I tell you, Nucky, this life here in the Canyon
and the thoughts you think here, are the only real things. New York
and all that, is just the outer shell of living. Understand me?"
The boy nodded, his eyes fixed on Frank's with pitiful eagerness.
"It's clean out here. This country isn't all messed up with men and
women's badness. Everybody starts even and with a clean slate. Lord
knows, I was a worthless bunch when I struck here, fifteen years ago.
I'd been expelled from Yale in my senior year for gambling. I'd run
through the money my father'd left me. I'd gotten into a woman scrape
and I'd alienated every member of my family. Just why I thought a deck
of cards was worth all that, I can't tell you. But I did. Then I came
down here to see what the Canyon could do for my asthma and it cured
that, and by the Eternal, it cured my soul, too. Now listen to me,
son! You go back and lie down and put yourself to sleep thinking about
your real mother. Boys are apt to take their general build from their
mothers, so she was probably a big woman, not pretty, but with an
intellectual face full of character. Go on, now, Enoch! You need the
rest and we've got a full day to-morrow."
Nucky passed his hand unsteadily over his eyes, but rose without a
word, and Frank tucked him into his blankets, then sat quietly waiting
by the fire.
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