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"And our little Sim, he just loved that Muley cow, little Sim, he did," she mourned. "Say, Jim Bowles, do you heah me?" this with a sudden flirt of the sunbonnet in an agony of actual fear. "Why, Jim Bowles, do you know that ouah little Sim might be a-playin' out thah in front of ouah house, on to that railroad track, at this very minute? S'pose, s'posen along comes that thah railroad train!
Just as he was about to utter his ultimatum and emphasize it with lead, a slender form tottered through the bushes and fell to the ground. "Sure, an' he 's a-playin' dead. None of that game for yer Uncle Dudley." The Irishman, coming to port arms, sang out: "Corporal of the guard. Number Four!" Never taking his eyes off the still form, he waited.
It took two men to handle her now, for the vast, dead weight in her hold flung her forward and sidewise, despite the muscular clutch on the wheel, and when she rolled down she came up sluggishly. "Isn't she a dog, though, Code?" exclaimed Jimmie in admiration. "Look at that now! Rose to it like a duck. See her now jest a-playin' with them waves!
After a while they've got so used to the band a-playin' an' the flags a-wavin' that it gets to be an old story, an' they think that's what it'll be right along, so they don't trouble to keep their eye peeled for the fella with the water-can, which he asked 'em to watch out for him.
Musha, thin, luk at the fat dhrummer laad! Has he apples in thim two cheeks, Jack? I dunnoa! Hey, there goes Wagner! Hello, Wagner! Wisha, laad, ye're cross-eyed an' shquint-lipped a-playin' yere fife hind-end furrst!" And the replies from the dusty, brown ranks, steadily passing: "Py Gott! dere's Jack Mount! Look alretty, Jacob! Hello, Elerson!
I think he's a-goin' to reckon-water a little in these parts and that he's only a-playin' singin'-master. He kin play more fiddles'n one, you bet a hoss! Says he come up here fer his wholesome, and I guess he did.
"Well," he rumbled scathingly, "you've been a-playin' hell, hain't ye? I mought 'a' knowed whut would happen with Honeycutts a- leadin' that gang. I tol' 'em to go up thar an' fight open man to man. They don't know nothin' but way-layin'. A thousand of 'em shootin' one pore man in the back! Whut've I been tryin' to l'arn ye since you was a baby? God knows I WANTED him killed.
I say, 'Who de name er Gawd in ol' Mis' Scarlett's pahlor, when dey ain't nobody in it? I look thoo de haidge, an' dey's one weenchy light in de room, an' whilst I'm lookin', it goes out! An' de pianner, she's a-playin' right along! Yessum, de pianner, she's er tingalingin' by 'erself in de middle o' de night!" "And who was playing it, Uncle Adam?"
He stands up as pert as ye please, an' tells her how happy that red rose must be ter make all that dreary garden look so pretty; an' then he goes on, merry as a lark, a-playin' down the hill. "Well, Mis' Somers owned up ter me that she was pretty mad at the time, 'cause her garden did look like tunket, an' she knew it.
I tell you, Aaron, it isn't to be sneezed at, leading all the grand marches at the Ancients' dances and being boss of 'em all at the muster, with the band a-playin' and you leading 'em right up the middle of the street. It's worth it, Aaron and I shall be so proud of you!" He grumbled less angrily the next morning.
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