Part 13 (2/2)
Und dake me kindtly py der hand, Und ask off mine Katrine.
He vants to shange a feefty bill, Und says hees name vas Schneider-- Maype, berhaps, he vas all righdt; More like he vas a shpider.
Mosd efry day some shwindling chap He dries hees leedle game; I cuts me oudt dot shpider biece Und poot id in a frame; Righdt in mine shtore I hangs it oup, Und near id, on der shly, I geeps a glub, to send gvick oudt, Dhose shpiders, ”on der fly.”
CHARLES FOLLEN ADAMS.
_LARIAT BILL._
”Well, stranger, 'twas somewhere in 'sixty-nine I wore runnin' the 'Frisco fast express; An' from Murder Creek to Blasted Pine, Were nigh onto eighteen mile, I guess.
The road were a down-grade all the way, An' we pulled out of Murder a little late, So I opened the throttle wide that day, And a mile a minute was 'bout our gait.
”My fireman's name was Lariat Bill, A quiet man with an easy way, Who could rope a steer with a cow-boy's skill, Which he'd learned in Texas, I've heard him say.
The coil were strong as tempered steel, An' it went like a bolt from a cross-bow flung, An' arter Bill changed from saddle to wheel, Just over his head in the cab it hung.
”Well, as I were saying, we fairly flew, As we struck the curve at Buffalo Spring, An' I give her full steam an' put her through, An' the engine rocked like a living thing; When all of a sudden I got a scare-- For thar on the track were a little child!
An' right in the path of the engine there She held out her little hands and smiled!
”I jerked the lever and whistled for brakes, The wheels threw sparks like a shower of gold; But I knew the trouble a down-grade makes, An' I set my teeth an' my flesh grew cold.
Then Lariat Bill yanked his long la.s.soo, An' out on the front of the engine crept-- He balanced a moment before he threw, Then out in the air his lariat swept!”
He paused. There were tears in his honest eyes; The stranger listened with bated breath.
”I know the rest of the tale,” he cries; ”He s.n.a.t.c.hed the child from the jaws of death!
'Twas the deed of a hero, from heroes bred, Whose praises the very angels sing!”
The engineer shook his grizzled head, And growled: ”He didn't do no sich thing.
”He aimed at the stump of a big pine tree, An' the lariat caught with a double hitch, An' in less than a second the train an' we Were yanked off the track an' inter the ditch!
'Twere an awful smash, an' it laid me out, I ain't forgot it, and never shall; Were the pa.s.sengers hurt? Lemme see--about-- Yes, it killed about forty--but saved the gal!”
G. W. H.
_THE ELF CHILD; OR, LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE._
Little orphant Annie's come to our house to stay, And wash the cups and saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away, An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep, An' make the fire, and bake the bread, an' earn her board an' keep; An' all us other children, when the supper things is done, We set around the kitchen fire, an' has the mostest fun A-list'ning to the witch tales 'at Annie tells about, An' the gobble-uns 'at gits you Ef you Don't Watch Out!
Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his pray'rs; An' when he went to bed 'at night, away upstairs, His mammy heard him holler, and his daddy heard him bawl, An' whin they turn'd the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all!
An' they seeked him in the rafter room, and cubby hole and press, An' seeked him up the chimbly flue an' ever'wheres, I guess, But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout!
An' the gobble-uns 'll git you Ef you Don't Watch Out!
An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh and grin, An' make fun of ever'one, an' all her blood an' kin; An' onc't when they was company an' ole folks was there, She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide, They was two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side, An' they s.n.a.t.c.hed her through the ceilin' 'fore she know'd what she's about, An' the gobble-uns 'll git you Ef you Don't Watch Out!
An' little orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue, An' the lampwick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!
<script>