In Our Time Read Online Free

beginning to sharpen against the sky. Beyond the hills he knew the moon was coming up.
    â€œI know it,” Marjorie said happily.
    â€œYou know everything,” Nick said.
    â€œOh, Nick, please cut it out! Please, please don’t be that way?”
    â€œI can’t help it,” Nick said. “You do. You know everything. That’s the trouble. You know you do.”
    Marjorie did not say anything.
    â€œI’ve taught you everything. You know you do. What don’t you know, anyway?”
    â€œOh, shut up,” Marjorie said. “There comes the moon.”
    They sat on the blanket without touching each other and watched the moon rise.
    â€œYou don’t have to talk silly,” Marjorie said. “What’s really the matter?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œOf course you know.”
    â€œNo I don’t.”
    â€œGo on and say it.”
    Nick looked on at the moon, coming up over the hills.
    â€œIt isn’t fun any more.”
    He was afraid to look at Marjorie. Then he looked at her. She sat there with her back toward him. He looked at her back. “It isn’t fun any more. Not any of it.”
    She didn’t say anything. He went on. “I feel as though everything was gone to hell inside of me. I don’t know, Marge. I don’t know what to say.”
    He looked on at her back.
    â€œIsn’t love any fun?” Marjorie said.
    â€œNo,” Nick said. Marjorie stood up. Nick sat there, his head in his hands.
    â€œI’m going to take the boat,” Marjorie called to him. “You can walk back around the point.”
    â€œAll right,” Nick said. “I’ll push the boat off for you.”
    â€œYou don’t need to,” she said. She was afloat in the boat on the water with the moonlight on it. Nick went back and lay down with his face in the blanket by the fire. He could hear Marjorie rowing on the water.
    He lay there for a long time. He lay there while he heard Bill come into the clearing walking around through the woods. He felt Bill coming up to the fire. Bill didn’t touch him, either.
    â€œDid she go all right?” Bill said.
    â€œYes,” Nick said, lying, his face on the blanket.
    â€œHave a scene?”
    â€œNo, there wasn’t any scene.”
    â€œHow do you feel?”
    â€œOh, go away, Bill! Go away for a while.”
    Bill selected a sandwich from the lunch basket and walked over to have a look at the rods.

Chapter IV
    It was a frightfully hot day. We’d jammed an absolutely perfect barricade across the bridge. It was simply priceless. A big old wrought-iron grating from the front of a house. Too heavy to lift and you could shoot through it and they would have to climb over it. It was absolutely topping. They tried to get over it, and we potted them from forty yards. They rushed it, and officers came out along and worked on it. It was an absolutely perfect obstacle. Their officers were very fine. We were frightfully put out when we heard the flank had gone, and we had to fall back.

The Three-Day Blow
    The rain stopped as Nick turned into the road that went up through the orchard. The fruit had been picked and the fall wind blew through the bare trees. Nick stopped and picked up a Wagner apple from beside the road, shiny in the brown grass from the rain. He put the apple in the pocket of his Mackinaw coat.
    The road came out of the orchard on to the top of the hill. There was the cottage, the porch bare, smoke coming from the chimney. In back was the garage, the chicken coop and the second-growth timber like a hedge against the woods behind. The big trees swayed far over in the wind as he watched. It was the first of the autumn storms.
    As Nick crossed the open field above the orchard the door of the cottage opened and Bill came out. He stood on the porch looking out.
    â€œWell, Wemedge,” he said.
    â€œHey, Bill,” Nick said, coming up the steps.
    They stood together,