Wall I went out and looked at it, and that settled it. It sed "This car
goes to Coney Iland without change." Guess it did; I'll be durned if I
got any.
Wall we got down thar, and I must say of all the pandemonium and hubbub
I ever heered in my life, Coney Iland beats it all. Bout the fust thing
I seen thar wuz a place what they called "Shoot the Shoots." It looked
like a big hoss troff stood on end, one end in a duck pond and tother
end up in the air, and they would haul a boat up to the top and all
git in and then cum scootin' down the hoss troff into the pond. Wall I
alowed that ud be right smart fun, so I got into one of the boats along
with a lot of other folks I never seed afore and don't keer if I never
see agin. They yanked us up to the top of that troff and then turned us
loose, and I jist felt as though the whole earth had run off and left
us. We went down that troff lickety split, and a woman what wuz settin'
alongside of me, got skeered and grabbed me round the neck; and I sed,
you let go of me you brazen female critter. But she jist hung on and
hollered to beat thunder, and everybody wuz a yellin' all to onct, and
that durned boat wuz a goin' faster'n greased lightnin' and I had one
hand on my pockit book and tother on my hat, and we went kerslap dab
into that duck pond, and the durned boat upsot and we went into the
water, and that durned female critter hung onto me and hollered "save
me, I'm jist a drownin'." Wall the water wasn't very deep and I jist
started to wade out when along cum another boat and run over us, and
under we went ker-souse. Wall I managed to get out to the bank, and that
female woman sed I was a base vilian to not rescue a lady from a watery
grave. And I jist told her if she had kept her mouth shet she wouldn't
hav swallered so much of the pond.
Wall they had one place what they called the Middle Way Plesumps, and
another place what they called The Streets of Caro, and they had a lot
of shows a goin' on along thar. Wall I went into one of 'em and sot
down, and I guess if they hadn't of shet up the show I'd a bin sottin'
thar yet. I purty near busted my buttins a laffin'. They had a lot of
gals a dancin' some kind of a dance; I don't know what they called it,
but it sooted me fust rate. When I got home, the more I thought about it
the more I made up my mind I'd learn that dance. Wall I went out in the
corn field whar none of the neighbors could see me, and I'll be durned
if I didn't knock down about four akers of corn, but I never got that
dance right. I wuz the talk of the whole community; mother didn't speak
to me fer about a week, and Aunt Nancy Smith sed I wuz a burnin' shame
and a disgrace to the village, but I notice Nancy has asked me a good
many questions about jist how it was, and I wouldn't wonder if we didn't
find Nancy out in the cornfield one of these days.
Uncle Josh at the Opera
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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