And you wanted no part of me when I had so much to give.

As I dug in behind one of the bales we were using as protection, I grudgingly found myself agreeing with Oso's logic, especially when I imagined what would have happened to Missy if Old Knife's large party of screeching warriors had overrun our company.

In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.

Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.

At first I thought he had missed.

I saw the clergyman kneel for a moment by the twitching body of the man he had shot, then run back to his position.

Later I would remember what this pompous little man had told me about the worth of a ticket.

One afternoon, upon receiving permission and the necessary instructions from the clerk, I had visited the toilet adjoining the hall.

For although I had crossed a corner of the hall on my way to the toilet I still could not tell for sure how far to the rear the darkness extended.

I could observe the two fans down at the end, but their size in themselves meant nothing to me as long as I had no measure of comparison.

I had for some time been hoping, in vain, for one of the dim figures to pass between the fan vents and myself.

It was, I felt, possible that they were men who, having received no tickets for that day, had remained in the hall, to sleep perhaps, in the corners farthest removed from the counter with its overhead light.

And I had hardly finished my business in the toilet on the aforementioned occasion when the lights in that place, like the hall lights controlled from the switch in the office, flicked off and on impatiently.

I had signed it off on the forms.

Although I had been inside it I had not yet seen it functioning.

`` I made you what you are '', Gavin whispered.

`` I made you so you could stand up.

I made you a man ''.

I seized the rack and made a western-style flying-mount just in time, one of my knees mercifully landing on my duffel bag -- and merely wrecking my camera, I was to discover later -- my other knee landing on the slivery truck floor boards and -- but this is no medical report.

If it were not for an old professor who made me read the classics I would have been stymied on what to do, and now I understand why they are classics ; ;

`` Tell him I made a pass at you ''.

If you tell him I made a pass at you he might think you misunderstood something I said or did, so instead of just telling him I made a pass, say I tried to date you and that you agreed so you could prove to him what a louse I really am.

I must say the figure was well made up.

Foster Lukuklu Frayne made a sign over his heart with his two linked thumbs: I recognized it as an ancient Manu gesture intended to propitiate the Devil.

`` I have just come from viewing a man who had made the fortune of his country, but now is working all night in order to support his family '', he reflected.

I reconstruct his sentences from notes made immediately after our conversation.

My great-grandmother, I have been told, made her garden her great pride ; ;

But I suspect that the old Roman was referring to change made under military occupation -- the sort of change which Tacitus was talking about when he said, `` They make a desert, and call it peace '' ( `` Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant ''.

The rocking, I realized, is the single element in the story that carries the erotic message, the unspoken and unconscious undercurrent that would mar the innocence of a child's fantasy and disturb the effects of the work if it were made explicit.

`` I get up early.

Help me up, I feel kind of stiff ''.

We'll still have the rifle, and I might be able to round up some more.

Far up the valley I could see the Rees circling and reorganizing.

Now under me I could see him for what he really was, a boy dressed up in streaks of paint.

I figger it's probl'y a sixty-five-mile walk, and I c'n maybe get this spring patched up in a couple of hours ''.

I heard o' Texas cattlemen wrappin' a cow thief up in green hides and lettin' the sun shrink 'em and squeeze him to death.

I don't know what you're up to, but when Brenner '' --

`` A body would swear I floated right up here on a cloud ''!!

Besides, 'tain't no more'n right for me to follow with my black oxen, so's I can unhook and pull up fast if either of you get in a pinch ''.

Just as I straightened up with my duffel bag, I heard: `` Sahjunt Yoorick, meet Mrs. Major J. A. Roebuck ''.

I let up on the accelerator, only to gradually reach again the 60 m.p.h. which would, I hoped, overhaul Herry and the blonde, and as there were cars whose drivers apparently had something more important to catch than had I, Mrs. Major Roebuck settled down to practicing on Corporal Johnson the kittenish wiles she would need when making her duty call on Colonel and Mrs. Somebody in Sante Fe.

She stood up, pulled the coat from her shoulders and started to slide it off, then let out a high-pitched scream and I let out a low-pitched, wobbling sound like a muffler blowing out.

He caught up with me once and grabbed me, but I was all covered with zing -- it's very slippery, you know ''.

I was waiting in front of it when she showed up and told me of my Uncle's indisposition.

I bent and kissed the still pink neck and suddenly she jumped up, and her two arms encircled me in a bear-like crush.

When I show up he will know you are a good wife to have told him about it ''.

A few minutes later I saw my Uncle's car drive up and a woman's figure emerge and walk to the corner.

Often, I heard my uncles and cousins speak of it when I was a small boy growing up in Rabaul.