Volume IX Part 10 (2/2)

”Want 'Toddie one boy day.'”

”What _does_ the child mean?” I exclaimed.

”He wants you to sing to him about 'Charley boy one day,'” said Budge.

”He always wants mama to sing that when he's hurt, an' then he stops crying.”

”I don't know it,” said I. ”Won't 'Roll, Jordan,' do, Toddie?”

”_I'll_ tell you how it goes,” said Budge, and forthwith the youth sang the following song, a line at a time, I following him in words and air:

”Where is my little bastik[3] gone?”

Said Charley boy one day; ”I guess some little boy or girl Has taken it away.

”An' kittie, too--where _ish_ she gone?

Oh, dear, what I shall do?

I wish I could my bastik find, An' little kittie, too.

”I'll go to mamma's room an' look; Perhaps she may be there; For kittie likes to take a nap In mamma's easy chair.

”O mamma, mamma, come an' look?

See what a little heap!

Here's kittie in the bastik here, All cuddled down to sleep.”

Where the applicability of this poem to my nephew's peculiar trouble appeared, I could not see, but as I finished it, his sobs gave place to a sigh of relief.

”Toddie,” said I, ”do you love your Uncle Harry?”

”Esh, I _do_ love you.”

”Then tell me how that ridiculous song comforts you?”

”Makes me feel good, an' all nicey,” replied Toddie.

”Wouldn't you feel just as good if I sang, 'Plunged in a gulf of dark despair?'”

”No, don't like dokdishpairs; if a dokdishpair done anyfing to me, I'd knock it right down dead.”

With this extremely lucid remark, our conversation on this particular subject ended; but I wondered, during a few uneasy moments, whether the temporary mental aberration which had once afflicted Helen's grandfather and mine was not reappearing in this, his youngest descendant. My wondering was cut short by Budge, who remarked, in a confident tone:

”Now, Uncle Harry, we'll have the whistles, I guess.”

I acted upon the suggestion, and led the way to the woods. I had not had occasion to seek a hickory sapling before for years; not since the war, in fact, when I learned how hot a fire small hickory sticks would make.

I had not sought wood for whistles since--gracious, nearly a quarter of a century ago! The dissimilar a.s.sociations called up by these recollections threatened to put me in a frame of mind which might have resulted in a bad poem, had not my nephews kept up a lively succession of questions such as no one but children can ask. The whistles completed, I was marched, with music, to the place where the ”Jacks”

grew. It was just such a place as boys instinctively delight in--low, damp, and boggy, with a brook hiding treacherously away under overhanging ferns and gra.s.ses. The children knew by sight the plant which bore the ”Jacks,” and every discovery was announced by a piercing shriek of delight. At first I looked hurriedly toward the brook as each yell clove the air; but, as I became accustomed to it, my attention was diverted by some exquisite ferns. Suddenly, however, a succession of shrieks announced that something was wrong, and across a large fern I saw a small face in a great deal of agony. Budge was hurrying to the relief of his brother, and was soon as deeply imbedded as Toddie was in the rich black mud, at the bottom of the brook. I dashed to the rescue, stood astride the brook, and offered a hand to each boy, when a treacherous tuft of gra.s.s gave way, and, with a glorious splash, I went in myself. This accident turned Toddie's sorrow to laughter, but I can't say I made light of my misfortune on that account. To fall into _clean_ water is not pleasant, even when one is trout-fis.h.i.+ng; but to be clad in white pants, and suddenly drop nearly knee-deep in the lap of mother Earth is quite a different thing. I hastily picked up the children, and threw them upon the bank, and then wrathfully strode out myself, and tried to shake myself as I have seen a Newfoundland dog do. The shake was not a success--it caused my trouser-leg to flap dismally about my ankles, and sent the streams of loathsome ooze trickling down into my shoes. My hat, of drab felt, had fallen off by the brookside, and been plentifully spattered as I got out. I looked at my youngest nephew with speechless indignation.

”Uncle Harry,” said Budge, ”'twas real good of the Lord to let you be with us, else Toddie might have been drownded.”

”Yes,” said I, ”and I shouldn't have much--”

”Ocken Hawwy,” cried Toddie, running impetuously toward me, pulling me down, and patting my cheek with his muddy black hand, ”I _loves_ you for takin' me out de water.”

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