the anfractuosities of legal procedure having caused us to wonder whether there really were any such place as the home we have just bought, we thought we would go out to salamis, l. i., and have a look at it. of course we knew it had been there a few weeks ago, but the title companies do confuse one so. we had been sitting for several days in the office of the most delightful lawyer in the world (and if we did not fear that all the other harassed and beset creatures in these parts would instantly rush to lay their troubles in his shrewd and friendly bosom we would mention his name right here and do a little metrical pirouette in his honour)—we had been sitting there, we say, watching the proceedings, without the slightest comprehension of what was happening. it is really quite surprising, let us add, to find how many people are suddenly interested in some quiet, innocent-looking shebang nestling off in a quiet dingle in the country, and how, when it is to be sold, they all bob up from their coverts in flushing, brooklyn, or long island city, and have to be “satisfied.” what floods of papers go crackling across the table, drawn out from those mysterious[pg 208] brown cardboard wallets; what quaint little jests pass between the emissaries of the title company and the legal counsel of the seller, jests that seem to bear upon the infirmity of human affairs and cause the well-wishing adventurer to wonder whether he had ever sufficiently pondered the strange tissue of mortal uncertainties that hides behind every earthly venture ... there was, for instance, occasional reference to a vanished gentleman who had once crossed the apparently innocent proscenium of our estate and had skipped, leaving someone six thousand dollars to the bad; this ingenious buccaneer was, apparently, the only one who did not have to be “satisfied.” at any rate, we thought that we, who entered so modestly and obscurely into this whole affair, being only the purchaser, would finally satisfy ourself, too, by seeing if the property was still there.
long island and spring—the conjunction gives us a particular thrill. there are more beautiful places than the long island flats, but it was there that we earned our first pay envelope, and it was there that we first set up housekeeping; and as long as we live the station platform of jamaica will move us strangely—not merely from one train to another, but also inwardly. there is no soil that receives a more brimming benison of sunshine than long island in late april. as the train moves across the plain it seems to swim in a golden tide of light. billboards have been freshly painted and announce the glories[pg 209] of phonographs in screaming scarlets and purples, or the number of miles that divide you from a brooklyn department store. out at hillside the stones that demarcate the territory of an old-fashioned house are new and snowily whitewashed. at hollis the trees are a cloud of violent mustard-yellow (the colour of a safety-matchbox label). magnolias (if that is what they are) are creamy pink. moving vans are bustling along the road. across the wide fields of bellaire there is a view of the brown woods on the ridge, turning a faint olive as the leaves gain strength. gus wuest's roadhouse at queens looks inviting as of old, and the red-brown of the copper beeches reminds one of the tall amber beakers. here is the little park by the station in queens, the flag on the staff, the forsythia bushes the colour of scrambled eggs.
is it the influence of the belmont park race track? there seem to be, in the smoking cars, a number of men having the air of those accustomed to associate (in a not unprofitable way) with horses. here is one, a handsome person, who holds our eye as a bright flower might. he wears a flowing overcoat of fleecy fawn colour and a derby of biscuit brown. he has a gray suit and joyful socks of heavy wool, yellow and black and green in patterned squares which are so vivid they seem cubes rather than squares. he has a close-cut dark moustache, his shaven cheeks are a magnificent sirloin tint, his chin[pg 210] splendidly blue by the ministration of the razor. his shirt is blue with a stripe of sunrise pink, and the collar to match. he talks briskly and humorously to two others, leaning over in the seat behind them. as he argues, we see his brown low shoe tapping on the floor. one can almost see his foot think. it pivots gently on the heel, the toe wagging in air, as he approaches the climax of each sentence. every time he drives home a point in his talk down comes the whole foot, softly, but firmly. he relights his cigar in the professional manner, not by inhaling as he applies the match, but by holding the burned portion in the flame, away from his mouth, until it has caught. his gold watch has a hunting case; when he has examined it, it shuts again with a fine rich snap, which we can hear even above the noise of the car.
on this early morning train there are others voyaging for amusement. here are two golfing zealots, puffing pipes and discussing with amazing persistence the minuti? of their sport. their remarks are addressed to a very fashionable-looking curate, whose manners are superb. whether he is going to play golf we know not; at any rate, he smiles mildly and politely to all they say. perhaps he is going round the course with them, in the hope of springing some ecclesiastical strategy while they are softened and chastened by the glee of the game. the name of their maker, it is only fair to suspect, has more than once been mentioned[pg 211] on the putting green; and if it should slip out, the curate will seize the cue and develop it. in the meantime, one of the enthusiasts (while his companion is silenced in the act of lighting his pipe) is explaining to the cloth how his friend plays golf. “i'll tell you how he plays,” he says. “imagine him sitting down in a low chair and swinging a club. then take the chair away and he still keeps the same position. that's what he looks like when he drives.” the curate smiles at this and prepares his face to smile with equal gentleness when the other retorts.
after floral park the prospect becomes more plainly rural. the mineola trolley zooms along, between wide fields of tilled brown earth. there is an occasional cow; here and there a really old barn and farmhouse standing, incongruously, among the settlements of modern kindling-wood cottages; and a mysterious agricultural engine at work with a spinning fly-wheel. against the bright horizon stand the profiles of garden city: the thin cathedral spire, the bulk of st. paul's school, the white cupola of the hotel. the tree-lined vistas of mineola are placidly simmering in the morning sun. a white dog with erect and curly tail trots very purposefully round the corner of the first national bank. we think that we see the spreading leaves of some rhubarb plants in a garden; and there are some of those (to us very enigmatic, as we are no gardener)[pg 212] little glass window frames set in the soil, as though a whole house, shamed by the rent the owner wanted to charge, had sunk out of sight, leaving only a skylight.
as we leave east williston we approach more interesting country, with a semblance of hills, and wooded thickets still brownly tapestried with the dry funeral of last year's leaves. on the trees the new foliage sways in little clusters, catching the light like the wings of perching green butterflies. some of the buds are a coppery green, some a burning red, but the prevailing colour is the characteristic sulphur yellow of early spring. and now we are set down at salamis, where the first and most surprising impression is of the unexpected abundance of competitive taxicabs. having reached the terminus of our space, we can only add that we found our estate still there—and there are a few stalks of rhubarb surviving from an earlier plantation.
