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02 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey - Ingersoll Lockwood · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter two don Fum's Mysterious Directions, Bulger and I set
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  Speaker 1: out for Petersburg, and thence proceed to ourch angel The
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  Speaker 1: story of our journey as far as Ilach on the
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  Speaker 1: illage Ivan the teamster, How we made our way northward
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  Speaker 1: in search of the portals to the world within a world,
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  Speaker 1: Ivan's threat, Bulger's distrust of the man, and other things.
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  Speaker 1: According to the learned don Fum's manuscript, the portals to
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  Speaker 1: the world within a world were situated somewhere in northern Russia,
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  Speaker 1: possibly so he thought, from all indications, somewhere on the
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  Speaker 1: westerly slope of the upper Urals, but the great thinker
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  Speaker 1: could not locate them with any accuracy. The people will
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  Speaker 1: tell thee was the mysterious phrase that occurred again and
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  Speaker 1: again on the mildewed pages of this wonderful writing. The
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  Speaker 1: people will tell thee Ah. But what people will be
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  Speaker 1: learning enough to tell me? That was the brain racking
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  Speaker 1: question which I asked myself, sleeping and waking at sunrise,
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  Speaker 1: at high noon, and at sunset, at the crowing of
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  Speaker 1: the cock, and in the silent hours of the night.
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  Speaker 1: The people will tell the said learned down foam Ah
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  Speaker 1: but what people will tell me where to find the
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  Speaker 1: portals to the world within the world hitherto On my travels,
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  Speaker 1: I had made choice of a semi oriental guard, both
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  Speaker 1: on account of its picturesqueness and its lightness and warmth.
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  Speaker 1: But now, as I was about to pass quite across
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  Speaker 1: Russia for a number of months, I resolved to die
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  Speaker 1: in the Russian national costume, for speaking Russian fluently as
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  Speaker 1: I did a score of more of languages living and dead.
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  Speaker 1: I was thus being able to come and go without
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  Speaker 1: ever lastingly displaying my passport or having my trains, A
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  Speaker 1: thought constantly disturbed by inquisitive traveling companions a very important
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  Speaker 1: thing to me, for my mind possessed the extraordinary power
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  Speaker 1: of working out automatically any task assigned to it by me,
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  Speaker 1: provided it was not suddenly thrown off its track by
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  Speaker 1: some ridiculous interruption. For instance, I was upon the very
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  Speaker 1: point one day of discovering perpetual motion, when the gracious
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  Speaker 1: Barrenness suddenly opened the door and asked me whether I
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  Speaker 1: had pared the nails on my great toes lately, as
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  Speaker 1: she had observed that I had worn holes in several
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  Speaker 1: pairs of my best stockings. It was about the middle
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  Speaker 1: of February when I set out from the castle. Trump
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  Speaker 1: and I journeyed night and day in order to reach
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  Speaker 1: Petersburg by the first of March, for I knew that
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  Speaker 1: the government trains would leave that city for the Yeca
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  Speaker 1: during the first week of that month. And I were
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  Speaker 1: both in the best of health and spirits, and the
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  Speaker 1: fatigue of the journey didn't tell upon us in the least.
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  Speaker 1: The moment I arrived at the Russian capital, I applied
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  Speaker 1: to the Emperor for permission to join one of the
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  Speaker 1: government trains, which was most graciously accorded. Our route lay
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  Speaker 1: almost directly to the northward for several days, at the
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  Speaker 1: end of which time we reached the shores of Lake Ladoga.
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  Speaker 1: This we crossed on the ice with our sledges, as
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  Speaker 1: a few days later we did Lake Onega, thence by
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  Speaker 1: land again. We kept on our way until Onega Bay
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  Speaker 1: had been reached, crossing it too on the ice, and
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  Speaker 1: so reaching the station of the same name, where we
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  Speaker 1: halted for a day to give our horses a well
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  Speaker 1: deserved rest. From this point we proceeded in a straight
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  Speaker 1: line over the snowfields to Archangel, an important trading post
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  Speaker 1: on the White Sea. As this was the destination of
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  Speaker 1: the government train, I parted with its commandant after a
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  Speaker 1: few days pleasant soldier at the government house, and set out,
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  Speaker 1: attended only by my faithful bulger and two servants who
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  Speaker 1: had been signed to me by the Imperial Commissioner. My
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  Speaker 1: course now carried me up the River Duenna as far
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  Speaker 1: as Solvitchikosk. Thence I proceeded on my way over the
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  Speaker 1: frozen waters of the Wutchega River until we had reached
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  Speaker 1: the government post of Yarnsk, and from here on we
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  Speaker 1: headed due east until our heart little horses had dragged
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  Speaker 1: us into the picturesque village of Ilich. On the village
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  Speaker 1: here we were obliged to have battened our sledges for
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  Speaker 1: the snows that disappeared like magic, uncovering long vistas of
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  Speaker 1: green fields, which in a few days the May sun
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  Speaker 1: doted with flowers and sweet shrubs. At Ilich, I was
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  Speaker 1: obliged to relinquish from my service the two faithful government
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  Speaker 1: retainers who had accompanied me from archangel, for they had
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  Speaker 1: now reached the most westerly point which they had been
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  Speaker 1: commissioned to visit. I had become very much attached to
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  Speaker 1: them and saw at Bolger, and after their departure, we
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  Speaker 1: both felt as if we were now, for the first time,
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  Speaker 1: among strangers in a strange land. But I succeeded in engaging,
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  Speaker 1: as I thought a trustworthy teamster, Ivan by name, who
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  Speaker 1: made a contract with me for a goodly wage to
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  Speaker 1: carry me one hundred miles farther north. But not another
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  Speaker 1: step farther, little baron, said the fellow doggedly, I was
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  Speaker 1: now really at the foothills of the northern Urals, for
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  Speaker 1: the rocky crests and snowclad peaks were in full sight.
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  Speaker 1: I turned many a wistful look up toward the wild regions,
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  Speaker 1: shut in by their sheer walls and parapets, shaggy and
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  Speaker 1: bristling with black pines. For a low, mysterious voice came
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  Speaker 1: a whispering in my inward ear. That's somewhere, ah, somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in that awful wilderness, I should one day come upon
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  Speaker 1: the portals of the world within a world. In spite
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  Speaker 1: of all I could do. Bulger took a violent dislike
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  Speaker 1: to Ivan, and Ivan to him. And if the bargain
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  Speaker 1: had not been made and the money paid over, I
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  Speaker 1: should have looked about me for another teamster, and yet
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  Speaker 1: it would have been a foolish thing to do. For
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  Speaker 1: Ivan had two excellent horses, as I saw at a glance,
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  Speaker 1: and was more. He took the best care of them
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  Speaker 1: at every post, rubbing them until they were quite dry,
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  Speaker 1: and never thinking of his own supper until they had
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  Speaker 1: been watered and fed. His turn task, too, was quite
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  Speaker 1: new and solidly built, and well furnished with soft blankets,
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  Speaker 1: all in law as comfortable as you can make a
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  Speaker 1: wagon which has no other springs than the two long
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  Speaker 1: wooden supports that reach from Axel to Axel. True it
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  Speaker 1: were somebody elastic, but I could notice that Boger was
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  Speaker 1: not overfind a riding in this curious vehicle with its
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  Speaker 1: Rattiley band gate up and down these mountain roads, and
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  Speaker 1: often asked permission to leap out and follow on foot
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  Speaker 1: at length. Ivn't reported everything in readiness for the start,
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  Speaker 1: and although I would have fainted, taken my departure from
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  Speaker 1: Ilage on the illage in as quiet a manner as possible.
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  Speaker 1: If the whole village turned out to see us off.
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  Speaker 1: Ivan's family father, mother, sisters and brothers, wife and children,
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  Speaker 1: uncles and aunts, and cousins by dozens alone, making up
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  Speaker 1: people enough to stock a small town. They cheered and
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  Speaker 1: waved their kerchiefs. Bulger barked, and I smiled and raised
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  Speaker 1: my cap with all the dignity of a trump. And
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  Speaker 1: so we got away at last from ilag on the village,
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  Speaker 1: Ivan on the box, and Buger and I at the back,
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  Speaker 1: sitting close together like two brothers. That we were two
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  Speaker 1: breasts with but a single heartbeat, and two brains busy
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  Speaker 1: with the same thought that comparels, or come sudden attacks,
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  Speaker 1: come covert danger, or bold and open faced onslaught, we
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  Speaker 1: should stand together and fall together. Many and many a time.
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  Speaker 1: As Ivan's horses went crawling up the long stretches of
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  Speaker 1: mountain road, and I lay stretched upon the broad cushioned
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  Speaker 1: seat of the tyrantath with a blanket rolled up for
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  Speaker 1: a pillow, I would find myself unconsciously repeating those mysterious
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  Speaker 1: words of down foam. The people will tell thee, the
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  Speaker 1: people will tell thee. So steep with the roads that
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  Speaker 1: some days we would not make more than five miles,
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  Speaker 1: and on others a halt of several hours would have
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  Speaker 1: to be made to enable Ivan to tighten his horse's shoes,
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  Speaker 1: reach the axles, or do some needful thing in or
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  Speaker 1: about his wagon. It was slow work. I it was
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  Speaker 1: very slow and tedious. But what matters it? How many
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  Speaker 1: or great the difficulties to a man who has made
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  Speaker 1: up his mind to accomplish a certain task. Through the
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  Speaker 1: storks or the wild geese stop to count the thousands
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  Speaker 1: of miles between them and their far away homes when
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  Speaker 1: the time comes to turn their heads southward? Do the
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  Speaker 1: brown ants pause to count the hundreds of thousands of
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  Speaker 1: grains of sand which they must carry through their long
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  Speaker 1: corridors and winding passages before they have burrowed deep enough
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  Speaker 1: to escape the frost of midwinter. There have been many trumps,
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  Speaker 1: but never one that had thrown up his arms and cried,
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  Speaker 1: I surrender, And should I be the first to do it? Never, not,
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  Speaker 1: even if it meant never to see dear old castle
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  Speaker 1: trump again. One morning, as we went zig zagging up
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  Speaker 1: a particularly nasty bit of mountain road, Ivan suddenly wheeled about, and,
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  Speaker 1: without even taking off his hat, cried out, little Baron,
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  Speaker 1: I covered the last mile of the one hundred to day.
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  Speaker 1: If thou wouldst go any farther north, thou must hire
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  Speaker 1: another teamster. Dost here silence, said I sternly, for the
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  Speaker 1: fellow had broken in upon a very important train of thought.
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  Speaker 1: Boger too resented the man's insolence and growled and showed
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  Speaker 1: his teeth. But little Baron listen to reason, he continued,
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  Speaker 1: in a more respectful tone, removing his cap. My people
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  Speaker 1: will expect me back, I promised my father. I'm a
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  Speaker 1: dutiful son. I nay nay ivan, I interrupted, sharply curb
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  Speaker 1: that tongue of nine, lest it harmed thy soul. No
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  Speaker 1: than that. I spoke with thy father, and he promised
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  Speaker 1: me that thou should go a second hundred miles with me,
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  Speaker 1: if need were, but on condition that I give thee
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  Speaker 1: double pay, it shall be done. And on top of that,
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  Speaker 1: and goodly present for your darling, little Baron. Thou art
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  Speaker 1: a hard master, whimpered the man. The whim took thee.
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  Speaker 1: Thou wouldst bid me leap into the giants well, just
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  Speaker 1: to see whether it has at bottom or not. Saint
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  Speaker 1: Nicholas saved me. Nay, I mean, said I kindly. I
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  Speaker 1: know no such word as cruelty, although I do confess
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  Speaker 1: that right seems harsh at times. But thou wert born
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  Speaker 1: to serve and I to command. Providence hath made thee
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  Speaker 1: poor and me rich. We need each other. Do thou
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  Speaker 1: thy duty, and thou wilt find me just and consider it.
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  Speaker 1: Disobey me, and thou would find that this short arm
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  Speaker 1: maybe stretched from Ilich to Petersburg. I've been turned pale
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  Speaker 1: at this hidden threat of mine, but I deemed it
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  Speaker 1: necessary to make it for I as well as Bolger
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  Speaker 1: had sent a treasury and rebellion about this boorish fellow,
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  Speaker 1: whose good trait was his love of his horses. And
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  Speaker 1: it has always been my rule in life to open
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  Speaker 1: my eyes wide to the good that there is in
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  Speaker 1: a man, and close them to his faults. But in
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  Speaker 1: spite of kind words and kind treatment, Ivan grew surlier
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  Speaker 1: and moodier. The moment we had passed one hundredth milestone,
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  Speaker 1: Bogo watched him with a gaze so steady and thoughtful
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  Speaker 1: that the man fairly quailed before it. Or by hour,
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  Speaker 1: he became more and more arrestive, And upon leaving a
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  Speaker 1: roadside tavern for the very first time since we had
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  Speaker 1: left the Ilitch on the Illage, I noticed that the
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  Speaker 1: fellow had been drinking too much costs. He let loose
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  Speaker 1: his tongue and raised his hand against his horses, which
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  Speaker 1: until that moment he had been wont to lower down
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  Speaker 1: with caresses and pen names. Look out for that driver
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  Speaker 1: of thye little baron, whispered the tavern keeper. He's in
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  Speaker 1: a reckless mood. He not pull up if the giants
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  Speaker 1: well were gaping in front of him. Saint Nicholas had
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  Speaker 1: thee in his safe keeping. End of Chapter two