Europe -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; New Zealand -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, New Zealand
Kezia liked very much to hear him. Whenever a cart appeared in the
distance she looked up and waited for his voice. He was an old friend;
and she and her grandmother had often been to his place to buy grapes.
The storeman lived alone in a cottage that had a glasshouse against one
wall built by himself. All the glasshouse was spanned and arched over
with one beautiful vine. He took her brown basket from her, lined it
with three large leaves, and then he felt in his belt for a little horn
knife, reached up and snapped off a big blue cluster and laid it on the
leaves so tenderly that Kezia held her breath to watch. He was a very
big man. He wore brown velvet trousers, and he had a long brown beard.
But he never wore a collar, not even on Sunday. The back of his neck
was burnt bright red.
“Where are we now?” Every few minutes one of the children asked him the
question.
“Why, this is Hawk Street, or Charlotte Crescent.”
“Of course it is,” Lottie pricked up her ears at the last name; she
always felt that Charlotte Crescent belonged specially to her. Very few
people had streets with the same name as theirs.
“Look, Kezia, there is Charlotte Crescent. Doesn’t it look different?”
Now everything familiar was left behind. Now the big dray rattled into
unknown country, along new roads with high clay banks on either side,
up steep, steep hills, down into bushy valleys, through wide shallow
rivers. Further and further. Lottie’s head wagged; she drooped, she
slipped half into Kezia’s lap and lay there. But Kezia could not open
her eyes wide enough. The wind blew and she shivered; but her cheeks
and ears burned.
“Do stars ever blow about?” she asked.
“Not to notice,” said the storeman.
“We’ve got a nuncle and a naunt living near our new house,” said Kezia.
“They have got two children, Pip, the eldest is called, and the
youngest’s name is Rags. He’s got a ram. He has to feed it with a
nenamuel teapot and a glove top over the spout. He’s going to show us.
What is the difference between a ram and a sheep?”
“Well, a ram has horns and runs for you.”
Kezia considered. “I don’t want to see it frightfully,” she said. “I
hate rushing animals like dogs and parrots. I often dream that animals
rush at me—even camels—and while they are rushing, their heads swell
e-enormous.”
The storeman said nothing. Kezia peered up at him, screwing up her
eyes. Then she put her finger out and stroked his sleeve; it felt
hairy. “Are we near?” she asked.
“Not far off, now,” answered the storeman. “Getting tired?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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