Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Western stories
the entrance. Little black Mexicans, like charred toys, lounged and lay
staring among the ungraded dunes of sand. “Gracious!” said Mrs. Brewton
again. Her eye lost nothing; and as she made for the tent the chintz
peonies flowed around her, and her step was surprisingly light. We
passed through the sunbonnets and entered where the music played. “The
precious blessed darlings!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands. “This
will do for the Golden Daughters,” she rapidly added; “yes, this will
distinctly do.” And she hastened away from me into the throng.
I had no time to look at much this first general minute. I could see
there were booths, each containing a separate baby. I passed a whole
section of naked babies, and one baby farther along had on golden wings
and a crown, and was bawling frightfully. Their names were over the
booths, and I noticed Lucille, Erskine Wales, Banquo Lick Nolin, Cuba,
Manilla, Ellabelle, Bosco Grady, James J. Corbett Nash, and Aqua Marine.
There was a great sign at the end, painted “Mrs. Eden's Manna in the
Wilderness,” and another sign, labelled “Shot-gun Smith's twins.” In the
midst of these first few impressions I found myself seated behind a bare
table raised three feet or so, with two boxes on it, and a quantity
of blank paper and pencils, while one of the men was explaining me
the rules and facts. I can't remember them all now, because I couldn't
understand them all then, and Mrs. Brewton was distant among the
sun-bonnets, talking to a gathering crowd and feeling in the mouths of
babies that were being snatched out of the booths and brought to her.
The man was instructing me steadily all the while, and it occurred to me
to nod silently and coldly now and then, as if I was doing this sort of
thing every day. But I insisted that some one should help me count, and
they gave me Gadsden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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