FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93  
94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>   >|  
n the throne. So surprised was the topmost Spissimen that he was as quiet for a moment as the one underneath him, staring about, blinking. Then, looking down at Mac's punch-cup, he remembered his grievance, and took up the wail where he had left it off. "Nuh, nuh! don't you do that," said the Boy with startling suddenness. "If you make that noise, I'll have to make a worse one. If you cry, Kaviak, I'll have to sing. Hmt, hmt! don't you do it." And as Kaviak, in spite of instructions, began to bawl, the Boy began to do a plantation jig, crooning monotonously: "'Grashoppah sett'n on de swee' p'tater vine, Swee' p'tater vine, swee' p'tater vine; Grasshoppah--'" He stopped as suddenly as he'd begun. "_Now_, will you be good?" Kaviak drew a breath with a catch in it, looked round, and began as firmly as ever: "Weh!--eh!--eh!" "Sh--sh!" The Boy clapped his hands, and lugubriously intoned: "'Dey's de badger and de bah, En de funny lil hah, En de active lil flea, En de lil armadillah Dat sleeps widouter pillah, An dey all gottah mate but me--ee--ee!' "Farva!" Kaviak gasped. "Say, do a nigger breakdown," solicited Potts. "Ain't room; besides, I can't do it with blisters." They did the impossible--they made room, and turned back the buffalo-skin. Only the big Colonel, who was most in the way of all, sat, not stirring, staring in the fire. Such a look on the absent, tender face as the great masters, the divinest poets cannot often summon, but which comes at the call of some foolish old nursery jingle, some fragment of half-forgotten folk-lore, heard when the world was young--when all hearing was music, when all sight was "pictures," when every sense brought marvels that seemed the everyday way of the wonderful, wonderful world. For an obvious reason it is not through the utterances of the greatest that the child receives his first intimations of the beauty and the mystery of things. These come in lowly guise with familiar everyday voices, but their eloquence has the incommunicable grace of infancy, the promise of the first dawn, the menace of the first night. "Do you remember the thing about the screech-owl and the weather signs?" said the Colonel, roused at last by the jig on his toes and the rattle of improvised "bones" almost in his face. "Reckon I do, honey," said the Boy, his feet still flying and flapping on the hard earthen floor. "_'Wen de screech-owl light on de g
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93  
94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Kaviak

 

staring

 

Colonel

 
wonderful
 
everyday
 

screech

 
marvels
 

hearing

 

pictures

 

brought


jingle
 

tender

 

absent

 

summon

 

divinest

 
masters
 

forgotten

 

stirring

 

fragment

 
foolish

nursery

 
rattle
 

improvised

 

roused

 

remember

 

weather

 

earthen

 
flapping
 

Reckon

 

flying


menace

 

receives

 

intimations

 

beauty

 

mystery

 

greatest

 

utterances

 

obvious

 

reason

 

things


incommunicable

 

infancy

 

promise

 

eloquence

 

familiar

 

voices

 
instructions
 

startling

 

suddenness

 

plantation