The pioneer West : $b Narratives of the westward march of empire
History
The pioneer West : $b Narratives of the westward march of empire
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)
“You kin dance, kid, and I kin sing, and we’ll go to it,” said Jones.
He rambled in a wavering loop, and diving eccentrically at Cumnor,
clashed the milk-cans together. “‘Es schallt ein Ruf wie Donnerhall,’”
he bawled, beginning the song of “Die Wacht am Rhein.” “Why don’t you
dance?” he shouted sternly. The boy saw the terrible earnestness of
his face, and, clashing his milk-cans in turn, he shuffled a sort of
jig. The two went over the sand in loops, toe and heel; the donkey
continued his quiet grazing, and the flames rose hot and yellow from
the freight-wagon. And all the while the stately German hymn pealed
among the rocks, and the Apaches crept down nearer the bowing, scraping
men. The sun shone bright, and their bodies poured with sweat. Jones
flung off his shirt; his damp, matted hair was half in ridges and
half glued to his forehead, and the delicate gold chain swung and
struck his broad, naked breast. The Apaches drew nearer again, their
bows and arrows held uncertainly. They came down the hill, fifteen or
twenty, taking a long time, and stopping every few yards. The milk-cans
clashed, and Jones thought he felt the boy’s strokes weakening. “Die
Wacht am Rhein” was finished, and now it was “‘Ha-ve you seen my Flora
pass this way?’” “Y’u mustn’t play out, kid,” said Jones, very gently.
“Indeed y’u mustn’t”; and he at once resumed his song. The silent
Apaches had now reached the bottom of the hill. They stood some twenty
yards away, and Cumnor had a good chance to see his first Indians. He
saw them move, and the color and slim shape of their bodies, their thin
arms, and their long black hair. It went through his mind that if he
had no more clothes on than that, dancing would come easier. His boots
were growing heavy to lift, and his overalls seemed to wrap his sinews
in wet, strangling thongs. He wondered how long he had been keeping
this up. The legs of the Apaches were free, with light moccasins only
half-way to the thigh, slenderly held up by strings from the waist.
Cumnor envied their unencumbered steps as he saw them again walk nearer
to where he was dancing. It was long since he had eaten, and he noticed
a singing dulness in his brain, and became frightened at his thoughts,
which were running and melting into one fixed idea. This idea was to
take off his boots, and offer to trade them for a pair of moccasins.
It terrified him--this endless, molten rush of thoughts; he could see
them coming in different shapes from different places in his head, but
they all joined immediately, and always formed the same fixed idea. He
ground his teeth to master this encroaching inebriation of his will
and judgment. He clashed his can more loudly to wake him to reality,
which he still could recognize and appreciate. For a time he found it
a good plan to listen to what Specimen Jones was singing, and tell
himself the name of the song, if he knew it. At present it was “Yankee
Doodle,” to which Jones was fitting words of his own. These ran, “Now
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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