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An' I says, 'Lee-yander Yerby, don't ye know that thar thing's the devil's snare? 'N'aw, ma'am, cap'n, he says, grinnin' like a imp; 'it's my snare, fur I hev bought it from Peter Teazely fur two rabbits what I cotch in my trap, an' my big red rooster, an' a bag o' seed pop-corn, an' the only hat I hev got in the worl'. An' with that the consarn gin sech a yawp, it plumb went through my haid, An' then the critter jes tuk ter a-bowin' it back an' forth, a-playin' 'The Chicken in the Bread-trough' like demented, a-dancin' off on fust one foot an' then on t'other till the puncheons shuck.
"One Sunday mornin', just afore th' sarvice began, some o' th' singers slipt a hawp'oth o' grey peighs an' two young rattons into old Thwittler double-bass; an' as soon as he began a-playin', th' little things squeak't an' scutter't about terribly i' th' inside, till thrut o' out o' tune.
Recovering from his astonishment he goes a little further and again comes the sound of a tune which seems to grow familiar to the dazed performer. Finally he starts off on a run to the very end of the fence, when the tune is finished. At this point Jem is conscious of the presence of his aunt, craning her neck through the window for a look. "Where's the music a-playin'?" said she.
The two men were interrupted in their conversation by a loud familiar voice on the store side of the board partition. "Busy, be they? Well, fwhat the divil should they be but busy? Do ye suppose I thought they was a-playin' dominoes?" Abe grinned at his employer. They both listened. Deck Jordan's voice said: "But you better not go in now, boys. They will be through in a little while." "Go in?
"But what brought you to New Orleans? or, more particularly, how came you into this scrape?" "Wal, Cap'n, bein' as the last question is the most partickler, I'll gin yur the answer to it fust. I hed jest twelve dollars in my pouch, an' I tuk a idee inter my head thet I mout as well double it. So I stepped into a shanty whar they wur a-playin' craps.
I am dizzy. Has anything happened?" "Somebody am a-playin' 'Ring around de Rosy' wid dis airship!" exclaimed Washington, "My head am a-swimmin' so I can't stand." "I must get to the conning tower!" muttered the old inventor. "I must get there." "Let me go, you can never make it," said Jack. "What is it you want to see?" "Look at the deflecting needle!" was the answer.
I told him that the niggers would pay him out for a-playin' crooked with em'; but he was too cock-a-hoopy to listen to a feller like me. 'Any more white men buried in Kabaira? 'I asked after a while, as we walked back to the house to take stock of my host's trade goods. 'No, that's all that's planted here at least, all I know of, and I've been here, in New Britain, five years.
"That's what's the matter with me, Miss Fancy, I mean," confessed he, after a painful struggle with his emotions. "I never had nothing to say for myself, not in this world: and and " he plucked up courage "you got no business to play with me the way you did just now!" he blurted. "Who said I was a-playin' with you?" Fancy demanded; but Palmerston did not heed.
"Mild as milk!" said the man. "I was a-playin' with him last night. He'll let you do anything with him! If you box his ears, he'll lay over flat down on his side!" When we were within a few feet of the bear he sat upright, dangled his fore paws in front of him, and, with his head on one side, he partly opened his mouth and lolled out his tongue. "I guess he's beggin' for his breakfust," said John.
I heard children a-playin' an' laughin' by the brook, an' among the flowers. Oh, it was wonnerful! When I tried to go somethin' held me back. I struggled so hard that at last I woke, an' it all went away." Again he fell into a sleep, not a peaceful one as before, but troubled. He tossed much, and often unintelligible words escaped his lips.
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