Happy Island: A New "Uncle William" StoryLee, Jennette
General
Happy Island: A New "Uncle William" Story
Lee, Jennette
Islands -- Fiction
Uncle William nodded. “That’s it, Benjy! You see it—don’t you?—Suthin’
’t I can’t get—can’t ever get,” he looked far out over the water... “and
some day I’ll sail out there and ketch—twenty barrel, like enough—and
bring ’em in, and it’s all hurrah-boys down ’t the dock—and sayin’ ’How
many ’d you get?’ and ’How ’d you do it?’ and runnin’ and fussin’—and
then, come along toward night, and it ’ll get kind o’ big and dark out
there... and I’ll forget all about the twenty barrel and about gettin’
money for ’em sensible—I’ll just want to heave ’em out and go again.”
Uncle William paused—drawing a big sigh from some deep place.... “That’s
the way George feels, I reckon.... If he stays and works on your house,
Benjy—’twon’t be because he wants money.”
The young man appeared in the door—“I can’t find any paper in here,” he
said. There was a little note of defiance in the words and the color in
his face was dear scarlet.
Uncle William looked at him quizzically. “Maybe you didn’t look in the
right place, Georgie,” he said. “We’re coming right in, anyway.”
In the clear, soft dusk of the room Celia’s face had a dancing look.
She stood by the sink, her dish towel caught across her arm and her chin
lifted a little as if she were listening to something pleasant—that no
one had said. She turned away—hanging up the towel and brushing off the
top of the stove with emphatic little movements and a far-away face.
“Now, maybe I left that figgering up to Benjy’s.” Uncle William glanced
casually about him. “You sit down, George, and I’ll look around a little
for it.” He fumbled with some papers by the window and went into the
bedroom and came out, humming gently to himself. He glanced at the two
men who sat on the red lounge—The younger one had drawn some lines on a
scrap of paper and was leaning forward talking earnestly—his hat on the
floor beside him and his hair pushed carelessly back. He had forgotten
the room—and Uncle William—and all the little movements that danced.
His fingers moved with the terse, short words, drawing new lines on the
paper and crossing them out and drawing new ones.
Uncle William’s placid face held no comment. “‘D you see a piece of
paper, Celia!” he asked, “—a kind of crumpled-up piece!”
She shook her head. Her eyes were on the two figures on the lounge and
on Juno, who rose and stretched herself, drawing her feet together and
yawning high and opening her pink-curved tongue. “I left some scraps for
her—on the plate by the sink,” said Celia in a low voice. She untied
her apron and hung it by the door. Then she put on her hat and a light
jacket and stood looking about her—as if there might be something in the
red room—something that would keep her a minute longer.
“Set down, Celia,” suggested Uncle William.
“I’ve got to go,” she said. She moved a little, toward the door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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