The Barbary Coast

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: m. BEDOUINS THURSDAY afternoon I was straining away at the table in my little square whitewashed room at Geld-el-Haba, trying desperately to make my low comedian at least comical. It was a thankless job. I had the blues, or rather the grays. Blues are a city disease; in the country one gets gray. And a...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: m. BEDOUINS THURSDAY afternoon I was straining away at the table in my little square whitewashed room at Geld-el-Haba, trying desperately to make my low comedian at least comical. It was a thankless job. I had the blues, or rather the grays. Blues are a city disease; in the country one gets gray. And a little red-winged bird perched on a branch of the almond tree just outside my window and distracted my attention. Out beyond him was the blue sea, and beyond the sea were all the people I wanted to talk with ? all the things I wanted to do. And when I picked up my pen and turned to my work again, the sun had slipped round in the sky till it shone dazzlingly, blindingly, on my paper. The little red-winged imp jeered at my discomfort. It was not to be borne. I folded up the papers and dashed out into the kitchen. Good Mme. Gardet was scrubbing away at an invisible spot on her shining milk-pan. I'm going off on an excursion, back in the hills, I said. Will you be back in time for supper? she asked. No, I replied; I won't be back for two or three days. Mme. Gardet tried not to look surprised. She thinks it is bad form. I am an American, and only Ie bon Dieu knows what an American will do next. Where will you sleep? she asked. Haven't got any plans, I said. Perhaps under an ilex tree. Why, there aren't any ilex trees in this part of the country she exclaimed. Well, a banyan tree, then. I never heard of such a tree. Oh, I'm not particular. Any old tree will do in a pinch. What will you eat? Hadn't thought about it. If I can't find some locusts and wild honey, I'll borrow some kous-kous-soo from an Arab. But you don't talk Arabic she protested. Mme. Gardet does not realize the possib...