Humorous stories, American; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Short stories, American
Say, it was almost too good to be true. I hadn't more'n got 'em inside
of Dreamland before they has their mouths open and their eyes popped,
and they was so rattled they didn't know whether they was goin' up or
comin' down. The Bishop grabs me by the elbow, Aunt Isabella gets a
desperate grip on his coat tails, and Dennis hooks two fingers into the
back of her belt. When we lines up like that we has the fat woman
takin' her first camel ride pushed behind the screen. The barkers out
in front of the dime attractions takes one look at us and loses their
voices for a whole minute--and it takes a good deal to choke up one of
them human cyclones. I gives 'em back the merry grin and blazes ahead.
First thing I sees that looks good is the wiggle-waggle brass
staircase, where half of the steps goes up as the other comes down.
"Now, altogether!" says I, feedin' the coupons to the ticket man, and I
runs 'em up against the liver restorer at top speed. Say that
exhibition must have done the rubbernecks good! First we was all
jolted up in a heap, then we was strung out like a yard of
frankfurters; but I kept 'em at it until we gets to the top. Aunt
Isabella has lost her breath and her bonnet has slid over one ear, the
Bishop is red in the face, and Dennis is puffin' like a freight engine.
"No Maggie here," says I. "We'll try somewhere else."
No. 2 on the event card was the water chutes, and while we was slidin'
up on the escalator they has a chance to catch their wind. They didn't
get any more'n they needed though; for just as Aunt Isabella has
started to ask the platform man if he'd seen anything of Maggie Whaley,
a boat comes up on the cogs, and I yells for 'em to jump in quick. The
next thing they knew we was scootin' down that slide at the rate of a
hundred miles an hour, with three of us holdin' onto our hats, and one
lettin' out forty squeals to the minute.
"O-o-o o-o-o!" says Aunt Isabella, as we hits the water and does the
bounding bounce.
"That's right," says I; "let 'em know you're here. It's the style."
Before they've recovered from the chute ride I've hustled 'em over to
one of them scenic railroads, where you're yanked up feet first a
hundred feet or so, and then shot down through painted canvas mountains
for about a mile. Say, it was a hummer, too! I don't know what there
is about travellin' fast; but it always warms up my blood, and about
the third trip I feels like sendin' out yelps of joy.
Course, I didn't expect it would have any such effect on the Bishop;
but as we went slammin' around a sharp corner I gets a look at his
face. And would you believe it, he's wearin' a reg'lar breakfast food
grin! Next plunge we take I hears a whoop from the back seat, and I
knows that Dennis has caught it, too.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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