Poganuc People: Their Loves and LivesStowe, Harriet Beecher
General
Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
New England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
We shall not say that there were not some corresponding movements
before the glass on the part of Nabby before retiring. It certainly
came into her head to try on her bonnet, which had been thriftily
re-trimmed and re-arranged for summer use since the time of that
sleigh-ride with Hiel. Moreover, she chose out her gown and sorted
a knot of ribbons to go with it. "I suppose," she said to herself,
"all the girls will be making fools of themselves about Hiel Jones
to-morrow, but I ain't a going to." Nevertheless, she thought there
was no harm in looking as well as she could.
CHAPTER XVIII.
DOLLY'S "FOURTH."
Bang! went the cannon on the green, just as the first red streak
appeared over Poganuc hills, and open flew Dolly's great blue eyes.
Every boy in town was out of bed as if he had been fired out of a
pop-gun, and into his clothes and out on the green with a celerity
scarcely short of the miraculous. Dolly's little toilet took more
time; but she, too, was soon out upon the scene with her curls in a
wild, unbrushed tangle, her little breast swelling and beating with a
great enthusiasm for General Washington and liberty and her country,
all of which were somehow to be illustrated and honored that day in
Poganuc.
As the first rays of the rising sun struck the stars and stripes
floating over the Court-house, and the sound of distant drum and fife
announced the coming in of the Poganuc Rangers, Dolly was so excited
that she burst into tears.
"What in the world are you crying for, Dolly?" said Bill rather
impatiently. "I don't see any thing to cry about."
"I can't help it, Will," said Dolly, wiping her eyes, "it's so
glorious!"
"If that isn't just like a girl!" said Bill. Contempt could go no
farther, and Dolly retreated abashed. She was a girl--there was no
help for that; but for this one day she envied the boys--the happy
boys who might some day grow up and fight for their country, and do
something glorious like General Washington. Meanwhile, from mouth to
mouth, every one was giving in advance an idea of what the splendors
of the day were to be.
"I tell ye," said Abe Bowles, "this 'ere's goin' to be a reel
slam-bang, this 'ere is. Colonel Davenport is a goin' to review the
troops, and wear the very same uniform he wore at Long Island.
"Yes," said Liph Kingsley, "and old Cæsar's goin' to wear his uniform
and wait on the colonel. Tell ye what, the old snowball is on his
high heels this morning--got a suit of the colonel's old uniform.
Won't he strut and show his ivories!"
"Hulloa, boys, there's going to be a sham fight; Hiel told me so,"
said Bob Cushing. "Some are going to be British and some Americans,
and the Americans are going to whip the British and make 'em run."
"Tell ye what," said Jake Freeman, "there'll be a bangin' and
poppin'! won't there, boys!"
"Oh," said Dolly, who irrepressibly was following her brothers into
the throng, "they won't _really_ shoot anybody, will they?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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