Booth Tarkington

Penrod Booth Tarkington

Book Excerpt: ...on a simple apparatus consisting of an old bushel-basket with a few yards of clothes-line tied to each of its handles. He passed the ends of the lines over a big spool, which revolved upon an axle of wire suspended from a beam overhead, and, with the aid of this improvised pulley, lowered the empty basket until it came to rest in an upright position upon the floor of the storeroom at the foot of the sawdust-box."Eleva-ter!" shouted Penrod. "Ting-ting!"Duke, old and intelligently apprehensive, approached slowly, in a semicircular manner, deprecatingly, but with courtesy. He pawed the basket delicately; then, as if that were all his master had expected of him, uttered one bright bark, sat down, and looked up triumphantly. His hypocrisy was shallow: many a horrible quarter of an hour had taught him his duty in this matter."El-e-VAY-ter!" shouted Penrod sternly. "You want me to come down there to you?"Duke looked suddenly haggard. He pawed the basket feebly again and, upon another outburst f...