{"product_id":"2940013335790","title":"THE HARBOR","description":"BOOK I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You chump,\" I thought contemptuously. I was seven years old at the\u003cbr\u003etime, and the gentleman to whom I referred was Henry Ward Beecher. What\u003cbr\u003eit was that aroused my contempt for the man will be more fully\u003cbr\u003eunderstood if I tell first of the grudge that I bore him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was sitting in my mother's pew in the old church in Brooklyn. I was\u003cbr\u003ealtogether too small for the pew, it was much too wide for the bend at\u003cbr\u003emy knees; and my legs, which were very short and fat, stuck straight out\u003cbr\u003ebefore me. I was not allowed to move, I was most uncomfortable, and for\u003cbr\u003ethis Sabbath torture I laid all the blame on the preacher. For my mother\u003cbr\u003ehad once told me that I was brought to church so small in order that\u003cbr\u003ewhen I grew up I could say I had heard the great man preach before he\u003cbr\u003edied. Hence the deep grudge that I bore him. Sitting here this morning,\u003cbr\u003eit seemed to me for hours and hours, I had been meditating upon my hard\u003cbr\u003elot. From time to time, as was my habit when thinking or feeling deeply,\u003cbr\u003eone hand would unconsciously go to my head and slowly stroke my bang. My\u003cbr\u003ehair was short and had no curls, its only glory was this bang, which was\u003cbr\u003edeliciously soft to my hand and shone like a mirror from much reflective\u003cbr\u003estroking. Presently my mother would notice and with a smile she would\u003cbr\u003eput down my hand, but a few moments later up it would come and would\u003cbr\u003econtinue its stroking. For I felt both abused and puzzled. What was\u003cbr\u003ethere in the talk of the large white-haired old man in the pulpit to\u003cbr\u003emake my mother's eyes so queer, to make her sit so stiff and still? What\u003cbr\u003egood would it do me when I grew up to say that I had heard him?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I don't believe I will ever say it,\" I reasoned doggedly to myself.\u003cbr\u003e\"And even if I do, I don't believe any other man will care whether I say\u003cbr\u003eit to him or not.\" I felt sure my father wouldn't. He never even came to\u003cbr\u003echurch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the thought of my strange silent father, my mind leaped to his\u003cbr\u003ewarehouse, his dock, the ships and the harbor. Like him, they were all\u003cbr\u003eso strange. And my hands grew a little cold and moist as I thought of\u003cbr\u003ethe terribly risky thing I had planned to do all by myself that very\u003cbr\u003eafternoon. I thought about it for a long time with my eyes tight shut.\u003cbr\u003eThen the voice of the minister brought me back, I found myself sitting\u003cbr\u003ehere in church and went on with this less shivery thinking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I wouldn't care myself,\" I decided. \"If I were a man and another man\u003cbr\u003emet me on the street and said, 'Look here. When I was a boy I heard\u003cbr\u003eHenry Ward Beecher before he died,' I guess I would just say to him,\u003cbr\u003e'You mind your business and I'll mind mine.'\" This phrase I had heard\u003cbr\u003efrom the corner grocer, and I liked the sound of it. I repeated it now\u003cbr\u003ewith an added zest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgain I opened my eyes and again I found myself here in church. Still\u003cbr\u003ehere. I heaved a weary sigh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If you were dead already,\" I thought as I looked up at the preacher,\u003cbr\u003e\"my mother wouldn't bring me here.\" I found this an exceedingly cheering\u003cbr\u003ethought. I had once overheard our cook Anny describe how her old father\u003cbr\u003ehad dropped dead. I eyed the old minister hopefully.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut what was this he was saying! Something about \"the harbor of life.\"\u003cbr\u003eThe harbor! In an instant I was listening hard, for this was something I\u003cbr\u003eknew about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Safe into the harbor,\" I heard him say. \"Home to the harbor at last to\u003cbr\u003erest.\" And then, while he passed on to something else, something I\u003cbr\u003e_didn't_ know about, I settled disgustedly back in the pew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You chump,\" I thought contemptuously. To hear him talk you would have\u003cbr\u003ethought the harbor was a place to feel quite safe in, a place to snuggle\u003cbr\u003edown in, a nice little place to come home to at night. \"I guess he has\u003cbr\u003enever seen it much,\" I snorted.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147513544944,"sku":"2940013335790","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013335790_p0.jpg?v=1763579865","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013335790","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}