American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
I am positive that never during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries
did Baron, Troubadour, and Worker amalgamate as harmoniously as their
parallels did that evening at old man Ellison’s sheep ranch. The
Kiowa’s biscuits were light and tasty and his coffee strong.
Ineradicable hospitality and appreciation glowed on old man Ellison’s
weather-tanned face. As for the troubadour, he said to himself that he
had stumbled upon pleasant places indeed. A well-cooked, abundant meal,
a host whom his lightest attempt to entertain seemed to delight far
beyond the merits of the exertion, and the reposeful atmosphere that
his sensitive soul at that time craved united to confer upon him a
satisfaction and luxurious ease that he had seldom found on his tours
of the ranches.
After the delectable supper, Sam untied the green duck bag and took out
his guitar. Not by way of payment, mind you—neither Sam Galloway nor
any other of the true troubadours are lineal descendants of the late
Tommy Tucker. You have read of Tommy Tucker in the works of the
esteemed but often obscure Mother Goose. Tommy Tucker sang for his
supper. No true troubadour would do that. He would have his supper, and
then sing for Art’s sake.
Sam Galloway’s repertoire comprised about fifty funny stories and
between thirty and forty songs. He by no means stopped there. He could
talk through twenty cigarettes on any topic that you brought up. And he
never sat up when he could lie down; and never stood when he could sit.
I am strongly disposed to linger with him, for I am drawing a portrait
as well as a blunt pencil and a tattered thesaurus will allow.
I wish you could have seen him: he was small and tough and inactive
beyond the power of imagination to conceive. He wore an
ultramarine-blue woollen shirt laced down the front with a pearl-gray,
exaggerated sort of shoestring, indestructible brown duck clothes,
inevitable high-heeled boots with Mexican spurs, and a Mexican straw
sombrero.
That evening Sam and old man Ellison dragged their chairs out under the
hackberry trees. They lighted cigarettes; and the troubadour gaily
touched his guitar. Many of the songs he sang were the weird,
melancholy, minor-keyed _canciones_ that he had learned from the
Mexican sheep herders and _vaqueros_. One, in particular, charmed and
soothed the soul of the lonely baron. It was a favourite song of the
sheep herders, beginning: “_Huile, huile, palomita_,” which being
translated means, “Fly, fly, little dove.” Sam sang it for old man
Ellison many times that evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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