The Fifth Wheel

THE FIFTH WHEEL




CHAPTER I

RUTH VARS COMES OUT


I spend my afternoons walking alone in the country. It is sweet and
clean out-of-doors, and I need purifying. My wanderings disturb Lucy.
She is always on the lookout for me, in the hall or living-room or on
the porch, especially if I do not come back until after dark.
(...)
I have discovered a pretty bit of woods a mile west of Lucy's house, and
an unexpected rustic seat built among a company of murmurous young pines
beside a lake. Opposite the seat is an ecstatic little maple tree, at
this season of the year flaunting all the pinks and reds and yellows of
a fiery opal. There, sheltered by the pines, undisturbed except by a
scurrying chipmunk or two or an inquisitive, gray-tailed squirrel, I sit
and write.


(...)
Olive Higgins Prouty (1882-1974)