Read "Soldiers' Pay" by William Faulkner online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Gilligan, sitting in the hyacinth bed, watched Jones' flight. "He ain't so bad for a fat one," he admitted, rising. "Emmy'll sure have to sleep single tonight. " The mockingbird in the magnolia, as though it had waited for hostilities to cease, sang again.
"What in hell have you got to sing about? " Gilligan shook his fist at the tree. The bird ignored him and he brushed dark earth from his clothes. Anyway, he soliloquized, I feel better. Wish I could have held the bastard, though. He passed from the garden with a last look at the ruined hyacinth bed. The rector, looming, met him at the corner of the house, beneath the hushed slumbrous passion of the silver tree.