“Yes, Miss Martha, I _am_ going,” replied the old gentleman, decidedly.
“I have been very much disappointed in St. Augustine--nothing to do, no
cemeteries to speak of.”
“Stay longer? No, indeed,” said a lady who had made three toilets a day,
and found nobody to admire them. “What _you_ find to like in this old
place is beyond me!”
“She is not far wrong there,” commented Sara, _sotto voce_; “it is
beyond her; that is the very point of the thing.”
But, on the other hand, all those in search of health, all endowed with
romance and imagination, all who could appreciate the rare charming haze
of antiquity which hangs over the ancient little city, grew into love
for St. Augustine, and lingered there far beyond their appointed time.
Crowds of old ladies and gentlemen sunned themselves on the south
piazzas, and troops of young people sailed and walked every where,
waking up the sleeping woods and the dreaming water with song and
laughter. The enterprising tourists came and went with their accustomed
energy; they bought palmetto hats and twined gray moss around them; they
carried orange-wood canes and cigar boxes containing young alligators.
(Why young alligators must always travel North in cigar boxes in
preference to any other kind of box is a mystery; but in cigar boxes
they always go!) Once a hand-organ man appeared, and ground out the same
tune for two whole days on the Plaza.
“And what may be the name of that melody, Miss Iris--the one he is
playing now?” asked the Professor, endeavoring to assume a musical air.
“He can only play one tune, and he has been playing that steadily for
two days,” replied Iris. “As far as I can make out from the discords it
is intended to be Strauss’s _Tausend und Eine Nacht_.”
But the Professor, an expert in Hebrew, Greek, and Sanskrit, had never
condescended to a modern tongue.
“Pray translate it for me,” he said, playfully, with the air of an
affable Sphinx.
“It is a subject to which I have given profound thought, Sir,” said
Iris, gravely. “It is not ‘A thousand and one nights,’ because the last
night only is intended, and therefore the best way to translate it is, I
think, ‘The thousand and oneth.’ I will give you some verses on the
melody, if you like.”
[Illustration: HORSE RAILROAD, ST. AUGUSTINE.]
The Professor liked, and Iris began:
“‘TAUSEND UND EINE NACHT.
“‘The birds within their dells
Are silent; hushed the shining insect throng--
Now human music swells,
And all the land is echoing with song;
The serenade, the glee,
The symphony--and forth, mit Macht und Pracht,
Orchestral harmony
Is thrilling out _Tausend und Eine Nacht_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account