The lawyer gave a laugh among his papers
73 lines✦
I've broken Anne of gathering bouquets.It's not fair to the child. It can't be helpedthough:Pressed into service means pressed out of shape.Somehow I'll make it right with her—-she'll see.She's going to do my scouting in the field,Over stone walls and all along a woodAnd by a river bank for water flowers,The floating Heart, with small leaf like a heart,And at the _sinus_ under water a fistOf little fingers all kept down but one,And that thrust up to blossom in the sunAs if to say 'You! You're the Heart's desire.'Anne has a way with flowers to take the placeOf that she's lost: she goes down on one kneeAnd lifts their faces by the chin to hersAnd says their names, and leaves them where theyare." The lawyer wore a watch the case of whichWas cunningly devised to make a noiseLike a small pistol when he snapped it shutAt such a time as this. He snapped it now. "Well, Anne, go, dearie. Our affair will wait.The lawyer man is thinking of his train.He wants to give me lots and lots of moneyBefore he goes, because I hurt myself,And it may take him I don't know how long.But put our flowers in water first. Will, help her:The pitcher's too full for her. There's no cup?Just hook them on the inside of the pitcher.Now run.—-Get out your documents! You seeI have to keep on the good side of Anne.I'm a great boy to think of number one.And you can't blame me in the place I'm in.Who will take care of my necessitiesUnless I do?" "A pretty interlude,"The lawyer said: "I'm sorry, but my train----Luckily terms are all agreed upon.You only have to sign your name. Right—-there." "You, Will, stop making faces. Come round hereWhere you can't make them. What is it you want?I'll put you out with Anne. Be good or go." "You don't mean you will sign that thing unread?" "Make yourself useful then, and read it for me.Isn't it something I have seen before?" "You'll find it is. Let your friend look at it." "Yes, but all that takes time, and I'm as muchIn haste to get it over with as you.But read it, read it. That's right, draw the curtain:Half the time I don't know what's troubling me.—-What do you say, Will? Don't you be a fool.You! crumpling folkses' legal documents.Out with it if you've any real objection." "Five hundred dollars!" "What would you think right?" "A thousand wouldn't be a cent too much;You know it, Mr. Lawyer. The sin isAccepting anything before he knowsWhether he's ever going to walk again.It smells to me like a dishonest trick." "I think—-I think—-from what I heard to-day—-And saw myself—-he would be ill-advised----" "What did you hear, for instance?" Willis said. "Now the place where the accident occurred----" The Broken One was twisted in his bed."This is between you two apparently.Where I come in is what I want to know.You stand up to it like a pair of cocks.Go outdoors if you want to fight. Spare me.When you come back, I'll have the papers signed.Will pencil do? Then, please, your fountain pen.One of you hold my head up from the pillow."
✦