Mason & Dixon: Extended ToC
Three: Last Transit
Chapters 74-78
| 74. | Perhaps all was as simple as that,— that Dixon wish'd to remain, and Mason did not,— could not. | 717 | |
| 74.2 | At Maskelyne's Behest, Mason agrees to observe the Transit from South Ulster, | 719 | |
| 74.3 | "Reminds me of America. Strange, some mornings I get up and I think I'm in America." | 721 | |
| 74.4 | The Rain has rais'd in ev'ryone an insomniack Apprehension, in which all talk of Bog-bursts is avoided,— | 723 | |
| 74.5 | "Classickal," grumbles Euphrenia. | 730 | |
| 74.6 | Maskelyne fancied that, when he became Astronomer Royal, there might be an Investiture, a Passage, a Mystery... an Outfit. | 731 | |
| 75. | "At the request of Maskelyne, I am coming North a Mountain of suitable Gravity to seek, | 733 | |
| 75.2 | Mason is content for a moment to sit inside The Jolly Pitman and a Carousing of Geordies, feeling settled, quietly plumb, | 734 | |
| 75.3 | "Quite a Lark, you must have had.... I returned from the North Cape in some Con-fusion,— | 737 | |
| 75.4 | Upon the doorstep, horses waiting him in the Street, Mason grasps Dixon's Hand. | 742 | |
| 76. | "Now, Dr. Johnson, along with Boswell acting as his Squire, happen'd, in August of 'seventy-three, | 744 | |
| 77. | So when they meet again, 'tis in Bishop, | 749 | |
| 77.2 | "Their visits," wrote the Revd, on unnam'd Authority, "consisted of silence when fishing, fever'd nocturnal Conversation when not. | 750 | |
| 77.3 | They are dozing together by Dixon's Hearth. | 752 | |
| 77.4 | One final Expedition, Dixon believ'd, a bit more Gold in the Sack, and he'll be free to return to America, | 753 | |
| 78. | Now 'tis very late, Dawn is the next event to consider, | 758 | |
| 78.2 | When the Hook of Night is well set, and when all the Children are at last irretrievably detain'd within their Dreams, | 759 | |
| 78.3 | Proceeding, then, to recite the Pennsylvaniad, sotto Voce, as he wanders the Room, among the others, the untold others... | 760 | |
| 78.4 | On entering Mason's Rooms at The George Tavern, Franklin is greeted by an Odor he knows and would rather not have found. | 760 | |
| 78.5 | To speak of the final seven years, between Dixon's Death and Mason's is to speculate, to uncertain avail. | 761 | |
| 78.6 | When news reach'd Mason that Dixon had died, he went about for the rest of the Day as if himself stricken. | 763 | |
| 78.7 | Next morning, at Breakfast, Doc is curious to know, "Did you ever cast his Horoscope?" | 765 | |
| 78.8 | "I thought if ever I did this," Doc tells his father later, out upon the Road, "twould be alone. | 766 | |
| 78.9 | At Bishop they learn'd that Dixon had been buried in back of the Quaker Meeting-House in Staindrop. | 767 | |
| 78.10 | Solitude gre upon him, despite his nominal return to the social Webwork. | 768 | |
| 78.11 | Mason struggles to wake. | 771 | |
| 78.12 | "I think he's waking." | 771 | |
| 78.13 | Mary would return to England with the younger Children,— William and Dr. Isaac, Rebekah's Sons, would stay, and be Americans. Would stay, and ensign their Father into his Death. Mr. Shippen, Revd Peters, Mr. Ewing, all Commissioners of the Line twenty years earlier, now will prove, each in his Way, their Salvation upon the Shore. |
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