The Voyage of the HoppergrassPearson, Edmund Lester
General
The Voyage of the Hoppergrass
Pearson, Edmund Lester
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction; Pirates -- Juvenile fiction
"Daisy! Daisy!
Give me my answer true!"
they blared forth, with their full strength. Mr. Snider turned
toward them and tried to maintain his smile, while the Hon. Mr.
Bowditch, and Deacon Chick waved their hands furiously at the
leader.
The leader, however, was quite unconscious of their efforts, as
his back was turned toward them. He was a short, very stout man,
stuffed into a scarlet coat. He stood up to lead, and instead of
waving a wand, played a cornet. This he moved about in the air,
swaying his head and the upper part of his body in time with the
music. His face was deep red, and it seemed as if he might burst
if it were not for blowing into the cornet. The tune went on,
defiantly, in spite of all the hand-wavings from Bowditch and
Chick.
Finally, a trombone player caught sight of their gestures, and he
attracted the leader's attention to the fact that something was
wrong by giving him a prod in the stomach with the slide of his
trombone. The leader hesitated, stopped, and then faced about to
the speakers' stand. Some of the band paused, while others kept
right on with "Daisy Bell."
Mr. Snider smiled, bowed, and I suppose, with a desire to make
himself agreeable, thrust out his hands and applauded. At any
rate, the band-master mistook the meaning of it, for he silenced
those who were still playing, leaned forward to say something to
them all, waved his cornet, and started them once more on "Razzle
Dazzle." He had thought that Mr. Snider preferred that to "Daisy
Bell," and wanted it repeated. Then they had to begin the hand-
wavings and gesticulations all over again. Nothing could stop them
this time until Deacon Chick descended from the stand, went over
to the band-master, tapped him on the shoulder, and whispered
excitedly in his ear. At last they got them all quieted down,
except one tremendous man who sat on two stools, playing an
enormous bass-horn. For quite two minutes after the others had
ceased he went on with his: "Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah!"
"The boys don't get a chance like this more'n once a year," said a
man who was standing beside me, "and you bet they are going to
give J. Harvey his money's worth!"
He was a sharp-faced man, a farmer evidently, not more than
thirty-five years old. He had bright black eyes, which he kept
fixed constantly on Mr. Bowditch and Mr. Snider.
Finally, Mr. Snider got his chance to speak. He said he would call
them all "Friends" as that suited them better than "Ladies and
Gentlemen." He told how sorry he was because the Professor had
been called away by the illness of a relative. Then he told what a
great inventor the Professor was, and how he was even more
remarkable for doing good. For this invention was one which would
do good to so many people.
This led Mr. Snider up to his favorite subject, and he began to
speak on doing good and being good. The black-eyed man beside me
began to utter little groans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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