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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - F Scott Fitzgerald · Classic Fiction Vault - Iconic Stories

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Speaker 1: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
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Speaker 1: Section one, Chapter one. As long ago as eighteen sixty,
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Speaker 1: it was the proper thing to be born at home
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Speaker 1: at present, so I am told the high gods of
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Speaker 1: medicine have decreed that the first cries of the young
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Speaker 1: shall be uttered upon the anesthetic air of a hospital,
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Speaker 1: preferably a fashionable one. So young mister and missus Roger
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Speaker 1: Button were fifty years ahead of style when they decided
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Speaker 1: one day in the summer of eighteen sixty that their
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Speaker 1: first baby should be born in a hospital. Whether this
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Speaker 1: anarchism had any bearing upon the astonishing history I am
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Speaker 1: about to set down will never be known. I shall
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Speaker 1: tell you what occurred, and let you judge for yourself.
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Speaker 1: The Roger Buttons held an enviable position, both social and financial,
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Speaker 1: in the Antebellum Baltimore. They were related to the this
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Speaker 1: family and that family, which, as every Southerner new, entitled
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Speaker 1: them to membership in that enormous peerage which largely populated
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Speaker 1: the Confederacy. This was the first experience with the charming
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Speaker 1: old custom of having babies. Mister Button was naturally nervous.
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Speaker 1: He hoped it would be a boy so that he
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Speaker 1: could be sent to Yale College in Connecticut, at which
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Speaker 1: institution mister Button himself had been known for four years
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Speaker 1: by the somewhat obvious nickname of Cuff. On the September
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Speaker 1: morning consecrated to the enormous event, he arose nervously at
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Speaker 1: six o'clock, dressed himself, adjusted an impeccable stock, and hurried
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Speaker 1: forth through the streets of Baltimore to the hospital to
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Speaker 1: determine whether the darkness of the night had borne in
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Speaker 1: any new life upon its bosom. When he was approximately
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Speaker 1: one hundred yards from the Maryland Private Hospital for Ladies
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Speaker 1: and Gentlemen, he saw doctor Keen, the family physician, descending
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Speaker 1: the front steps, rubbing his hands together with a washing movement,
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Speaker 1: as all doctors are required to do by the unwritten
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Speaker 1: ethics of their profession. Mister Roger Button, the president of
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Speaker 1: Roger Button and Company Wholesale Hardware, began to run toward
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Speaker 1: doctor Keen with much less dignity than was expected from
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Speaker 1: a Southern gentleman of that picturesque period. Doctor Keene, he
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Speaker 1: called doctor Keen. The doctor heard him, faced around and
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Speaker 1: stood waiting, a curious expression settling on his harsh medicinal
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Speaker 1: face as mister Button drew near. What happened? Demanded mister
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Speaker 1: Button as he came up in a gasping rush. What
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Speaker 1: was it? How is she a boy? Who is? What? Talk? Sense?
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Speaker 1: Said doctor King sharply. He appeared somewhat irritated as a
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Speaker 1: child born begged mister Button. Doctor Keene frowned, well, yes,
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Speaker 1: I suppose after fashion Again, he threw a curious glance
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Speaker 1: at mister Button. Is my wife all right? Yes? Is
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Speaker 1: it a boy or girl here? Now? Cried doctor Kane
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Speaker 1: in a perfect passion of irritation. I'll ask you to
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Speaker 1: go and see for yourself. Outrageous, He snapped the last
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Speaker 1: word out in almost one syllable. Then he turned away,
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Speaker 1: muttering do you imagine a case like this will help
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Speaker 1: my professional reputation? What more would ruin me? Ruin anybody?
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Speaker 1: What's the matter? Demanded mister Button. Appalled triplets? No, not triplets,
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Speaker 1: answered the doctor cuttingly. What's more? You can go and
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Speaker 1: see for yourself and get another doctor. I'm brought you
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Speaker 1: into the world, young man, and I've been physician to
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Speaker 1: your family for forty years, but I'm through with you.
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Speaker 1: I don't want to see you, or any of your
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Speaker 1: relatives ever again goodbye. Then he turned sharply, and without
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Speaker 1: another word, climbed into his phetin, which was waiting at
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Speaker 1: the curbstone, and drove severely away. Mister Button stood there
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Speaker 1: upon sidewalk, stupefied and trembling from head to foot. What
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Speaker 1: horrible mishap had occurred? He had suddenly lost all desire
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Speaker 1: to go into the Maryland Private Hospital for ladies and gentlemen.
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Speaker 1: It was with the greatest difficulty that a moment later
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Speaker 1: he forced himself to mount the steps and entered the
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Speaker 1: front door. A nurse was sitting behind a desk in
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Speaker 1: the old pate gloom of the hall. Swallowing his shame,
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Speaker 1: mister Button approached her. Good morning, she remarked, looking up
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Speaker 1: at him pleasantly. Good morning, I'm mister Button. At this
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Speaker 1: a look of utter terror spread itself over the girl's face.
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Speaker 1: She rose to her feet and seemed about to fly
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Speaker 1: from the hall, restraining herself only with the most apparent difficulty.
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Speaker 1: I want to see my child, said mister Button. The
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Speaker 1: nurse gave a little scream. Oh of course, she cried, hysterically. Upstairs,
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Speaker 1: right upstairs, go up. She pointed direction, and mister Button,
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Speaker 1: bathed in cool perspiration, turned falteringly and began to mount
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Speaker 1: to the second and floor. In the upper hall, he
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Speaker 1: addressed another nurse who approached him basmin in hand. I'm
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Speaker 1: mister Button, he managed to articulate, I want to see
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Speaker 1: my clank. The basin clattered to the floor and rolled
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Speaker 1: in the direction of the stairs. Clank, clank. It began
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Speaker 1: a methodical dissent, as if sharing in the general terror
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Speaker 1: which this gentleman provoked. I want to see my child,
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Speaker 1: mister Button almost shrieked. He was on the verge of collapse. Clank.
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Speaker 1: The basin reached the first floor. The nurse regained control
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Speaker 1: of herself and threw mister Button a look of hearty contempt.
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Speaker 1: All right, mister Button, she agreed in a hushed voice.
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Speaker 1: Very well, but if you knew what a state it's
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Speaker 1: put us all in this morning, it's perfectly outrageous. The
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Speaker 1: hospital will never have a ghost of a reputation after hurry,
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Speaker 1: he cried hoarsely, I can't stand this. Come this way, then,
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Speaker 1: mister Button. He dragged himself after her at the end
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Speaker 1: of a law hallway. If they reached the room from
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Speaker 1: which proceeded a variety of howls. Indeed, a room which
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Speaker 1: in later parlance would have been known as the crying room.
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Speaker 1: They entered well, gasped mister Button. Which is mine? There,
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Speaker 1: said the nurse. Mister Button's eyes followed her pointing finger,
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Speaker 1: and this is what he saw. Wrapped in a volumous
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Speaker 1: white blanket and partially crammed into one of the cribs.
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Speaker 1: There sat an old man, apparently about seventy years of age,
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Speaker 1: his sparse hair almost white, and from his chin dripped
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Speaker 1: a long, smoke colored beard, which waved absurdly back and forth,
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Speaker 1: fanned by the breeze coming in at the window. He
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Speaker 1: looked up at mister Button with dim faded eyes in
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Speaker 1: which lurked a puzzled question. Am I mad? Thundered mister Button,
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Speaker 1: his terror resolving in the rage. Is this some ghastly
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Speaker 1: hospital joke? Doesn't seem like a joke to us, replied
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Speaker 1: the near severely. And I don't know whether you're mad
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Speaker 1: or not, but that is most certainly your child. The
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Speaker 1: cool perspiration redoubled on mister Button's forehead, closed his eyes
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Speaker 1: and then opening then looked again. There was no mistake
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Speaker 1: he was gazing at a man of three score and
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Speaker 1: ten a baby a threescore and ten, a baby whose
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Speaker 1: feet hung over the sides of the crib in which
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Speaker 1: it was reposing. The old man looked placidly from one
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Speaker 1: to the other for a moment, and then suddenly spoke
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Speaker 1: in a cracked to ancient voice. I am a father,
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Speaker 1: he demanded, mister Button, and the nurse stared violently. Because
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Speaker 1: if you are, went on the old man quareously, I
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Speaker 1: wish you'd get me out of this place, or at
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Speaker 1: least get them to put a comfortable rocker in here.
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Speaker 1: Where in God's name did you come from? Who are you?
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Speaker 1: Burst out mister Button frantically. Can't tell you exactly who
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Speaker 1: I am, replied the quarrelss wine, because I've only been
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Speaker 1: born a few hours, but my last name is certainly Button.
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Speaker 1: You lie, you're an impostor. The old man turned wearily
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Speaker 1: to the noose. Nice way to welcome a newborn child,
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Speaker 1: He complained, in a weak voice. Tommy's wrong. Why don't
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Speaker 1: you You're wrong, mister Button, said the nurse severely. This
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Speaker 1: is your child and you have to make the best
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Speaker 1: of it. We're going to ask you to take him
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Speaker 1: home with you as soon as possible, some time today home,
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Speaker 1: repeated mister Button, incredulously. Yes, we can't have him here,
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Speaker 1: We really can't. You know, I'm right glad of it,
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Speaker 1: whined the old man. This is a fine place to
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Speaker 1: keep a youngster of quiet tastes thal the yelling and howling.
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Speaker 1: I would be able to get away asleep. I asked
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Speaker 1: for something to eat here. His voice rose to a
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Speaker 1: she'll rise of protest, and they brought me a bottle
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Speaker 1: of milk. Mister Button sank down upon a chair near
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Speaker 1: his son and concealed his face in his hands. My heavens,
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Speaker 1: he murmured, in an ecstasy of horror. What will people say?
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Speaker 1: What must I do? You'll have to take him home,
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Speaker 1: insisted the nurse. Immediately, a grotesque picture formed itself with
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Speaker 1: dreadful clarity before the eyes of the tortured man, a
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Speaker 1: picture of himself walking through the crowded streets of the city,
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Speaker 1: with this appalling apparition stalking by his side. Can't, can't,
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Speaker 1: he moaned? People would stop to speak to him, and
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Speaker 1: what was he going to say? He would have to
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Speaker 1: introduce this, this stepigenarian, This is my son born early,
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Speaker 1: This morning, and then the old man would gather his
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Speaker 1: blanket around him, and they would plod on past the
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Speaker 1: bustling stores, the slave market. For a dark instant, mister
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Speaker 1: Button wished passionately that his son was black. Passed the
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Speaker 1: luxurious houses of the residential district, passed the home for
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Speaker 1: the aged. Come pull yourself together, commanded the nurse. Stay here,
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Speaker 1: the old man announced suddenly. If you think I'm going
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Speaker 1: to walk home in this blanket, you're entirely mistaken. Babies
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Speaker 1: always have blankets. With the malicious cackle, the old men
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Speaker 1: held up a small white swaddling garment. Hell, look, this
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Speaker 1: is what they had ready for me. Babies always wear these,
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Speaker 1: said the nurse. Primly, well, said you, old man, This
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Speaker 1: baby not going to wear anything in about two minutes.
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Speaker 1: This blanket itches. They might at least have given me
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Speaker 1: a sheet. Keep it on, Keep it on, said mister Button. Hurriedly.
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Speaker 1: He turned to the nurse. What'll I do? Go downtown,
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Speaker 1: buy your son some clothes. Mister Button's son voice followed
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Speaker 1: him down the hall and a cane. Father, I want
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Speaker 1: to have a cane. Mister Button banged the outer doors savagely.
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Speaker 1: Chapter two, Good good, good morning, mister Button said nervously
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Speaker 1: to the clerk in the Chesapeake Dry Goods Company, I
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Speaker 1: want to buy some clothes for my child. How old
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Speaker 1: is your child, sir? About six hours, answered mister Button,
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Speaker 1: with due consideration, baby supply department in the rear. I
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Speaker 1: don't think. I'm not sure that's what I want. It's
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Speaker 1: a he's an unusually large sized child, exceptually a large.
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Speaker 1: They have the largest children's sizes. Where's the boys department?
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Speaker 1: Inquired mister Button, shifting his ground desperately. He felt that
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Speaker 1: the clerk must surely scent his shameful secret right here. Well,
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Speaker 1: he hesitated. The notion of dressing his son in men's
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Speaker 1: clothes was repugg it to him, If, say, he could
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Speaker 1: only find a very large boy suit, he might cut
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Speaker 1: off the long and awful beard, dye the white hair brown,
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Speaker 1: and thus managed to conceal the worst and to retain
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Speaker 1: something of his own self respect, not to mention his
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Speaker 1: position in Baltimore's society. But a pratting inspection of the
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Speaker 1: boy's department revealed no suits to fit the newborn Button.
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Speaker 1: He blamed the store. Of course, in such cases it
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Speaker 1: is the thing to blame the store. How old just
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Speaker 1: say that boy of yours, was demanded the clerk. Curiously,
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Speaker 1: he's sixteen. Oh, I beg your pardon. I thought you
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Speaker 1: said six hours. You'll find the youth department in the
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Speaker 1: next aisle. Mister Button turned miserably away. Then he stopped, brightened,
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Speaker 1: and pointed his finger toward a dressed dummy in the
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Speaker 1: window display there. He exclaimed, I'll take that suit up
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Speaker 1: on the dummy. The clerk steered right, he protested, that's
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Speaker 1: not a child's suit at least it is, but it's
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Speaker 1: for fancy dress. You could wear it yourself. Wrap it up,
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Speaker 1: insisted his customer nervously. That's what I want. The astonished
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Speaker 1: clerk obeyed. Back at the hospital, mister Button entered the
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Speaker 1: nursery and almost threw the package at his son. Here's
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Speaker 1: your clothes, he snapped out. The old man untied the
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Speaker 1: package and viewed its contents with a quizzical eye. He
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Speaker 1: looks sort of funny to me, he complained. I don't
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Speaker 1: want to be made a monkey of He made a
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Speaker 1: monkey of me, retorted mister Button fiercely. Never you mind
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Speaker 1: how funny you look, but them on or I'll spank you.
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Speaker 1: He swallowed uneasily at the penulement word, feeling nervously that
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Speaker 1: it was the proper thing to say. All right, father,
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Speaker 1: this was a grotesque simulation of final respect. You've lived longer,
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Speaker 1: you know best, just as you say. As before the
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Speaker 1: sound of word father caused mister Button to start violently
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Speaker 1: and hurry, I'm hurrying father. When his son was dressed,
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Speaker 1: mister Button regarded him with depression. The costume consisted of
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Speaker 1: dotted socks, pink pants, and a belted blouse with a
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Speaker 1: wide white collar. Over the latter waved the long, whitish beard,
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Speaker 1: drooping almost to the waist. The effect was not good. Wait,
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Speaker 1: mister Button seized the hospital shears and, with three quick snips,
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Speaker 1: amputated a large section of the beard. But even with
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Speaker 1: this improvement, the ensemble fell far short perfection. The remaining
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Speaker 1: brush of scraggly hair, the watery eyes, the ancient teeth
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Speaker 1: seemed oddly out of tone with the gayety of the costume.
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Speaker 1: Mister Button, however, was obdurate. He held out his hand,
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Speaker 1: Come along, he said, sternly. His son took the hand trustingly.
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Speaker 1: Weren't you gonna call me? Dad? He quavered. As they
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Speaker 1: walked from the nursery, just baby for a while. Do
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Speaker 1: you think of a better name, mister Button grunted. I
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Speaker 1: don't know, he answered harshly. Think we'll call you Masthusdlah
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Speaker 1: chapter three. Even after the new addition to the Button
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Speaker 1: family had had his hair cut short and then dyed
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Speaker 1: to a sparse, unnatural black, had had his face shaved
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Speaker 1: so close that it glistened, and had been attired in
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Speaker 1: small boy clothes made to order by a flabbergasted tailor,
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Speaker 1: it was impossible for Button to ignore the fact that
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Speaker 1: his son was an excuse for a first family baby.
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Speaker 1: Despite his aged stoop. Benjamin Button, for that was his
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Speaker 1: name they called him in instead of by the appropriate
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Speaker 1: but individuous Methuselah was five feet eight inches tall. His
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Speaker 1: clothes did not conceal this, nor did the clipping and
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Speaker 1: dying of his eyebrows disguise the fact that the eyes
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Speaker 1: under were faded what reintired. In fact, the baby nurse,
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Speaker 1: who had been engaged advance, left the house after one
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Speaker 1: look in a state of considerable indignation, But mister Button
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Speaker 1: persisted in his unwavering purpose. Benjamin was a baby, and
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Speaker 1: a baby he should remain at first, he declared that
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Speaker 1: if Benjamin didn't like warm milk, he could go without
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Speaker 1: food altogether. But he was finally prevailed upon to allow
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Speaker 1: his son bread and water, and even oatmeal by way
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Speaker 1: of compromise. One day, he brought home a rattle, and,
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Speaker 1: giving it to Benjamin, insisted in no uncertain terms that
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Speaker 1: he should play with it, whereupon the old man took
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Speaker 1: it with a weary expression, and could be heard jingling
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Speaker 1: it obediently at intervals to rout the day. There can
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Speaker 1: be no doubt, though, that the rattle bored him, and
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Speaker 1: that he found other more soothing amusements when he was
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Speaker 1: left alone. For instance, mister Button discovered one day that
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Speaker 1: during the preceding week he had smoked more cigars than
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Speaker 1: ever before, a phenomenon which was explained a few days later.
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Speaker 1: When entering the nursery unexpectedly, he found the room full
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Speaker 1: of a faint blue haze, and Benjamin, with a guilty
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Speaker 1: expression on his face, trying to conceal the butt of
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Speaker 1: a dark havana. This of course called for a severe spanking,
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Speaker 1: but mister Button found that he could not bring himself
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Speaker 1: to administer it. He merely warned his son that he
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Speaker 1: was study his growth. Nevertheless, he persisted in his attitude.
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Speaker 1: He brought home lead soldiers, he brought home toy trains,
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Speaker 1: he brought large, pleasant animals made of cotton. And to
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Speaker 1: perfect the illusion which he was creating for himself, at least,
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Speaker 1: he passionately demanded of the clerk in the toy store. Rather,
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Speaker 1: the paint would come off the pink duck if the
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Speaker 1: baby put it in his mouth. But despite all his
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Speaker 1: father's efforts, Benjamin refused to be arrested. He would steal
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Speaker 1: down the back stairs and return to the nursery with
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Speaker 1: the volume of the Encyclopedia of Arnica, over which he
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Speaker 1: would pour through an afternoon, while his cotton cows and
18:20
Speaker 1: Noah's ark were left neglected on the floor. Against such
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Speaker 1: such stubbornness, mister Button's efforts were of little avail. The
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Speaker 1: sensation created in Baltimore was at first prodigious. What the
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Speaker 1: mishap would have cost the Buttons and their kinfolks socially
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Speaker 1: cannot be determined. For the outbreak of the Civil War
18:42
Speaker 1: brought the city's attention to other things. A few people
18:45
Speaker 1: who were unfailingly polite, racked their brains for compliments to
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Speaker 1: give to the parents, and finally hit upon the ingenious device,
18:53
Speaker 1: declaring that the baby resembled his grandfather, a fact which,
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Speaker 1: due to the standard state of decay common to all
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Speaker 1: men of seventy, could not be denied. Mister and missus
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Speaker 1: Roger Button were not pleased, but Benjamin's grandfather was furiously insulted. Benjamin,
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Speaker 1: once he left the hospital, took life as he founded.
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Speaker 1: Several small boys were brought to see him, and he
19:16
Speaker 1: spent a stiff jointed afternoon trying to work up an
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Speaker 1: interest in tops and marbles. He even managed, quite accidentally
19:24
Speaker 1: to break a kitchen window with the stone from a
19:26
Speaker 1: sling shot, a feat which secretly delighted his father. Thereafter,
19:31
Speaker 1: Benjamin contrived to break something every day, but he did
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Speaker 1: these things only because they were expected of him, and
19:38
Speaker 1: because he was by nature obliging. When his grandfather's initial
19:43
Speaker 1: antagonism wore off, Benjamin and that gentleman took enormous pleasure
19:47
Speaker 1: in one another's company. They would sit for hours, these
19:51
Speaker 1: two so far apart in age and experience, and like
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Speaker 1: old Crony's discuss with tireless monotony the slow events of
19:58
Speaker 1: the day, Benjamin felt more at ease in his grandfather's
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Speaker 1: presence than in his parents. They seemed always somewhat in
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Speaker 1: awe of him, and despite the dictatorial authority they exercised
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Speaker 1: over him, frequently addressed him as mister. He was as
20:15
Speaker 1: puzzled as any one else at the apparently advanced age
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Speaker 1: of his mind and body at birth. He read up
20:22
Speaker 1: on the medical journal, but found that no such case
20:25
Speaker 1: had been previously recorded. At his father's urging, he made
20:29
Speaker 1: honest attempts to play with other boys, and frequently he
20:32
Speaker 1: joined in milder games. Football shook him up too much.
20:36
Speaker 1: He feared that in case of a fracture, as his
20:38
Speaker 1: ancient bones would refuse to knit. When he was five,
20:42
Speaker 1: he was sent to kindergarten, where he initiated into the
20:45
Speaker 1: art of pasting green paper on orange paper, of weaving
20:49
Speaker 1: colored maps, and manufacturing eternal cardboard necklaces. He was inclined
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Speaker 1: to drowse off to sleep in the middle of these tasks,
20:57
Speaker 1: a habit which both irritated and frightened his young teacher.
21:01
Speaker 1: To his relief, she complained to his parents, and he
21:04
Speaker 1: was removed from the school. The Roger Buttons told the
21:08
Speaker 1: friends that they felt he was too young. By the
21:12
Speaker 1: time he was twelve years old, his parents had grown
21:14
Speaker 1: used to him. Indeed, so strong is the force of
21:18
Speaker 1: custom that they no longer felt that he was different
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Speaker 1: from any other child, except when some curious anomaly reminded
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Speaker 1: them of the fact. One day, a few weeks after
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Speaker 1: his twelfth birthday, while looking in the mirror, Benjamin made
21:33
Speaker 1: or thought he made, an astonishing discovery. Did his eyes
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Speaker 1: deceive him? Or had his hair turned in the dozen
21:41
Speaker 1: years of his life from white to iron gray under
21:45
Speaker 1: its concealing dye. Was the network of wrinkles on his
21:50
Speaker 1: face becoming less pronounced? Was his skin healthier and firmer,
21:55
Speaker 1: with even a touch of rutty winter crawler? He could not.
22:00
Speaker 1: He knew that he no longer stooped, and that his
22:04
Speaker 1: physical condition had improved since the early days of his life.
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Speaker 1: Can it be, he thought to himself, or rather scarcely
22:11
Speaker 1: dared to think. He went to his father. I'm grown,
22:16
Speaker 1: he announced, determinedly. I want to put on long trousers.
22:20
Speaker 1: His father hesitated, well, he said, finally, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: Fourteen is the age for putting on long trousers, and
22:28
Speaker 1: you are only twelve. But you have to admit, protested Benjamin,
22:34
Speaker 1: I'm big from age. The father looked at him with
22:37
Speaker 1: illusory speculation. I'm not so sure of that. He said,
22:42
Speaker 1: I was as big as you when I was twelve.
22:45
Speaker 1: This was not true. It was all part of Roger
22:47
Speaker 1: Button's silent agreement with himself to believe in his son's normality. Finally,
22:53
Speaker 1: a compromise was reached. Benjamin was to continue to dye
22:57
Speaker 1: his hair. He was to make a better attention to
23:00
Speaker 1: play with boys of his own age. He was not
23:03
Speaker 1: to wear spectacles or carry a cane in the street.
23:06
Speaker 1: In return for these concessions, he was allowed his first
23:09
Speaker 1: suit of long trousers Chapter four of the Life of
23:15
Speaker 1: Benjamin Button. Between his twelfth and twenty first year, I
23:19
Speaker 1: intend to say little suffice to record that they were
23:23
Speaker 1: years of normal ungrowth. When Benjamin was eighteen, he was
23:27
Speaker 1: erecked as a man of fifty. He had more hair,
23:30
Speaker 1: and it was of a dark gray. His step was firm,
23:34
Speaker 1: His voice had lost its crack quaver and descended to
23:37
Speaker 1: a healthy baritone. So as father sent him up to
23:41
Speaker 1: Connecticut to take examinations for entrance to Yale College. Benjamin
23:46
Speaker 1: passed his examinations and became a member of the freshman class.
23:52
Speaker 1: On the third day, following his meticulation, he received a
23:55
Speaker 1: notification from mister Hart to college registrar to call it
23:59
Speaker 1: his office and arrange his schedule. Benjamin, lancing in the mirror,
24:03
Speaker 1: decided that his hair needed a new application of its
24:06
Speaker 1: brown dye, but an anxious inspection of his bureau drawer
24:10
Speaker 1: disclosed that the dying bottle was not there. Then he
24:13
Speaker 1: remembered he had emptied it the day before and thrown
24:16
Speaker 1: it away. He was in a dilemma. He was due
24:19
Speaker 1: at the registrars in five minutes. There seemed to be
24:21
Speaker 1: no help for it. He must go as he was.
24:24
Speaker 1: He did. Good morning, said the registrar politely. You've come
24:29
Speaker 1: to inquire about your son. Why, as a matter of fact,
24:32
Speaker 1: my name's Button, began Benjamin, but mister Hart cut him off.
24:37
Speaker 1: Very glad to meet you, mister Button. I'm expecting your
24:39
Speaker 1: son here in a minute. That's me, burst out Benjamin.
24:43
Speaker 1: I'm a freshman. What I'm a freshman. Surely you're joking,
24:48
Speaker 1: not at all. The registrar frowned and glanced at the
24:52
Speaker 1: card before him. Why have mister Benjamin Buttons aid down
24:57
Speaker 1: at is eighteen, asserted Benjamin, flushing slightly. Registrar eyed him wearily. Now, surely,
25:07
Speaker 1: mister Button, you don't expect me to believe that, Benjamin
25:11
Speaker 1: spiraled wearily. I'm eighteen, he repeated. The register pointed sternly
25:17
Speaker 1: at the door. Get out, he said, Get out of
25:19
Speaker 1: college and get out of town. You're a dangerous lunatic.
25:23
Speaker 1: I'm eighteen. Mister hard opened the door. The idea, he shouted,
25:29
Speaker 1: A man of your age trying to enter. Here is
25:30
Speaker 1: a freshman eighteen years old. Are you well? I'll give
25:34
Speaker 1: you eighteen minutes to get out of town. Benjamin Button
25:37
Speaker 1: walked with dignity from the room, and half a dozen
25:40
Speaker 1: undergraduates who were waiting in the hall followed him curiously
25:43
Speaker 1: with their eyes. When he had gone a little way,
25:45
Speaker 1: he turned around, faced the infuriated Registar, who was still
25:49
Speaker 1: standing in the door, and repeated in a firm voice,
25:53
Speaker 1: I am eighteen years old, to a chorus of titters,
25:56
Speaker 1: which went up from the group of undergraduates. Benjamin walked away,
26:01
Speaker 1: but he was not feited to escape so easily. On
26:05
Speaker 1: his melancholy walk to the railroad station, he found that
26:08
Speaker 1: he was being followed by a group, then by a swarm,
26:11
Speaker 1: and finally by a dense mass of undergraduates. The word
26:15
Speaker 1: had gone around that a lunatic had passed to enter
26:18
Speaker 1: its examinations for Yale and attempted to palm himself off
26:21
Speaker 1: as a youth of eighteen. A fever of excitement permeated.
26:25
Speaker 1: The college men ran hatless out of classes. The football
26:29
Speaker 1: team abandoned its practice and joined the mob. Professor's wife
26:32
Speaker 1: with Bonnet's rye and bustles out of position, ran shouting
26:37
Speaker 1: after the procession, from which proceeded a continual succession of
26:40
Speaker 1: remarks aimed at the tender sensibilities of Benjamin Button. He
26:47
Speaker 1: must be a wandering Jew. He ought to go to
26:50
Speaker 1: prep school. Hits age. Look at the infant prodigy. He
26:55
Speaker 1: thought this was the old man's home. Go up to arbor.
27:01
Speaker 1: Benjamin increased his gait, and soon he was running. He
27:05
Speaker 1: would show them he would go to Harvard, and then
27:08
Speaker 1: they would regret these ill considerate tons. Safely on the
27:12
Speaker 1: train for Baltimore, he put his head from the window.
27:16
Speaker 1: You'll regret this, he shouted. Ha ha, the undergraduate's lap,
27:20
Speaker 1: ha ha ha. It was the biggest mistake that Yale
27:24
Speaker 1: College had ever made chapter five. In eighteen eighty, Benjamin
27:31
Speaker 1: Button was twenty years old, and he signaled his birthday
27:35
Speaker 1: by going to work for his father in Roger Button
27:38
Speaker 1: and Company, wholesale hardware. It was in the same year
27:41
Speaker 1: that he began going out socially, that is, his father
27:46
Speaker 1: insisted on taking him to several fashionable dances. Roger Button
27:50
Speaker 1: was now fifty and he and his son were more
27:54
Speaker 1: and more compatible. In fact, since Benjamin had ceased to
27:58
Speaker 1: dye his hair, which was still great, they appeared about
28:01
Speaker 1: the same age and could have passed for brothers. One
28:05
Speaker 1: night in August, they got into the Phaetin attired in
28:07
Speaker 1: their full dress suits and drove out to a dance
28:10
Speaker 1: at the Shelbourn's country clouse, situated just outside of Baltimore.
28:16
Speaker 1: It was a gorgeous evening. A full moon drenched the
28:18
Speaker 1: road to the lustreless color of platinum, and late blooming
28:23
Speaker 1: harvest flowers breathed into the motionless air aromas that were
28:28
Speaker 1: like low half heard laughter. The open country carpeted for
28:32
Speaker 1: rods around with bright wheat, was translucent. As in the day,
28:37
Speaker 1: it was almost impossible not to be affected by the
28:40
Speaker 1: sheer beauty of the sky. Almost there's a great future
28:45
Speaker 1: in the dry goods business. Roger Button was saying. He
28:49
Speaker 1: was not a spiritual man. His esthetic sense was rudimentary.
28:54
Speaker 1: Old fellows like me can't learn new tricks. He observed profoundly,
28:58
Speaker 1: its you, youngsters, with energy and vitality, that have the
29:02
Speaker 1: great future. Before you, far up the road, the lights
29:06
Speaker 1: of the Shelbon's country house drifted into view, and presently
29:10
Speaker 1: there was a singing sound that crept persistently toward them.
29:14
Speaker 1: It might have been the fine plaint of violins, or
29:17
Speaker 1: the rustle of the silver wheat under the moon. Pulled
29:20
Speaker 1: up behind a handsome Brome whose passengers were disembarking. At
29:23
Speaker 1: the door. A lady got out, then an elderly gentleman,
29:27
Speaker 1: then another young lady, beautiful as sin. Benjamin started an
29:32
Speaker 1: almost chemical change, seemed to dissolve and recompose the very
29:37
Speaker 1: elements of his body. A rigor passed over him, blood
29:41
Speaker 1: rose into his cheeks, his forehead, and there was a
29:45
Speaker 1: steady thumping in his ears. It was first love. The
29:50
Speaker 1: girl was slender and frail, with hair that was ashen
29:54
Speaker 1: under the moon, and honey colored under the sputtering gas
29:57
Speaker 1: lamps of the porch. Over her shoulders was thrown a
30:00
Speaker 1: Spanish mantilia of softest yellow butterflied in black. Her feet
30:04
Speaker 1: were glittering buttons at the hem of her bustled dress.
30:09
Speaker 1: Roger Button leaned over his son that he said, is
30:13
Speaker 1: young Hildegarde Montcliffe, the daughter of General Montcleaffe. Benjamin nodded coldly.
30:19
Speaker 1: Pretty old Leny said indifferently. But when the boy had
30:22
Speaker 1: led the buggy away, Dad, you might introduce me to her.
30:28
Speaker 1: They approached a group of which Miss Montcleaf was the center.
30:32
Speaker 1: Reared in the old tradition, she curtsied low before Benjamin. Yes,
30:37
Speaker 1: he might have a dance. He thanked her and walked away,
30:40
Speaker 1: staggered away. The interval until the time for his turn
30:44
Speaker 1: should arrive dragged itself out interminably. He stood close to
30:49
Speaker 1: the wall, silent, inscrutable, watching with murderous eyes the young
30:53
Speaker 1: bloods of as they eddied around Hildegarde montleff passionate admiration
30:58
Speaker 1: in their faces. How obnoxious they seemed to Benjamin, how
31:03
Speaker 1: intolerably rosy their curling brown whiskers aroused in him a
31:09
Speaker 1: feeling equivalent to indigestion. But when his own time came,
31:13
Speaker 1: and he drifted with her out upon the changing floor
31:17
Speaker 1: to the music of the latest waltz from Paris. His
31:20
Speaker 1: jealousies and anxieties melted from him like a mantle of snow.
31:25
Speaker 1: Blind with enchantment, he felt that life was just beginning.
31:30
Speaker 1: You and your brother got here just as we did,
31:32
Speaker 1: didn't you, asked Hildegarden, looking up at him with eyes
31:37
Speaker 1: that were like bright blue enamel. Benjamin hesitated. If she
31:42
Speaker 1: took him for his father's brother, would it be best
31:45
Speaker 1: to enlighten her. He remembered his experience at Yale, so
31:50
Speaker 1: he decided against it. It would be rude to contradict
31:53
Speaker 1: the lady. It would be criminal to mar this exquisite
31:57
Speaker 1: occasion with the grotesque story of his origin. It raps
32:02
Speaker 1: So he nodded, smiled, listened, was happy. I like men
32:07
Speaker 1: of your age, Hildegard told him. Young boys are so idiotic.
32:12
Speaker 1: They tell me how much champagne they drink at college
32:16
Speaker 1: and how much money they lose playing cards. Many of
32:19
Speaker 1: your age know how to appreciate women. Benjamin felt himself
32:23
Speaker 1: on the verge of a proposal. With an effort, he
32:27
Speaker 1: choked back the impulse. You're just the romantic age. She continued,
32:33
Speaker 1: Fifty twenty five is too worldly wise, thirty is apt
32:36
Speaker 1: to be pale from overwork. Forty is the age of
32:40
Speaker 1: long stories that take a whole cigar to tell. Sixty
32:44
Speaker 1: is uh, sixty is two near seventy. But fifty is
32:48
Speaker 1: the mellow age. I love fifty. Fifty seemed to Benjamin
32:53
Speaker 1: Agrooray's age. He longed passionately to be fifty. I've always said,
32:57
Speaker 1: went on Hildegarden, that I'd marry a man of fifty
33:01
Speaker 1: and be taken care of. Then marry a man of
33:04
Speaker 1: thirty and take care of him Benjamin. The rest of
33:08
Speaker 1: the evening was bathed in honey colored mist. Hildegarde gave
33:13
Speaker 1: him two more dances, and they discovered that they were
33:16
Speaker 1: marvelously in accord on all the questions of the day.
33:20
Speaker 1: She was to go driving with him on the following Sunday,
33:23
Speaker 1: and then they would discuss all their questions further. Going
33:28
Speaker 1: home in the Phaeton, just before the crack of dawn,
33:30
Speaker 1: when the first bees were humming, and the fading moon
33:33
Speaker 1: glimmered and the cool dew, Benjamin knew vaguely that his
33:37
Speaker 1: father was discussing wholesale hardware, and what do you think
33:42
Speaker 1: should merit our biggest attention after hammers and nails. The
33:46
Speaker 1: elder Button was saying, love, replied Benjamin absent mindedly. Lugs,
33:53
Speaker 1: exclaimed Roger Button. Why I've just covered the question of lugs.
33:59
Speaker 1: Benjamin un regarded him with dazed eyes, just as the
34:02
Speaker 1: eastern sky was suddenly crackled with light and an oriel
34:06
Speaker 1: yawn piercingly in the quickening trees. When six months later,
34:11
Speaker 1: the engagement of Miss Hildegarde Montcliffe to mister Benjamin Button
34:15
Speaker 1: was made known, I say made known, for General Montcliffe
34:18
Speaker 1: declared he would rather fall upon his sword than announce it.
34:23
Speaker 1: The excitement in Baltimore's society reached the feverish pitch. The
34:28
Speaker 1: almost forgotten story of Benjamin's birth was remembered and sent
34:31
Speaker 1: out upon the winds of scandal in picturesque and incredible forms.
34:37
Speaker 1: It was said that Benjamin was really the father of
34:40
Speaker 1: Roger Button, that he was his brother who had been
34:43
Speaker 1: imprisoned for forty years, that he was John Wilkes's booth
34:47
Speaker 1: in disguise, and finally, that he had two small conical
34:52
Speaker 1: horns sprouting from his head. The Sunday supplements of the
34:56
Speaker 1: New York Papers played up the case with fascinating sketches
35:00
Speaker 1: which showed the head of Benjamin Button attached to a fish,
35:04
Speaker 1: to a snake, and finally to a body of solid brass.
35:09
Speaker 1: He became known journalistically as the mystery Man of Maryland,
35:13
Speaker 1: but the true story, as is usually the case, had
35:17
Speaker 1: a very small circulation. However, everyone agreed with General Montcliffe
35:22
Speaker 1: that it was criminal for a lovely girl, who could
35:25
Speaker 1: have married any bow in Baltimore to throw herself into
35:29
Speaker 1: the arms of a man who was assuredly fifty. In Vain,
35:33
Speaker 1: mister Roger Button published his son's birth certificate in large
35:38
Speaker 1: type in the Baltimore Blaze. No one believed it. You
35:42
Speaker 1: had only to look at Benjamin and Sea On the
35:45
Speaker 1: part of the two people most concerned, there was no wavering.
35:50
Speaker 1: So many of the stories about her fiancee were false
35:53
Speaker 1: that Hilligard refused stubbornly to believe even the true one.
35:57
Speaker 1: In Vain, General Montgraff pointed out to her the high
36:01
Speaker 1: mortality among men of fifty, or at least among men
36:04
Speaker 1: who looked fifty. In Vain. He told her of the
36:07
Speaker 1: instability of the wholesale hardware business. Hildegarde and chosen to
36:13
Speaker 1: marry for Mellowness, and marry she did Chapter seven. In
36:19
Speaker 1: one particular, at least the friend of Hildegarde Montcliffe were mistaken.
36:24
Speaker 1: The wholesale hardware business prospered amazingly In the fifteen years
36:28
Speaker 1: between Benjamin Button's marriage in eighteen eighty and his father's
36:32
Speaker 1: retirement in eighteen ninety five. The family fortune was doubled,
36:37
Speaker 1: and this was due largely to the younger member of
36:39
Speaker 1: the firm. Needless to say, Baltimore eventually received the couple
36:44
Speaker 1: to its bosom. Even old General Moncrief became reconciled to
36:49
Speaker 1: his son in law when Benjamin gave him the money
36:51
Speaker 1: to bring out his history of the Civil War in
36:54
Speaker 1: twenty volumes, which had been refused by nine prominent publishers,
36:59
Speaker 1: and Benjamin himself till fifteen years had wrought many changes.
37:02
Speaker 1: Seemed to him that the blood flowed with new vigor
37:05
Speaker 1: through his veins. It began to be a pleasure to
37:08
Speaker 1: rise in the morning, to walk with an active step
37:11
Speaker 1: along the busy sunny street, to work untiringly with his
37:14
Speaker 1: shipments of hammers and his cargoes of nails. It was
37:18
Speaker 1: an eighteen ninety that he executed his famous business coup.
37:23
Speaker 1: He brought up the suggestion that all nails used in
37:25
Speaker 1: nailing up the boxes in which nails were shipped are
37:29
Speaker 1: the property of the ship e. A proposal which became
37:33
Speaker 1: a statute, was approved by Chief Justice Fossil, and saved
37:38
Speaker 1: Roger Button and Company wholesale hardware more than six hundred
37:42
Speaker 1: nails every year. In addition, Benjamin discovered that he was
37:47
Speaker 1: becoming more and more attracted by the gay side of life.
37:51
Speaker 1: It was typical of his growing enthusiasm for pleasure that
37:55
Speaker 1: he was the first man of the city of Baltimore
37:57
Speaker 1: to own and run an automobile. Meeting him on the street,
38:02
Speaker 1: his contemporaries would stare enviously at the picture he made
38:05
Speaker 1: of health and vitality. He seems to grow younger every year,
38:10
Speaker 1: they would remark, And if old Roger Benjamin, now sixty
38:14
Speaker 1: five years old, had failed at first to give a
38:17
Speaker 1: proper welcome to his son, a tone at last by
38:20
Speaker 1: bestowing on him what amounted to gratulation, and here we
38:26
Speaker 1: come to an unpleasant subject, which it will be well
38:29
Speaker 1: to pass over as quickly as possible. There was only
38:33
Speaker 1: one thing that worried Benjamin button, his wife had ceased
38:37
Speaker 1: to attract him at the time. Hildegarde was a woman
38:42
Speaker 1: of thirty five with a son, Roscoe, fourteen years old.
38:47
Speaker 1: In the early days of their marriage, Benjamin had worshiped her,
38:50
Speaker 1: but as the years passed, her honey colored hair became
38:53
Speaker 1: an unexciting brown. The blue enamel of her eyes assumed
38:57
Speaker 1: the aspect of cheap crockery. Moreover, and most of all,
39:01
Speaker 1: she had become too settled in ways, too placid to content,
39:04
Speaker 1: to anemic in her excitements, and too sober in her taste.
39:10
Speaker 1: As a bride, it had been she who had dragged
39:13
Speaker 1: Benjamin to dances and dinners. Now conditions were reversed. She
39:18
Speaker 1: went out socially with him, but without enthusiasm, devoured already
39:22
Speaker 1: by the eternal inertia which comes to live with each
39:26
Speaker 1: of us one day in stays with us to the end.
39:30
Speaker 1: Benjamin's discontent waxed stronger at the outbreak of the Spanish
39:34
Speaker 1: American War in eighteen ninety eight. His home had for
39:37
Speaker 1: him so little charm that he decided to join the army.
39:41
Speaker 1: With his business influence, he obtained a commission as captain,
39:44
Speaker 1: and proved so adaptable to the work that he was
39:47
Speaker 1: made a major and finally a lieutenant colonel, just in
39:51
Speaker 1: time to participate in the celebrated charge up San Juan Hill.
39:55
Speaker 1: He was slightly wounded and received a medal. Benjamin had
39:59
Speaker 1: become so attached to the activity and excitement of army
40:03
Speaker 1: life that he regretted to give it up, but his
40:06
Speaker 1: business required attention, so he resigned his commission came home.
40:10
Speaker 1: He was met at the station by a brass band
40:13
Speaker 1: and escorted to his house. Into Part one, Section two,
40:19
Speaker 1: Chapter eight. Hildegarde, waving a large silk flag, greeted him
40:23
Speaker 1: on the porch, and even as he kissed her, he
40:26
Speaker 1: felt with a sinking feeling of the heart that these
40:29
Speaker 1: three years had taken their toll. She was a woman
40:32
Speaker 1: of forty now, with a faint, skirmish line of gray
40:35
Speaker 1: hairs in her head. The sight depressed him. Up in
40:39
Speaker 1: his room, he sized reflection in the familiar mirror and
40:42
Speaker 1: went closer and examined his own face with anxiety, comparing
40:46
Speaker 1: it after a moment with a photograph of himself in
40:49
Speaker 1: uniform taken just before the war. Good Lord, he said aloud.
40:54
Speaker 1: The process was continuing, there was no doubt of it.
40:58
Speaker 1: He looked now like a man of thirty. Instead of
41:00
Speaker 1: being delighted, he was uneasy. He was growing younger and
41:04
Speaker 1: had hitherto hoped that once he reached the bodily age
41:08
Speaker 1: equivalent to his age in years, through a grotesque phenomenon
41:12
Speaker 1: which had marked his birth, would cease the function. He shuddered.
41:17
Speaker 1: His destiny seemed to him awful, incredible. When he came downstairs,
41:23
Speaker 1: Hildegarde was waiting for him. She appeared annoyed, and he
41:27
Speaker 1: wondered if she had at last discovered that there was
41:30
Speaker 1: something amiss. It was with an effort to relieve the
41:34
Speaker 1: tension between them that he broached the matter at dinner
41:38
Speaker 1: in what he considered a delicate way. Well, he remarked, lightly,
41:44
Speaker 1: everybody says it look younger than ever. Hildegarde regarded him
41:47
Speaker 1: with scorn. She sniffed, do you think it's anything to
41:50
Speaker 1: boast about? I'm not boasting, he asserted, uncomfortably. She sniffed again.
41:57
Speaker 1: The idea, she said, and after a moment, I should
42:00
Speaker 1: think you'd have enough pride to stop it. How can I,
42:05
Speaker 1: he demanded, I'm not going to argue with you, she retorted,
42:09
Speaker 1: but there's a right way of doing things in a
42:12
Speaker 1: wrong way if you've made up your mind to be
42:14
Speaker 1: different from everyone else. I don't suppose I can stop you,
42:18
Speaker 1: but I really don't think it's very considerate. But Hildiguard,
42:23
Speaker 1: I can't help it. You can too. You're simply stubborn.
42:28
Speaker 1: You think you don't want to be like anyone else.
42:32
Speaker 1: You always have been that way, and you always will be.
42:35
Speaker 1: But just think how it would be if everyone else
42:38
Speaker 1: looked at things as you do. What would world be like?
42:43
Speaker 1: As this was an inane and unanswerable argument, Benjamin made
42:47
Speaker 1: no reply, and from that time on a chasm began
42:51
Speaker 1: to widen between them. He wondered what possible fascination she
42:54
Speaker 1: had ever exercised over him. To add to the breach,
42:59
Speaker 1: he found it as a new century gathered headway that
43:02
Speaker 1: his thirst for gaiety grew stronger. Never a party of
43:05
Speaker 1: any kind in the city of Baltimore, but he was there,
43:09
Speaker 1: dancing with the prettiest of the young married women, chatting
43:13
Speaker 1: with the most popular of the debutantes, and finding their
43:16
Speaker 1: company charming, while his wife, a dowager of evil Omen,
43:20
Speaker 1: sat among the chaperones now in haughty disapproval, and now
43:25
Speaker 1: following him with psalm, puzzled and reproachful eyes. Look, people remark,
43:31
Speaker 1: what a pity a young fellow that age tied to
43:33
Speaker 1: a woman of forty five. He must be twenty years
43:36
Speaker 1: younger in his wife. They had forgotten his people invariably
43:40
Speaker 1: forget that back in eighteen eighty their mamas and papas
43:45
Speaker 1: had also remarked about this same ill matched pair. Benjamin's
43:51
Speaker 1: growing unhappiness at home was compensated for by his many
43:55
Speaker 1: new interests. He took up golf and made a great
43:58
Speaker 1: success of it. In for dancing, in nineteen o six
44:03
Speaker 1: he was an expert at the Boston, and in nineteen
44:05
Speaker 1: o eight he was considered proficient at the Maxine, while
44:10
Speaker 1: in nineteen o nine his castle walk was the envy
44:13
Speaker 1: of every young man in town. His social activities has,
44:17
Speaker 1: of course, interfered to some extent with his business, But
44:21
Speaker 1: then he had worked hard at wholesale hardware for twenty
44:24
Speaker 1: five years and felt that he could soon hand it
44:26
Speaker 1: on to his son, Roscoe, who had recently graduated from Harvard.
44:32
Speaker 1: He and his son, in fact, were often mistaken for
44:34
Speaker 1: each other, Thus pleased Benjamin. He soon forgot the insidious
44:39
Speaker 1: fear which had come over him on his return from
44:42
Speaker 1: the Spanish American War, and grew to take a naive
44:45
Speaker 1: pleasure in his appearance. There was only one fly in
44:49
Speaker 1: the delicious ointment. He hated to appear in public with
44:53
Speaker 1: his wife, Hilda Garde was almost fifty, and the sight
44:58
Speaker 1: of her made him feel absurd. Chapter nine. One September
45:05
Speaker 1: Day in nineteen ten, few years after Roger Button and
45:09
Speaker 1: Company wholesale hardware had been handed over to young Roscoebutton,
45:14
Speaker 1: a man apparently about twenty years old, entered himself as
45:19
Speaker 1: a freshman at Harvard University in Cambridge. He did not
45:22
Speaker 1: make the mistake of announcing that he would never see
45:25
Speaker 1: fifty again, nor did he mention the fact that his
45:28
Speaker 1: son had been graduated from the same institution ten years before.
45:33
Speaker 1: He was admitted and almost immediately attained a prominent position
45:38
Speaker 1: in the class, partially because he seemed a little older
45:41
Speaker 1: than the other freshman, whose average age was about eighteen.
45:46
Speaker 1: But his success was largely due to the fact that,
45:49
Speaker 1: in the football game with Yale, he played so brilliantly,
45:52
Speaker 1: with so much dash, and with such a cold, remorseless
45:56
Speaker 1: anger that he scored seven touchdowns in fourteen fields golds
46:00
Speaker 1: for Harvard, and caused one entire eleven of Yale men
46:04
Speaker 1: to be carried singly away from the field unconscious. He
46:08
Speaker 1: was the most celebrated man in college, strange to say.
46:13
Speaker 1: In his third or junior year, he was scarcely able
46:16
Speaker 1: to make the team. Coaches said that he had lost weight,
46:19
Speaker 1: and it seemed to the more observant among them that
46:22
Speaker 1: he was not quite as tall as before. He made
46:25
Speaker 1: no touchdowns. Indeed, he was retained on the team, chiefly
46:29
Speaker 1: in hope that his enormous reputation would bring terror and
46:32
Speaker 1: disorganization to the Yale team. In his senior year, he
46:36
Speaker 1: did not make the team at all. He had grown
46:38
Speaker 1: so slight and frail that one day he was taken
46:41
Speaker 1: by some sophomores for freshmen, an incident which humiliated him terribly.
46:47
Speaker 1: He became known as something of a prodigy, a senior
46:50
Speaker 1: who was surely no more than sixteen, and he was
46:53
Speaker 1: often shocked at the worldliness of some of his classmates.
46:57
Speaker 1: His studies seemed harder to him. He felt that they
47:00
Speaker 1: were too advanced. He heard his classmates speak of Saint Midas,
47:05
Speaker 1: the famous preparatory school at which so many of them
47:08
Speaker 1: had prepared for college, and he determined after his graduation
47:11
Speaker 1: to enter himself at Saint Midas, where the sheltered life
47:15
Speaker 1: among boys his own size would be more congenial to him.
47:20
Speaker 1: Upon his graduation in nineteen fourteen, he went home to
47:23
Speaker 1: Baltimore with his Harvard diploma in his pocket. Hildegarde was
47:27
Speaker 1: now residing in Italy, so Benjamin went to live with
47:30
Speaker 1: his son, Roscoe. But though he was welcomed in a
47:34
Speaker 1: general way, there was obviously no heartiness in Roscoe's feeling
47:38
Speaker 1: for him. There was even perceptible a tendency on his
47:42
Speaker 1: son's part to think that Benjamin was as he moped
47:45
Speaker 1: about the house in adolescent mooniness was somewhat in the way.
47:50
Speaker 1: Roscoe was married now and prominent in Baltimore life, and
47:55
Speaker 1: he wanted no scandal to creep out in connection with
47:58
Speaker 1: his family. Benjamin, no longer a persona grata with the
48:06
Speaker 1: debutantes and younger college set, found himself much left done
48:10
Speaker 1: except for the companionship of three or four fifteen year
48:13
Speaker 1: old boys in the neighborhood. His idea of going to
48:16
Speaker 1: Saint Midas's school recurred to him, say, said Roscoe. One day,
48:22
Speaker 1: I've told you over and over that I want to
48:24
Speaker 1: go to prep school. Well go, then, replied Roscoe shortly.
48:29
Speaker 1: The matter was distasteful to him and he wished to
48:31
Speaker 1: avoid a discussion. I can't go alone, said Benjamin helplessly.
48:36
Speaker 1: You'll have to enter me and take me up there.
48:40
Speaker 1: I haven't got time, declared Roscoe abruptly. His eye narrowed
48:43
Speaker 1: and he looked uneasily at his father. As a matter
48:46
Speaker 1: of fact, he added, you better not go on with
48:49
Speaker 1: this business much longer. You better pull up short. He
48:52
Speaker 1: better you better, he paused, and his face crimson that
48:56
Speaker 1: he sought for words. You'd better turn right around and
49:00
Speaker 1: start back the other way. This has gone too far
49:03
Speaker 1: to be a joke. It isn't funny any longer. You
49:06
Speaker 1: you behave yourself. Benjamin looked at him on the verge
49:11
Speaker 1: of tears, and another thing, continued Roscoe. When visitors in
49:15
Speaker 1: the house, I want you to call me uncle, not Roscolle,
49:18
Speaker 1: but uncle. Do you understand it looks absurd for a
49:22
Speaker 1: boy of fifteen to call me by my first name.
49:25
Speaker 1: Perhaps you'd better call me uncle all the time till
49:29
Speaker 1: you get used to it. With a harsh look. After
49:32
Speaker 1: his father, Roscoe turned away Chapter ten. At the termination
49:38
Speaker 1: of his interview, Benjamin wandered dismally upstairs and stared at
49:42
Speaker 1: himself in a mirror. He had not shaved for three months,
49:45
Speaker 1: but it could find nothing on his face but a
49:48
Speaker 1: faint white down with which it seemed unnecessary to meddle.
49:54
Speaker 1: When he had first come home from Harvard, Roscoe had
49:57
Speaker 1: approached him with the proposition that he should wear eyeglasses
50:01
Speaker 1: and imitation. Whiskers glued to his cheeks, and it seemed
50:05
Speaker 1: for a moment that the farce of his early years
50:09
Speaker 1: was to be repeated. But Whiskers had itched and made
50:12
Speaker 1: him ashamed. He wept, and Roscoe had reluctantly relented. Benjamin
50:18
Speaker 1: opened a book of boys stories the boy Scouts in
50:20
Speaker 1: Biminy Bay began to read, but he found himself thinking
50:24
Speaker 1: persistently about the war. American had joined the Allies cause
50:29
Speaker 1: during the preceding month, and Benjamin wanted to enlist for
50:33
Speaker 1: the last. Sixteen was the minimum age, and he did
50:36
Speaker 1: not look that old. His true age, which was fifty seven,
50:40
Speaker 1: would have disqualified him anyway. There was a knock at
50:44
Speaker 1: the door, and the Butler appeared with a letter bearing
50:47
Speaker 1: a large official legend in the corner and addressed to
50:49
Speaker 1: mister Benjamin Button. Benjamin tore it open eagerly and read
50:55
Speaker 1: the enclosure with delight. It formed him that many reserve
50:58
Speaker 1: officers who had served an in the Spanish American War
51:01
Speaker 1: were being called back into service with a higher rank,
51:04
Speaker 1: and it enclosed his commission as brigadier general in the
51:08
Speaker 1: United States Army, with orders to report immediately. Benjamin jumped
51:14
Speaker 1: to his feet fairly, quivering with enthusiasm. This was what
51:18
Speaker 1: he had wanted. He seized his cap, and ten minutes
51:21
Speaker 1: later he had entered a large tailoring establishment on Charles
51:24
Speaker 1: Street and asked in his uncertain treble to be measured
51:29
Speaker 1: for a uniform. Wanna play's soldier Sonny, demanded the clerk casually.
51:34
Speaker 1: Benjamin flushed, say never mind what I want, he retorted angrily.
51:41
Speaker 1: My name's Benjamin and I live on Mount Vernon Place,
51:44
Speaker 1: so you know I'm good for it, well, admitted the
51:47
Speaker 1: clerk hesitantly. If you're not, I guess your daddy is
51:51
Speaker 1: all right. Benjamin was measured, and a week later his
51:56
Speaker 1: uniform was completed. He had difficulty in obtaining the proper
52:00
Speaker 1: general's insignia, because the dealer kept insisting to Benjamin that
52:03
Speaker 1: a nice V W C A badge would look just
52:07
Speaker 1: as well and be much more fun to play with.
52:10
Speaker 1: Saying nothing to Roscoe, he left the house one night
52:13
Speaker 1: and proceeded by train to Camp Mosby in South Carolina,
52:18
Speaker 1: where he was to command an infant brigade. On the
52:22
Speaker 1: sultry April day, he approached the entrance to the camp,
52:25
Speaker 1: paid off the taxi cab which had brought him from
52:28
Speaker 1: the station, and turned to the sentry on guard. Get
52:32
Speaker 1: someone to handle my luggage, he said, briskly. The sentry
52:36
Speaker 1: eyed him reproachfully say, he remarked, where you go with
52:41
Speaker 1: the general? Dud Sonny Benjamin, veteran of the Spanish American War,
52:46
Speaker 1: whirled upon him with fire in his eye, but with
52:49
Speaker 1: a last a changing, trebled voice come to attention. He
52:53
Speaker 1: tried to thunder. He paused for breath. Then suddenly he
52:56
Speaker 1: saw the sentry snap his heels together and bring his
52:59
Speaker 1: rifle to the present. Benjamin concealed a smile of gratification,
53:04
Speaker 1: but when he glanced around, his smile faded. It was
53:07
Speaker 1: not he who had inspired obedience, but imposing artillery colonel
53:12
Speaker 1: who was approaching on horseback. Colonel called Benjamin shrilly. The
53:18
Speaker 1: colonel came up, drew rein and looked coldly down at
53:21
Speaker 1: him with a twinkle in his eye. Who little boy
53:24
Speaker 1: are you, he demanded kindly. I'll soon darn well show
53:27
Speaker 1: you whose little boy I am, retorted Benjamin in a
53:31
Speaker 1: ferocious voice, and get out off that horse, colonel roared
53:35
Speaker 1: with laughter. You want him, may general here, cried Benjamin
53:41
Speaker 1: desperately read this, and he thrust his commission toward the colonel.
53:45
Speaker 1: The colonel read at his eyes popping from their sockets.
53:49
Speaker 1: Where'd you get this, he demanded, slipping the document into
53:52
Speaker 1: his own pocket, and got him from the government. As
53:55
Speaker 1: you'll soon find out. You come along with me, said
53:59
Speaker 1: the colonel, with a peculiar look. We'll go up to
54:02
Speaker 1: headquarters and talk this over. Come on. The colonel turned
54:06
Speaker 1: and began walking his horse in the direction of headquarters.
54:09
Speaker 1: There was nothing for Benjamin to do but to follow
54:13
Speaker 1: with as much dignity as possible, meanwhile promising himself a
54:17
Speaker 1: stern revenge, but his revenge did not materialize. Two days later, however,
54:22
Speaker 1: his son Roscoe materialized from Baltimore, hot and cross from
54:26
Speaker 1: a hasty trip, and escorted the weaking General Sand's uniform
54:30
Speaker 1: back to his home. Chapter eleven. In nineteen twenty, Roscoe
54:36
Speaker 1: Button's first child was born during the attendant festivities. However,
54:40
Speaker 1: no one thought it the thing to mention that the
54:43
Speaker 1: little grubby boy, apparently about ten years of age, who
54:46
Speaker 1: played around the house with lead soldiers in a miniature circus,
54:50
Speaker 1: was a new baby's own grandfather. No one disliked the
54:54
Speaker 1: little boy, whose fresh, cheerful face was crossed with just
54:58
Speaker 1: a head of sadness, but the Roscoe Button his presence
55:02
Speaker 1: was a source of torment in the idiom of his generation.
55:06
Speaker 1: Roscoe did not consider the matter efficient. It seemed to
55:11
Speaker 1: him that his father, in refusing to look sixty, had
55:15
Speaker 1: not behaved like a red blooded he man. This was
55:19
Speaker 1: Roscoe's favorite expression, but in a curious and perverse manner. Indeed,
55:24
Speaker 1: to think about the matter for as much as on
55:27
Speaker 1: half an hour drove him to the edge of insanity.
55:31
Speaker 1: Roscoe believed that live wires should keep young, but carrying
55:35
Speaker 1: it out on such a scale was inefficient, and there
55:42
Speaker 1: Roscoe rested. Five years later, Roscoe's little boy had grown
55:47
Speaker 1: old enough to play childish games with little Benjamin under
55:50
Speaker 1: the supervision of the same nurse. Roscoe took them both
55:54
Speaker 1: to kindergarten on the same day, and Benjamin found that
55:56
Speaker 1: playing with little strips of colored paper, making mats and
56:00
Speaker 1: chains and curious and beautiful designs was the most fascinating
56:04
Speaker 1: game in the world. Once he was bad and had
56:07
Speaker 1: to stand in the corner, then he cried. But for
56:11
Speaker 1: the most part there were gay hours in the cheerful room,
56:14
Speaker 1: with the sunlight coming in the windows, in Miss Bailey's
56:17
Speaker 1: kind hand resting for a moment now and then in
56:20
Speaker 1: his tousled hair. Roscoe's son moved up into the first
56:24
Speaker 1: grade after year, but Benjamin stayed on in the kindergarten.
56:28
Speaker 1: He was very happy. Sometimes when other tots talked about
56:31
Speaker 1: what they would do when they grew up, a shadow
56:34
Speaker 1: would cross his little face, as if in a dim,
56:37
Speaker 1: childish way, he relished that those were things in which
56:41
Speaker 1: he was never to share. The days flowed on monotonous content.
56:47
Speaker 1: He went back a third year to the kindergarten, but
56:50
Speaker 1: he was too little now to understand what the bright,
56:52
Speaker 1: shining strips of paper were for. He cried because the
56:56
Speaker 1: other boys were bigger than he, and he was afraid
56:58
Speaker 1: of them talk to him, but though he tried to understand,
57:02
Speaker 1: he could not understand at all. He was taken from kindergarten.
57:07
Speaker 1: His nurse, Nana, in her starched gingham dress, became the
57:10
Speaker 1: center of his tiny world. On bright days they walked
57:13
Speaker 1: in the park, Nana would point at a great gray
57:17
Speaker 1: monstrancy elephant and Benjamin would say it after her, and
57:21
Speaker 1: when he was being undressed for bed that night, he
57:23
Speaker 1: would say it over and over aloud to her elephant
57:27
Speaker 1: elephant elephant. Sometimes Nana let him jump on the bed,
57:31
Speaker 1: which was fun because if you sat down exactly right,
57:35
Speaker 1: it would bounce you up on your feet again, and
57:37
Speaker 1: if you said ah for a long time why you jumped,
57:40
Speaker 1: you got a very pleasing broken vocal effect. He loved
57:44
Speaker 1: to take a big cane from the hat rack and
57:46
Speaker 1: go around, hitting chairs and tables with it and saying fight,
57:49
Speaker 1: fight fight. When there were people there, the old ladies
57:52
Speaker 1: would cluck at him, which interested him, and the young
57:55
Speaker 1: ladies would try to kiss him, which he submitted to
57:58
Speaker 1: with mild boredom. And when the long day was done
58:02
Speaker 1: at five o'clock, he would go upstairs with Nana and
58:05
Speaker 1: be fed an oatmeal and nice, soft, mushy food with
58:08
Speaker 1: a spoon. There were no troublesome memories in his childish sleep.
58:13
Speaker 1: No token came to him of his brave days at college,
58:16
Speaker 1: of the glittering years when he flustered the hearts of
58:19
Speaker 1: many girls. There were only the white, safe walls of
58:23
Speaker 1: his crib and Nana, and a man who came to
58:25
Speaker 1: see him sometimes, and a great big orange ball that
58:29
Speaker 1: Nana pointed at just before his twilight bed hour and
58:32
Speaker 1: called the sun. When the sun went his eyes were sleepy.
58:37
Speaker 1: There were no dreams, no dreams to haunt him the past,
58:41
Speaker 1: the wild charge at the head of his men up
58:43
Speaker 1: San Juan Hill, the first years of his marriage, when
58:47
Speaker 1: he worked late into the summer dusk down in the
58:50
Speaker 1: busy city for young Hildegarde, whom he loved. The days
58:54
Speaker 1: before that, when he sat smoking far into the night
58:58
Speaker 1: in the gloomy old button house on Monroe Street with
59:01
Speaker 1: his grandfather. All those had faded, like the substantial dreams,
59:06
Speaker 1: from his mind, as though they had never been. He
59:10
Speaker 1: did not remember. He did not remember clearly whether the
59:14
Speaker 1: milk was warm or cool. At his last feeding, or
59:17
Speaker 1: how the days passed. There was only his crib and
59:21
Speaker 1: Nana's familiar presence, and then they remembered nothing. When he
59:25
Speaker 1: was hungry, he cried. That was all. Through the noons
59:29
Speaker 1: and nights he breathed, and over him there were soft
59:33
Speaker 1: mumblings and murmurings that he scarcely heard, and faintly differentiated smells,
59:38
Speaker 1: and light and darkness. It was all dark, and his
59:43
Speaker 1: white grib and the dim faces that moved above him,
59:46
Speaker 1: and the warm, sweet aroam of the milk faded out
59:49
Speaker 1: altogether from his mind. And of the curious case of
59:54
Speaker 1: Benjamin Button,