City and town life -- Fiction; Short stories, American
"It is if it is," says I, cryptic.
_To-morrow_ was speaking again.
"Those of you whose fathers come from Europe, hold up your hands."
Up shot maybe twenty hands--scraggy and plump, and Achilles' little thin
arm in the first row among them.
And at the same minute, out came us ladies, marching from the wings--all
those of us that represented the different countries of the world; and
we formed back of the children, and the stage was full of the nations of
Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas, the islands and all.
And _To-morrow_ asked:
"What is it that your fathers have sworn to, so that you now all belong
to one nation?"
Then we all said it with the children--waveringly at first, swelling,
mounting to full chorus, the little bodies of the children waving from
side to side as we all recited it:
"I absolutely and entirely renounce and adjure all allegiance and
fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, and
particularly to--"
Here was a blur of sound as all the children named the ruler of the
state from which their fathers had come.
"--of whom I have heretofore been subject ... that I will support and
defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies,
foreign or domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same, so
help me God...."
Before they had finished, I began to notice something. I stood on the
end, and Achilles was just near me. He had looked up and smiled at me,
and at his Greek flag that I was carrying. But now, while the children
recited together, Achilles stood there with them saying not one word.
And then, when the names of the rulers all blurred together, Achilles
scared me, for he put up the back of his hand as if to rub tears from
his eyes. And when they all stopped speaking, only his sobbing broke the
stillness of the hall.
I don't know how it came to me, save that things do come in shafts of
light and splendor that no one can name; but in that second I knew what
ailed him. Maybe I knew because I remembered the picture of his
grandfather on the wall over the lamp shelf. Anyway, the big pang came
to me to speak out, like it does sometimes, when you have to say what's
in you or die.
"_To-morrow!_" I cried out to Ruth, and I was glad she had her back to
the audience so they couldn't see how scared she looked at me speaking
what wasn't in my part. "_To-morrow!_ I am Greece! I ask that this
little Greek boy here say the words that his Greek grandfather taught
him!"
Ruth looked at Achilles and nodded, and I saw his face brighten all of a
sudden through his tears; and I knew he was going to speak it, right out
of his heart.
Achilles began to speak, indistinct at first, then getting clearer, and
at last his voice went over the hall loud and strong and like he meant
it:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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