United States or Micronesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I squeezed him until he yelled. "Don't let him forget me," I wailed. "Talk to him about me every day. And buy him a toy out of my money often, and tell him Tattah sent it to him. Oh, oh, he'll be grown up when I come home!" "Don't cry, dearie," said Aunt Lida, handing me her handkerchief. "I'll see that your grave is kept green." My sister appeared at the door. She was all ready to start.
"Who gave you the pretty pail, Billy?" asked Aunt Lida, who was sitting by the crib. "Tattah," said Billy, in a whisper. He always whispers my name. "Then go and kiss dear auntie. She is going away on the big boat to stay such a long time." Billy's face sobered. Then he dropped his precious pail, and came and licked my face like a little dog, which is his way of kissing.
"Tell me a story, dear Tattah," said this born wheedler, patting my face with his little black paw. "No, now Billy " began Bee. "Let him stay," I cried, casting down my pen. "It is so seldom that he cuddles that I'll sacrifice myself upon the altar of aunthood. Well, once upon a time, Billy, there was a dear little blue hen who stole away sit still now!
Oh, I forgot to tell you that Dick just telephoned, and wants us to make up a party for the theatre, with a supper afterward, next Monday. I telephoned to Freddie and asked him, and he is delighted, and so I told Dick that we would all come with pleasure. Now come, Billy, we must not interrupt Tattah. This is one of the days when she must not be disturbed."
After a short stay there the time being principally taken up with chartering boats and providing necessaries for the passage down the river we all, to the number of about fifty persons, occupying twenty-two boats, which had to be specially fitted up with straw-built houses with sloping roofs, set off on January 10, 1858, under the protection of a guard of Sikhs, and, after what may on the whole be regarded as a pleasant trip, reached Tattah on February 11.
I am going to tell about Mr. and Mrs. Jimmie at Canterbury. Don't you remember what happened? You know if you side-track me on clothes I simply cannot do a thing." "I know," said Bee, placidly. "No, Billy, not another lump of sugar. Be quiet while mamma talks to Tattah. I know, but it seems to me you might have selected another day to write.
And then she will say, 'Where did mamma and Tattah go? and he will wave his precious little square hand and say, 'Big boat, and she says he tries to say, 'Way off' and, oh, dear, we are 'way off' " "Stop talking, you fiend," said my sister, from the depths of her handkerchief. "You know I look like a fright when I cry." "Boo-hoo," was my only reply. And once started, I couldn't stop.
"Now, Billy, my precious, if you will keep away from Tattah all the morning, I will give you some candy directly after dinner. You will find it on the sconce just where I always put it," I said. The sconce is where Billy and I put things for each other.
He is only three and a half "thrippence, ha'penny," he says if you ask him, but beguiling oh, as beguiling as Cleopatra, or the serpent in the Garden of Eden, or or as his mother! Billy and I went to look at the sconce on my way up-stairs, and he called me back twice, saying, "Tattah, I want to kiss you," which I could but feel was something due to the promised candy on the sconce.
I have been in the midst of an animated, recital of how homesick I had been the day before, ridiculing myself and my malady with unctuous freedom, when suddenly Billy's little face would seem to rise out of the flowers on the dinner-table, or the patter of his little flying feet as they used to sound in my ear as he fluttered down the long hall to my study, or the darling way he used to ran towards me when I held out my arms and said, "Come, Billy, let Tattah show you the doves," with such an expectant face, and that little scarlet mouth opened to kiss me oh, it is nothing to anybody else, but it is home to me, and I was only recalled to London and my dinner party when a fresh attack was made on America, and I was called once more to battle for my country.
Word Of The Day