The Making of Americans, Being a History of a Family's Progress

by Gertrude Stein

  He was doing all his daily living with the children and the women and the men living in small houses in that part of Gossols where the Herslands were the only rich people living. The Herslands were rich people of rich American living as the natural way of living. In a way Alfred had never had any real experiencing of this kind of way of living, he really did not know very much of any one who was living this kind of living, sometimes some with their children came to see the Herslands and then the Hersland children had to play and talk with these then these children living the rich American living, and the Hersland children mostly were not interested in them, Alfred had not any liking for them, he liked to have all the fruit picked even before it was quite ripe before it was really ready for picking so that those children who were coming to visit them should not be using their trees to pick fruit and enjoy it. Alfred never liked it that these children should be at home in his orchard, picking fruit and eating it and taking it home with them, he liked very well picking fruit and climbing trees, his own trees with those children that were in his daily living, he never did like it that children coming with their parents on a Sunday visit well to do American families should come and pick fruit in his orchard and enjoy such things then when they came occasionally to visit the Herslands in a part of Gossols where not any other rich people excepting the Herslands were living. Once when some of them were coming, Alfred with David and Martha to help picked all the fruit although most of it was green then, it was mostly cherries just then, picked it all every bit of it and put it in the barn to ripen and he did this so that the children coming to visit them should not be climbing the trees and helping themselves as if it were in an orchard of their own. He made David and Martha have such a feeling too in them, it was a mixed feeling in Alfy then, he was then just beginning to feel in him responsibility for family living, he was just beginning then to feel in him that he was an American citizen, he was just beginning to feel in him then his daily living and liking that realisation that he was then beginning to have in him. He was beginning then a little dimly to have a realisation of the fact that his mother never in her feeling had been really cut off from rich right American living. He was just then completely living with the people living near him, he was doing all his living with them, living was interesting to him then, he was more and more then beginning to be really living his living with their living. He had in him not any disliking for the rich American living but he did not want the children of that living to make themselves too much at home in his garden in his orchard with the flowers and the fruit that was part of his daily living then.

  Each one of the three Hersland children had each their own way of living and feeling their early living. This is now to be a description of the way Alfred lived and felt his early living.

  As a boy Alfred Hersland, Alfy as they called him was doing everything he was doing with these boys, those children living near him. He did everything he did with them, mostly he did everything they did in living, he did everything he did then in his daily living with them. He was then completely of them in doing everything he did in his daily living with them. As I was saying he did mostly everything they did in their living. He certainly did everything he did in his daily living with them. He was of them then. He was of them, Martha Hersland, David Hersland, all three of the Hersland children were of them the people in small houses near them in their early living. Each one of them, of the three Hersland children was of them in the way it was natural for that one to be of people around her around him. Each one of the three of them certainly was of the children and women and men who were their neighbors then in all the young living each one of them had then. Each one of them certainly then was of the daily living of these then, the people near them more than any one of the three of them were then of their own proper family living. Martha Hersland was pretty completely of the living of the people living near her when she was a young one, more than she was then of her mother's or her father's or her brother's living then. Alfred Hersland, Alfy as these then all called him did everything he did in his younger living with them with these people near him. David Hersland also was of them the people near him but then he was of every one in a way and mostly always of himself inside him and soon now there will be a beginning to him. Each one then of them certainly did have their young living in company with the people living near them then and certainly each one of them had their living inside in them in the way it was natural for such a kind of them as each one of them was inside them to have it in them. Martha then had it in her in her kind of way of having it in her. She was of them these people in her younger living. Alfred, Alfy as they called him, had it in him then when he was a boy and also then when he was a little older as it was natural for him to have it in him. He certainly then when he was a boy lived all his daily living with them, mostly then he did what they did in living, certainly he did everything he did with them, this was true of him when he was a boy, it was pretty nearly true, of him when he was a little older, it was more or less true of him all the time he lived there near them.

  The grandfather of the Hersland children Mr. Hissen had it in him to be completely certain that when he would be a dead one he would be dead completely dead, of that he was completely certain, he was so a complete one, concrete and generalised conviction was the same in him, he was in himself then to himself always in him always all there was of religion, he was the grandfather of the Hersland children, he was the grandfather of Alfred and David Hersland, he was the grandfather of Martha Hersland but she was not related to him in being, he was the grandfather of Alfred and David Hersland, they were related to him by their being, he was the grandfather of Alfred Hersland, that is certain, this is now beginning to be a description of Alfred Hersland and the being in him and the living that came out of and to him.

  Alfred Hersland was a boy and living then with for him poor people, children, men and women. He did everything that he was then doing in his living with them, he was then completely of them, he was then completely with them when he was a boy and among them. Later when he was still doing everything he was doing with them, when he was still doing mostly everything they were doing with them, it was then a little different in him, he was pretty completely then doing with them everything that they were doing, he was doing it pretty completely entirely then his life with them, he was pretty completely then almost entirely then doing with them everything that they, older girls and boys, and men and women in the small houses near the Hersland ten acre place were then doing, he was then completely doing and doing pretty nearly entirely everything they were doing and doing it with, them and it was a little a different thing in him than when he was a younger one, already he had then a feeling like a feeling for quality of richness and finish in anything, he had already a little beginning of feeling in him that his family was not really then never had been cut off from the rich American living, the natural living for them. He did not know it then and the little he knew then was not pleasant to him, he did then mostly entirely everything those living in small houses near him were doing and he did it with them, he did not know then really anything of this rich right American living that was the natural Hersland way of living, he knew nothing of this then, he did not really think of such a thing, a little he had in him then a little family feeling about managing his sister and being a good citizen, his mother was not then important to him, his father was a rich man he knew it then but he did not then really feel this in him, he had not any realisation of this then in him, and always then he was doing everything and with them, very completely indeed then what these people were doing who lived near him and always then he did not know then and the little he knew of them who had it in them, right rich American living was not pleasant to him and yet in him beginning was a little feeling that some way somehow he was inside him a being never really cut off from rich right American living. When he was a younger one this was entirely completely not in him, a little later when he was completely doing everything the ones near him were doing and
very much with them and with the feeling of them and himself as of them in him still somewhere in him there was in him what his mother had in her as always there inside her that he was of a being that had it as a natural thing that nothing in him was cut off from rich right American living, and always then he was completely living with them the people near him living their living having their feeling being completely then of their living in his acting, in his living, in his thinking, in his feeling. Each one of the Hersland children had their own being in them each one of them had a different way from the two other ones of having the living with the people near them in them. Martha had her being, had her feeling in their living, had her way of being completely of them the people near her, in her younger living. Alfred had his being in him, he had his way of feeling the living he was doing in his young living. He certainly was doing everything these near him were doing and doing it with them and feeling it as they were feeling in it then and this is now then some history of his living then, of his daily living then.

  Alfred Hersland was with them in his daily living with the people living near him, with the boys around him in his daily living and he did then everything he did with them and he did then everything they did in their daily living and he had not in him then anything at all of family living. When he was a boy, when he was beginning his living he lived his daily life then doing everything he did then with the boys the women and men living near him. He did his roller skating, a little shooting, some camping, a good deal of fishing, some going about the country selling fruit he had been picking with them in the orchard in the ten acre place where the Herslands were living and any other fruit belonging to any of them that they could use for selling, he did everything in his daily living with them, he was with them when they were with girls then and he did with the gills everything a boy does when he is with them. He had then public school living. He did his daily living completely with them, he did everything they were doing then, this was the history of the living he had in him when he was a young one: he did everything then with these then living near him, he had then his being in him and his daily living and this is now then to be a description of the living then in him with the being in him.

  There were then the Banks boys who lived near him, there were three of them, it was the oldest one who was mostly with him, the second one George who had lost two fingers from a sickness he had that no one ever mentioned to him was the one with whom David Hersland later did his living. The oldest Banks brother Albert, who later in his living did shoemaking, George later was a clerk and pretty successful in living, the third brother then a very red faced freckled one who could crow very well and always was on fences doing this thing and his later living came when the Herslands did not any longer any of them any more know what happened to any one in that part of Gossols and so there is not to be any telling of his future living, Albert was a good deal in these days with Alfred Hersland and then he began shoemaking and he was not very good at learning at school and once he had a furious anger in him there and he scared every one in the school by drawing a pistol although it was an empty one and he was told not to come any more and he then began learning shoemaking but he was a good fellow to be with for any one and pleasant enough and he and Alfred did everything together then until the shoemaking began and then he went with men and Alfred was not so completely with him then. These Banks boys had in them all three of them half city half country living, Alfred had in him completely half city half country living, when he began shoemaking city living came to be more strongly in him, Albert then went on with his half city half country living, he went on then living with those then near him who kept on in them being half city half country in their feeling. There were some of them who kept on having halt city half country feeling some of those living near the Herslands then and after Albert Banks began learning shoemaking Alfred Hersland was mostly with them. The one who might have been interested in Martha if she had been more interesting to him was one of such of them. Alfred when he was not any longer a boy in his living was for a little while a good deal with this one. He did then, Alfred did then pretty nearly entirely everything that this one, that this crowd of them were doing then in their daily living. Alfred was beginning to have a little in him beginning then the feeling of family being but it was not in him then yet as in any way determining and he was then completely entirely doing in his daily living what these having in them hall country half city living were doing.

  There were a number of little houses in this part of Gossols and Alfred knew a good many of the people living in them. In a good many of them the same people kept on living all the time the Herslands were living in a ten acre place there, in some of the houses there was much moving, people would be very often coming and going. Once there was a family that stayed one year there and there were two children an older boy and a very young one, the older one Louis Champion was very much with Alfred then, the little brother was a nuisance to them, Alfred did a good deal of roller skating, some camping out and more or less fishing with Louis Champion. Louis was a pleasant fellow and good-looking.

  Alfy was often out in the evening, in the summer he was out a long time almost always every evening. Sometimes he went out with some of them living in small houses near him, sometimes some of them would be playing hide and go seek around the Hersland house with him. Albert Banks was often playing, going about with him of an evening. They were together very often in the evening. Alfy was very often out in the evening with some of them living near him. In the summer he was out a long time almost always every evening. Very often he would be going off somewhere to do something or he would be standing around with them or they would be all of them hanging around together in a vacant lot that was near to where all of them were living. Sometimes they would be chasing all around all of them, sometimes some of them would be hiding and running on the Hersland place as I was just saying. Albert Banks was often then with Alfy in the evening, less at first after he began learning shoemaking, earlier when he was still going to school he was almost always together with Alfy on a summer evening. All the year Alfy was very often out in the evening when he was a little older boy and in the summer he was out a long time almost always every evening. Sometimes he was out with some of them he was doing everything with in his daily living, sometimes they would be together playing hide and seek in his orchard and in his garden. Albert Banks as I was saying would be then almost always with him in the evening, he would often be playing hide and seek in the Hersland orchard and garden with them, this was before he was thinking of beginning learning shoemaking. Frank and Will Roddy often were with them all in the evening. Frank and Will Roddy often were there in the evening at the Hersland place playing with Albert Banks and Alfred Hersland and David. They were often playing hide and go seek in the summer in the evening. Sometimes some girls would be with them, sometimes Martha Hersland would be with them. Every now and then there would be some girls playing along with them. Albert Banks and Frank and Will Roddy for some time were almost always together with Alfy in the evening. Albert Banks as I was saying later began learning shoe-making, he was then not so very much with Alfy and the Roddy boys who were still then a good deal together in the evening. Frank Roddy later in his living went into the country to earn his living. Will Roddy later went into a cigar stand, clerking, and then his father died and he had a little money and he came to be a partner and then he and the other one failed and they were not fair then they very much favored one creditor, they had some trouble, later very many years later some of the Herslands happened to hear from some one that Will Roddy was in jail because of something he had been doing. He was supposed not to have been very honest and afterwards he was in jail. He was a little fellow and very quick.

  So then Alfy and Albert Banks and the Roddy boys were often playing hide and go seek in the summer in the evening. They were a good deal together mostly every evening as I was saying. They were very often together in a vacant lot playing or hanging around together somewhere and often
enough they would be chasing around in the Hersland orchard and garden. Sometimes there some girls would be with them. Sometimes then Martha Hersland would be with them. Alfred and David very often were playing hide and go seek with Albert Banks and the Roddy boys and sometimes some others, in the Hersland orchard and garden. Sometimes some girls would be with them, sometimes then Martha Hersland would be with them. Sometimes then they stayed a long time in the orchard, later then Alfred said to Martha he would tell her father, she had no business to be playing. Sometimes he would be angry and later he would threaten her if she would not do something he wanted her to be doing he would tell her father she was playing hide and go seek in the evening. Sometimes later there would be quarrelling and Alfy would be saying Martha should not be playing that evening. Sometimes Alfy would make Martha go in. He would say if she did not go in he would tell her father she was playing hide and go seek in the evening. Don't you know any better than to come along, he would say to her. He was then a little beginning to have in him the feeling that he was a good citizen, that he was the oldest son, he did not know then yet very specifically why she should go in, she did not know then very specifically why she should go in, they neither of them knew very specifically why she should not be playing hide and go seek in the evening but Alfy was beginning then to have such a feeling about himself in him that he should send her in and later then if she did not do something he wanted she should be doing he always said he would then tell his father she had been playing hide and go seek in the evening and then she always had a sullen fear inside her. Neither of them then as I was saying knew very specifically what they were meaning. Martha, Alfred and David Hersland all three were out a good deal in the evening. Alfred was often out in the evening, in the summer he was out a long time almost always every evening. He was then doing everything with the children and women and men living near him, he was then doing everything mostly that they were doing, he was doing everything he did with them. He was then mostly always out with them in the evening. He was then and when he was older he was then with them, some of them sometimes with a good many of them in the evening. He was always then doing everything he was doing then with them. Alfred all his younger living was out very often in the evening, then and later in his Gossols living he was often out in the evening, in the summer he was out a long time almost always in the evening. Mostly he stayed entirely in that part of Gossols where he was living. Mostly he never went away from the crowd living near him. Mostly he in the evening when he was a young one when he was an older one stayed in that part of Gossols where the Herslands were living, was with them the people living in small houses near him.