A Canary For One Learn English through story

a canary for one

the train passed very quickly along red

stone house with a garden

and four thick palm trees with tables

under them in the shade

on the other side was the sea then there

was a cutting through red stone and clay

and the sea was only occasionally and

far below against rocks

i bought him in palermo the american

lady said

we only had an hour ashore and it was

sunday morning the man wanted to be paid

in dollars and i gave him a dollar and a

half

he really sings very beautifully

it was very hot in the train and it was

very hot in the lid

salon compartment there was no breeze

came through the open window

the american lady pulled the window

blind down and there was no more sea

even occasionally on the other side

there was glass

then the corridor then an open window

and outside the window were dusty trees

and an oiled road and flat fields of

grapes

with greystone hills behind them there

was smoke from many tall chimneys

coming into marseille and the train

slowed down and followed one track

through many others into the station

the train stayed 25 minutes in the

station at marseille

and the american lady bought a copy of

the daily mail and a half bottle of

avion water

she walked a little way along the

station platform but she stayed near the

steps of the car because at khan

where it stopped for 12 minutes the

train had left with no signal of

departure

and she had gotten on only just in time

the american lady was a little deaf and

she was afraid that perhaps signals of

departure were given

and that she did not hear them the train

left the station in marseille

and there was not only the switch yards

and the factory smoke

but looking back the town of marseille

and the harbor with stone hills behind

it

and the last of the sun on the water

as it was getting dark the train passed

a farmhouse burning in a field

motorcars were stopped along the road

and bedding and things from inside the

farmhouse were spread in the field

many people were watching the house burn

after it was dark the train was in

avignon people got on and off

at the newsstand frenchman returning to

paris

bought that day’s french papers on the

station platform were negro

soldiers they wore brown uniforms and

were tall

and their faces shone close under the

electric light

their faces were very black and they

were too tall to stare

the train left avignon station with the

negros standing there

a short white sergeant was with them

inside the lit salon compartment the

porter had pulled down the three beds

from inside the wall

and prepared them for sleeping in the

night

the american lady lay without sleeping

because the train was a repeat

and went very fast and she was afraid of

the speed in the night

the american lady’s bed was the one next

to the window

the canary from palermo a cloth spread

over his cage

was out of the draft in the corridor

that went into the compartment washroom

there was a blue light outside the

compartment and all night the train went

very fast

and the american lady lay awake and

waited for a wreck

in the morning the train was near paris

and after the american lady had come out

from the washroom looking very wholesome

and middle-aged and

american in spite of not having slept

and had taken the cloth off the birdcage

and hung the cage in the sun

she went back to the restaurant car for

breakfast

when she came back to the lit salon

compartment again the beds had been

pushed back into the wall and made into

seats

the canary was shaking his feathers in

the sunlight that came through the open

window

and the train was much nearer paris

he loves the sun the american lady said

he’ll sing now in a little while the

canary shook his feathers and pecked

into them

i’ve always loved birds the american

lady said

i’m taking him home to my little girl

there he’s singing now

the canary chirped and the feathers on

his throat stood out

then he dropped his bill and pecked into

his feathers again

the train crossed a river and passed

through a very carefully tended forest

the train passed through many outside of

paris towns

there were tram cars in the towns and

big advertisements for the

belgian air and dubunnae and perno

on the walls toward the train all that

the train passed through looked as

though it were before breakfast

for several minutes i had not listened

to the american lady who was talking to

my wife

is your husband american too asked the

lady

yes said my wife we’re both americans

i thought you were english oh no

perhaps that was because i wore braces i

said

i had started to say suspenders and

changed it to braces in the mouth

to keep my english character the

american lady did not hear

she was really quite deaf she read lips

and i had not looked toward her i had

looked out of the window

she went on talking to my wife i’m so

glad you’re americans

american men make the best husbands the

american lady was saying

that was why we left the continent you

know my daughter fell in love with a man

in vive

she stopped they were simply madly in

love

she stopped again i took her away of

course

did she get over it ask my wife i don’t

think so

said the american lady she wouldn’t eat

anything and she wouldn’t sleep at all

i’ve tried so very hard but she doesn’t

seem to take an interest in anything

she doesn’t care about things i couldn’t

have her marrying a foreigner

she paused someone a very good friend

told me once

no foreigner can make an american girl a

good husband

no said my wife i suppose not

the american lady admired my wife’s

traveling coat

and it turned out that the american lady

had bought her own clothes for 20 years

now

from the same meson de courtier in the

rue san honore

they had her measurements and evondus

who knew her

and her tastes picked the dresses out

for her and they were sent to america

they came to the post office near where

she lived uptown in new york

and the duty was never exorbitant

because they opened the dresses there in

the post office to appraise them

and they were always very simple looking

and

with no gold lace nor ornaments that

would make the dresses look expensive

before the present bondos named terez

there had been

another vandus named amelie

altogether there had only been these two

in the 20 years

it had always been the same kochiye

prices however had gone up

the exchange though equalized that they

had her daughter’s measurements now too

she was grown up and there was not much

chance of their changing now

the train was now coming into paris the

fortifications were leveled but grass

had not

grown there were many cars standing on

tracks

brown wooden restaurant cars and brown

wooden

sleeping cars that would go to italy at

five o’clock that night

if the train still left at five the cars

were marked paris rome

and cars with seats on the roofs had

went back and forth to the suburbs with

at certain hours people in all the seats

and

on the roofs if that were the way it was

still done

and passing with the white walls and

many windows of houses

no one had eaten any breakfast

americans make the best husbands the

american lady said to my wife

i was getting down the bags american men

are the only men in the world to marry

how long ago did you leave vive ask my

way

two years ago this fall it’s her you

know that i’m

taking the canary to was the man your

daughter was in love with a swiss

yes said the american lady he was from a

very good family in vive

he was going to be an engineer they met

there in the va

they used to go on long walks together

i know vive said my wife we were there

on our honeymoon

were you really that must have been

lovely

i had no idea of course that she’d fall

in love with him

it was a very lovely place said my wife

yes

said the american lady isn’t it lovely

where did you stop there

we stayed at the toi coron said my wife

it’s such a fine old hotel said the

american lady

yes said my wife we had a very fine room

and in the fall the country was lovely

were you there in the fall yes said my

wife

we were passing three cars that had been

in a wreck they were splittered open and

the roof sagged in

look i said it’s been a wreck

the american lady looked and saw the

last car

i was afraid of just that all night she

said i have terrific presentments about

things sometimes

i’ll never travel on a repeat again at

night there must be other comfortable

trains that don’t go so fast

then the train was in the dark of the

guard de leon

and then stopped and porters came up to

the windows

i handed bags through the windows and we

were out in the dim

longness of the platform and the

american lady put herself in charge of

one of three men from cooks who said

just a moment madame and now look for

your name

the porter brought a truck and piled on

the baggage

and my wife said goodbye and i said

goodbye to the american lady

whose name had been found by the man

from cooks on a typewritten page

in a sheaf of typewritten pages which he

replaced in his pocket

we followed the porter with the truck

down the long cement platform beside the

train

at the end was a gate and a man took the

tickets

we were returning to paris to set up

separate

residences