The Cassowary; What Chanced in the Cleft MountainsWaterloo, Stanley
General
The Cassowary; What Chanced in the Cleft Mountains
Waterloo, Stanley
Love stories; Railroad travel -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
Night came and the fog came with it. Dimmer and dimmer grew the flashes
from the light-house lantern until, at last, they could no longer be
distinguished from the shore, and then, to the people of the great city
came a sensation.
"Chippie, get your hair cut, hair cut, hair cut,
Chippie, get your hair cut, hair cut short."
Loud and clear from away out in the harbor came the notes of the
rollicking tune, once so generally popular. The atmosphere was fairly
saturated with it. Never had even the howl of the detested Siren so
thoroughly permeated every outdoor nook and cranny of the town. The
moving multitudes on the brilliantly lighted streets paused and
listened, and as they stood there, lost and curious, the same sweet but
tremendous voice informed them affably:
"There'll be a hot time,
In the old town to-night."
Evidently this spirit of the waters, was of a lively, not to say
hilarious, disposition--at least that was the first impression
given--but as the hours passed, the music changed in character, and it
finally dawned upon the populace that there was method in the madness of
the Siren--for the news had flown rapidly of what the wonder
was--gentler airs succeeded until the hour when the young men calling
should go home, when apparently impersonating all the young women in the
city, the Siren spoke softly:
"Bid me good-bye and go!"
and, later, as the time came when erring heads of families might be
lingering out too late for their own good, the mentor started in with--
"Oh, Willie, we have missed you!"
and, a little later, after apparent consideration, wailed out
despairingly:
"Oh, father, dear father, come home with me now."
It was charming! Still later, came soothing, familiar airs in a minor
key, such as were sleep-encouraging, and there was no variation from
this until six a.m., when there was an outbreak:
"I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up this
morning!
The sergeant's worse than the private,
The captain's worse than the sergeant!
The major's worse than the captain,
The colonel's the worst of 'em all!
I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up to-day!"
Ringing out over all the city was the reveille, but, as if in drowsy
answer came a little later, almost like an echo--the lazy, listless,
"Let me dream again."
Evidently not what was approved of, for, sharply and indignantly,
followed the peremptory demand to--
"Take your clothes and go."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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