"Wish you'd whitewash those guy-ropes!" responded Grant petulantly. "I
tripped over 'em, and they landed me in that squdgy old creek. Marj
needn't have squealed like a cat, though, and given it all away."
"'If this is the way you're going to do, I wish we'd left you at home,'"
quoted Allie majestically, as she surveyed the dripping boy before her.
"I think Charlie has his spectacles in his pocket, Grant, if you'd like
to borrow them."
However, this ended the frolic of the evening, for Mrs. Pennypoker
summarily seized upon the young explorer and ordered him to bed, while
Wang Kum spread his clothes to dry before the fire. The other boys soon
followed Grant's example, and the older people with them; so, after much
wriggling and nestling about in the blankets, they at last dropped to
sleep, and silence descended upon Camp Burnam.
Camp life began in earnest the next day, and for the next two weeks the
party enjoyed one perpetual picnic. The children were up and out by
daybreak, ready for the long days of fun, and by seven o'clock the
breakfast call had sounded to gather them around the long table. It was
good to see Wang Kum, tin horn in hand, emerge from his improvised
kitchen, and blow the deep blast which should summon his flock to the
meal; it was good to see Janey follow in his wake, armed with the great
coffee-pot and a pile of light hoe-cakes, and then rush up and down
behind the chairs, trying to serve them all at once, while she
struggled in vain to repress an inclination to prance, and never failed
to give a vigorous tweak to Wang Kum's pigtail, as she passed him. The
relation between the two servants was unique, and, at times, somewhat
strained. Although Wang Kum, left to himself, would have been the most
peaceable of mortals, Janey persisted in treating him as an embodied
joke, and lost no opportunity to tease and torment him, until he came to
regard her with a strange mingling of hatred and fear.
"Wang tell Mis' Pen'plok'," he would mutter, with a threatening glance
from his beady eyes.
"Ol' mis' won' believe you," Janey would make answer. "She knows dat
you's a heathen, an' won' go to church. Cut off your great long plat, ef
you don' wan' me to pull it no mo'. I cyarn' help it, ef it gits in my
way, all de time." And then she would slyly lift the tip of the
offending member and lay it across the table, before setting her heavy
iron dish pan upon it. "Don' you year ol' mis' calling you?" she would
ask then. "Take care! Don' upset all my dish tub!" And the war would
begin again.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account