City and town life -- Fiction; Short stories, American
So Mis' Sykes, she went ahead with her plan, and she agreed, grudging,
to omit out the singing. And the D. A. R's. put off their Paul Revere
Tea, and we sent to the City for more flags. Me, though, I didn't take a
real part. I agreed to march, and then I didn't take a real part. I'd
took on a good deal more than I'd meant to in training the children for
the Sunday night thing, and so I shirked Mis' Sykes's party all I could.
Not that I wouldn't be glad to see Jeffro. But I couldn't enthuse the
way she meant. By Friday, Mis' Sykes had everything pretty ship-shape,
and being we still didn't know which day Jeffro would come, we were all
to go down to the depot that night, on the chance; and Saturday as well.
Friday afternoon I was working away on some stuff for the children, when
Jeffro's wife came in. The poor little thing was so nervous she didn't
know whether she was saying "yes" or "no." She'd got herself all ready,
in a new-ironed calico, and a red bow at her neck.
"Do you think this bow looks too gay?" she says. "It seems gay, and him
so sick. But he always liked me to wear red, and it's all the red I've
got. It's only cotton ribbin, too," says she, wistful.
She wanted to know what I was doing, and so's to keep her mind off
herself, I told her. The hundred children, from all kinds and
denominations and everythings, were to meet together in Shepherd's Grove
that Sunday night, and I'd fixed up a little exercise for them: One
bunch of them were to represent Science, and they were to carry little
models of boats and engines and dirigibles and a little wireless tower.
And one bunch was to represent Art, and they were to carry colors and
figures and big lovely cardboard designs they made in school. And one
bunch was to represent Friendship, and they were to come with garlands
and arches that connected them each with all the rest. And one was to
represent Plenty, with fruit and grain. And one Beauty, and one
Understanding--and so on. And then, in the midst of them, I was going to
have a little bit of a child walk, carrying a model of the globe in his
hands. And they were all going to come to him, one after another, and
they were going to give him what they had. And what we'd planned, with
music and singing and a trumpeter and everything, was to be all around
that.
"I haven't the right child yet to carry the globe though," I says to
Jeffro's wife; "I can't find one little enough that's strong enough to
lug the thing."
And then, all of a sudden, I remembered her little boy, and Jeffro's
little boy. I remembered Joseph. Awful little he was, but with sturdy
legs and arms, and the kind of a face that makes you wonder why all
little folks don't look the same way. It seems the only way for them to
look.
"Why," I says, "look here: Why can't I borrow Joseph for Sunday night,
to carry the globe?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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