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I tell you I LIKE it!" "Then I suppose that's the end of your wanting to write." "I don't know about that," Bibbs said, thoughtfully; "but the zinc-eater doesn't interfere with my thinking, at least. It's better than being in business; I'm sure of that. I don't want anything to change. I'd be content to lead just the life I'm leading now to the end of my days."
And whether he would or no, Gurney received from his hysterical patient a variety of pungent information which would have staggered anybody but a family physician. Among other things he was given to comprehend the change in Bibbs, and why the zinc-eater was not putting a lump in the operator's gizzard as of yore. Sibyl was not delirious she was a thin little ego writhing and shrieking in pain.
"ALL DAY LONG I'LL SEND MY THOUGHTS TO YOU. YOU MUST KEEP REMEMBERING THAT YOUR FRIEND STANDS BESIDE YOU." He saw her there beside him, and the greasy, roaring place became suffused with radiance. The poet was happy in his machine-shop; he was still a poet there. And he fed his old zinc-eater, and sang: Away and away! Hi-YAY! Crash, bash, crash, bash, CHANG! Wild are his eyes, Fiercely he dies!
She might have kissed Bibbs, but he failed to realize that the day of her departure had arrived, and was surprised, on returning from his zinc-eater, that evening, to find her gone. "I suppose they'll be maried there," he said, casually. Sheridan, seated, warming his stockinged feet at the fire, jumped up, fuming. "Either you go out o' here, or I will, Bibbs!" he snorted.
The sorrowful light of the gas-jet might have been May morning sunshine flashing amber and rose through the glowing windows of the Sainte-Chapelle, it was so bright for Bibbs. And while the zinc-eater held out to bring him such golden nights as these, all the king's horses and all the king's men might not serve to break the spell.
Bibbs worked steadily, never turning from his machine. Now and then he varied his musical programme with remarks addressed to the zinc-eater. "Go on, you old crash-basher! Chew it up! It's good for you, if you don't try to bolt your vittles. Fletcherize, you pig! That's right YOU'LL never get a lump in your gizzard. Want some more? Here's a nice, shiny one."
Light seemed to glow from her; he was blinded by that radiance of kindness. But all he could say was, huskily, "To think you're there with me standing beside the old zinc-eater " And they laughed and looked at each other, and at last Bibbs found what it meant not to be alone in the world. He had a friend.
I wonder what I was like before I knew you. The person I was then seems to have been somebody else, not Bibbs Sheridan at all. It seems long, long ago. I was gloomy and sickly somebody else somebody I don't understand now, a coward afraid of shadows afraid of things that didn't exist afraid of my old zinc-eater! And now I'm only afraid of what might change anything."
I serenade it and talk to it, and then it talks back to me." "Indeed, indeed? What does it say?" "What I want to hear." "Well, well!" The doctor stretched himself and stamped his foot repeatedly. "Better come along and take a drive with me. You can take the time off that he allowed for the examination, and " "Not at all," said Bibbs. "I'm going to stand by my old zinc-eater till five o'clock.
And when he was once more installed beside his faithful zinc-eater he whistled and sang to it, as other workmen did to their own machines sometimes, when things went well. His comrades in the shop glanced at him amusedly now and then. They liked him, and he ate his lunch at noon with a group of Socialists who approved of his ideas and talked of electing him to their association.
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