On the Stairs

COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY HENRY B. FULLER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published March 1918
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This volume may seem less a Novel than a Sketch of a Novel or a Study for a Novel. It might easily be amplified; but, like other recent work of mine, it was written in the conviction that story-telling, whatever form it take, can be done within limits narrower than those now generally employed.


In the year 1873—
No, do not turn away from such an opening; I shall reach our own day within a paragraph or so.
In the year 1873, then, Johnny McComas was perfectly willing to stand to one side while Raymond Prince, surrounded by several of the fellows, came down, in his own negligent and self-assured way, the main stairway of Grant's Private Academy. For Johnny was newer there; Johnny was younger in this world by a year or two, at an age when a year or two makes a difference; and Johnny had but lately left behind what might be described as a condition of servitude. So Johnny yielded the right of way. He lowered his little snub nose by a few degrees, took some of the gay smile out of his twinkling blue eyes, and waited with an upward glance of friendly yet deferential sobriety until Raymond should have passed.
How are you, Johnny? asked Raymond carelessly.
I'm pretty well, replied Johnny, in all modesty.
In the year 1916—
Yes, I told you we should reach our own times presently.