章节正文
with Dannie about the girl, you never have had the face to go to
confession since you married her."
"Alwaysh send my wife," said Jimmy grandly. "Domsh any woman that
can't confiss enough for two!"
Then he hitched his chair closer to the Thread Man, and grew more
confidential. "Shee here," he said. "Firsht I see your pleated
coat, didn't like. But head's all right. Great head! Sthuck on
frillsh there! Want to be let in on something? Got enough city,
clubsh, an' all that? Want to taste real thing? Lesh go coon
huntin'. Theysh tree down Canoper, jish short pleashant walk, got
fify coons in it! Nobody knowsh the tree but me, shee? Been good
to ush boys. Sat on same kind of chairs we do. Educate ush up
lot. Know mosht that poetry till I die, shee? `Wonner wash
vinters buy, halfsh precious ash sthuff shell,' shee? I got it!
Let you in on real thing. Take grand big coon skinch back to
Boston with you. Ringsh on tail. Make wife fine muff, or fur
trimmingsh. Good to till boysh at club about, shee?"
"Are you asking me to go on a coon hunt with you?" demanded the
Thread Man. "When? Where?"
"Corshally invited," answered Jimmy. "To-morrow night. Canoper.
Show you plashe. Bill Duke's dogs. My gunsh. Moonsh shinin'. Dogs
howlin'. Shnow flying! Fify coonsh rollin' out one hole! Shoot
all dead! Take your pick! Tan skin for you myself! Roaring big
firesh warm by. Bag finesh sandwiches ever tasted. Milk pail pure
gold drink. No stop, slop out going over bridge. Take jug. Big
jug. Toss her up an' let her gurgle. Dogsh bark. Fire pop. Guns
bang. Fifty coons drop. Boysh all go. Want to get more education.
Takes culture to get woolsh off. Shay, will you go? "
"I wouldn't miss it for a thousand dollars," said the Thread Man.
"But what will I say to my house for being a day late?"
"Shay gotter grip," suggested Jimmy. "Never too late to getter
grip. Will you all go, boysh?"
There were not three men in the saloon who knew of a tree that
had contained a coon that winter, but Jimmy was Jimmy, and to be
trusted for an expedition of that sort; and all of them agreed to
be at the saloon ready for the hunt at nine o'clock the next
night. The Thread Man felt that he was going to see Life. He
immediately invited the boys to the bar to drink to the success
of the hunt.
"You shoot own coon yourself," offered the magnanimous Jimmy.
"You may carrysh my gunsh, take first shot. First shot to Missher
O'Khayam, boysh, 'member that. Shay, can you hit anything? Take a
try now." Jimmy reached behind him, and shoved a big revolver
into the hand of the Thread Man. "Whersh target?" he demanded.
As he turned from the bar, the milk pail which he still carried
under his arm caught on an iron rod. Jimmy gave it a jerk, and
ripped the rim from the bottom. "Thish do," he said. "Splendid
marksh. Shinesh jish like coon's eyesh in torch light."
He carried the pail to the back wall and hung it over a nail. The
nail was straight, and the pail flaring. The pail fell. Jimmy
kicked it across the room, and then gathered it up, and drove a
dent in it with his heel that would hold over the nail. Then he
went back to the Thread Man." Theresh mark, Ruben. Blash away!"
he said.
The Boston man hesitated. "Whatsh the matter? Cansh shoot off
nothing but your mouth?" demanded Jimmy. He caught the revolver
and fired three shots so rapidly that the sounds came almost as
one. Two bullets pierced the bottom of the pail, and the other
the side as it fell.
The door opened, and with the rush of cold air Jimmy gave just
one glance toward it, and slid the revolver into his pocket,
reached for his hat, and started in the direction of his coat.
"Glad to see you, Micnoun," he said. "If you are goingsh home,
I'll jish ride out with you. Good night, boysh. Don't forgetsh
the coon hunt," and Jimmy was gone.
A minute later the door opened again, and this time a man of
nearly forty stepped inside. He had a manly form, and a manly
face, was above the average in looks, and spoke with a slight
Scotch accent.
"Do any of ye boys happen to know what it was Jimmy had with him
when he came in here?"
A roar of laughter greeted the query. The Thread Man picked up
the pail. As he handed it to Dannie, he said: "Mr. Malone said he
was initiating a new milk pail, but I am afraid he has overdone
the job."
"Thank ye," said Dannie, and taking the battered thing, he went
out into the night.
Jimmy was asleep when he reached the buggy. Dannie had long since
found it convenient to have no fence about his dooryard. He drove
to the door, dragged Jimmy from the buggy, and stabled the horse.
By hard work he removed Jimmy's coat and boots, laid him across
the bed, and covered him. Then he grimly looked at the light in
the next cabin. "Why doesna she go to bed?" he said. He summoned
courage, and crossing the space between the two buildings, he
tapped on the window. "It's me, Mary," he called. "The skins are
only half done, and Jimmy is going to help me finish. He will
come over in the morning. Ye go to bed. Ye needna be afraid. We
will hear ye if ye even snore." There was no answer, but by a
movement in the cabin Dannie knew that Mary was still dressed and
waiting. He started back, but for an instant, heedless of the
scurrying snow and biting cold, he faced the sky.
"I wonder if ye have na found a glib tongue and light feet the
least part o' matrimony," he said. "Why in God's name couldna ye
have married me? I'd like to know why."
As he closed the door, the cold air roused Jimmy.
"Dannie," he said, "donsh forget the milk pail. All 'niciate good
now."
Chapter III
THE FIFTY COONS OF THE CANOPER
Near noon of the next day, Jimmy opened his eyes and stretched
himself on Dannie's bed. It did not occur to him that he was
sprawled across it in such a fashion that if Dannie had any sleep
that night, he had taken it on chairs before the fireplace. At
first Jimmy decided that he had a head on him, and would turn
over and go back where he came from. Then he thought of the coon
hunt, and sitting on the edge of the bed he laughed, as he looked
about for his boots.
"I am glad ye are feeling so fine," said Dannie at the door, in a
relieved voice. "I had a notion that ye wad be crosser than a
badger when ye came to."
Jimmy laughed on.
"What's the fun?" inquired Dannie.
Jimmy thought hard a minute. Here was one instance where the
truth would serve better than any invention, so he virtuously
told Dannie all about it. Dannie thought of the lonely little
woman next door, and rebelled.
"But, Jimmy!" he cried, "ye canna be gone all nicht again. It's
too lonely fra Mary, and there's always a chance I might sleep
sound and wadna hear if she should be sick or need ye."
"Then she can just yell louder, or come after you, or get well,
for I am going, see? He was a thrid peddler in a dinky little
pleated coat, Dannie. He laid up against the counter with his
feet crossed at a dancing-girl angle. But I will say for him that
he was running at the mouth with the finest flow of language I
iver heard. I learned a lot of it, and Cap knows the stuff, and
I'm goin' to have him get you the book. But, Dannie, he wouldn't
drink with us, but he stayed to iducate us up a little. That
little spool man, Dannie, iducatin' Jones of the gravel gang, and
Bingham of the Standard, and York of the 'lectric railway, and
Haines of the timber gang, not to mintion the champeen
rat-catcher of the Wabash."
Jimmy hugged himself, and rocked on the edge of the bed.
"Oh, I can just see it, Dannie," he cried. "I can just see it
now! I was pretty drunk, but I wasn't too drunk to think of it,
and it came to me sudden like."
Dannie stared at Jimmy wide-eyed, while he explained the details,
and then he too began to laugh, and the longer he laughed the
funnier it grew.
"I've got to start," said Jimmy. "I've an awful afternoon's work.
I must find him some rubber boots. He's to have the inestimable
privilege of carryin' me gun, Dannie, and have the first shot at
the coons, fifty, I'm thinkin' I said. And if I don't put some
frills on his cute little coat! Oh, Dannie, it will break the
heart of me if he don't wear that pleated coat!"
Dannie wiped his eyes.
"Come on to the kitchen," he said, "I've something ready fra ye
to eat. Wash, while I dish it."
"I wish to Heaven you were a woman, Dannie," said Jimmy. "A
fellow could fall in love with you, and marry you with some
satisfaction. Crimminy, but I'm hungry!"
Jimmy ate greedily, and Dannie stepped about setting the cabin to
rights. It lacked many feminine touches that distinguished
Jimmy's as the abode of a woman; but it was neat and clean, and
there seemed to be a place where everything belonged.
"Now, I'm off," said Jimmy, rising. "I'll take your gun, because
I ain't goin' to see Mary till I get back."
"Oh, Jimmy, dinna do that!" pleaded Dannie. "I want my gun. Go
and get your own, and tell her where ye are going and what ye are
going to do. She'd feel less lonely."
"I know how she would feel better than you do," retorted Jimmy.
"I am not going. If you won't give me your gun, I'll borrow one;
or have all my fun spoiled."
Dannie took down the shining gun and passed it over. Jimmy
instantly relented. He smiled an old boyish smile, that always
caught Dannie in his softest spot.
"You are the bist frind I have on earth, Dannie," he said
winsomely. "You are a man worth tying to. By gum, there's NOTHING
I wouldn't do for you! Now go on, like the good fellow you are,
and fix it up with Mary."
So Dannie started for the wood pile. In summer he could stand
outside and speak through the screen. In winter he had to enter
the cabin for errands like this, and as Jimmy's wood box was as
heavily weighted on his mind as his own, there was nothing
unnatural in his stamping snow on Jimmy's back stoop, and calling
"Open!" to Mary at any hour of the day he happened to be passing
the wood pile.
He stood at a distance, and patiently waited until a gray and
black nut-hatch that foraged on the wood covered all the new
territory discovered by the last disturbance of the pile. From
loosened bark Dannie watched the bird take several good-sized
white worms and a few dormant ants. As it flew away he gathered
an armload of wood. He was very careful to clean his feet on the
stoop, place the wood without tearing the neat covering of wall
paper, and brush from his coat the snow and moss so that it fell
in the box. He had heard Mary tell the careless Jimmy to do all
these things, and Dannie knew that they saved her work. There was
a whiteness on her face that morning that startled him, and long
after the last particle of moss was cleaned from his sleeve he
bent over the box trying to get something said. The cleaning took
such a length of time that the glint of a smile crept into the
grave eyes of the woman, and the grim line of her lips softened.
"Don't be feeling so badly about it, Dannie," she said. "I could
have told you when you went after him last night that he would go
back as soon as he wakened to-day. I know he is gone. I watched
him lave."
Dannie brushed the other sleeve, on which there had been nothing
at the start, and answered: "Noo, dinna ye misjudge him, Mary.
He's goin' to a coon hunt to-nicht. Dinna ye see him take my
gun?"
This evidence so bolstered Dannie that he faced Mary with
confidence.
confession since you married her."
"Alwaysh send my wife," said Jimmy grandly. "Domsh any woman that
can't confiss enough for two!"
Then he hitched his chair closer to the Thread Man, and grew more
confidential. "Shee here," he said. "Firsht I see your pleated
coat, didn't like. But head's all right. Great head! Sthuck on
frillsh there! Want to be let in on something? Got enough city,
clubsh, an' all that? Want to taste real thing? Lesh go coon
huntin'. Theysh tree down Canoper, jish short pleashant walk, got
fify coons in it! Nobody knowsh the tree but me, shee? Been good
to ush boys. Sat on same kind of chairs we do. Educate ush up
lot. Know mosht that poetry till I die, shee? `Wonner wash
vinters buy, halfsh precious ash sthuff shell,' shee? I got it!
Let you in on real thing. Take grand big coon skinch back to
Boston with you. Ringsh on tail. Make wife fine muff, or fur
trimmingsh. Good to till boysh at club about, shee?"
"Are you asking me to go on a coon hunt with you?" demanded the
Thread Man. "When? Where?"
"Corshally invited," answered Jimmy. "To-morrow night. Canoper.
Show you plashe. Bill Duke's dogs. My gunsh. Moonsh shinin'. Dogs
howlin'. Shnow flying! Fify coonsh rollin' out one hole! Shoot
all dead! Take your pick! Tan skin for you myself! Roaring big
firesh warm by. Bag finesh sandwiches ever tasted. Milk pail pure
gold drink. No stop, slop out going over bridge. Take jug. Big
jug. Toss her up an' let her gurgle. Dogsh bark. Fire pop. Guns
bang. Fifty coons drop. Boysh all go. Want to get more education.
Takes culture to get woolsh off. Shay, will you go? "
"I wouldn't miss it for a thousand dollars," said the Thread Man.
"But what will I say to my house for being a day late?"
"Shay gotter grip," suggested Jimmy. "Never too late to getter
grip. Will you all go, boysh?"
There were not three men in the saloon who knew of a tree that
had contained a coon that winter, but Jimmy was Jimmy, and to be
trusted for an expedition of that sort; and all of them agreed to
be at the saloon ready for the hunt at nine o'clock the next
night. The Thread Man felt that he was going to see Life. He
immediately invited the boys to the bar to drink to the success
of the hunt.
"You shoot own coon yourself," offered the magnanimous Jimmy.
"You may carrysh my gunsh, take first shot. First shot to Missher
O'Khayam, boysh, 'member that. Shay, can you hit anything? Take a
try now." Jimmy reached behind him, and shoved a big revolver
into the hand of the Thread Man. "Whersh target?" he demanded.
As he turned from the bar, the milk pail which he still carried
under his arm caught on an iron rod. Jimmy gave it a jerk, and
ripped the rim from the bottom. "Thish do," he said. "Splendid
marksh. Shinesh jish like coon's eyesh in torch light."
He carried the pail to the back wall and hung it over a nail. The
nail was straight, and the pail flaring. The pail fell. Jimmy
kicked it across the room, and then gathered it up, and drove a
dent in it with his heel that would hold over the nail. Then he
went back to the Thread Man." Theresh mark, Ruben. Blash away!"
he said.
The Boston man hesitated. "Whatsh the matter? Cansh shoot off
nothing but your mouth?" demanded Jimmy. He caught the revolver
and fired three shots so rapidly that the sounds came almost as
one. Two bullets pierced the bottom of the pail, and the other
the side as it fell.
The door opened, and with the rush of cold air Jimmy gave just
one glance toward it, and slid the revolver into his pocket,
reached for his hat, and started in the direction of his coat.
"Glad to see you, Micnoun," he said. "If you are goingsh home,
I'll jish ride out with you. Good night, boysh. Don't forgetsh
the coon hunt," and Jimmy was gone.
A minute later the door opened again, and this time a man of
nearly forty stepped inside. He had a manly form, and a manly
face, was above the average in looks, and spoke with a slight
Scotch accent.
"Do any of ye boys happen to know what it was Jimmy had with him
when he came in here?"
A roar of laughter greeted the query. The Thread Man picked up
the pail. As he handed it to Dannie, he said: "Mr. Malone said he
was initiating a new milk pail, but I am afraid he has overdone
the job."
"Thank ye," said Dannie, and taking the battered thing, he went
out into the night.
Jimmy was asleep when he reached the buggy. Dannie had long since
found it convenient to have no fence about his dooryard. He drove
to the door, dragged Jimmy from the buggy, and stabled the horse.
By hard work he removed Jimmy's coat and boots, laid him across
the bed, and covered him. Then he grimly looked at the light in
the next cabin. "Why doesna she go to bed?" he said. He summoned
courage, and crossing the space between the two buildings, he
tapped on the window. "It's me, Mary," he called. "The skins are
only half done, and Jimmy is going to help me finish. He will
come over in the morning. Ye go to bed. Ye needna be afraid. We
will hear ye if ye even snore." There was no answer, but by a
movement in the cabin Dannie knew that Mary was still dressed and
waiting. He started back, but for an instant, heedless of the
scurrying snow and biting cold, he faced the sky.
"I wonder if ye have na found a glib tongue and light feet the
least part o' matrimony," he said. "Why in God's name couldna ye
have married me? I'd like to know why."
As he closed the door, the cold air roused Jimmy.
"Dannie," he said, "donsh forget the milk pail. All 'niciate good
now."
Chapter III
THE FIFTY COONS OF THE CANOPER
Near noon of the next day, Jimmy opened his eyes and stretched
himself on Dannie's bed. It did not occur to him that he was
sprawled across it in such a fashion that if Dannie had any sleep
that night, he had taken it on chairs before the fireplace. At
first Jimmy decided that he had a head on him, and would turn
over and go back where he came from. Then he thought of the coon
hunt, and sitting on the edge of the bed he laughed, as he looked
about for his boots.
"I am glad ye are feeling so fine," said Dannie at the door, in a
relieved voice. "I had a notion that ye wad be crosser than a
badger when ye came to."
Jimmy laughed on.
"What's the fun?" inquired Dannie.
Jimmy thought hard a minute. Here was one instance where the
truth would serve better than any invention, so he virtuously
told Dannie all about it. Dannie thought of the lonely little
woman next door, and rebelled.
"But, Jimmy!" he cried, "ye canna be gone all nicht again. It's
too lonely fra Mary, and there's always a chance I might sleep
sound and wadna hear if she should be sick or need ye."
"Then she can just yell louder, or come after you, or get well,
for I am going, see? He was a thrid peddler in a dinky little
pleated coat, Dannie. He laid up against the counter with his
feet crossed at a dancing-girl angle. But I will say for him that
he was running at the mouth with the finest flow of language I
iver heard. I learned a lot of it, and Cap knows the stuff, and
I'm goin' to have him get you the book. But, Dannie, he wouldn't
drink with us, but he stayed to iducate us up a little. That
little spool man, Dannie, iducatin' Jones of the gravel gang, and
Bingham of the Standard, and York of the 'lectric railway, and
Haines of the timber gang, not to mintion the champeen
rat-catcher of the Wabash."
Jimmy hugged himself, and rocked on the edge of the bed.
"Oh, I can just see it, Dannie," he cried. "I can just see it
now! I was pretty drunk, but I wasn't too drunk to think of it,
and it came to me sudden like."
Dannie stared at Jimmy wide-eyed, while he explained the details,
and then he too began to laugh, and the longer he laughed the
funnier it grew.
"I've got to start," said Jimmy. "I've an awful afternoon's work.
I must find him some rubber boots. He's to have the inestimable
privilege of carryin' me gun, Dannie, and have the first shot at
the coons, fifty, I'm thinkin' I said. And if I don't put some
frills on his cute little coat! Oh, Dannie, it will break the
heart of me if he don't wear that pleated coat!"
Dannie wiped his eyes.
"Come on to the kitchen," he said, "I've something ready fra ye
to eat. Wash, while I dish it."
"I wish to Heaven you were a woman, Dannie," said Jimmy. "A
fellow could fall in love with you, and marry you with some
satisfaction. Crimminy, but I'm hungry!"
Jimmy ate greedily, and Dannie stepped about setting the cabin to
rights. It lacked many feminine touches that distinguished
Jimmy's as the abode of a woman; but it was neat and clean, and
there seemed to be a place where everything belonged.
"Now, I'm off," said Jimmy, rising. "I'll take your gun, because
I ain't goin' to see Mary till I get back."
"Oh, Jimmy, dinna do that!" pleaded Dannie. "I want my gun. Go
and get your own, and tell her where ye are going and what ye are
going to do. She'd feel less lonely."
"I know how she would feel better than you do," retorted Jimmy.
"I am not going. If you won't give me your gun, I'll borrow one;
or have all my fun spoiled."
Dannie took down the shining gun and passed it over. Jimmy
instantly relented. He smiled an old boyish smile, that always
caught Dannie in his softest spot.
"You are the bist frind I have on earth, Dannie," he said
winsomely. "You are a man worth tying to. By gum, there's NOTHING
I wouldn't do for you! Now go on, like the good fellow you are,
and fix it up with Mary."
So Dannie started for the wood pile. In summer he could stand
outside and speak through the screen. In winter he had to enter
the cabin for errands like this, and as Jimmy's wood box was as
heavily weighted on his mind as his own, there was nothing
unnatural in his stamping snow on Jimmy's back stoop, and calling
"Open!" to Mary at any hour of the day he happened to be passing
the wood pile.
He stood at a distance, and patiently waited until a gray and
black nut-hatch that foraged on the wood covered all the new
territory discovered by the last disturbance of the pile. From
loosened bark Dannie watched the bird take several good-sized
white worms and a few dormant ants. As it flew away he gathered
an armload of wood. He was very careful to clean his feet on the
stoop, place the wood without tearing the neat covering of wall
paper, and brush from his coat the snow and moss so that it fell
in the box. He had heard Mary tell the careless Jimmy to do all
these things, and Dannie knew that they saved her work. There was
a whiteness on her face that morning that startled him, and long
after the last particle of moss was cleaned from his sleeve he
bent over the box trying to get something said. The cleaning took
such a length of time that the glint of a smile crept into the
grave eyes of the woman, and the grim line of her lips softened.
"Don't be feeling so badly about it, Dannie," she said. "I could
have told you when you went after him last night that he would go
back as soon as he wakened to-day. I know he is gone. I watched
him lave."
Dannie brushed the other sleeve, on which there had been nothing
at the start, and answered: "Noo, dinna ye misjudge him, Mary.
He's goin' to a coon hunt to-nicht. Dinna ye see him take my
gun?"
This evidence so bolstered Dannie that he faced Mary with
confidence.
- educate [´edjukeit]
vt.教育；培养；训练 (初中英语单词) - poetry [´pəuitri] n.诗；诗意 (初中英语单词)
- culture [´kʌltʃə] n.修养；文化；饲养 (初中英语单词)
- expedition [,ekspi´diʃən] n.远征；探险；迅速 (初中英语单词)
- laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
- convenient [kən´vi:niənt] a.方便的 (初中英语单词)
- instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
- instance [´instəns] n.例子，实例，例证 (初中英语单词)
- invention [in´venʃən] n.创造；发明；虚构 (初中英语单词)
- lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- timber [´timbə] n.木材；木料；横梁 (初中英语单词)
- rubber [´rʌbə] n.(摩)擦的人；橡皮 (初中英语单词)
- greedily [´gri:dili] ad.贪婪地 (初中英语单词)
- screen [skri:n] n.银幕 vt.遮蔽 (初中英语单词)
- careless [´keəlis] a.粗心的；草率的 (初中英语单词)
- sleeve [sli:v] n.袖子；袖套 (初中英语单词)
- saloon [sə´lu:n] n.大厅；餐车 (高中英语单词)
- grimly [´grimli] ad.严厉地；坚强地 (高中英语单词)
- fireplace [´faiəpleis] n.壁炉，炉灶 (高中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- counter [´kauntə] n.计算者；柜台；计算机 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- gravel [´grævəl] n.砾石 vt.铺砾石 (高中英语单词)
- patiently [´peiʃəntli] ad.有耐心地；坚韧地 (高中英语单词)
- disturbance [di´stə:bəns] n.扰乱，骚动 (高中英语单词)
- particle [´pɑ:tikl] n.微粒；极小量 (高中英语单词)
- bridge [bridʒ] n.桥(梁)；鼻梁；桥牌 (英语四级单词)
- revolver [ri´vɔlvə] n.左轮手枪；旋转者 (英语四级单词)
- heedless [´hi:dlis] a.不注意的，不留心的 (英语四级单词)
- setting [´setiŋ] n.安装；排字；布景 (英语四级单词)
- feminine [´feminin] a.女性的 (英语四级单词)
- boyish [´bɔiiʃ] a.少年的；幼稚的 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- gurgle [´gə:gl] vt.&vi.潺潺而流 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- biting [´baitiŋ] a.刺痛的；尖利的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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