The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
"Well, a-Tuesday night he took to the wiolin again, and played and played
and played and played all the old dancing tunes in creation, and I sot by
and never said a word till 'leven o'clock come, and then till twelve
o'clock come, and then till one o'clock come, and then till two o'clock
come, and at last, thinks says I, my brain will go wild, and says I,
'Dan'l, I ain't a bit sleepy, but I do feel some as if I could go to sleep
if you 'd just keep on a-playing; I 've got kind o' used to it, and I don't
believe I can go to sleep without it.' With this he flung the wiolin into
the cradle,--my father had presented me with a cradle that he had made out
of some boards that had been used once and rejected on account of knots,
but just as good, you know,--and then he flounced into bed, and he never
walked into his sleep that night!"
"You cunnin' little thing!" cries John, overcome with her smartness, and
hugging her close. "Who but you would ever 'a' thought on 't? Such a sleek
deception!"
"Well, a-Wednesday night he would n't touch his wiolin, and that night, or
rather along towards morning, he walked into his sleep, and a-Thursday
night he would n't play a stroke agin; in wain I put the wiolin into his
sight; and that night he just dewoted himself to walking,--making himself
wisible to the neighbors, even. So thinks says I, this won't do; and
a-Friday night, says I, I says to him, says I, 'I hate the old wiolin,'
says I; 'and I 've a good notion to burn it up!'
"'You just wenter!' says he, and he takes it up and slants it agin his
shoulder, and turns his head kind a sideways, all the time a-keeping his
eye onto me, and he seesaws and seesaws till I falls asleep into my chair,
and then he seesaws and seesaws till I wakes and rubs my eyes, and still
his head is kind a sideways, and his wiolin agin his shoulder, aslant like,
just as if he had n't moved; and then I pertends to sleep, and I pertends
and pertends and pertends, and at last pertence is clear wore out, and I
wakes up like, and I says, says I, 'Dan'l, it must be a'most ten o'clock,
ain't it?'--I knew it was daylight. And all at once his wisage changed, and
the wiolin fairly dropt from his shoulder, and he hild up his head that had
been kind a sideways all that while, and went to bed peaceable as a lamb,
he did, and for the rest of the night he did n't walk into his sleep at
all!"
"You angel!" says John,--"to get round him so."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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