Children's stories, American; Fairy tales -- United States; Fantasy literature; Short stories
“Six Bits was the next to come along. And he was not a soldier nor a
dancer nor anything special. He was a careless man, changing from one
job to another, changing from paperhanging to plastering, from fixing
shingle roofs where the shingles were ripped to opening cans with can
openers.
“Six Bits gave Deep Red Roses his promise and she gave him her promise.
But he was always late keeping his promise. When the wedding was to be
Tuesday he didn’t come till Wednesday. If it was Friday he came
Saturday. And there wasn’t any wedding.
“So Deep Red Roses said to herself, ‘I am going away and learn, I am
going away and talk with the wives of High High Over, the dancer, and
maybe if I go far enough I will find the wife of Shoulder Straps, the
soldier—and maybe the wives of the men who promised me will tell me how
to keep promises kept.’
“She packed her baggage till her baggage was packed so full there was
room for only one more thing. So she had to decide whether to put a
_clock_ or whether to put a _looking glass_ in her baggage.
“‘My head tells me to carry the clock so I can always tell if I am early
or late,’ she said to herself. ‘But my heart tells me to carry a looking
glass so I can look at my face and tell if I am getting older or
younger.’
“At last she decides to take the clock and leave the looking
glass—because her head says so. She starts away. She goes through the
door, she is out of the house, she goes to the street, she starts up the
street.
“Then her heart tells her to go back and change the clock for the
looking glass. She goes back up the street, through the door, into the
house, into her room. Now she stands in front of the clock and the
looking glass saying, ‘To-night I sleep home here one more night, and
to-morrow morning I decide again.’
“And now every morning Deep Red Roses decides with her head to take the
clock. She takes the clock and starts away and then comes back because
her heart decides she must have the looking glass.
“If you go to her house this morning you will see her standing in the
doorway with blue skylights like the blue sky of early April in her
eyes, and lips that remind you of deep red roses in the cool of the
evening in summer. You will see her leave the doorway and go out of the
gate with the clock in her hands. Then if you wait you will see her come
back through the gate, into the door, back to her room where she puts
down the clock and takes up the looking glass.
“After that she decides to wait until to-morrow morning to decide again
what to decide. Her head tells her one thing, her heart tells her
another. Between the two she stays home. Sometimes she looks at her face
in the looking glass and says to herself, ‘I am young yet and while I am
young I am going to do my own deciding.’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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