwent on account of that abominable cat it is not a blessing that arises uppermost in my thoughts. I never was fond of cats although I admit they are well enough in their place and I can worry along comfortably with a nice matronly old tabby who can take care of herself and be of some use in the world. As for Isme, she hates cats and always did. But Aunt Cynthia, who adored them never could bring herself to understand that anyone could possibly dislike them. She firmly believed that Isme and I really liked cats deep down in our hearts but that owing to some perverse twist in our moral natures we would not own up to it but willfully persisted in declaring we didn't. Of all cats I loathed that white Persian cat of Aunt Cynthia's and indeed as we always suspected and finally proved Aunt herself looked upon the creature with more pride than affection. Aunt Cynthia, who had seen ten times the comfort in a good common puss that she did in that spoiled beauty but a Persian cat with a recorded pedigree and a market value of one hundred dollars tickled Aunt Cynthia's pride of possession to such an extent that she deluded herself into believing that the animal really was the apple of her eye. It had been presented to her when a kitten by a missionary nephew who had brought it all the way home from Persia and for the next three years Aunt Cynthia's household existed in that cat hand and foot. It was snow-white with a bluish-gray spot on the tip of its tail and it was blue-eyed and deaf and delicate. Aunt Cynthia was always worrying lest it should take hold and die. Ismae and I used to wish that it would we were so tired of hearing about it and its whims but we did not say so to Aunt Cynthia she would probably have never spoken to us again and there was no wisdom in offending Aunt Cynthia. When you have an unencumbered Aunt or a fake account it is just as well to keep on good terms with her if you can. Besides, we really liked Aunt Cynthia very much at times. Aunt Cynthia was one of those rather exasperating people who nag at and find fault with you until you think you're justified in hating them and who then turn round and do something really so nice and kind for you that you feel as if you were compelled to love them dutifully instead. So we listened meekly when she and if it was wicked of us to wish for the latter's decease well we were well punished for it later on. One day in November Aunt Cynthia came sailing out to Spencervale she really came in a feyton drawn by a fat grey pony but somehow Aunt Cynthia always gave you the impression of a full rigged ship coming gallantly on before a favourable wind. That was a Jonah day for us all through everything had gone wrong Ismae had spilled grease on her velvet coat and the fit of the new blouse I was making was hopelessly askew and the kitchen stove smoked and the bread was sour. Moreover, Hulda Jane Keeson our tried and trusted old family nurse and cook and general boss had what she called the realgy in her shoulder and though Hulda Jane is as good an old creature as ever lived when she has the realgy other people who are in the house want to get out of it and if they can't feel about as comfortable as St. Lawrence on his gridiron and on top of this came his call and request Dear me said Aunt Cynthia sniffing don't I smell smoke you girls must manage your range very badly mine never smokes but it is no more than one might expect when two girls try to keep house without a man about the place we get along very well without a man about the place I said loftily Max hadn't been in for four whole days and though nobody wanted to see him particularly I couldn't help wondering why men are nuisances I dare say you would like to pretend you think so said Aunt Cynthia aggravatingly but no woman ever does really think so you know I imagine that pretty Anne Shirley who is visiting Ella Kimball doesn't I saw her and Dr Irving out walking this afternoon looking very well satisfied with themselves if you dilly-dally much longer Sue you will let Max slip through your fingers yet that was a tactful thing to say to me I used Max Irving so often that I'd lost count I was furious and so I smiled most sweetly on my maddening aunt dear aunt how amusing of you I said smoothly you talk as if I wanted Max so you do said Aunt Cynthia if so why should I have refused him time and again I asked smilingly right well Aunt Cynthia knew I had Max always told her goodness alone knows why said Aunt Cynthia but you may do it once too often and find yourself taken at your word there's something very fascinating about this Anne Shirley indeed there is I assented she has the loveliest eyes I ever saw she would be just the wife for Max and I hope he will marry her said Aunt Cynthia well I won't entice you into telling any more fibs and I didn't drive out here today in all this wind to talk sense into you concerning Max I'm going to Halifax for two months and I want you to take charge of Fatima for me while I am away Fatima I exclaimed yes I don't dare to trust her with the servants mind you always warm her milk before you give it to her and don't on any account let her run out of doors I looked at Ismay and Ismay looked at me I knew we were in for it to refuse would mortally offend Aunt Cynthia besides if I betrayed any unwillingness Aunt Cynthia would be sure to put it down to grumpiness over what she had said about Max and rub it in for years but I ventured to ask what if anything happens to her while you were away it is to prevent that I'm leaving her with you said Aunt Cynthia you simply must not let anything happen to her it will do you good to have a little responsibility and you will have a chance to find out what an adorable creature Fatima really is well that is all settled I'll send Fatima out tomorrow you can take care of that Fatima beast yourself said Ismay when the door closed behind Aunt Cynthia I will touch her with a yard stick you had no business to say we take her did I say we would take her I demanded crossly Aunt Cynthia took our consent for granted and you know as well as I do we couldn't have refused so what is the use of being grouchy if anything happens to her Aunt Cynthia will hold us responsible said Ismay darkly do you think Anne Shirley is really engaged to Gilbert Blythe I asked curiously I've heard that she was said Ismay absently does she eat anything but milk will it do to give her mice oh I guess though but do you think Max has really fallen in love with her I dare say what a relief it will be for you if he has oh of course I said frostily Anne Shirley or Anne anybody else is perfectly welcome to Max if she wants him I certainly do not talking I shall fly into bits this is a detestable day I hate that creature oh you shouldn't talk like that when you don't even know her protested Ismay everyone says Anne Shirley is lovely I was talking about Fatima I cried in a rage oh said Ismay Ismay is stupid at times I thought the way she said oh was inexcusably stupid Fatima arrived the next day Max brought her out in a covered basket lined with padded crimson satin Max likes cats and Aunt Cynthia he explained how we were to treat Fatima and when Ismay had gone out of the room Ismay always went out of the room when she knew I particularly wanted her to remain he proposed to me again of course I said no as usual but I was rather pleased Max had been proposing to me about every two months for two years sometimes as in this case he went three months and then I always wondered why I concluded that he could not be really interested in Anne Shirley and I was relieved I didn't want to marry Max but it was pleasant and convenient to have him around and we would miss him dreadfully if any other girl snapped him up he was so useful and always willing to do anything for us nail a shingle on the roof drive us into town put down carpets in short a very present help in all our troubles so I just beamed on him when I said no Max began counting on his fingers when he got as far as eight he shook his head and began over again what is it I asked I'm trying to count up how many times I had proposed to you he said but I can't remember whether I asked you to marry me that day we dug up the garden or not if I did it makes no you didn't I interrupted well that makes it eleven said Max reflectively pretty near the limit isn't it my manly pride will not allow me to propose for more than twelve times so the next time will be the last soo darling oh I said a trifle flatly I forgot to resent his calling me darling I wondered if things wouldn't be rather dull when Max gave up proposing to me it was the only excitement I had but of course it would be best and he couldn't go on at it forever so by the way of gracefully dismissing the subject I asked him what Miss Shirley was like what else said Max you know I always admired those grey-eyed girls with that splendid tish and hair I am dark with brown eyes just then I detested Max I got up and said I was going to get some milk for Fatima I found Ismay in a rage in the kitchen she had been up in the garret and a mouse had run across her foot mice always get on Ismay's nerves we need a cat badly enough she fumed but not a useless pampered thing like Fatima however it is literally swarming with mice you'll not catch me going up there again Fatima did not prove such a nuisance as we had feared Holda Jane liked her and Ismay in spite of her declaration that she would have nothing to do with her looked after her comforts scrupulously she even used to get up in the middle of the night and go out to see if Fatima was warm Max came in every day and being around gave us good advice then one day about three weeks after on Cynthia's departure Fatima disappeared just simply disappeared as if she had been dissolved into thin air we left her one afternoon curled up asleep in her basket by the fire under Holda Jane's eye while we went out to make a call when we came home Fatima was gone Holda Jane wept and was as one whom the gods had made mad she vowed that she had never let Fatima out of her sight the whole time saved once for three minutes saved for some summer savory when she came back the kitchen door had blown open and Fatima had vanished Ismay and I were frantic we ran about the garden and threw the outhouses and the woods behind the house like wild creatures calling Fatima but in vain then Ismay sat down on the front door steps and cried she's got out and she'll catch her death of cold and Aunt Cynthia will never forgive us I'm going for Max I declared so I did and over the field as fast as my feet could carry me thanking my stars that there was a Max to go to in such a predicament Max came over and we had another search but without result days passed but we did not find Fatima I would certainly have gone crazy had it not been for Max he was worth his weight in gold during the awful week that followed we did not dare advertise less Aunt Cynthia should see it but we inquired far and wide for a white Persian cat with a blue spot on its tail and offered a reward for it but nobody had seen it although people kept coming to the house night and day with every kind of cat in baskets wanting to know if it was the one we had lost we shall never see Fatima again I said hopelessly to Max and Ismay one afternoon I had just turned away an old woman with a big yellow tummy which she insisted must be ours because it come to our place mum I yell in fearful mum and it don't belong to nobody not down graft in way mum I'm afraid you won't said Max she must have perished from exposure long air this Aunt Cynthia will never forgive us said Ismay Desmally I had a presentiment of trouble the moment that cat came into this house we had never heard of this presentiment before but Ismay is good at having presentiments after things happen what shall we do I demanded helplessly Max can't you find some way out of this scrape for us advertising the Charlottetown papers for a white Persian cat suggested Max someone may have one for sale if so you must buy it and palm it off on your good aunt as Fatima she's very short-sighted so it will be quite possible but Fatima has a blue spot on her tail I said you must advertise for a cat with a blue spot on its tail said Max it will cost a pretty penny said Ismay dolefully Fatima was valued at one hundred dollars we must take the money we have been saving for our new furs I said sorrowfully there's no other way out of it it will cost us a good deal more if we lose Aunt Cynthia's favor she is quite capable of believing that we have made away with Fatima deliberately and with Malice a forethought so we advertised Max went to town and had the notice inserted in the most important daily we asked anyone who had a white Persian cat with a blue spot on the tip of its tail to dispose of to communicate with MI care of the enterprise we really did not have much hope that anything would come of it so we were surprised and delighted over the letter Max brought home from town four days later it was a type written screed from Halifax stating that the writer had for sale a white Persian cat answering to our description the price was a hundred and ten dollars and if MI cared to go to Halifax and inspect the animal it would be found at 110 Hollis street inquiring for Persian temper your joy my friends that is may gloomily the cat may not suit the blue spot may be too big or too small or not in the right place I consistently refused to believe that any good thing can come out of this deplorable affair just at this moment there was a knock at the door and I hurried out the postmaster's boy was there with a telegram I tore it open glanced at it and dashed back into the room what is it now? cried Ismay beholding my faith I held out the telegram it was from Aunt Cynthia she had wired us to send Fatima to Halifax by express immediately for the first time Max did not seem ready to rush into the breach with a suggestion it was I who spoke first Max I said imploringly you'll see us through this won't you neither Ismay nor I can rush off to Halifax at once you must go tomorrow morning go right to 110 Hollis straight and ask for Persian if the cat looks enough like Fatima buy it and take it to Aunt Cynthia if it doesn't but it must you'll go won't you that depends said Max I stared at him this was so unlike Max you're sending me on a nasty errand he said Cooley how do I know that Aunt Cynthia will be deceived after all even if she be short-sighted the poke is a huge risk and if she should see through the scheme I shall be in a pretty mess oh Max I said on the verge of tears of course said Max looking meditatively into the fire if I were really one of the family or had any reasonable prospect of being so I would not mind so much it would be all in the day's work then but as it is Ismay got up and went out of the room oh Max please I said will you marry me Sue demanded Max sternly if you will agree I'll go to Halifax and beard the lion in his den unflinchingly if necessary I will take a black street cat to Aunt Cynthia and swear that it is Fatima I'll get you out of the scrape if I have to prove that you never had Fatima that she is safe in your possession at the present time and that there never was such an animal as Fatima anyhow I'll do anything say anything but it must be for my future wife will nothing else content you I said helplessly nothing I thought hard of course Max was acting abominably but he really was a dear fellow and this was the twelfth time and there was Anne Shirley I knew in my secret soul that life would be a dreadfully dismal thing if Max were not around somewhere besides I would have married him long ago and not Aunt Cynthia thrown us so pointedly at each other's heads ever since he came to Spencervale very well I said crossly Max left for Halifax in the morning next day we got a wire saying it was all right the evening of the following day he was back in Spencervale Ismae and I put him in a chair and glared at him impatiently Max began to laugh and laughed until he turned blue I'm glad it's so amusing if Sue and I could see the joke it might be more so dear little girls have patience with me implored Max if you knew what it cost me to keep a straight face in Halifax you would forgive me for breaking out now we forgive you but for pity's sake tell us all about it I cried well as soon as I arrived in Halifax I hurried to 110 Hollis Street but see here didn't you tell me your aunt's address was 10 Pleasant Street so it is it isn't you look at the address on a telegram next time you get one she went a week ago to visit another friend who lives at 110 Hollis Max it's a fact I rang the bell and was just going to ask the maid for Persian when your aunt Cynthia herself came through the hall and pounced on me Max she said have you brought Fatima no I answered trying to adjust my wits to this new development as she told me into the library no I I just came to Halifax on a little matter of business dear me said Aunt Cynthia Crossley I don't know what those girls mean I wired them to send Fatima at once and she's not come yet and I am expecting a call every minute from someone who wants to buy her oh I murmured mining deeper every minute yes went on your aunt there is an advertisement in the charlotte town enterprise for a Persian cat and I answered it Fatima is really quite a charge you know it's a trap to die and be a dead loss did your aunt mean a pun girls and so although I am considerably attached to her I have decided to part with her by this time I got my second wind and I promptly decided that a judicious mixture of the truth was the thing required well of all the curious coincidences I exclaimed why Miss Ridley it was I who advertised for a Persian cat on Sue's behalf she and Izmay have decided that they want a cat like Fatima for themselves you should have seen how she beamed she said she knew you always really like cats only you would never own up to it we clinched the dicker then and there I passed her over your hundred and ten dollars she took the money without turning a hair and now you are the joint owners of Fatima good luck to your bargain mean old thing sniffed Izmay she meant on Cynthia and remembering our shabby furs I didn't disagree with her but there is no Fatima I said dubiously how shall we account for her when on Cynthia comes home well your aunt isn't coming home for a month yet when she comes you will have to tell her that the cat is lost but you needn't say when it happened as for the rest Fatima is your property now so Aunt Cynthia can't grumble but she will have a poorer opinion than ever of your fitness to run a house alone when Max left I went to the window to watch him down the path he was really a handsome fellow I was proud of him at the gate he turned to wave me goodbye and as he did he glanced upward even at that distance I saw the look of amazement on his face then he came bolting back Izmay the house is on fire I shrieked as I flew to the door Sue cried Max I saw Fatima or her ghost at the Garrett window a moment ago nonsense I cried but Izmay was already halfway up the stairs and we followed Fatima sleek and complacent stunning herself in the window Max laughed until the rafters rang she can't have been up here all this time I protested half tearfully we would have heard her meowing but you didn't said Max she would have died of the cold declared Izmay but she hasn't said Max or starved I cried the place is alive with mice said Max no girls there is no doubt the cat has been up here the whole fortnight she must have followed hold a Jane up here unobserved that day so wonder you didn't hear her crying if she did cry but perhaps she didn't and of course you sleep downstairs to think you never thought of looking here for her it is cost us over a hundred dollars said Izmay with a malevolent glance at the sleek Fatima it is cost me more than that I said as I turned to the stairway Max helped me back for an instant while Izmay and Fatima padded down do you think it is cost too much Sue he whispered I looked at him sideways he was really a deer niceness fairly exhaled from him no I said but when we're married you will have to take care of Fatima I won't dear Fatima said Max gratefully and of Aunt Cynthia's Persian cat by L. M. Montgomery this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Dan Graves The Bottle Lemp by Robert Louis Stevenson there was a man of the island of Hawaii whom I shall call Keawa for the truth because he still lives and his name must be kept secret but the place of his birth was not far from Hanau now where the bones of Keawa the Great lie hidden in a cave this man was poor brave and active he could read and write like a school master he was a first rate mariner besides sailed for some time in the island steamers and steered a well boat on the Hamakua coast had length that came in Keawa's mind to have a sight of the great world and foreign cities and he shipped on a vessel bound to San Francisco this is a fine town with fine harbor and rich people uncountable and in particular there is one hill which is covered with policies upon this hill Keawa was one day taking a walk with his pocket full of money viewing the great houses upon either hand with pleasure what fine houses these are he was thinking and how happy must those people be like no care for the moral the thought was in his mind when he came abreast of a house that was smaller than some others but all finished and beautified like a toy the steps of that house shown like silver and the borders of the garden bloomed like garlands and the windows were bright like diamond and Keawa stopped and wondered at the excellence of all he saw so stopping he was aware of a man that looked forth upon him through a window so clear that Keawa could see him a fish in a pool upon the reef the man was elderly with a bald head and a black beard and his face was heavy as sorrow and he sighed bitterly and the truth of it is that as Keawa looked in upon the man and the man looked out upon Keawa each envied the other all of a sudden the man smiled and nodded and beckoned Keawa to enter and met him at the door of the house this is a fine house of mine said the man and bitterly sighed would you not care to view the chambers so he led Keawa all over it from the cellar to the roof and there was nothing there that was not perfect of its kind and Keawa was astonished truly said Keawa this is a beautiful house if I lived in the like that I should be laughing all day long how comes it then that you should be sighing there is no reason said the man why you should not have a house in all points similar to this and finer if you wish you have some money I suppose I have $50 said Keawa but a house like this will cost more than $50 the man made a computation I am sorry you have no more said he for it may raise you trouble in the future but it shall be yours at $50 the house has Keawa no not the house replied the man but the bottle for I must tell you although I appear to use so rich and fortunate all my fortune in this house itself and its garden the bottle not much bigger than a pint this is it and he opened a lock fast place and took out a round bellied bottle with a long neck the glass of it was white like milk with changing rainbow colors in the grain with inside something obscurity moved like a shadow in the fire this is the bottle said the man and when Keawa laughed you do not believe me he added try then for yourself see if you can break it so Keawa took the bottle up dashed it on the floor till he was weary but it jumped on the floor like a child's ball and was not injured this is a strange thing said Keawa for by the touch of it as well as by the look the bottle should be of glass of glass it is replied the man sighing more heavily than ever but the glass of it was tempered in the flames of hell and imp lives in it and that is the shadow we behold moving there or so I should suppose if any man by this bottle the imp is at his command all that he desires love, fame, money houses like this house a or a city like this city all are his at the word uttered Napoleon had this bottle and by it he grew to be the king of the world but he sold it at the last and fell Captain Cook had this bottle and by it he found his way to so many islands but he too sold it and was slain upon Hawaii for once it is sold the power goes and the protection and unless the man content with what he has it will be fall him and yet you talk of selling it yourself Keawa said I have all I wish and I'm growing elderly replied the man there's one thing the imp cannot do he cannot prolong life and it would not be fair to conceal from you there is a drawback to the bottle for if a man die before he sells it he must burn in hell forever to be sure that is a drawback and no mistake Keawa I would not meddle with the thing I can do without a house thing God but there's one thing I could not be doing with one particle and that is to be damned dear me you must not run away with things return the man all you have to do is use the power of the imp and moderation and then sell it to someone else as I do to you and finish your life in comfort well I observed two things said Keawa all the time you keep signed like a maiden love that is one the other you sell this bottle very cheap I've already told you why I sigh said the man it is because I fear my health is breaking up and as you said yourself to die and go to the devil is a pity for anyone as for why I sell so cheap I must explain to you there is a peculiarity about the bottle long ago when the devil brought it first upon earth it was extremely expensive and was sold first of all to Prestor John for many millions of dollars but it cannot be sold at all unless sold at a loss if you sell it for as much as you paid for it back it comes to you again like a homing pigeon it fottles that the prices kept falling in all these centuries and the bottle is now remarkably cheap I bought it myself from one of my great neighbors on this hill and the price I paid was only $90 I could sell it for as high as $89.99 but not a penny dearer back the thing must come to me now about this there are two bothers first when you offer a bottle so singular for $80 people suppose you to be jesting and second but there's no hurry about that and I need not go into it only remember it must be coined money that you sell it for how might I know that this is all true as Kiowa some of it you can try I once replied to man give me your $50 take the bottle and wish your $50 back into your pocket if that does not happen I pledge you my honor I will cry off the bargain and restore your money you're not deceiving me said Kiowa the man bound himself with a great oath well I will risk that much said Kiowa for that can do no harm and he paid over his money to the man and the man handed him the bottle imp of the bottle said Kiowa I want my $50 back and sure enough he had scarce said the word before his pocket was as heavy as ever to be sure this is a wonderful bottle said Kiowa now good morning to you my fine fellow and the devil go with you for me said the man hold on said Kiowa I don't want anymore this fun here take your bottle back you bought it for less than I paid for it replied the man rubbing his hands it is yours now and from my part I am only concerned to see the back of you and with that he rang for his Chinese servant and had Kiowa shown out of the house now when Kiowa was in the street and the bottle under his arm he began to think if all is true about this bottle I may have made a losing bargain thinks he but perhaps the man was only fooling me the first thing he did was to count his money the sum was exact $49 American money and one chili piece that looks like the truth said Kiowa now I will try another part the streets in that part of the city were as clean as a ship's decks and though it was noon there were no passengers Kiowa set the bottle in the gutter twice he looked back and there was the milky round belly bottle where he left it a third time he looked back and turned a corner but he had scarce done so when something knocked upon his elbow and behold it was the long neck sticking up and as for the round belly it was jammed into the pocket of his pilot coat and that looks like the truth said Kiowa the next thing he did was buy a corkscrew in a shop and go apart into a secret place in the fields and there he tried to draw and as he put the screw in out it came again and the corks whole as ever this is some new sort of corks and Kiowa and all at once he began to shake and sweat for he was afraid of that bottle on his way back to the port side he saw a shop where a man sold shells and clubs from the wild islands old heathen deities old coined money pictures from China and Japan and all manner of things that sailors bring in their sea chests and here he had an idea so he went in and offered the bottle under dollars the man of the shop laughed at him at first and offered him five but indeed it was a curious bottle such class was never blown in any human glass works so prettily the colors shown under the milky white and so strangely the shadow hovered in the midst so after he had disputed a while after the manner of his kind the shop man gave Kiowa sixty silver dollars for the thing and set it on a shelf in the midst of his window now said Kiowa have sold that for sixty which I bought for fifty or to say truth a little less because one of my dollars was from Chile now I shall know the truth upon another point so he went back on board a ship and when he opened his chest there was the bottle and had come more quickly than himself now Kiowa had a maid on board whose name was Lopaka what else you said Lopaka that you stare in your chest they were alone in the ship's forecast and Kiowa bound him to secrecy and told off this is a very strange affair said Lopaka and I fear you will be in trouble about this bottle but there is one point very clear that you are sure of the trouble and you would better have the profit in the bargain make up your mind what you want with it give the order and if it is done as you desire I will buy the bottle myself for I have an idea of my own to get a schooner and go trading through the islands that is not my idea said Kiowa but to have a beautiful house and a garden on the Kona coast where I was born and sun shining in at the doors flowers in the garden glass in the windows pictures on the walls and toys and fine carpets on the tables for all the world like the house I was in this day only a story higher and with balconies all about like the king's palace and to live there without care and make merry with my friends and relatives well said Lopaka let us carry it back with us to Hawaii and if all comes true as you suppose I said an ask a schooner upon that they were agreed and it was not long before the ship returned to Honolulu carrying Kiowa and Lopaka and the bottle they were scarce come ashore when they met a friend upon the beach who began at once to condol with Kiowa I do not know what I am to be condoled about said Kiowa is it possible you have not heard said the friend your uncle that good old man is dead and your cousin that beautiful boy was drowned at sea Kiowa was filled with sorrow and beginning to weep until lament he forgot all about the bottle but Lopaka was thinking to himself and presently when Kiowa's grief was a little abated I have been thinking said Lopaka had not your uncle lands in Hawaii in the district of Kao no said Kiowa not in Kao they are on the mountainside a little way south of Hukena those lands will be yours now asked Lopaka said Kiowa and began again to lament for his relatives no said Lopaka do not lament at present I have a thought in my mind how this should be the doing of the bottle for here is the place ready for your house if this be so cried Kiowa it is a very ill way to serve me by killing my relatives but it may be indeed for it was in just such a situation that I saw the house with my mind's eye the house however is not yet built said Lopaka known or liked to be said Kiowa for though my uncle has some coffee and ava and bananas it will not be more than will keep me in comfort in the rest of that land as the black lava let us go to the lawyer said Lopaka I have still this idea in my mind now when they came to the lawyers it appeared Kiowa's uncle had grown monstrous rich in the last days and there was a fund of money and here is the money for the house if you are thinking of a new house said the lawyer here is the card of a new architect of whom they tell me great things better and better cried Lopaka here is all made plain for us let us continue to obey orders so they went to the architect and he had drawings of houses on his table he wants something out of the way said the architect how do you like this and he handed the drawing to Kiowa now when Kiowa said eyes on that drawing he cried out aloud that was the picture of his thought exactly drawn I am in for this house thought he little as I like the way it comes to me I am in for it now and I may as well take the good along with the evil so he told the architect all that he wished and how he would have the house furnished and about the pictures on the wall and the knickknacks on the tables and he asked the man plainly for how much he would undertake the whole affair the architect put many questions and took his pen and made a computation and when he had done he named the very sum that Kiowa had inherited Lopaka and Kiowa looked at one another and nodded his quite clear thought Kiowa that I am to have this house whether or no it comes from the devil and I fear I will get little good by that and of one thing I am sure I will make no more wishes as long as I have this bottle but with the house I am saddled and I may as well take the good along with the evil so he made his terms with the architect and they signed a paper Kiowa and Lopaka took ship again and sailed to Australia for it was concluded between them they should not interfere at all but let the architect and the bottle him to build and to adorn the house at their own pleasure the voyage was a good voyage only all the time Kiowa was holding in his breath for he had sworn he would utter no more wishes and take no more favors from the devil the time was up when they got back the architect told them the house was ready the architect took ship in the hall and went down Konaway to view the house and see if all had been done fitly according to the thought that was in Kiowa's mind now the house stood on the mountainside visible to ships above the forest ran up into the clouds of rain below the block lava fell in cliffs where the kings of old lay buried a garden bloomed about the house with every hue of flowers and there was an orchard of papaya on the one hand and an orchard of breadfruit and right in front toward the sea a ship's mast had been rigged up and bore a flag as for the house it was three stories high with great chambers and broad balconies on each the windows were of glass so excellent that it was as clear as water and as bright as day all manner of furniture adorned the chambers pictures hung upon the wall and golden frames pictures of ships and men fighting and of the most beautiful women and of singular places nowhere in the world pictures of so bright a color as those Kiowa found hanging in his house as for the knickknacks they were extraordinary fine chiming clocks and musical boxes little men with nodding heads books filled with pictures weapons of price from all quarters of the world and the most elegant puzzles to entertain the leisure of a solitary man and as no one would care to live in such chambers only to walk through and view them the balconies were made so broad that a whole town might have lived upon them in delight and Kiowa knew not which to prefer whether the back porch where you got the land breeze and looked upon the orchards and the flowers or the front balcony where you could drink the wind of the sea and look down the steep wall of the mountain and see the hall going by once a week or so between Hukena and the hills of Pele or the schooners plying up the coast for wood and ava and bananas when they had viewed all Kiowa and Lopaka sat on the porch well, asked Lopaka is it all as you designed words cannot utter it said Kiowa it is better than I dreamed and I am sick with satisfaction there is but one thing to consider said Lopaka all this may be quite natural and the bottle imp have nothing whatever to say to it if I were to buy the bottle and get no schooner after all I should have put my hand in the fire for nothing I gave you my word I know but yet I think you would not grudge me one more proof I have sworn I would take no more favors said Kiowa I have gone already deep enough this is no favor I am thinking of replied Lopaka it is only to see the imp himself there is nothing to be gained by that and so nothing to be ashamed of and yet if I once saw him I should be sure of the whole matter so indulge me so far and let me see the imp and after that here is the money in my hand and I will buy it there is only one thing I am afraid of said Kiowa the imp may be very ugly to view and if you want set eyes upon him he will be very undesirous of the bottle I am a man of my word said Lopaka and here is the money betwixt us very well replied Kiowa I have a curiosity myself come let us have one look at you Mr. Imp now as soon as that was said the imp looked out of the bottle and then again swift as a lizard and there sat Kiowa and Lopaka turned to stone the night had quite come before he either found a thought to say or voiced to say it with and then Lopaka pushed the money over the bottle I am a man of my word said he and had need to be so or I would not touch this bottle with my foot well I shall get my schooner and a dollar or two from my pocket and then I will be rid of this devil as fast as I can for to tell you the plain truth the look of him has cast me down Lopaka said Kiowa do not you think any worse of me than you can help I know it is night and the road is bad and the past by the tombs and ill place to go by so late Claire since I have seen that little face I cannot either sleep or pray till it is gone from me I will give you a lantern and a basket to put the bottle in and any picture a fine thing in my house that takes your fancy and be gone at once and go sleep a Hukena with Nahinu Kiowa said Lopaka many a man would take this ill above all when I am doing you a turn so friendly as to keep my word and buy the bottle and for that matter the night in the dark and the way by the tombs all ten fold more dangerous to a man with such a sin upon his conscience and such a bottle under his arm but from my part I am so extremely terrified myself I have not the heart to blame you here I go then and I pray God you may be happy in your house and I fortunate with my schooner and both get to heaven in the end in spite of the devil and his bottle so Lopaka went down the mountain and Kiowa stood in his front balcony and listen to the clink of the horse's shoes and watched the lantern go shining down the path and along the cliff of caves where the old dead are buried and all the time he trembled and clasped his hands and prayed for his friend and gave glory to God that he himself was escaped out of that trouble but the next day came very brightly and that new house of his was so delightful to behold that he forgot his terrors one day followed another and Kiowa dwelt there in perpetual joy and he had his place on the back porch it was there he ate and lived and read the stories in the Honolulu newspapers but when anyone came by they would go in and view the chambers and the pictures and the fame of the house went far and wide it was called Kahale Nui the great house in Alcona and sometimes the bright house for Kiowa kept a Chinaman who was all day dusting and fervishing and the glass and the gilt and the fine stuffs and the pictures shown in the morning as for Kiowa himself he could not walk in the chambers without singing his heart was so enlarged and when ships sailed by upon the sea he would fly his colors on the mast so time went by until one day Kiowa went upon a visit as far as Kailua to a certain of his friends there he was well feasted and left as soon as he could the next morning and rode hard for he was impatient to behold his beautiful house and besides the night then coming on was the night in which the dead of old days go broad in the sides of Kona and having already meddled with the devil he was the more cherry of meeting with the dead at a little beyond Hanau now looking far ahead he was aware of a woman bathing in the edge of the sea and she seemed a well grown girl but he thought no more of it then he saw her white shift flutter as she put it on and then her red holoku and by the time he came abreast of her she was done and had come up from the sea and stood by the trackside in her red holoku and she was all freshened with the bath and her eyes shown and were kind now Kailua no sooner beheld her than he drew rain I thought I knew everyone in this country said he how comes it that I do not know you I am Kokua daughter of Kailua said the girl and I have just returned from Oahu who are you I will tell you who I am and a little said Kailua dismounting from his not now for I have a thought in my mind and if you knew who I was you might have heard of me and would not give me a true answer but tell me first of all one thing are you married at this Kokua laughed aloud it is you ask questions she said are you married yourself indeed Kokua I am not replied Kailua and never thought to be until this hour but here is the plain truth I have met you here at the roadside and I saw your eyes but you are like the stars and my heart went to you as swift as a bird and so now if you want none of me say so and I will go on to my own place but if you think you know worse than any other young man say so too and I will turn aside to your fathers for the night and tomorrow I will talk with the good man Kokua said never a word but she looked at the sea and laughed Kokua said Kailua if you say nothing I will take that for the good answer so let us be stepping to the other's door she went on ahead of him still without speech only sometimes she glanced back and glanced away again and she kept the strings of her hat in her mouth now when they had come to the door Keano came out on his veranda and cried out and welcomed Kailua by name at that the girl looked over for the fame of the great house had come to her ears and to be sure it was a great temptation all that evening they were very married together and the girl was as bold as ever the eyes of her parents and made a mock of Keawa for she had a quick wit the next day he had a word with Keano and found the girl alone Kokua said he you made a mock of me all the evening and it is still time to bid me go I would not tell you who I was because I have so fine a house and I feared you would think too much of that house and too little of the man that loves you now you know all and if you wish to have seen the last of me say so at once no said Kokua at this time she did not laugh nor did Keawa ask for more this was the wooing of Keawa things had gone swiftly but so an arrow goes and the ball of a rifle swifters still and yet both may strike the target things had gone fast but they had gone far also and the thought of Keawa rang in the maiden's head she heard his voice in the breach of the surf upon the lava and for this young man that she had seen but twice she would have left father and mother and her native islands as for Keawa himself his horse flew up the path of the mountain under the cliff tombs and the sound of the hoofs and the echoing of Keawa singing to himself for pleasure echoed in the caverns of the dead he came to the bright house and still he was singing he sat and ate in the broad balcony and the China man wondered at his master to hear how he sang between the mouthfuls the sun went down into the sea and the night came and Keawa walked the balconies by lamp light high and the voice of his singing startled men on ships here am I now upon my high place he said to himself life may be no better this is the mountaintop and all shelves about me toward the worse for the first time I will light up the chambers and bathe in my fine bath with the hot water and the cold and sleep alone in the bed of my bridal chamber so the China man had word and he must rise from his sleep and light the furnaces and as he wrought below beside the boilers he heard his master singing and rejoicing above him in the lighted chambers when the water began to be hot the China man cried to his master and Keawa went into the bathroom and the China man heard him sing as he filled the marble basin and heard him sing and the singing broken as he undressed until all of a sudden the song ceased the China man listened and listened he called up the house to Keawa to ask if all were well and Keawa answered him yes and made him go to bed but there was no more singing in the house and all night long the China man heard his master's feet go round and round the balconies without repose now the truth of it was this as Keawa undressed for his bath he spied upon his flesh a patch like a patch of lichen on a rock and it was then that he stopped singing for he knew the likeness of that patch and knew that he was falling in the Chinese evil now it is a sad thing for any man to fall into this sickness and it would be a sad thing for anyone to leave a house so beautiful and so commodious and apart from all his friends to the north coast of Molokai between the mighty cliff and the sea breakers but what was that to the case of the man Keawa who had met his love but yesterday and won her but that morning and now saw all his hopes break in a moment like a piece of glass a while he sat upon the edge of the bath and spraying with a cry and ran outside and to and fro to and fro along the balcony like one despairing could I leave Hawaii the home of my father's Keawa was thinking very lightly I could leave my home the high place the many windowed here upon the mountains very bravely could I go to Molokai to call up by the cliffs to live with the smitten and to sleep there far from my father's but what wrong have I done what sin lies upon my soul that I should have encountered Kukua coming cool from the seawater in the evening Kukua the soul and snare Kukua the light of my life her me I never wed her may I look upon no longer her may I know more handle with my loving hands and it is for this it is for you O Kukua that I pour my lamentations now you are to observe what sort of man Keawa was for me I had dwelt there in the bright house for years and no one been the wiser of his sickness but he reckoned nothing of that if he must lose Kukua and again he might have wed Kukua even as and so many would have done because they have the souls of pigs but Keawa loved the maid manfully and he would do her no hurt and bring her in no danger a little beyond the midst of the night there came in his mind the recollection of that bottle he went round to the back porch and called to memory the day when the devil had looked forth and at the thought ice ran in his veins a dreadful thing is the bottle thought Keawa and dreadful is the imp and it is the flames of hell but what other hope have I to cure my sickness or to wed Kukua what he thought would I beard the devil once only to get me a house and not face him again to win Kukua thereupon he called to mind it was the next day the hall went by on her return to Honolulu there must I go first he thought and see Lopaka for the best hope that I have now was to find that same bottle I was so pleased to be rid of her wink could he sleep the food stuck in his throat but he sent a letter to Keano and about the time when the steamer would be coming rode down the cliffs of the tombs it rained his horse went heavily he looked up at the black mouths of the caves and he envied the dead that slept there and were done with trouble and called to mind how he had galloped by the day before and was astonished so he came down to Hukena and there was all the country gathered for the night and the shed before the store they sat and gestured and passed the news but there was no matter of speech and Keano was boozing and he sat in their midst and looked without on the rain falling on the houses and the surf beating among the rocks and the size of rows in his throat Keano of the bright houses out of spirits said one to another indeed and so he was in little wonder then the hall came and the whale boat carried him on board the after part of the ship was full of ladies who had been to visit the volcano as their customers and the mistress crowded with Kanakas and the four part with wild bulls from Hilo and horses from Kaoh but Keawa sat apart from all in his sorrow and watched for the house of Keano there it sat low upon the shore in the black rocks and shaded by the cocoa palms and thereby the door was a red holoku no greater than a fly and going to and fro with the flies busyness ah queen of my heart he cried soon after darkness fell and the cabins were lit up and the howl he sat and played at the cards and drank whiskey as their customers but Keawa walked the deck all night and all the next day as they steamed under the lee of Maui or Molokai he was still pacing to and fro like a wild animal in a menagerie towards evening they passed diamond head and came to the pier of Honolulu Keawa stepped out among the crowd and began to ask for Lopaka but it seemed he had become the owner better in the islands and was gone upon an adventure as far as Polo Polo or Kahiki so there was no help to be looked for from Lopaka Keawa called to mind a friend of his a lawyer in the town I must not tell his name and inquired of him they said he was grown suddenly rich and had a fine new house upon Waikiki shore and this put a thought in Keawa's head and he called a hack and drove to the lawyer's house the house was all brand new and the trees in the garden no greater than walking sticks and the lawyer when he came had the air of a man well pleased what can I do to serve you said the lawyer you are a friend of Lopaka's replied Keawa and Lopaka purchased from me a certain piece of goods that I thought you might enable me to trace the lawyer's face became very dark I do not profess to misunderstand you Mr. Keawa said he though this is an ugly business to be stirring in you may be sure I know nothing but yet I have a guess and if you would apply in a certain quarter I think you might have news and he named the name of a man which again I had better not repeat so it was for days and Keawa went from one to another finding everywhere new clothes and carriages and find new houses and men everywhere in great contentment although to be sure when he hinted at his business their faces put cloud over no doubt I'm upon the track thought Keawa these new clothes and carriages are all the gifts of the little imp and these glad faces of the men who have taken their profit and got rid of the accursed thing in safety when I see pale cheeks and hear sighing I shall know that I am near the bottle so it befall at last that he was recommended to a Hawoli and Baritania street when he came to the door about the hour of the evening meal there were the usual marks of the new house and the young garden and the electric light shining in the windows but when the owner came a shock of hope and fear ran through Keawa for here was a young man with a corpse and black about the eyes the hair shedding from his head and such a look in his countenance as a man may have when he is waiting for the gallows here it is to be sure thought Keawa and so with this man he no ways veiled his errand I've come to buy the bottle said he at the word the young Hawoli of Baritania street reeled against the wall the bottle he gasped to buy the bottle then he seemed to choke and seizing Keawa by the arm carried him into a room and poured out wine in two glasses here's my respect said Keawa who had been much about with Hawoli's in his time yes he added I have come to buy the bottle what is the price by now at that word the young man let his glass slip through his fingers and looked upon Keawa like a ghost the price says he the price you do not know the price it is for that I am asking you return Keawa why are you so much concerned is there anything wrong about the price it has dropped a great deal and value since your time Mr. Keawa said the young man stammering well well I shall have the less to pay for it said Keawa how much did it cost you the young man was as white as a sheet two cents said he what cried Keawa two cents why then you can only sell it for one and he who buys it fell upon Keawa's tongue he who bought it could never sell it again the bottle in the bottle it must abide with him until he died and when he died must carry him to the red end of hell the young man of Baritania street fell upon his knees for God's sake buy it he cried you can have all my fortune in the bargain I was mad when I bought it at that price I had imbezzled money at my store I was lost else I must have gone to jail poor creature said Keawa you would risk your soul upon so desperate an adventure and to avoid proper punishment of your own disgrace and you think I could hesitate with love in front of me give me the bottle and the change which I make sure you have already here's a five cent piece it was as Keawa supposed the young man had the change ready in a drawer the bottle changed hands and Keawa's fingers were no sooner classed upon the stock then he breathed his wish to be a clean man and sure enough he got to his room and stripped himself before a glass his flesh was whole like an infant and here was the strange thing he had no sooner seen this miracle than his mind was changed within him and he cared not for the Chinese evil and little enough for Kokua and had but the one thought that here he was bound to the bottle for time and for eternity and had no better hope but to be a sender forever in the flames of hell away ahead of him he saw them blaze and his soul shrank and darkness fell upon the light when Keawa came to himself a little he was aware it was the night when the band played at the hotel thither he went because he feared to be alone and there among happy faces walked to and fro and heard the tunes go up and down and saw Burger beat the measure and all the while he heard the flames crackle and saw the red fire burning in the bottomless pit of a sudden the band played a song that he had sung with Kokua and at the strain courage returned to him it is done now he thought and once more let me take the good along with the evil so it befell that he returned to Hawaii by the first steamer and as soon as it could be managed he was wedded to Kokua and carried her off the mountainside to the bright house now it was so with these two that when they were together Keawa's heart was stilled but so soon as he was alone and heard the flames crackle and saw the red fire burn in the bottomless pit the girl indeed had come to him holy her heart leapt in her side at sight of him her hand clung to his and she was so fashion from the hair upon her head to the nails upon her toes that none could see her without joy she was pleasant in her nature she had the good word always full of songs she was and went to and fro in the bright house the brightest thing in its three stories the caroling like the birds and Keawa beheld and heard her with delight and then must shrink upon one side and weep and groan to think upon the price that he had paid for her and then he must dry his eyes and wash his face and go and sit with her on the broad balconies joining in her songs and with the sick spirit answering her smiles there came a day when her feet began to be heavy and her songs more rare and now it was not Keawa only who would weep apart but each would sunder from her and sit in opposite balconies with the whole width the bright house betwixt Keawa was so sunk in his despair he scarce observed the change and was only glad he had more hours to sit alone and brood upon his destiny and was not so frequently condemned to pull a smiling face on a sick cart but one day coming softly through the house he heard the sound of a child sobbing and there was Kukua rolling her face upon the balcony floor and weeping like the lost he do well weeping this house Kukua he said and yet I would give the head off my body that you at least might have been happy happy she cried Keawa when you lived alone in your bright house you were the word of the island for a happy man laughter and song were in your mouth and your face was as bright as the sunrise then you wedded poor Kukua and the good God knows what is amiss in her but from that day you have not smiled oh she cried what ails me I thought I was pretty and I knew I loved him and she calls me that I throw this cloud upon my husband poor Kukua said Keawa he sat down by her side and sought to take her hand but that she plucked away poor Kukua he said again my poor child my pretty and I had thought all this while to spare you while you should know all then at least you will pity poor Keawa then you will understand how much he loved you in the past that he dared hell for your possession and how much he loves poor condemned one that he can yet call up a smile when he beholds you with that he told her all even from the beginning you have done this for me she cried oh well then what do I care and she clasped and whipped upon him ah child said Keawa and yet when I consider of the fire of hell I care a good deal never tell me said she no man can be lost because he loved Kukua and no other fault I tell you Keawa I shall save you with these hands or perish in your company what you loved me and gave your soul and you think I could not die to save you in return my dear you might die a hundred times and what difference would that make he cried except to leave me lonely till the time comes of my damn nation you know nothing said she I was educated in the school in Honolulu I am no common girl and I tell you I shall save my lover what does this you say about a cent not American in England they have a piece they call a fire thing which is about half a cent oh sorrow she cried that makes it scarcely better for the buyer must be lost and we shall find none so brave as my Keawa but then there is France they have a small coin there which they call a same team and these go five to the center there about we could do no better come Keawa let us go to the French islands let us go to Tahiti as fast as ships can bear us there we have three teams three cent teams two cent teams one cent team four possible sales to come and go on and two of us to push the bargain come my Keawa kiss me and banish care cuckoo will defend you gift of God he cried I cannot think that God will punish me for desiring ought so good be it as you will then take me where you please I put my life and my salvation in your hands early the next day cuckoo was about her preparations she took Keawa's chest that he went with salering and first put the bottle in a corner then packed it with the richest of their clothes and the bravest of the knickknacks in the house fore said she must seem to be rich folks or who will believe in the bottle all the time of her preparation she was as gay as a bird only when she looked upon Keawa the tears would spring in her eye and she must run and kiss him as for Keawa a weight was off his soul now that he had his secret shared and some hope in front of him he seemed like a new man his feet went lightly on the earth and his breath was good to him again yet was terror still at his elbow and ever and again as the wind blows out a taper hope died in him and he saw the flames toss and the red fire burn in hell it was given out in the country they were gone pleasuring to the states which was thought a strange thing and yet not so strange as the truth if any could so they went to Honolulu in the hall and thence in the Umatiyah to San Francisco with a crowd of hollies and at San Francisco took their passage by the male Brigitteen the Tropic bird for Papayeti the chief place of the French in the south islands there they came after a pleasant voyage on a fair day of the trade wind and saw the reef with the surf breaking and Motuuti with its palms and the schooner riding within side and the white houses of the town low down upon the shore among the green trees and overhead the mountains in the clouds of Tahiti the wise island it was judged the most wise to hire a house which they did accordingly opposite the British consuls to make a great parade of money in themselves conspicuous with carriages and horses this was very easy to do so long as they had the bottle in their possession for cacua was more bold than cahawa and whenever she had a mine called on the imp for twenty or a hundred dollars this rate they soon grew to be remarked in the town and the strangers from Hawaii their riding and their driving the fine holocause and the rich lace cacua became a matter of much talk they got on well after the first with the Tahitian language which is indeed like to the Hawaiian with the change of certain letters and as soon as they had any freedom of speech began to push the bottle you are to consider it was not an easy subject to introduce it was not easy to persuade people you were an earnest when you offered to sell them for four same teams to spring of health and riches inexhaustible it was necessary besides to explain the dangers of the bottle and either people disbelieve the whole thing and laughed or they thought the more of the darker part became overcast with gravity and drew away from cahawa and cacua as from persons who had dealings with the devil so far from gaining ground these two began to find they were avoided in the town the children ran away from them screaming a thing intolerable to cacua Catholics crossed themselves as they went by and all persons began with one accord to disengage themselves from their advances depression fell upon their spirits they would sit at night in their new house after a day's weariness and not exchange one word where the silence would be broken by cacua bursting suddenly into sobs sometimes they would pray together sometimes they would have the bottle out upon the floor and sit all evening how the shadow hovered in the midst at such times they would be afraid to go to rest it was long air slumber came to them and if either dozed off it would be to wake and find the other silently weeping in the dark or perhaps to wake alone the other having fled from the house in the neighborhood of that bottle to pace under the bananas in the little garden or to wander on the beach by moon night one night it was so when cacua awoke cahua was gone she felt in the bed and his place was cold then fear fell upon her and she sat up in bed a little moon shine filtered through the shutters the room was bright and she could spy the bottle on the floor outside it blew high the great trees of the avenue cried aloud and the fallen leaves rattled in the veranda in the midst of this cacua was aware of another sound whether of a beast or of a man she could scarce tell but it was as sad as death and cut her to the soul softly she arose set the door jar and looked forth into the moonlit yard there under the bananas lay cahua his mouth in the dust and as he lay he moaned it was cacua's first thought to run forward and console him her second potently withheld her cahua had borne himself before his wife like a brave man it became her little in the hour of weakness to intrude upon his shame with the thought she drew back into the house heaven she thought how careless have I been how weak it is he not I that stands in this eternal peril it was he not I that took the curse upon his soul it is for my sake and for the love of a creature of so little worth and such poor help that he now beholds so close to him the flames of hell hey and smells the smoke of it lying without there in the wind in the moonlight am I so dull of spirit that never till now I have surmised my duty or have I seen it before and turned aside but now at least I take up my soul in both the hands of my affection now I say farewell to the white steps of heaven and the waiting faces of my friends a love for a love and let mine be equaled with cahua's a soul for a soul and be at mine to perish she was a deft woman with her hands and was soon appareled she took in her hands to change the precious sing-times they kept ever at their side for this coin is little used and they had made provision at a government office when she was forth in the avenue clouds came on the wind and the moon was blackened the town slept and she knew not with her to turn till she heard one coughing in the shadow of the trees hold a man said cahua what do you hear abroad in the cold night the old man could scarce express himself for coughing but she made out that he was old and poor and a stranger in the island will you do me a service cahua has one stranger to another and as an old man to a young woman will you help a daughter of hawai ah said the old man so you are the witch from the eight islands and even my old soul you seek to entangle but I have heard of you into fire goodness sit down here said cahua and let me tell you a tale and she told him the story of cahua from the beginning to the end and now said she I am his wife whom he bought with his soul's welfare and what should I do if I went to him myself and offered to buy it he would refuse but if you go he will sell it eagerly I will await you here you will buy it for four sing-times and I will buy it again for three and the Lord strengthened a poor girl if you meant falsely said the old man I think God would strike you dead he would cried cahua be sure he would I could not be so treacherous God would not suffer it give me the four sing-times and await me here said the old man now when cahua stood alone in the street her spirit died the wind roared in the trees and it seemed to her the rushing of the flames of hell the shadows tossed in the light of the street lamp it seemed to her the snatching hands of evil ones if she had had the strength she must have run away and if she had had the breath she must have screamed aloud but in truth she could do neither and stood and trembled in the avenue like an affrighted child then she saw the old man returning and he had the bottle in his hand I have done your bidding said he I left your husband weeping like a child tonight he will sleep easy and he held the bottle forth give me cahua panted take the good with the evil ask to be delivered from your cough I am an old man replied the other in two near the gate of the grave to take a favor from the devil what is this why do you not take the bottle do you hesitate not hesitate cried cahua I am only weak give me a moment it is my hand resist my flesh shrinks back from the accursed thing one moment only the old man looked upon cahua kindly the child said he you fear your soul misgives you well let me keep it I am old and can never more be happy in this world and as for the next give it me guess cahua there is your money do you think I am so base as that give me the bottle God bless you child said the old man cahua concealed the bottle under her holoku said farewell to the old man and walked off along the avenue she cared not with her now the same to her and led equally to hell sometimes she walked and sometimes ran sometimes she screamed out loud in the night and sometimes laid by the wayside in the dust and web all that she had heard of hell came back to her she saw the flames blaze and she smelt the smoke and her flesh withered on the coals near day she came to her mind again and returned to the house it was even as the old man said cahua slumbered like a child cahua stood and gazed upon his face now my husband said she it is your turn to sleep when you wake it will be your turn to sing and laugh but for poor cahua a last that meant no evil for poor cahua no more sleep no more singing no more delight whether in earth or heaven with that she lay down in the bed by his side and her misery was so extreme that she fell in a deep slumber instantly in the morning her husband woke her and gave her the good news it seemed he was silly with delight for he paid no heed to her distress ill though she dissembled it the words stuck in her mouth it mattered not cahua did the speaking she ate not a bite but hoop was to observe it for cahua cleared the dish cahua saw and heard him like some strange thing in a dream there were times when she forgot or doubted and put her hands to her brow to know herself doomed and hear her husband babble seemed so monstrous all the while cahua was eating and talking and planning the time of their return and thanking her for saving him and fondling her and calling her the true helper after all he laughed at the old man that was fool enough to buy the bottle a worthy old man he seemed cahua said but no one can judge by appearances for why did the old reprobate require the bottle my husband said cahua humbly his purpose may have been good cahua laughed like an angry man fiddle-dee-dee said cahua an old rogue I tell you and an old ass to boot for the bottle is hard enough to sell at four same teams and at three it will be quite impossible the margin is not broad enough the thing begins to smell of scorching burger said he and shuddered it is true I bought it myself at a scent when I knew not there were smaller coins that was a fool for my pains there will never be found another and whoever has that bottle now will carry it to the pit oh my husband said cahua is it not a terrible thing to save oneself by the eternal ruin of another? it seems to me I could not laugh I would be humbled I would be filled with melancholy I would pray for the poor holder then cahua because the truth of what she said grew the more angry hey dee-dee cried he you may be filled with melancholy if you please it is not the mind of a good wife if you thought at all of me you would sit ashamed there upon he went out and cahua was alone what chance had she to sell that bottle at two seven teams none she perceived and if she had any here was her husband hurrying her away to a country where there was nothing lower than a saint and here on the morrow of her sacrifice was her husband leaving her and blaming her she would not even try to profit by what time she had but sat in the house and now had the bottle out and viewed it with unutterable fear and now with loathing hit it out of sight I am by cahua came back and would have her take a drive my husband I am ill she said I am out of heart excuse me I can take no pleasure then was cahua more wroth than ever with her because he thought she was brooding over the case of the old man and with himself because he thought she was right and was ashamed to be so happy this is your truth cried he and this your affection your husband is just saved from eternal ruin which he encountered for the love of you and you can take no pleasure cahua you have a disloyal heart he went forth again furious and wandered in the town all day he met friends and drank with them they hired a carriage and drove into the country and there drank again all the time cahua was ill at ease because he was taking to this past time while his wife was sad because he knew in his heart that she was more right than he and the knowledge made him drink the deeper now there was an old brute haole drinking with him one that had been a boatswain on a whaler a runaway a digger in gold mines in prisons he had a low mind and a foul mouth he loved to drink and to see others drunk and he pressed the glass upon cahua soon there was no more money in the company here you says the boatswain you are rich you have always been saying you have a bottle or some foolishness yes says cahua I am rich I will go back and get some money for my wife who keeps it that's a bad idea mate let it go with dollars they are all as false as water you keep an eye on her now this word stuck in cahua's mind for he was muddled with what he had been drinking I should not wonder but what she was false indeed thought he why else should she be so cast down at my release but I will show her I am not the man to be fooled I will catch her in the act accordingly when they were back in town cahua bade the boatswain wait for him at the corner by the old calaboos he went forward up the avenue alone to the door of his house the night had come again there was a light within but never a sound and cahua crept about the corner opened the back door softly and looked in there was cahua on the floor the lamp at her side before her was a milk white bottle with a round belly and a long neck and as she viewed it cahua rung her hands a long time cahua stood and looked in the doorway and at first he was struck stupid and then fear fell upon him that the bargain had been made amiss and that the bottle had come back to him as it came at san francisco and at that his knees were loosened the fumes of the wine departed from his head like mist soft a river in the morning and then he had another thought and it was a strange one that made his cheeks to burn I must make sure of this thought he so he closed the door and went softly round the corner again and noisily in as though he were but now returned and lo! by the time he opened the front door no bottle was to be seen and cahua sat in a chair and started up like one awakened out of sleep I have been drinking all day and making merry said cahua I have been with good companions and now I only come back for money and returned to drink and crowds with them again both his face and voice were as stern as judgment but cahua was too troubled to observe you do well to use your own my husband said she and her words trembled oh I do well in all things said cahua and he went straight to the chest and took out money but he looked besides in the corner where they kept the bottle and there was no bottle there at that the chest heaved upon the floor like a sea billow and the house span around him like a wreath of smoke for he saw he was lost now and there was no escape it is what I feared he thought he who has bought it and then he came to himself a little and rose up but the sweat streamed on his face as thick as the rain and as cold as the well water cahua said he I said to you today what ill became me now I returned to corrals with my jolly companions and at that he laughed a little quietly I will take more pleasure in the cup if you forgive me she clasped his knees in a moment she kissed his knees with flowing tears oh she cried I asked but a kind word let us never one think hardly of the other said cahua and was gone out of the house now the money that cahua had taken was only some of that store the same team pieces they had laid in at their arrival it was very sure he had no mind to be drinking his wife had given her soul for him now he must give his for hers no other thought was in the world with him at the corner by the old calaboost there was the boatswain waiting my wife has the bottle said cahua and unless you help me to recover it there can be no more money and no more liquor tonight you do not mean to say you were serious about that bottle cried the boatswain there is the lamp said cahua do I look as if I was jesting that is so said the boatswain you look as serious as a ghost well then said cahua here are two same teams you must go to my wife in the house and offer her these for the bottle which if I am not much mistaken she will give you instantly bring it to me here and I will buy it back from you for one for that is the law with this bottle that it still must be sold for a less sum but whatever you do never breathe the word to her that you have come from me mate I wonder are you making a fool of me has the boatswain it will do you no harm if I am entering cahua that is so mate said the boatswain and if you doubt me asked cahua you can try as soon as you are clear of the house wish to have your pocket full of money or a bottle of the best rum or whatever you please and you will see the virtue of the thing very well canaka said the boatswain I will try but if you are having your fun out of me I will take my fun out of you with a blading pin so the whaler man went off up the avenue cahua stood and waited it was near the same spot where cahua had waited the night before but cahua was more resolved and never faltered in his purpose only his soul was bitter with despair it seemed a long time he had to wait before he heard a voice singing in the darkness of the avenue he knew the voice to be the boatswains but it was strange how drunken it appeared upon a sudden next the man himself came into the light of the lamp he had the devil's bottle buttoned in his coat another bottle was in his hand and even as he came in view he raised it to his mouth and drank you have it said cahua I see that hands off cried the boatswain jumping back take a step near me and I will smash your mouth you thought you could make a cat's paw at me did you what do you mean cried cahua mean cried the boatswain pretty good bottle this is that's what I mean how I got it for two same teams I can't make out but I'm sure you shan't have it for one you mean you won't sell I guess cahua no sir cried the boatswain but I'll give you a drink of the rum if you like I tell you said cahua the man who has that bottle goes to hell I reckon I'm going anyway replied the sailor and this bottle is the best thing to go with I've struck yet no sir he cried again this is my bottle now and you can go and fish for another can this be true cahua cried for your own sake I beseech you sell it to me I don't value any of your talk replied the boatswain you thought I was a flat now you see I'm not and there's an end if you won't have a swaddle of the rum I'll have one myself here's your health and good night to you so off he went down the avenue the bottle out of the story but cahua ran to cahua light as the wind and great was their joy that night and great since then has been the peace of all their days in the bright house end of the bottle limp by Robert Louis Stevenson these things by Edgar Poe read in German this is the LibriVox all LibriVox are license free public possession for more information on this project visit LibriVox.org these things by Edgar Poe read by Christoph during the terrible New Yorker cholera time I had the friendly invitation to take a relative and at the end of the country at the heart of the heart we were able to spend all the summer entertainment and fun there and we would have the time to fly away in the wide world with carnations, fishing, swimming, painting and drawing with music and lectures on the most pleasant sales if not every morning the terrible news from the big city would have gone at the near no day he did not give us the news of the death of a more or less he brought us and as the situation continued we were only with the biggest fears he brought us books and newspapers because we could be sure that the victims who have been asking for the last post are friends again if not even more and the loveliest so it was hardly possible that we could finally bring the air out of the south me at least almost this thought and in every turn of my promise to think and dream my friendly guest was less rainy and although I felt quite depressed he tried to fix me his sharp, philosophical understanding I was not too easy to touch actually dangers and so on could certainly threaten him his pure shadows were ineffective his efforts to shake me together and to tear out my condition were mostly found in his library they had a content that had to be brought to Kalman I had read these books without knowing what my guest was he didn't really explain the circumstances the constant changes he wanted to write even knew how it looked like back then I was particularly inclined to believe these beliefs to defend themselves seriously we have been talking about this for a long time my relative always was completely unjust to believe in the same things I said that I felt so many times when suddenly unrecognizable traces of a suggestion were introduced into myself who had to pay more attention to the fact that soon after my arrival in a country house a strange person who had so much unrecognizable of himself that it was only too clear when I saw him as a pretext he scared me and destroyed me so that several days I could leave to make my friend a contribution of the same on the evening of an extraordinary warm day in a book in my hand at an open window with a wide view along the shore of the river on a distant hill where I had most of the trees were destroyed my thoughts were long from the book in my hand to the ruins that had to take place in the neighboring city when I took a look I felt on the naked image of a hill and on an object on a lively hill of shadowy shape that moved with great speed from the summit to the ground and finally disappeared at the foot of the hill when my eyes doubted my healthy understanding and it lasted for a few minutes I was convinced that I was still dreaming and yet I was afraid that all those who didn't describe it that I still saw and watched the whole way would be even more difficult to be convinced when I was myself in comparison with the diameter of the big tree the few forest trees that I had passed and the castle that it was more threatening than the middle-sized steamboat that was on the river I said as if it was a boat because the shape of the hill was similar to the shape of a vehicle the mouth of the animal was at the end of the river it was as thick as the body of a normal elephant at the root of the river there was a huge amount of black hair it was more than the skin of 20 buffaloes and from this hair it grew sideways like with the wild ebber but with infinite bigger dimensions parallel to the river forward there was something a huge star 30 or 40 feet long from the crystal and from the shape of a regular prismas that reflected the rays of the sun on the most beautiful view around it was the shape of a rock that was set to earth two pairs of wings spread out from it one pair over the other each single wing was about 100 miles long covered in metal each of which had about 10 to 12 feet I noticed that the upper and lower pair of wings had a strong chain with each other the most special was the shape of a dead head that covered almost the entire surface of the breast and now reflected in the white from the black of the body as if it was an artist carefully drawn while I was afraid of the animal and especially the image on his chest with fur and teeth looked with a pre-recommended unhealed that I did not by understanding reasons I noticed that the unhealed kifa at the end of the rustle and a so loud indistinguishable sound that it is my nerve like a dead person when the unhealed disappeared at the foot of the mountain I sank in awe I came back to me my first impression was my mind was all what I saw and heard to share with you and it is not even clear to me which feeling of guilt at the end still hindered me one evening, three or four days after the accident I was in the room where I had observed the appearance I had the same seat at the same window he was on the sofa on my side the similarity the situation brings me to talk to him about a phenomenon he listened to me until the end he laughed warmly but suddenly became extremely serious as a two-layer in my healthy mind he looked at me I could not hear it clearly and he dealt with a scream the attention of my friend on the same he looked attention to me but he did not say anything even though I was the smallest the path of the animal on the neck of the hill I was now scared because I could not either for a meaning of death or what was much worse for the progress of an emergency in the highest I was back in a chair and I saw a few eyes my face in my hands when I looked up again the appearance was no longer visible my guest however, he had a calm and asked me the exact same after the shape of the shadow when he was completely satisfied he stopped he was released from a heavy burden and began to talk about various points of speculative philosophy that we have often discussed I remember that he especially spread his thoughts that the main source of the earth's human research in the negation of the understanding is the size of his opponent to over or underestimate by falsely taxing his nose he said if you want to underestimate the influence the one that will have democracy on humanity the distance of time where such an expansion would be possible and yet you can call me a socialist who would always pay attention to this point of discussion here below he went to the bookstore and in the name of the same one of the usual suffering of nature then he waited for me to change the place so that he could read the small print of the book he threw my canvas to the window and took his talks with the same tone as before I would never be able to show you what it really is first I want to read you what the schulknaben from the Gattung Sphinx from the family Crepuscularia from the order of Lepidoptera from the class of insects here is the following four today's birds covered with small colored shells of metallic appearance mouth forms a rustle brought forward the lower wing is connected with the upper one antenna has the shape of a elongated coil prismatic underline the dead head Sphinx has at some time the clear tones and the drawing of the dead head on the chest is called here the book is closed and he knelt in the chair a little before until he took exactly the same position that I had in my eyes when I looked at it Ah, there it is Rivaus it rises again and I have to admit that it really is a highly noticeable appearance of the painting that it is so big or so distant as you thought because in reality it is while it is now on the thread that a spider has wound up at the edge of the wing from its highest end to the other a sixteenth inch and is about a sixteenth inch from the pupil in my eye end of the Sphinx by Edgar Allen Poe translated by Hedwig Lachmann