Dawn O'Hara the Girl who Laughed Author:Edna Ferber Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III GOOD AS NEW OO Spring danced away, and Summer saun- tered in. My pillows looked less and less tempting. The wine of the northern air imparted a... more » cocky assurance. One blue-and-gold day followed the other, and I spent hours together out of doors in the sunshine, lying full length on the warm, sweet ground, to the horror; of the entire neighborhood. To be sure, I was sufficiently discreet to choose the lawn at the rear of the house. There I drank in the atmosphere, as per doctor's instructions, while the genial sun warmed the watery blood in my veins and burned the skin off the end of my nose. All my life I had envied the loungers in the parks — those silent, inert figures that lie under the trees all the long summer day, their shabby; hats over their faces, their hands clasped above their heads, legs sprawled in uncouth comfort, while the sun dapples down between the leaves and, like a good fairy godmother, touches their frayed and wrirfkled garments with flickering figures of golden splendor, while they sleep. They always seemed so blissfully care-free and at ease — those sprawling men figures — and I, x whom such simple joys were forbidden, being a woman, had envied them. Now I was reveling in that very joy, stretched prone upon the ground, blinking sleepily up at the sun and the cobalt sky, feeling my rery hair grow, and health returning in warm, electric waves. I even dared to cross one leg over the other and to swing the pendant member with nonchalant air, first taking a cautious survey of the neighboring back windows to see if any one peeked. Doubtless they did, behind those ruffled curtains, but I grew splendidly indifferent. Even the crawling things — and there were myriads of them — added to the enjoyment of my ease. With my ear so close to the ground...« less