{"product_id":"2940013417830","title":"SEVENTEEN","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I.      WILLIAM\u003cbr\u003e     II.     THE UNKNOWN\u003cbr\u003e     III.    THE PAINFUL AGE\u003cbr\u003e     IV.     GENESIS AND CLEMATIS\u003cbr\u003e     V.      SORROWS WITHIN A BOILER\u003cbr\u003e     VI.     TRUCULENCE\u003cbr\u003e     VII.    MR. BAXTER'S EVENING CLOTHES\u003cbr\u003e     VIII.   JANE\u003cbr\u003e     IX.     LITTLE SISTERS HAVE BIG EARS\u003cbr\u003e     X.      MR. PARCHER AND LOVE\u003cbr\u003e     XI.     BEGINNING A TRUE FRIENDSHIP\u003cbr\u003e     XII.    PROGRESS OF THE SYMPTOMS\u003cbr\u003e     XIII.   AT HOME TO HIS FRIENDS\u003cbr\u003e     XIV.    TIME DOES FLY\u003cbr\u003e     XV.     ROMANCE OF STATISTICS\u003cbr\u003e     XVI.    THE SHOWER\u003cbr\u003e     XVII.   JANE'S THEORY\u003cbr\u003e     XVIII.  THE BIG, FAT LUMMOX\u003cbr\u003e     XIX.    \"I DUNNO WHY IT IS\"\u003cbr\u003e     XX.     SYDNEY CARTON\u003cbr\u003e     XXI.    MY LITTLE SWEETHEARTS\u003cbr\u003e     XXII.   FORESHADOWINGS\u003cbr\u003e     XXIII.  FATHERS FORGET\u003cbr\u003e     XXIV.   CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN\u003cbr\u003e     XXV.    YOUTH AND MR. PARCHER\u003cbr\u003e     XXVI.   MISS BOKE\u003cbr\u003e     XXVII.  MAROONED\u003cbr\u003e     XXVIII. RANNIE KIRSTED\u003cbr\u003e     XXIX.   ''DON'T FORGET!''\u003cbr\u003e     XXX.     THE BRIDE-TO-BE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEVENTEEN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWILLIAM\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWilliam Sylvanus Baxter paused for a moment of thought in front of the\u003cbr\u003edrug-store at the corner of Washington Street and Central Avenue. He had\u003cbr\u003ean internal question to settle before he entered the store: he wished\u003cbr\u003eto allow the young man at the soda-fountain no excuse for saying, \"Well,\u003cbr\u003emake up your mind what it's goin' to be, can't you?\" Rudeness of this\u003cbr\u003ekind, especially in the presence of girls and women, was hard to bear,\u003cbr\u003eand though William Sylvanus Baxter had borne it upon occasion, he\u003cbr\u003ehad reached an age when he found it intolerable. Therefore, to avoid\u003cbr\u003eoffering opportunity for anything of the kind, he decided upon chocolate\u003cbr\u003eand strawberry, mixed, before approaching the fountain. Once there,\u003cbr\u003ehowever, and a large glass of these flavors and diluted ice-cream\u003cbr\u003eproving merely provocative, he said, languidly--an affectation, for he\u003cbr\u003ecould have disposed of half a dozen with gusto: \"Well, now I'm here, I\u003cbr\u003emight as well go one more. Fill 'er up again. Same.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEmerging to the street, penniless, he bent a fascinated and dramatic\u003cbr\u003egaze upon his reflection in the drug-store window, and then, as he\u003cbr\u003eturned his back upon the alluring image, his expression altered to\u003cbr\u003eone of lofty and uncondescending amusement. That was his glance at the\u003cbr\u003epassing public. From the heights, he seemed to bestow upon the world\u003cbr\u003ea mysterious derision--for William Sylvanus Baxter was seventeen long\u003cbr\u003eyears of age, and had learned to present the appearance of one who\u003cbr\u003epossesses inside information about life and knows all strangers and most\u003cbr\u003eacquaintances to be of inferior caste, costume, and intelligence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lingered upon the corner awhile, not pressed for time. Indeed, he\u003cbr\u003efound many hours of these summer months heavy upon his hands, for he had\u003cbr\u003eno important occupation, unless some intermittent dalliance with a\u003cbr\u003ework on geometry (anticipatory of the distant autumn) might be thought\u003cbr\u003eimportant, which is doubtful, since he usually went to sleep on the\u003cbr\u003eshady side porch at his home, with the book in his hand. So, having\u003cbr\u003enothing to call him elsewhere, he lounged before the drug-store in the\u003cbr\u003eearly afternoon sunshine, watching the passing to and fro of the lower\u003cbr\u003eorders and bourgeoisie of the middle-sized midland city which claimed\u003cbr\u003ehim (so to speak) for a native son.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eApparently quite unembarrassed by his presence, they went about their\u003cbr\u003ebusiness, and the only people who looked at him with any attention were\u003cbr\u003epedestrians of color. It is true that when the gaze of these fell upon\u003cbr\u003ehim it was instantly arrested, for no colored person could have passed\u003cbr\u003ehim without a little pang of pleasure and of longing. Indeed, the\u003cbr\u003etropical violence of William Sylvanus Baxter's tie and the strange\u003cbr\u003ebrilliancy of his hat might have made it positively unsafe for him to\u003cbr\u003ewalk at night through the negro quarter of the town. And though no man\u003cbr\u003ecould have sworn to the color of that hat, whether it was blue or green,\u003cbr\u003eyet its color was a saner thing than its shape, which was blurred,\u003cbr\u003etortured, and raffish; it might have been the miniature model of a\u003cbr\u003evolcano that had blown off its cone and misbehaved disastrously on its\u003cbr\u003elower slopes as well. He had the air of wearing it as a matter of course\u003cbr\u003eand with careless ease, but that was only an air--it was the apple of\u003cbr\u003ehis eye.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47168907280624,"sku":"2940013417830","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013417830_p0.jpg?v=1763581063","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013417830","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}