"Well, there's one, and it's about the most important on our land," I
told him. "Father wouldn't cut it down for a farm. You see that
little dark bag nearly as big as your fist, swinging out there on that
limb? Well, every spring one of these birds, yellow as orange peel,
with velvet black wings, weaves a nest like that, and over on that big
branch, high up, one just as bright red as the other is yellow, and the
same black wings, builds a cradle for his babies. Father says a red
bird and a yellow one keeping house in the same tree is the biggest
thing that ever happened in our family. They come every year and that
is their tree. I believe father would shoot any one who drove them
away."
"Your father is a gunner also?" he asked, and I thought he was laughing
to himself.
"He's enough of a gunner to bring mother in a wagon from Pennsylvania
all the way here, and he kept wolves, bears, Indians, and Gypsies from
her, and shot things for food. Yes sir, my father can shoot if he
wants to, better than any of our family except Laddie."
"And does Laddie shoot well?"
"Laddie does everything well," I answered proudly. "He won't try to do
anything at all, until he practises so he can do it well."
"Score one for Laddie," he said in a queer voice.
"Are you in a hurry about the lions and tigers?"
"Not at all," he answered.
"Well, here I always stop and let Governor Oglesby go swimming," I said.
Mr. Mahlon Pryor sat on the bank of our Little Creek, took off his hat
and shook back his hair as if the wind felt good on his forehead. I
fished Dick Oglesby from the ammunition in my apron pocket, and held
him toward the cross old man, and he wasn't cross at all. It's funny
how you come to get such wrong ideas about people.
"My big married sister who lives in Westchester sent him to me last
Christmas," I explained. "I have another doll, great big, with a
Scotch plaid dress made from pieces of mine, but I only play with her
on Sunday when I dare not do much else. I like Dick the best because
he fits my apron pocket. Father wanted me to change his name and call
him Oliver P. Morton, after a friend of his, but I told him this doll
had to be called by the name he came with, and if he wanted me to have
one named for his friend, to get it, and I'd play with it."
"What did he do?"
"He didn't want one named Morton that much."
Mr. Pryor took Dick Oglesby in his fingers and looked at his curly
black hair and blue eyes, his chubby outstretched arms, like a baby
when it wants you to take it, and his plump little feet and the white
shirt with red stripes all a piece of him as he was made, and said:
"The honourable governor of our sister state seems a little weighty; I
am at a loss to understand how he swims."
"It's a new way," I said. "He just stands still and the water swims
around him. It's very easy for him."
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account