Grandfathers -- Juvenile fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Juvenile fiction; Orphans -- Juvenile fiction; Poor girls -- Juvenile fiction
"Aye, aye, deary. I cal'late she done it a purpose. She makes her money
easy, Jane does. Just sets there on the bridge-end and sells second-hand
flowers to whoever'll buy. If she had to walk the streets----"
Glory was so surprised by this last sentence that she snapped her thread
off in the wrong place and wasted a whole needleful. Until yesterday,
she had never heard her grandfather speak in any but the most contented
spirit about his lot in life. Then he had twice lamented that he "didn't
know whatever was to become o' two poor creatur's like them," and now,
again, this gay morning, he was complaining--almost complaining. Glory
didn't feel, in the least, like a "poor creatur'." She felt as "chirpy
as a sparrow bird," over in City Hall park; and, if the sun didn't shine
in the Lane, she knew it was shining in the street beyond, so what
mattered?
Vaguely disturbed, the child laid her hand on his arm and asked, "Be you
sick, grandpa?"
He answered promptly and testily, "Sick? No, nor never was in my life.
Nothin' but blind an' that's a trifle compared to sickness. What you
askin' for? Didn't I eat my breakfast clean up?"
"Ye-es, but--but afterward you--you kicked Bo'sn, an' sayin' that about
'walkin' the street' just a singin'; why, I thought you liked it. I know
the folks like to hear you. You do roll out that about the 'briny wave'
just grand. I wish you'd sing it to Bo'sn an' me right now, grandpa,
dear."
Wholly mollified and ashamed of his own ill-temper, the captain tried
the familiar tune but it died in his throat. Music was far beyond him
just then, yet he stroked the child's head tenderly, and said, "Some
other time, mate, some other time. I'm a little hoarse, maybe, or
somethin'."
"Well, then, never mind. Let's talk 'Snug Harbor.' You begin. You tell
an' I'll put in what I'm mind to; or I'll say what I guess it's like an'
you set me straight if I get crooked. 'Cause you've seen it, grandpa,
an' I never have. Not once; not yet. Bime-by---- Oh, shall I begin,
shall I, grandpa?"
The sailor sighed fit to shake the whole small tenement and nodded in
consent; so, observing nothing of his reluctance to their once favorite
subject, Glory launched forth:
"'Sailors' Snug Harbor' is the most beautifulest spot in the whole
world! It's all flowery an' grassy an' treesy. It's got fountains an'
birds an' orchestry-music forever an' ever. 'Tain't never cloudy there,
nor rainy, nor freezy, nor snowy, nor nothin' mean. Eh, grandpa? Am I
straight or crooked?"
The captain, roused as from a reverie, replied absently, "It's a
beautiful place, mate; I know that. Nobody wants for nothin' there, an'
once a man casts anchor there he's in safe haven for the rest of his
days. Oh, I ain't denyin' none of its comforts, but I wish the whole
concern'd burn to the ground or sink in the bay. I wish the man first
thought of it had died before he did."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account