
"I have expectations of securing, through my contacts with the family of President Tyler, a government
post, a sinecure in theUnited States ' Customs House. This position will finance my literary endeavours,
freeing me from the pestilential need of providing for myself and my dependants. Until that welcome time,
so close as to be within a breath's grasp, I'm afraid I shall have to trouble you to settle a greater portion
of the worthy Samuel's bill."
Despite Eddy's penury, the goodfellows drank steadily for two hours. Hendrik could almost no longer
feel the lump of Mexican shot that had lodged in his leg as he galloped away from San Antone. Usually,
he took that as a sign that his evening's liquoring was over and that he should transfer his affections to
beer. In the current circumstances, he called for another shot. Ernie, the pot-man, was ready with an
unstoppered bottle and exchanged a sympathetic look with Hendrik. Evidently, he was more than familiar
with the windy likes of Joseph and Eddy.
At Molly's summoning, a cluster of drab girls gathered around, loitering like coyotes just beyond the
firelight. Hendrik was not yet far enough along the whiskey turnpike to discern the attractions of these
painted specimens, but he knew well enough that before the bottle was emptied he would make out some
startling and hitherto unperceived beauty among the unpromising herd.
Joseph, eyes bright, had taken a shine to Eddy, whom the brothers had come upon when the tavern was
a deal less populated than now. Alone and muttering, he had been scattering spittle over the pages of the
book he was reading. He was going through a poem by Longfellow, underscoring phrases stolen from
other sources, and his first outburst had been a bilious attack on monied plagiarists. Now the
conversational topic had shifted, Eddy was arguing mysterious matters with Joseph.
"Our perceptions must perforce be inexact," Eddy said, taking some new tack. "A veil hangs before all
things and we cannot push it aside. My belief is that devices can be constructed, poetical devices or
physical, which would enable us to see clear through this fog as a telescope penetrates the night skies."
"Aye, there's truth to be seen," Joseph said, taking another gulp of liquid fire. "The Lord's Truth."
Hendrik knew the preaching fever was almost on his brother. It was Joseph's habit to pursue the
pleasures of the bottle, generously sharing them with fellows like this poet, until entirely in his cups. Then
Joseph would be possessed of a deep revulsion for his sinful ways and would feel compelled to get up on
a table and rail against the generality of mankind. His usual topics were those faults that ran strongest in
his own character ndash drink and dissipation.
"If we could but shake the casts from our eyes," Eddy continued, "what wonders would not be disclosed
to our revivified sight? We could remake the world on ideal lines."
"Changes are coming, Eddy. The Lord's changes."
While Hendrik had knocked around the territories for most of his adult life, Joseph had stayed in the
States. His travels had all been interior, and wayward.
If he had been more given to speechifying, Hendrik would have silenced Joseph and Eddy, criticising
them for drawing conclusions about the nature of the universe from observations made exclusively in the
taverns, chapels and gaudy houses ofMassachusetts . A man had no right to an opinion of the world until
he had seen the unpeopled desert stretching to the Western horizon, waded through Florida swamps
forever expecting a Seminole blade in his throat, outraced the soldiers of Mexico while comrades fell at
the Alamo, passed a year in the wilderness without seeing another human soul, held in his hands a
treasure in dust that would shame the courts of Europe, losing said fortune along a punishing trail yet
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