American essays -- 19th century; Short stories, American
Fanny’s grandma whispered to her, that the gentleman “was her papa,”
and that he had fallen down stairs and broken his neck--grandma did not
say that he was drunk when he did it. Fanny crept up to him, for she had
wanted so much to see her papa--so she put her little rosy face close to
his, and said, “Wake up, please, papa, and see me.” But he did not open
his eyes at all; then she put her hand on his face, and then she seemed
frightened--her little lip quivered, and she clung to her grandmother’s
dress--then some men came and carried papa up stairs, and the
maid-servants laid the beautiful lady on the sofa, in the parlor; and
she and grandma went back up into the attic--and all that day, grandma
did not seem to see mamma’s picture at all; and when Fanny came up to
her, she wept and said, “God help you--my poor lamb.”
CHAPTER XIII.
The bell sounded at Bluff Hill Prison, to call the prisoners to their
tasks. They passed out from their cells and crossed, two by two, the
prison-yard to their workshops. Percy and a stout negro were the last
couple in the file. Just as they were about passing in, the African, who
had received the punishment of the douche the day previous, for
dilatoriness at his task, sprang upon the officer in waiting, and seized
him by the throat. Percy, whose pugilistic science was a match for the
African’s muscle, grappled with and secured him in an instant,
receiving, as he did so, a severe bite from the fellow’s teeth, in his
left shoulder. The negro was handcuffed, and Percy carried to the
hospital, to have his wound dressed. The officer, in the flush of his
gratitude, assured him, as he left, that the case should be laid before
the governor, and would undoubtedly result in his pardon.
Percy’s eye brightened, as he bowed his head in reply, but in truth he
took no credit for the deed; it was only following an irresistible
impulse to save the life of a fellow-creature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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