| He had again the corrosive sense of failure that always dogged himI'm no good at anything, he bleated to himselfHe made a stroke with the machete and the impact snapped it out of his hand Drearily, he bent down to pick it up
"You might just as well quit now," Ridges told himHe picked up one of the machetes they dropped, and began to work shoulder to shoulder with GoldsteinAs Ridges slashed at the brush with stolid patient motions, his broad short body became less awkward, assumed a strong fluent graceFrom the rear he looked like an animal fashioning its nestHe had a simple pride in his strengthAs his powerful muscles tensed and relaxed, as the sweat laced his back, he was completely happy, absorbed in the toil, the smells of his body
Goldstein also found the work omega watches for sale acceptable, took the same pleasure in the sure motions of his limbs, but his satisfaction was not so pureIt was cloyed with a prejudice Goldstein had against manual laborThat's the only kind of job I ever find, he told himself wistfullyHe had sold newspapers, worked in a warehouse, become a welder, and it had always bothered him that he had never had an occupation where he could keep his hands cleanThe prejudice was very deep, brewed out of all the memories and maxims of his childhoodHe wavered between warmth and disdain at working well with RidgesIt's all right for Ridges, Goldstein told himself, he's a farmer, but I'd like something betterHe had a mild self-pity at his fateIf I could have had an education, culture, I could have done something better with myself
He was still cartier roadster swiss watches fretting when they were relieved by the next teamHe trudged back along the trail to where he had left his rifle and pack and settled down into his melancholyAch, so many things I could have doneApparently without cause, a deep and limitless sorrow welled in his chestHe pitied himself, but his pity grew larger, swelled to include everybody in his compassionAi! it's hard, it's hard, he thoughtHe could not have said why he made this statement; it seemed a truth he had absorbed in his bones
The mood did not surprise Goldstein; he was accustomed to it, enjoyed itHe would be cheerful for days, liking everyone, pleased with whatever task was assigned, and then suddenly, almost inexplicably, for the causes already seemed minor, he would wallow in a self-induced gloom
Now he louis vuitton monogram canvas galliera pm bathed himself in despondencyOh, what does it all mean? What are we born for, why do we work? You're born and then you die, is that all there is to it? He shook his headLook at the Levine familyThey had such a promising son, he had a scholarship to Columbia, and then he got killed in an automobile accidentWhy? What for? They worked so hard to let him go to schoolHe had known the Levine family only casually but he felt like weepingWhy should it be? Other sorrows possessed him, minor ones, major ones, in a suite of random undisciplined wavesHe remembered when his family was very poor and his mother had lost a pair of gloves which she treasuredIt's a hard businessHe had drawn apart from the platoon, from the patrol aheadEven Croft, what will he get out of it all? You're born and chanel bucket bags then you dieThe knowledge somehow made him feel superiorHe shook his head once more
Minetta was sitting beside him"What's the matter with you?" he asked sharply, his sympathy guarded for Goldstein had been Ridges's partner Goldstein sighed, "I was just thinking He stared down the corridor they had hewn out of the jungleIt extended in a reasonably straight line for almost a hundred yards before bending around a tree, and all along it the men in the platoon were sprawled on the ground or sitting on their packsBehind him he could hear the steady chopping and macing of the machetesThe sound depressed him, and he shifted his position, feeling the dampness of the earth against his buttocks"That's all you can ever do in the Army, sit and think," Minetta said"Sometimes it's not so tiffany's necklace |
| 