Part 2 (1/2)
The boys--for they were still the boys, even if they had pa.s.sed one and twenty--stretched themselves along the wharf in picturesque att.i.tudes.
”I would sing!” announced Gerald. ”Prose will not express my feelings at this juncture.
”My fertile brain is simmering, My fancy's fire is glimmering; I'd fain betake Me to the lake, When bright the moonlight's s.h.i.+mmering.
”Your turn, Ferguson. Go on; the song upraise!”
”Let me see!” said Phil. ”Well--on the whole--
”I can't agree with himmering; _My_ fancy's fire is dimmering; If you would know The thing I'd doe, Methinks I'll go a swimmering.”
”Oh! no, Phil,” said Gertrude. ”Not the very first night the girls are here; it will take them a day or two to get used to camp ways, Margaret at least; and we want to do something all together, something that Colonel Ferrers will like, too. I think--”
”Sing it! sing it!” cried Gerald. ”The song upraise, Tintinnabula! no escape! 'Trimmering' is still left you.”
”Is there only one vowel?” demanded Bell, laughing. ”I refuse to be fettered. Wait a second!--now I have it.
”Forbear, forbear your clamoring, And cease this hasty hammering; I think, with Jerry, 'Twere wise and merry To row by moonlight glamouring.
Your turn, Toots!”
”I cannot!” said Gertrude. ”You know I cannot, Bell. Besides, there aren't any more rhymes.”
”Oh!” cried Gerald, ”you know what you are telling, and you know what happens to people who tell them. Perpend, Tootsina!
”You yodel, yodel yammering, You stutter, stutter stammering; And when you cry, 'I will not try!'
We know you're only shammering.”
”Gracious!” said Gertrude. ”Don't you suppose I would make rhymes if I could? It's really a dreadful thing to be the only prose member of a large family. But Jack comforts me; you can't make them either, can you, Jack?”
”Not to save my life!” said Jack. ”Never could see how they do it.”
”But you can set them to music!” said Gertrude. ”That is the delightful thing about you.”
”And you can ill.u.s.trate them! That is one of the many delightful things about you!” said Jack, with a low bow.
”'They built it up for forty miles, With mutual bows and pleasing smiles!'”
quoted Gerald. ”A truce to this badinage! Compliment, unless paid to myself, wearies me. We go, then, in canoes?”
”In canoes!” replied the others in chorus.
”'Tis well! Any special stunts in the way of arrangement?”
”Oh!” said Jack, ”in plain prose--Bell, will you come with me? It's our turn to get supper, isn't it? and I have an idea--just a little one--which we can talk over while we are getting it.”
”Oh, guard it, guard it tenderly, Thy one idea--thy first!”
sang Gerald.