Excerpt from The Wine of Astonishment From the shadows of the front room he flung his announcement at them, distrusting the clear light of scrutiny. His excitement possessed him too visibly. It rang out under the deceptive casualness of his young voice. He was on fire to be off to his adventure. He felt himself a man, an explorer, a free lance. It was maddening to have to thrust his head into the family living room and tell his parents that he was going over to Henry's for all night. And parents are not too easily satisfied. His father merely glanced up from the inevitable book, but his mother put down her magazine and told him to come in. He came with reluctance, a tall, high-shouldered boy of eighteen with gray eyes that looked dark under their black lashes and dark hair at war with the flat rigors of its youthful mode. Every step he took into the room made him less the man and adventurer until only a boy stood before his mother, impatiently apprehensive of adult curiosity and restriction. His mother merely told him not to be late for church in the morning. If he must stay with friends all night she wanted him home next day in season. What were they going to do? Nothing in particular? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV AGAINST ODDS It was a very quiet funeral, with a service at the house for only the relatives and nearest friends. Christopher had but few relatives, he thought, but it was astonishing how the brief lines in the paper had served to disinter old connections. There came faces and names he but vaguely remembered, and unfamiliar cousins pressed his hands. It was a horrible nightmare. Rosalie Day saved him all she could. She shrank from death, but she had been the dead woman's near friend--long had it been known that Mrs. Day's name on a committee would bring a cheque from Mrs. Stanley --and she owed her many a kindness and quiet favor. She took charge capably and she shielded Christopher. And she and Evelyn sat beside him in the darkened room, withdrawn from the group in the wide drawing rooms, gazing through another door at the black coffin in its wilderness of bloom. She was intensely sorry for the quiet, self-contained young man. And Evelyn broke down utterly at the graveside, in a mingled agony at the finality of death, the immensity of Christopher's loss, and sorrow of Mrs. Stanley's going. It was too pitiful, out there in the raw March wind, lowering the coffin to its last resting place! She was haunted by an image of the dead woman's face as it had been in life, only a week ago, as she had moved slowly about her room, bringing out the pictures she had wished Evelyn to see. Such pathetic transparency in her poor design! Evelyn had been as gentle as she could, but she thought now, shuddering from the sound of the clergyman's calm voice, that if she had only known, she would have buoyed her up with such kind, false hope! It would have made her so happy! Now she was gone. . . . And Christopher had said that she had spoken of...

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Charts the history of a Spiritual Baptist community from the passing of the Prohibition Ordinance in 1917 until the lifting of the ban in 1951.