Grandparent and child -- Fiction; Spanish Americans -- Fiction
The light in the station was extinguished and the agent came out with
a jingling bunch of keys and locked the door. “Good-night, Jim,”
he shouted, and walked off into the blackness. Jim responded with a
“good-night” of his own and climbed aboard the wagon, into the dark
interior of which the doctor had preceded him. The boy at the other end
of the platform began to be really alarmed. It looked as if all living
things were abandoning him and he was to be left marooned, to starve or
freeze, provided he was not blown away first.
He picked up the suitcase--an expensive suitcase it was, elaborately
strapped and buckled, with a telescope back and gold fittings--and
hastened toward the wagon. Mr. Young had just picked up the reins.
“Oh,--oh, I say!” faltered the boy. We have called him “the boy” all
this time, but he did not consider himself a boy, he esteemed himself
a man, if not full-grown physically, certainly so mentally. A man,
with all a man's wisdom, and more besides--the great, the all-embracing
wisdom of his age, or youth.
“Here, I say! Just a minute!” he repeated. Jim Young put his head around
the edge of the wagon curtain. “Eh?” he queried. “Eh? Who's talkin'? Oh,
was it you, young feller? Did you want me?”
The young fellow replied that he did. “This is South Harniss, isn't it?”
he asked.
Mr. Young chuckled. “Darn sure thing,” he drawled. “I give in that it
looks consider'ble like Boston, or Providence, R. I., or some of them
capitols, but it ain't, it's South Harniss, Cape Cod.”
Doctor Holliday, on the back seat of the depot wagon, chuckled. Jim
did not; he never laughed at his own jokes. And his questioner did not
chuckle, either.
“Does a--does a Mr. Snow live here?” he asked.
The answer was prompt, if rather indefinite. “Um-hm,” said the driver.
“No less'n fourteen of him lives here. Which one do you want?”
“A Mr. Z. Snow.”
“Mr. Z. Snow, eh? Humph! I don't seem to recollect any Mr. Z. Snow
around nowadays. There used to be a Ziba Snow, but he's dead. 'Twan't
him you wanted, was it?”
“No. The one I want is--is a Captain Snow. Captain--” he paused before
uttering the name which to his critical metropolitan ear had seemed
so dreadfully countrified and humiliating; “Captain Zelotes Snow,” he
blurted, desperately.
Jim Young laughed aloud. “Good land, Doc!” he cried, turning toward his
passenger; “I swan I clean forgot that Cap'n Lote's name begun with a
Z. Cap'n Lote Snow? Why, darn sure! I . . . Eh?” He stopped short,
evidently struck by a new idea. “Sho!” he drawled, slowly. “Why,
I declare I believe you're . . . Yes, of course! I heard they was
expectin' you. Doc, you know who 'tis, don't you? Cap'n Lote's grandson;
Janie's boy.”
He took the lighted lantern from under the wagon seat and held it up so
that its glow shone upon the face of the youth standing by the wheel.
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