{"product_id":"2940013336049","title":"THE PORTYGEE","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOverhead the clouds cloaked the sky; a ragged cloak it was, and, here\u003cbr\u003eand there, a star shone through a hole, to be obscured almost instantly\u003cbr\u003eas more cloud tatters were hurled across the rent. The pines threshed on\u003cbr\u003ethe hill tops. The bare branches of the wild-cherry and silverleaf trees\u003cbr\u003escraped and rattled and tossed. And the wind, the raw, chilling December\u003cbr\u003ewind, driven in, wet and salty, from the sea, tore over the dunes and\u003cbr\u003ebrown uplands and across the frozen salt-meadows, screamed through\u003cbr\u003ethe telegraph wires, and made the platform of the dismal South Harniss\u003cbr\u003erailway station the lonesomest, coldest, darkest and most miserable spot\u003cbr\u003eon the face of the earth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt least that was the opinion of the seventeen-year-old boy whom the\u003cbr\u003edown train--on time for once and a wonder--had just deposited upon that\u003cbr\u003eplatform. He would not have discounted the statement one iota. The South\u003cbr\u003eHarniss station platform WAS the most miserable spot on earth and he was\u003cbr\u003ethe most miserable human being upon it. And this last was probably true,\u003cbr\u003efor there were but three other humans upon that platform and, judging by\u003cbr\u003eexternals, they seemed happy enough. One was the station agent, who was\u003cbr\u003ejust entering the building preparatory to locking up for the night,\u003cbr\u003eand the others were Jim Young, driver of the \"depot wagon,\" and Doctor\u003cbr\u003eHolliday, the South Harniss \"homeopath,\" who had been up to a Boston\u003cbr\u003ehospital with a patient and was returning home. Jim was whistling\u003cbr\u003e\"Silver Bells,\" a tune much in vogue the previous summer, and Doctor\u003cbr\u003eHolliday was puffing at a cigar and knocking his feet together to keep\u003cbr\u003ethem warm while waiting to get into the depot wagon. These were the only\u003cbr\u003epeople in sight and they were paying no attention whatever to the lonely\u003cbr\u003efigure at the other end of the platform.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe boy looked about him. The station, with its sickly yellow gleam\u003cbr\u003eof kerosene lamp behind its dingy windowpane, was apparently the only\u003cbr\u003einhabited spot in a barren wilderness. At the edge of the platform\u003cbr\u003ecivilization seemed to end and beyond was nothing but a black earth\u003cbr\u003eand a black sky, tossing trees and howling wind, and cold--raw, damp,\u003cbr\u003epenetrating cold. Compared with this even the stuffy plush seats and\u003cbr\u003esmelly warmth of the car he had just left appeared temptingly homelike\u003cbr\u003eand luxurious. All the way down from the city he had sneered inwardly at\u003cbr\u003ea one-horse railroad which ran no Pullmans on its Cape branch in winter\u003cbr\u003etime. Now he forgot his longing for mahogany veneer and individual\u003cbr\u003echairs and would gladly have boarded a freight car, provided there were\u003cbr\u003ein it a lamp and a stove.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147518132464,"sku":"2940013336049","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013336049_p0.jpg?v=1763579999","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013336049","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}