Welcome to Hard Times by E L Doctorow
Author:E L Doctorow [Doctorow, E L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-12-04T06:50:01+00:00
There had to be an end to winter or an end to us. By the time March came in I was ready, like Isaac Maple, to bet with the winter. Hard dry winds blew day after day, sweeping the snow, skimming the top of the bared frozen ground and blowing up circly storms of sand. But one afternoon I thought I smelled rain. I went outside: John Bear was standing over by his shack, he was facing west and looking into the dusty bleak sky— he had smelled it too. The air was cold but the wind was just a murmur of what it had been, and if you stood very still you could feel now and then a warmth in it, a dampness. I kept my hopes to myself but that night I woke up and heard it, a soft fall on the roof, not a shower but a small steady rain. And at dawn the sun spread over the flats with a rush.
I stepped outside into that new morning and I couldn't believe it. The sun filled my eyes with a warmth of hazes, pink, pale green and yellow, and all over the flats white mists were rising like winter being steamed out of the ground. I swore I could feel the earth turning. Everything was new in my sight, I looked around at the short street of buildings—cabin, windmill, saloon, tent and stable— and it seemed like a row of plants just sprung. The Chinese girl peeked out of the saloon, holding her hand up against the brilliance, and I waved to her. A few minutes later everyone was out of doors, blinking in the sunlight, standing silent in the face of something that was hard to remember.
Then Jenks gave a hoot and threw his hat into the air and all of a sudden everyone was stretching, calling out, Zar went around hugging everybody, Adah was shaking Isaac Maple's hand, the girls were kissing each other, Jimmy was holding Molly's arm and pulling her this way and that. Jenks went into his stable and drove the horses out, there was much mingling, we were all smiling like fools, we were all pasty and thin in the fresh light but alive even so.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Africa | Americas |
Arctic & Antarctica | Asia |
Australia & Oceania | Europe |
Middle East | Russia |
United States | World |
Ancient Civilizations | Military |
Historical Study & Educational Resources |
Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut(13857)
Pimp by Iceberg Slim(12924)
Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet by Will Hunt(11253)
4 3 2 1: A Novel by Paul Auster(11036)
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore(10903)
American History Stories, Volume III (Yesterday's Classics) by Pratt Mara L(4822)
Perfect Rhythm by Jae(4618)
Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi(4583)
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin(4338)
Paper Towns by Green John(4165)
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey(4028)
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan(3997)
The Mayflower and the Pilgrims' New World by Nathaniel Philbrick(3907)
The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg(3726)
Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose(3690)
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann(3606)
The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller(3582)
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen(3468)
Killing England by Bill O'Reilly(3451)