Today's Stichomancy for Christina Aguilera

much do I owe you for the rest of it?"

"Oh," said Jeb Case, rubbing his chin, eyeing the big roll of bills and wondering just the limit he might raise to, "I reckon 'bout four dollars an' six bits."

The Oskaloosa Kid peeled a five dollar bill from his roll and proffered it to the farmer. "I'm ever so much obliged," he said, "and you needn't mind about any change. I thank you so much." With which he took the several packages and pails and turned toward the road.

"Yew gotta return them pails!" shouted Mrs. Case af- ter him.

The Oakdale Affair

shudder, the rustle of a silk gown, and almost recognized by their sound the steps of his wife.

"Well, father," said Clemence, "my poor father, are you better? What courage you have shown!"

"Come here, my child," replied Ferragus, holding out his hand to her.

Clemence held her forehead to him and he kissed it.

"Now tell me, what is the matter, my little girl? What are these new troubles?"

"Troubles, father! it concerns the life or death of the daughter you have loved so much. Indeed you must, as I wrote you yesterday, you /must/ find a way to see my poor Jules to-day. If you knew how good he

Ferragus

travelled on foot along the banks of the Nile from the cataracts to the sea. Shaking torches with veil-covered face, he had cast a black cock upon a fire of sandarach before the breast of the Sphinx, the Father of Terror. He had descended into the caverns of Proserpine; he had seen the five hundred pillars of the labyrinth of Lemnos revolve, and the candelabrum of Tarentum, which bore as many sconces on its shaft as there are days in the year, shine in its splendour; at times he received Greeks by night in order to question them. The constitution of the world disquieted him no less than the nature of the gods; he had observed the equinoxes with the armils placed in the portico of Alexandria, and accompanied the bematists of Evergetes, who

Salammbo

smoke rising behind it, and a small patch of cultivated ground. I'll pass over how I felt about it: they haven't made the words-- Well, we stumbled down the trail and into the hut. At first I thought it was empty, but after a minute I saw a very old man crouched in a corner. As I looked at him he raised his bleared eyes to me, his head swinging slowly from side to side as though with a kind of palsy. He could not see me, that was evident, nor hear me, but some instinct not yet decayed turned him toward a