8/11/2019 A Morning in Marathon Christopher Morley
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A Morning in Marathon
by Christopher Morley
One violet throbbing star was climbing in the southeast at
half-past four, and the
whole at plain was rich with golden moonlight. Early rising in
order to uic!en
the furnace and start the matinsong in the steampipes becomes
its own reward
when such an orange moon is dropping down the s!y. Even "eg #our
most volatile
$rish terrier% was plainly awed by the bla&e of pale light,
and hopped gingerly
down the rimy bac! steps. 'ut the cat was unabashed. Cats are
born by
moonlight and are leagued with the powers of dar!ness and
mystery. And so
(icholas )achel *indsay #he is named for the daring poet of
$llinois% stepped into
the moonshine without a ualm.
+here are certain little routine oys !nown only to the
servantless suburbanite.
Every morning the ba!er leaves a bag of crisp rench rolls on the
front porch.
Every morning the mil!man deposits his little bottles of mil!
and cream on the
bac! steps. Every morning the furnace needs a little grooming,
that the cheery
thump of rising pressure may warm the radiators upstairs. +hen
the big agate
!ettle must be set over the blue gas ame, for hot water is
needed both for
shaving and cocoa. Our light brea!fast ta!es only a moment to
prepare. 'y the
time the (ut 'rown Maid comes singing downstairs, cocoa, rolls,
and boiled eggsare ready in the sunny little dining room, and the
+amperer is bathed and shaved
and telephoning to Central for the e/act time. +he 0123 train
waits for no man,
and it is nearly a mile to the station.
'ut the morning $ thin! of was not a routine morning. On routine
mornings the
+amperer rises at ten minutes to seven, the alarm cloc! being
set for 41561 which
allows 7ve minutes for drowsy head. +he day in uestion was early
ebruary
when snow lay white and powdery on the ground, and the 4 o8cloc!
train from
Marathon had to be caught. +here is an e/press for "hiladelphia
that leaves the
"ennsylvania 9tation at :13; and this the +amperer had to ta!e,
to ma!e a 2;
o8cloc! appointment in the
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prairie gradually lost its fairy-tale air of mystery and dream=
the close ceiling of
the night receded into in7nite space as the sun waved his
radiant arms over the
hori&on.
'ut this was after $ had left the house. +he sun did not raise
his head from the
pillow until $ was in the train. +he (ut 'rown Maid was still
nested in her warm
white bed as $ too! her up some tea and toast ust before
departing.
+he wal! to the station, over the crisply fro&en snow, was
delicious. Marathon is
famous for its avenue of great elms, which were casting deep
blue shadows in
the strange light--waning moon and wa/ing day. +he air was very
chill--only ust
above &ero--and the smo!ing car seemed very cold and dismal.
$ huddled my
overcoat about me and tried to smo!e and read the paper. 'ut in
that stale, fetidodour of last night8s tobacco and this morning8s
wet arctics the smo!er was but a
dismal place. +he e/altation of the dawn dropped suddenly into a
!ind of
shivering nausea.
$ changed to another car and threw away the war news. >ust
then the sun came
gloriously over the edge of the 7elds and set the snow a7re. As
we rounded the
long curve beyond ?oodside $ could see the morning light shining
upon the
Metropolitan +ower, and when we glided into the basement of the
"ennsylvania
9tation my heart was already attuned to the thrill of that
glorious place. "erhapsit can never have the fascination for me
that the old dingy *ondon terminals
have--@ing8s Cross, "addington, or 9aint "ancras, with their
delicious English
boo!stalls and those porters in corduroy--but the "ennsylvania
is a wonderful
place after all, a marble palace of romance and a gallant place
to roam about. $t
seems li!e a stable without horses, though, for where are the
trains (o chance
to ramble about the platforms #as in *ondon% to watch the Bu!e
of Abercorn or
the *ord Claude amilton, or other of those green or blue English
locomotives
with lordly names, being groomed for the run.
$n the early morning the "ennsylvania 9tation catches in its
high-vaulted roof the
7rst ush of sunlight= and before the ood of commuters begins to
pour in, the
famous station cat is generally sitting by the baggage room
shining his morning
face. Dp at the marble lunch counters the coloured gentlemen are
serving hot
ca!es and coee to stray travellers, and the shops along the
Arcade are being
swept and garnished. As $ passed through on my way to the
"hiladelphia train $
was amused by a wic!er bas!et full of 9cotch terrier
puppies--7ve or si/ of them
tumbling over one another in their play and yelping so that the
station rang.
Every little bit yelps as someone has said. $ was reminded of
the last words $
ever read in )irgil #the end of the si/th boo! of the
Aeneid%--stant litore puppes,
which $ always yearned to translate a litter of puppies.
