Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald
page 72 of 380 (18%)
to throw a stone whose faint ripple would be vanishing almost as it left
his hand. As yet he had given nothing, he had taken nothing.

A belated freshman, his oilskin slicker rasping loudly, slushed along the
soft path. A voice from somewhere called the inevitable formula, "Stick
out your head!" below an unseen window. A hundred little sounds of the
current drifting on under the fog pressed in finally on his consciousness.

"Oh, God!" he cried suddenly, and started at the sound of his voice in
the stillness. The rain dripped on. A minute longer he lay without
moving, his hands clinched. Then he sprang to his feet and gave his
clothes a tentative pat.

"I'm very damn wet!" he said aloud to the sun-dial.

* * * *

HISTORICAL

The war began in the summer following his freshman year. Beyond a
sporting interest in the German dash for Paris the whole affair failed
either to thrill or interest him. With the attitude he might have
held toward an amusing melodrama he hoped it would be long and bloody.
If it had not continued he would have felt like an irate ticket-holder
at a prize-fight where the principals refused to mix it up.

That was his total reaction.

* * * *

DigitalOcean Referral Badge