------------reading english literature is a necessary activity for english major and why?
CAT IN THE RAIN by ERNEST HEMINGWAY
There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel.They did not know any of the
people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from the room.Their room was
on the second floor facing the sea.It also faced the public garden and the war
monument.
There were big palms and green benches in the public garden.In the good weather
there was always an artist with his easel.Artists liked the way the palms grew and
the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea.Italians came from a
long way off to look up at the war monument.
It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain.It was raining.The rain dripped
from the palm trees.Water stood in pools on the gravel paths.The sea broke in a
long line in the rain and slipped back down in the beach to come up and break again in
a long line in the rain.In the motor cars were gone from in the square by in the war monument.
Across in the square in in the doorway of in the cafe a waiter stood looking out at in
the empty square.
The American wife stood at in the window looking out.Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of in the dripping green tables.The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.
"I'm going down and get that kitty," in the American wife said.
"I'll do it," her husband offered from in the bed.
"No,I'll get it.In the poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table."
The husband went on reading,lying propped up with in the two pillows at in the foot of in the bed.
Don't get wet," he said.
The wife went downstairs and in the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she passed in the office.His desk was at in the far end of in the office.He was an old man and very tall.
"Il piove," in the wife said.She liked in the hotel-keeper.
"Si,si,Signora,brutto tempo.It's very bad weather."
He stood behind his desk in in the far end of in the dim room.In the wife liked him.
She liked in the deadly serious way he received any complaints.She liked his dignity.
She liked in the way he wanted to serve her.She liked in the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper.She liked his old,heavy face and big hands.
Liking him she opened in the door and looked out.It was raining harder.A man in a rubber cape was crossing in the empty square to in the cafe.In the cat would be around to in the right.
Perhaps she could go along under in the eaves.
As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her.It was in the maid who looked after their room.
"You must not get wet," she smiled,speaking Italian.Of course,in the hotel-keeper had sent her.
With in the maid holding in the umbrella over her,she walked along in the gravel path until she was under their window.In the table was there,washed bright green in the rain,but in the cat was gone.She was suddenly disappointed.In the maid looked up at her.
"Ha perduto qualque cosa,Signora?"
"There was a cat," said in the American girl.
"A cat?"
"Si,il gatto."
"A cat?" in the maid laughed."A cat in in the rain?"
"Yes," she said,"under in the table." Then,"Oh,I wanted it so much.I wanted a kitty."
When she talked English in the maid's face tightened.
"Come,Signora," she said."We must get back inside.You will be wet."
"I suppose so," said in the American girl.
They went back along in the gravel path and passed in in the door.In the maid stayed outside to close in the umbrella.As in the American girl passed in the office,in the padrone bowed from his desk.Something felt very small and tight inside in the girl.
In the padrone made her feel very small and at in the same time really important.
She went on up in the stairs.She opened in the door of in the room.George was on in the bed,reading.
"Did you get in the cat?" he asked,putting in the book down.
"It was gone."
"Wonder where it went to," he said,resting his eyes from reading.
She sat down on in the bed.
"I wanted it so much," she said."I don't know why I wanted it so much.I wanted that poor kitty.It isn't any fun to be a poor kitty out in in the rain."
George was reading again.
She went over and sat in front of in the mirror of in the dressing table looking at herself with in the hand glass.She studied her profile,first one side then in the other.
Then she studied in the back of her head and her neck.
"Don't you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out?" she asked,looking at her profile again.
George looked up and saw in the back of her neck,clipped close like a boy's.
"I like it in the way it is."
"I get so tired of it," she said."I get so tired of looking like a boy."
George shifted his position in in the bed.He hadn't looked away from her since she started to speak.
"You look pretty darn nice," he said.
She laid in the mirror down on in the dresser and went over to in the window and looked out.It was getting dark.
"I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at in the back that I can feel," she said."I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her."
"Yeah?" George said from in the bed.
"And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles.And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes."
"Oh,shut up and get something to read," George said.He was reading again.
His wife was looking out of in the window.It was quite dark now and still raining in in the palm trees.
"Anyway,I want a cat," she said,"I want a cat.I want a cat now.If I can't have long hair or any fun,I can have a cat."
George was not listening.He was reading his book.His wife looked out of in the window where in the light had come on in in the square.
Someone knocked at in the door.
"Avanti," George said.He looked up from his book.
In in the doorway stood in the maid.She held a big tortoise-shell cat pressed tight against her and swung down against her body.
"Excuse me," she said,"the padrone asked me to bring this for in the Signora."