the days flew rapidly by. miss minerva usually attempted to train billy all the morning, and by the midday dinner hour she was so exhausted that she was glad to let him play in the front yard during the afternoon.
here he was often joined by the three children whose acquaintance he had made the day after his arrival, and the quartette became staunch friends and chums.
all four were sitting in the swing one warm spring day, under the surveillance of billy's aunt, sewing on the veranda.
“let's tell tales,” suggested jimmy.
“all right,” agreed frances. “i'll tell the first. once there's—”
“naw, you ain't neither,” interrupted the little boy. “you all time talking 'bout you going to tell the first tale. i'm going to tell the first tale myself. one time they's—”
“no, you are not either,” said lina positively. “frances is a girl and she ought to be the first if she wants to. don't you think so, billy?”
“yas, i does,” championed he; “go on, frances.”
that little girl, thus encouraged, proceeded to tell the first tale:
“once there's a man named mr. elisha, and he had a friend named mr. elijah, so his mantelpiece fell on top of his head and make him perfectly bald; he hasn't got a single hair and he hasn't got any money, 'cause mama read me 'bout he rented his garments, which is clo'es, 'cause he didn't have none at all what belong to him. i spec' he just rented him a shirt and a pair o' breeches and wore 'em next to his hide 'thout no undershirt at all. he was drea'ful poor and had a miser'ble time and old mean mr. per'dventure took him up on a high mountain and left him, so when he come down some bad little childern say, 'go 'long back, bald head!' and they make pockmocks on him. seems like everybody treat him bad, so he cuss 'em, so i never see anybody with a bald head 'thout i run, 'cause i don't want to get cussed. so two teddy bears come out of the woods and ate up forty-two hunderd of—”
“why, frances,” reproved lina, “you always get things wrong. i don't believe they ate up that many children.”
“yes, they did too,” championed jimmy, “'cause it's in the bible and miss cecilia 'splained all 'bout it to me, and she's our sunday-school teacher and 'bout the bullyest 'splainer they is. them teddy bears ate up 'bout a million chillens, which is all the little boys and girls two teddy bears can hold at a time.”
“i knows a man what ain't got no hair 't all on his head,” remarked billy; “he's a conjure-man an' me an' wilkes booth lincoln been talkin' to him ever sence we's born an' he ain't never cuss us, an' i ain't never got eat up by no teddy bears neither. huccome him to be bald? he's out in the fiel' one day a-pickin' cotton when he see a tu'key buzzard an' he talk to her like this:
“'i say tu'key buzzard, i say,
who shall i see unexpected today?'
“if she flop her wings three times you goin' to see yo' sweetheart, but this-here buzzard ain't flop no wings 't all; she jes' lean over an' th'ow up on his head an' he been bald ever sence; ev'y single hair come out.”
“did you-all hear 'bout that 'talian dago that works on the section gang eating a buzzard?” asked frances.
“naw,” said billy. “did it make him sick?”
“that it did,” she answered; “he sent for doctor sanford and tells him, 'me killa de big bird, me eat-a de big bird, de big bird make-a me seek.”'
“them dagoes 'bout the funniest talking folks they is,” said jimmy, “but they got to talk that way 'cause it's in the bible. they 'sputed on the tower of babel and the lord say 'confound you!' miss cecilia 'splained it all to me and she's 'bout the dandiest 'splainer they is.”
“you may tell your tale now, jimmy,” said lina.
“i'm going to tell 'bout william tell 'cause he's in the bible,” said jimmy. “once they's a man name'—”
“william tell isn't in the bible,” declared lina.
“yes, he is too,” contended the little boy, “miss cecilia 'splained it to me. you all time setting yourself up to know more'n me and miss cecilia. one time they's a man name' william tell and he had a little boy what's the cutest kid they is and the devil come 'long and temp' him. then the lord say, 'william tell, you and adam and eve can taste everything they is in the garden 'cepting this one apple tree; you can get all the pears and bunnanas and peaches and grapes and oranges and plums and persimmons and scalybarks and fig leaves and 'bout a million other kinds of fruit if you want to, but don't you tech a single apple.' and the devil temp' him and say he going to put his cap on a pole and everybody got to bow down to it for a idol and if william tell don't bow down to it he got to shoot a apple for good or evil off 'm his little boy's head. that's all the little boy william tell and adam and eve got, but he ain't going to fall down and worship no gravy image on top a pole, so he put a tomahawk in his bosom and he tooken his bow and arrur and shot the apple plumb th'oo the middle and never swinge a hair of his head. and eve nibble off the apple and give adam the core, and lina all time 'sputing 'bout adam and eve and william tell ain't in the bible. they 're our first parents.”
“now, billy, you tell a tale and then it will be my time,” said lina with a savingthe-best-for-the-last air.
“once they was a of witch,” said billy, “what got outer her skin ev'y night an' lef' it on the he'rth an' turnt herself to a great, big, black cat an' go up the chim'ly an' go roun' an' ride folks fer horses, an' set on ev'ybody's chis' an' suck they breath an' kill 'em an' then come back to bed. an' can't nobody ketch her tell one night her husban' watch her an' he see her jump outer her skin an' drop it on the he'rth an' turn to a 'normous black cat an' go up the chim'ly. an' he got outer the bed an' put some salt an' pepper an' vinegar on the skin an' she come back an' turnt to a 'oman an' try to git back in her skin an' she can't 'cause the salt an' pepper an' vinegar mos' burn her up, an' she keep on a-tryin' an' she can't never snuggle inter her skin 'cause it keep on a burnin' worser 'n ever, an' there she is a 'oman 'thout no skin on. so she try to turn back to a cat an' she can't 'cause it's pas' twelve erclock, an' she jest swivvle an' swivvle tell fine'ly she jest swivvle all up. an' that was the las' of the ole witch an' her husban' live happy ever after. amen.”
“once upon a time,” said lina, “there was a beautiful maiden and she was in love, but her wicked old parent wants her to marry a rich old man threescore and ten years old, which is 'most all the old you can get unless you are going to die; and the lovely princess said, 'no, father, you may cut me in the twain but i will never marry any but my true love.' so the wicked parent shut up the lovely maiden in a high tower many miles from the ground, and made her live on turnips and she had nothing else to eat; so one day when she was crying a little fairy flew in at the window and asked, 'why do you weep, fair one?' and she said, 'a wicked parent hath shut me up and i can't ever see my lover any more.' so the fairy touched her head with her wand and told her to hang her hair out of the window, and she did and it reached the ground, and her lover, holding a rope ladder in one hand and playing the guitar and singing with the other, climbed up by her hair and took her down on the ladder and his big black horse was standing near, all booted and spurred, and they rode away and lived happy ever after.”
“how he goin' to clam' up, lina,” asked billy, “with a rope ladder in one hand and his guitar in the other?”
“i don't know,” was the dignified answer. “that is the way it is told in my fairy-tale book.”
