Read "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
No one knew that they were coming; no one met them; and because of the icy roads, the only conveyance at the station was the hotel bus, which they missed while Kennicott was giving his trunk-check to the station agent -- the only person to welcome them. Carol waited for him in the station, among huddled German women with shawls and umbrellas, and ragged-bearded farmers in corduroy coats; peasants mute as oxen, in a room thick with the steam of wet coats, the reek of the red-hot stove, the stench of sawdust boxes which served as cuspidors. The afternoon light was as reluctant as a winter dawn.
"This is a useful market-center, an interesting pioneer post, but it is not a home for me," meditated the stranger Carol.