Bill Nye and Boomerang: Or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary GemsNye, Bill
General
Bill Nye and Boomerang: Or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems
Nye, Bill
American wit and humor
We will now suppose a period of three years to have passed. Luella had
been sent to visit her friends in southern Iowa, partly to assuage her
grief, and partly to save expenses, for she was a hearty eater. Here she
met a young man named Rufus G. Hopper, who fell in love with her, about
the first hard work he did, and when, metaphorically speaking, he laid
his 40-acre homestead, with its wealth of grasshopper eggs, at her feet,
she capitulated, and became his'n, and he became her'n.
Thus these two erstwhile lovers of the long ago had become separated,
and the fair Queen of the Skimmilk Ranche had taken a change of venue
with her affections. Still all seemed to be well to the casual observer,
although at times her eyes had that far-away look of those who are
crossed in love, or whose livers are out of order. Was it the fleeing
vision of the absent lover, or had she eaten something that didn't agree
with her?
Ah! who shall say that at times there did not flash across her mind the
fact that she had sacrificed herself on the altar of Mammon, and given
her rich love in exchange for forty acres of Government land? But the
time drew nigh for the celebration of the nuptials, and still no tidings
of the absent lover. Nearer and nearer came the 4th of July, the day
set apart for the wedding, and still in the dark mysterious bosom of the
unknown, lurked the absent swain.
*****
These stars indicate the number of days which we must now suppose to
have passed, and the glad day of the Nation's rejoicing is at hand. The
loud mouthed cannon, proclaims, for the one hundredth time, that in the
little Revolutionary scrimmage of 1776, our forefathers got away with
the persimmons. Flags wave, bands play, and crackers explode, and scare
the teams from the country. Fair rustic maids are seen on every hand
with their good clothes on, and farmers' sons walk up and down the
street, asking the price of watermelons and soda water. Bye and bye the
band comes down street playing "Old Zip Coon," with variations. The
procession begins to form and point toward the grand stand, where the
Declaration of Independence will be read to the admiring audience, and
lemonade retailed at five cents a glass.
But who are the couple who sit on the front seat near the speaker's
stand, listening with rapt attention to the new and blood-curdling
romance, entitled the "Declaration of Independence?" It is Luella and
her bran new husband. The casual observer can discover that, by the way
he smokes a cheap cigar in her face, and allows the fragrant smoke from
the five cent Havana to drift into her sorrel eyes. All at once the band
strikes up the operatic strain of "Captain Jinks," and as the sad melody
dies away in the distance, a young man steps proudly forth, at the
conclusion of the president's introductory speech, and in a low, musical
voice, begins to set forth the wrongs visited on the Pilgrim Fathers,
and to dish up the bones of G. Washington and T. Jefferson, in various
styles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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