Pippin; A Wandering FlameRichards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
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Pippin; A Wandering Flame
Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
Bildungsromans; Ex-convicts -- Fiction; Love stories; Orphans -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
There was an old man,
And he was mad,
And he ran up the steeple.
He took off
His great big hat,
And waved it over the people!
"I won't forget that!" said Pippin. "No, nor I won't forget the whole of
Granny Faa: some parts I'll keep. She was good to me many a time, and
give me snuff out of her box. But I'll forget Dod Bashford all right.
Just watch me--"
He paused, for the vision came again. A dark night, a dark house,
shrubbery gleaming wet about it. A match flickers, carefully sheltered
by brawny hands, and shows a small window, as of a pantry, standing
partly open. Somebody is bidden with an oath to "boost the kid up!" A
boy of ten is seized by other hands and raised to the window. "Get in!"
says a rough whisper. "Round to your left and open the first door. If
you make a noise, I'll cut your heart out!" For some reason--it is not
clear what--the boy is unwilling, hangs back, struggling in air, pushing
away from the window-sill toward which he is thrust. "Will you?" growls
the rough voice, and the lighted match is held to his leg. Still the
child struggles dumbly for a little; at last, with a smothered shriek,
he gives up and climbs in at the window.
"Green grass!" mutters Pippin. "I'll forget _that_: watch me!"
He blinked twice or thrice, then straightened himself. "There!" said
Pippin. "There ain't no such folks in the world. I don't know as there
ever was--except old Granny! I'll keep her in it, 'long of them things
she done for me. And anyhow Granny was out of it before we begun to do
auto sneakin', country houses, and like that. She was dead by that time.
Now, son, you think of all the _good_ folks you know. Count 'em over,
what say? Take the other taste out of your mouth, see? There's Elder
Hadley first and foremost: keep your eyes on him right straight along:
he's like--like a window that's open, and no bars to it, and you see the
Lord through it, some way. Then there's the Warden, and Mis'
Warden--gee! remember that dinner she sent me in one day I pulled her
little tad out the water? There was--" Pippin's eyes kindled--"roast
beef, mashed potatoes--" he was checking the items off on his
fingers--"fried parsnips, pickles, apple pie--green grass! that was a
dinner! And she sent it to me by name, and her thanks, Elder Hadley
said, all because I see that kid fall into the cistern and hauled him
out. Well! and the kid--some kid that!--and he follerin' me round after
that, every chanst he got; and the others, too, and nothin' doin' but I
must sing to 'em. And then old Pete! gee! Pete'll miss me, and me him.
You make brooms 'longside of a guy for a year and you know what each
other thinks; and Pete is _all right_!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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