Neghborly Poems and Dialect SketchesRiley, James Whitcomb
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Neghborly Poems and Dialect Sketches
Riley, James Whitcomb
Dialect literature, American; Dialect poetry, American
They had a dialogue, too, 'at was purty good. Little Bob Arnold was all
fixed up--had on his pap's old bell-crowned hat, the one he was married
in. Well, I jist thought die I would when I seed that old hat and
called to mind the night his pap was married, and we all got him a
little how-come-you-so on some left-handed cider 'at' had be'n a-layin'
in a whiskey-bar'l tel it was strong enough to bear up a' egg. I kin
rickollect now jist how he looked in that hat, when it was all new, you
know, and a-settin' on the back of his head, and his hair in his eyes;
and sich hair!--as red as git-out--and his little black eyes a-shinin'
like beads. Well-sir, you'd a-died to a-seed him a-dancin'. We danced
all night that night, and would a-be'n a-dancin' yit, I rickon, ef the
fiddler hadn't a-give out. Wash Lowry was a-fiddlin' fer us; and along
to'rds three er four in the morning Wash was purty well fagged out. You
see, Wash could never play fer a dance er nothin' 'thout a-drinkin'
more or less, and when he got to a certain pitch you couldn't git
nothin' out o' him but "Barbary Allan"; so at last he struck up on
that, and jist kep' it up, and _kep'_ it up, and nobody couldn't git
nothin' else out of him!
Now, anybody 'at ever danced knows 'at "Barbary Allan" hain't no tune
to dance by, _no_ way you can fix it; and, o' course, the boys seed at
onc't their fun was gone ef they couldn't git him on another tune.--And
they'd coax and beg and plead with him, and maybe git him started on
"The Wind Blows over the Barley," and 'bout the time they'd git to
knockin' it down agin purty lively, he'd go to sawin' away on "Barbary
Allan"--and I'll-be-switched-to-death ef that feller didn't set there
and play hisse'f sound asleep on "Barbary Allan," and we had to wake
him up afore he'd quit! Now, that's jes' the plum facts. And they
wasn't a better fiddler nowheres than Wash Lowry, when he was at
hisse'f. I've heerd a good many fiddlers in my day, and I never heerd
one yit 'at could play my style o' fiddlin' ekal to Wash Lowry. You
see, Wash didn't play none o' this-here new-fangled music--nothin' but
the old tunes, you understand, "The Forkéd Deer," and "Old Fat Gal,"
and "Gray Eagle," and the like. Now, them's music! Used to like to hear
Wash play "Gray Eagle." He could come as nigh a-makin' that old tune
talk as ever you heerd! Used to think a heap o' his fiddle--and he had
a good one, shore. I've heerd him say, time and time agin, 'at a
five-dollar gold-piece wouldn't buy it, and I knowed him myse'f to
refuse a calf fer it onc't--yes-sir, a yearland calf--and the feller
offered him a double-bar'l'd pistol to boot, and blame ef he'd take it;
said he'd ruther part with anything else he owned than his fiddle.--But
here I am, clean out o' the furry agin!... Oh, yes; I was a-tellin'
'bout little Bob, with that old hat; and he had on a swaller-tail coat
and a lot o' fixin's, a-actin' like he was a squire; and he had him a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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