the beyond pharmacy

Little Miss Nellie had not expected her timid and tentativeconversational advances to be taken up in this downright fashion. Really she was only anxious for some one to sympathise with her and talkabout the various objects of interest which came across her notice asthey went along; so, Bobs abrupt address, coupled with his gruff toneof voice, fell on her enthusiasm like a wet blanket Nothings the matter, she replied timidly. I only wanted to say hownice it is travelling like this. You dont mean to say you only called me in to tell me that said Bob, almost angrily. I do think girls are the greatest geese in the world With this dogmatic assertion, Master Bob shoved himself head andshoulders out of the window again, utterly ignoring poor Nellieistence, much to her chagrin and dismay. He was very rude, it must be confessed; but, some allowance should bemade for him, all things considered. In the first place, he was a boy just fresh from the rougherassociations of school life; and, secondly, his inquiring mind wasintently occupied in endeavouring to solve a series of mathematicalproblems that set all Euclids laws at defiance, as the train whizzed onits way with a piffpaff pantpant of the great Juggernaut engine, the carriages rattling and jolting as they were dragged along at thetail of the mighty steam demon, swaying to and fro with a rhythmicalmovement of the wheels, in measured cadence of spondees and dactyls, asif singing to themselves the song of the Iron Road. Strange to say, this was a song of which, Bob noticed, the involuntarymusicians never completed the second bar. They recommenced all over again from the beginning, when they reachedsome particularly crucial point, where the click or the clack of theeverechoing clickclacking chorus proved too much for theiroverworked axles Bob, though, was not thinking of this music of the rail, or paying anyattention to it, albeit it was distinct and plain to him; as, indeed, itis to all with ears attuned in harmony with this mystery of motion, andwho choose to listen to it, just as there are sermons in stones, forthose who care to read them No, all his energies were bent on finding out how it was that thestraight hedgerows and square fields became round, while curvingoutlines grow straight in a moment, as if ruled with a measure, at theinstant of their speeding by them; and, it occurred to him, or probablywould have done so if he had given himself time for reflection, that thequestion of squaring the circle, which has perplexed the philosophers ofall ages, was not so very difficult of solution after alllooking atthe matter out of the window of a railwaycarriage, that is

Yes, so it really appeared; for, everything seemed at sixes andsevens, the landscape having its middle distances and foregroundirretrievably mixed up and its perspective gone mad, the country throughwhich they passed resembling in this respect the land of topsyturveydom