The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of AdventureBowen, William
General
The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure
Bowen, William
Fantasy literature
The suit of clothes which Mr. Littleback wore was beyond any doubt a
brand new suit. The ground color of it was a rich mauve, if you know
what that is; not exactly purple, nor violet, but somewhere in between;
and up and down and across were stripes of brown, making good-sized
squares all over him; it was extremely beautiful. His collar was a high
white collar, very stiff, and it held up his chin in front like a
whitewashed fence. His necktie was of a pale-blue satin, with little
pink roses painted on it, yes sir, painted! mind you, by hand! It was
not one of those troublesome things that come in a single long piece and
take you hours before the glass to twist and turn over and under before
you can get them to look like a necktie; no indeed; it was far better
than that; it was tied already, by somebody who could do it better than
you ever could, and when you bought it, all you had to do was to put it
on; fasten those two rubber bands behind with a hook, and there you
were; perfect. As to hair, the hand of the barber was yet upon him; his
hair, parted on one side, was of a slickness which his own soap never
could have accomplished; on the wide side, it lay flat down over his
forehead, and there gave a sudden curl backward, like the curve of a
hairpin, but much more graceful; it is only the most studious barbers
who ever learn to do it just right. There were creases down the arms of
Mr. Toby's coat and down the front of his trouser-legs. A yellow silk
handkerchief showed itself, not boldly, but quietly, from his breast
pocket.
As he let Freddie in, and in doing so turned his back to Aunt Amanda,
she screamed and cried out:
"Toby! Look behind you! Merciful heavens!"
Freddie, in the midst of his admiration of the magnificent creature, saw
him whirl about and look behind himself in alarm. His aunt pointed at
his coat and said sternly, "Come here."
Freddie saw on the back of Mr. Toby's coat, near the bottom, as he
whirled about, a little square white tag.
Mr. Toby backed up to his aunt, and stood before her, trying to look at
his back over his shoulder, while she took her scissors and clipped the
threads by which the white tag was sewed to the back of his coat. She
held up the tag; it had numbers printed and written on it.
"Now ain't that just like you, Toby Littleback," she said, "going out
with your tag on your back, with your size on it and your height and
age, too, for all I know, for anybody to see that you've got on a
splittin' brand new suit right out o' the shop. If you'd 'a' gone out
with that on your back, I'd 'a' died with shame right here in this
chair. Ain't you even able to dress yourself?"
"By crickets, that _would_ 'a' been bad," said Toby, considerably upset.
"However, you caught it in time, so there ain't no use cryin' over it.
Good-bye, Aunt; come along, Freddie, or we'll be late."
"Ain't you goin' to wear a hat?" said Aunt Amanda. "I declare the man's
so excited he don't know what he's doing."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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