Our difficulty rose from the fact that Lilith did not appear ever to
have been married. The fierce man was not her husband. So far as we
could discover from the gipsy children she had never had a husband.
Then she couldn’t have had a honeymoon: and, if she had never had a
honeymoon, she oughtn’t to have had a baby. Our ideas on the question of
birth were utterly disorganized. There was only one explanation--that
we had been misinformed by Hetty and people could have babies
by themselves. The effect of this conjecture on Ruthita was
revolutionizing: it made our honeymoon unnecessary and me entirely
dispensable. She had only been persuaded to elope for the sake of
exchanging dolls for babies, and now it appeared she could have them
and her mother as well. I had no argument left with which to combat her
desire to return. There was only one way of arriving at the truth on the
subject, and that was by inquiring of Lilith. Neither of us would have
done this for worlds after the way she had cried when we found that her
back was no longer bulgy.
The days grew shorter and the forest became bare. We could see long
distances now between the tree-trunks; it was as though the branches had
fisted their hands. Holiday-seekers came to the cocoanut-shies less and
less. The fierce man, whom we learnt to call G’liath, had hardly any
bruises on his face and hands; he dodged the balls easily. The few
chance throwers had no crowd to make them reckless; they shied singly
now and not in showers. The gaudily dressed woman lost her hoarseness.
She no longer had to shout night and morning, “Two shies a penny. Two
shies a penny. Every ball ’its a cocoanut. Down she goes,” etc. Why
should she? There was no one to get excited--nobody to pay her pennies.
Instead she sat by the fire, weaving wicker-baskets, watching the
pearl-colored smoke go up in whiffs and eddies. Though she seldom said
anything, she had taken a fancy to Ruthita and would spread for her a
corner of her skirt that she might sit beside her while she worked.
Every day as Ruthita became more sure that she could have a baby all by
herself, she wanted to go home more badly. One evening the gaudy woman
found her crying. She told G’liath that next morning he must harness in
his little moke and go for Mr. Spreckles. I did not hear her tell him,
but Lilith told me when she came to lie down beside me in the tent.
That night she held me closer. I could feel her heart thumping. She
roused me continually in the darkness to ask me needless questions.
Whether I would ever forget her. “No.” Whether I would like to see her
again. “Yes.” Whether I would like to become a gipsy. “Wouldn’t I!”
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