Show seeing france with uncle john by ANNE UNCLE JOHN PARALYZED by the lo 10 come in come on well don t you heard cant you understand any oh it s you child I 1 thought it was one of those darned waiters sit down pull up a chair by the bed it s so long since I 1 sent for you that I 1 just about thought that you were not coming I 1 suppose were surprised at my sending for you but it was the only way to do it s a hard thing to break to you yvonne but you d have to know in the course of the day and I 1 always do everything right off that I 1 ve not decided to wait and see about now don t look fright ened my dear nobody s dead it s only that I 1 m paralyzed there what do ou think of thata ea its true for a fact my legs I 1 had some premonitory symptoms yes berday going up that cursed old tower and I 1 had some very advanced ones coming down from it and this morn ing when I 1 started to shave the truth burst in my face now don t try to say anything for I 1 ve read too many patent med cine advertisements not to recognize paralysis when I 1 feel it up and down the back of my own legs I 1 m not the man not to know my own feelings and I 1 ft ant to tell you that when I 1 got up this morning I 1 coulden couldn t stand up and then after I 1 stood up I 1 coulden couldn t sit down and it anat isn t a clear case of having corn plemely given out I 1 don t know what you would call it now my dear the question is what s to be done at course our travels have come to a ivull stop for I 1 shall probably never walk again the curious thing is that I 1 don t feel any particular inclination ever to walk again you ve no conception of the sentiments that I 1 feel in my legs but if you roll the fatigue of a lifetime into either the left or the right you can get some taint inkling of the first freshness of paralysis I 1 tell you yvonne it is awful every cobble stone I 1 ve gone over seems to be sing ing in my calves but that neither here nor there what I 1 want you to do is to go to the pocket of my valise get out the cable code book and look i a word that means both legs par albed what shall I 1 do with the gir sa you 11 find a word that means it it you look long enough they ve got 40 pages of words that mean every fool thing on earth from it s a boy to im possible to lend you ten dollars I 1 was reading it over in pans the other day while I 1 waited for my money at the bank well aint you going to get the code booke I 1 don t want to be ampa tient but 1 want some one to be doing something you don t know how rest less it makes me to think of lying still for the rest of my life while I 1 was waiting for you I 1 was thinking that probably I 1 shall live right here in caen till I 1 die I 1 m very glad we got here too late to see anything because now I 1 can take it bit by bit and drag it out through my remaining days I 1 shall have a wheeling chair and a man to push me around and well maybe its in the little outside pocket I 1 enow I 1 had it in paris anyhow I 1 remember I 1 was just reading that sal means your mother in law left by the ten clock train and that sal means that she dian didn t when they brought me my money and I 1 was free to go well now you ve got it I 1 thought maybe it would be in the little valise all the time seems to me the sick nesses begin with salt I 1 remember means have got smallpox keep away and saltpetre Salt petre means have got a cold come at oace you look along there and find paralysis just keep quiet while you re look ing id batter be learning to keep quiet keeping quiet must be the long suit of the paralyzed I 1 should fancy but you see what it Is now to be an optimist here s my life over all of a sudden and in stead of being blue I 1 m as cheerful as a cricket no need of fussing over the candle grease on hat now for I 1 shall never wear a hat again I 1 shall wear a soft felt tid over my ears w th a plaid shawl as they always do in rolling chairs as for the umbrella I 1 m actually glad I 1 left it it would only have been an aggravation to have seen it lying around but all the same I 1 can t see why you dian didn t i otice it lying down there it must have been in plain sight I 1 remember pointing over at mont mirat with it and saying the rock looked as if it had been dropped there from above yvonne I 1 tell you when I 1 think of all we did these last two days I 1 feel per factly content to be paralyzed I 1 m aglid to think that I 1 ve got such a good excuse to stay right in bed I 1 m happy that it will be out of the question for me ever to travel again I 1 feel as it I 1 ve traveled enough to last me for ever I 1 actually don t want to see any thing more no more catching trains and climbing castles for your uncle john not in his life you can put 1 m happy that it will be out of the question for me ever to travel again the baedeker in the fire right now I 1 never want to see a red cover or a green string or an index again as long as I 1 live what s that no want it to look over and recall things by I 1 can recall more than I 1 want to just by the way I 1 feel I 1 don t need any guide book to remember what I 1 ve been through since I 1 left paris I 1 re member too much I 1 remember so much that I 1 am rejoiced to think that muscles over which I 1 have no control will prevent my having to go out to day and see anything else it seems a little hard to think of having sight seen so hard that you never want to see another sight but im perfectly content and I 1 don t want a doctor either ive no faith in french doc tors it would be just like one to hypnotize me and set me going again and I 1 don t want to go I 1 want to lie right here and I 1 thank the lord that I 1 have money enough to allow me to lie here forever it I 1 feel like it I 1 was thinking this morning what a horrible existence a tramp must lead always going on to new places thank heaven I 1 can just settle down in this old one and stay on indefinitely I 1 want you to go down to the office and ask what rate they 11 make for this room by the year I 1 want this same room right along it s the first restful spot I 1 ve struck since my trunk w ent smash into that ship yvonne did you notice the way they handled those trunks when we landed as it they were I 1 tell you the baggage system at home is a burning disgrace one reson I 1 like europe so its quiet and peaceful I 1 heard some goats go by this morning I 1 d like to know a hotel in america where you can listen to a goat and then that wallpaper what a tranquil pattern a basket of sunflowers upside down al ternate lv with a single palm upside up what a contrast to the paper on that room I 1 sailed from it looked more like snakes doing physical cul ture than anything else onne I 1 thinking it all over as I 1 lay here this morning waiting for you and the truth Is we ve been trav eling too fast I 1 wanted you to see all there was to see and I 1 overlooked myself completely eon t feel badly child because I 1 know you never meant it tut it Is the truth and as a consequence here I 1 he paralyzed yes we ve been traveling too last it s the vice of the american abroad its the terrible secret drain upon the strength of our better classes we come over to rest and it we don t do two countries a week we feel we ve wasted our money the idea of leaving paris in the morning and doing chartres and dreux and getting to armenian that night why hercules himself would have been used up and then that castle at falaise no I 1 m not sorry yvonne there was something about that castle that never get over I 1 tell you those were the das to live in I 1 was thinking about it while I 1 was waiting tor you this morning will you consider what it must hava been to put on a suit that you coulden couldn t be punched through and then get out with an ax that faced two ways and have full freedom to hack at people you hated I 1 tell you child I 1 should have been one of those who barricaded themselves behind the dead bodies they had killed and kept on firing over the top and to day my armor would be hanging up somewhere all full of dents and gustv blood stains and I 1 d be a sight in some cathedral with your aunt jane wearing a funnel and an accordion beside me we d both be in marble of course some worn by time and chipped by tourists ah well can t you find anything suitable in that code booke here ive been waiting a quarter of an hour for you to hunt hand me that book I 1 re member shell is have broken my left leg and shell bsh Is have broken my right leg and shawl is wait a bit keep still yvonne no one in the wide world can study a code and listen at the oh well leave it till tonight not that im irritated at our inter for I 1 never let anything ruffle me and when you write home the first thing I 1 want you to tell your mother Is paralyzed has not changed me one particle same even disposition game calm on life same disinclination to ever bother any one I 1 want you to make them under stand in particular how cheerful I 1 am some men would turn at waking up paralyzed but not me I 1 feel as if I 1 might get about quite a little in caen maybe even get to falaise again some time but you can bank on one thing and that Is that it I 1 ever go back to falaise I 1 won t go up that tower again I 1 was wondering this morning as I 1 lay here waiting tor you how in thunder you were holding that candle to spill so much grease on my hat you can t say that dian didn t know I 1 was there for every second step you took your toot hit me in the small of the back you ought to have gone first anyhow I 1 know the rule is for a man to go first going down a staircase but I 1 don t call that business we were on any staircase it was more like a series of cascades with us form ing the merry leaping part I 1 tell you what yvonne the next time it s up to your uncle john to play the chamois that springs from crag to crag over an old middle aged while his niece pours candle grease on his hat you can excuse toe what I 1 like Is clean open to the daylight ruins like that old one at no peril no anxiety all on a level and time to look up at what gasn wasn t I 1 tell you I 1 wouldn t have missed seeing for any thing I 1 was thinking this morning I 1 lay here waiting for you that I 1 have a good mind to write a book about my travels and that when I 1 do I 1 shall have the frontispiece me in front of I 1 could take an artist down there on purpose and while he gasn wasn t doing me I 1 could look it all over again maybe I 1 could go there alone with a kodak and get a tory frontispiece only those were so thick that most people would think it was a defective plate I 1 t like to have them think that for if I 1 was going to have a book at all I 1 chuld have it in good style gold edges bevel plate and so forth don t you know I 1 d like to write a book about europe I 1 vow I 1 been here very long but swear I 1 know ten times more than any book ever tells it never said a word in baedeker about there not being any cabs at dreux or about the condition of those steps in talbot s tower and such things ought to be known well child it must be nearing noon and I 1 feel like taking a nap be fore dinner suppose you go in and write to your mother and mrs clary after your mother gets the cable she 11 naturally be anxious tor details and she won t want to wait longer than ten days to know all I 1 wish you d ring and tell them to bring some hot water before you go tell them I 1 want it in a pitcher make them un der stand a pitcher they brought it last night la a sort of brass cylinder and I 1 coulden couldn t get the thing open any way had to use it tor a hot water bag in bed in the end it worked fine for that there now you go on and leave me to sleep you haven t the faintest idea of how used up I 1 feel don t for get to write your mother how cheerful I 1 am don t forget the hot water send tor you when I 1 want you there there I 1 m all right child don t you worry just pull the curtains and let me sleep |