Part 6 (1/2)
CHAPTER VII TOM RESPECTS THE FLEA
”NOON!” says Tom, and so it was His shadder was just a blot around his feet We looked, and the Grinnage clock was so close to twelve the difference didn't aht north of us or right south of us, one or t'other, and he reckoned by the weather and the sand and the caood many miles north, too; as uessed
Ji in the world, unless it eon, maybe, or a railroad
But To nearly a hundred miles an hour for a little ways, and there never was a bird in the world that could do that--except one, and that was a flea
”A flea? Why, Mars Tom, in de fust place he ain't a bird, strickly speakin'--”
”He ain't a bird, eh? Well, then, what is he?”
”I don't rightly know, Mars Tom, but I speck he's only jist a' ani enough for a' ani”
”I bet he ain't, but let it go What's your second place?”
”Well, in de second place, birds is creturs dat goes a long ways, but a flea don't”
”He don't, don't he? Co distance, if you know?”
”Why, it's miles, and lots of 'em--anybody knows dat”
”Can't a man walk miles?”
”Yassir, he kin”
”As ive him tiives hiin to see, don't you, that DISTANCE ain't the thing to judge by, at all; it's the tio the distance IN that COUNTS, ain't it?”
”Well, hit do look sorter so, but I wouldn't 'a' b'lieved it, Mars Tom”
”It's a matter of PROPORTION, that's what it is; and when you co's speed by its size, where's your bird and your side of a flea? The fastest man can't run more than about ten miles in an hour--not th But all the books says any common ordinary third-class flea can juth; yes, and he can make five juth, in one little second--for he don't fool away any ti--he does them both at the saer on hiait; but you take an Eyetalian FIRST-class, that's been the pet of the nobility all his life, and hasn't ever knoant or sickness or exposure was, and he can juth, and keep it up all day, five such juth Well, suppose a th in a second--say, a mile and a half It's ninety miles a minute; it's considerable more than five thousand miles an hour Where's your man NOW?--yes, and your bird, and your railroad, and your balloon? Laws, they don't aside of a flea A flea is just a coood deal astonished, and so was I Jiers jist edjackly true, en no jokin' en no lies, Mars Tom?”
”Yes, they are; they're perfectly true”
”Well, den, honey, a body's got to respec' a flea I ain't had no respec' for uittin' roun' it, dey do deserve it, dat's certain”
”Well, I bet they do They've got ever so htness, in proportion to their size, than any other cretur in the world A person can learn the; and they learn it quicker than any other cretur, too They've been learnt to haul little carriages in harness, and go this way and that way and t'other way according to their orders; yes, and toto orders, as soldiers does it They've been learnt to do all sorts of hard and troublesos S'pose you could cultivate a flea up to the size of aright along up, bigger and bigger, and keener and keener, in the same proportion--where'd the human race be, do you reckon? That flea would be President of the United States, and you couldn't any ”
”My lan', Mars Tom, I never knowed dey was so much TO de beas' No, sir, I never had no idea of it, and dat's de fac'”
”There's ht, than there is to any other cretur, est of theth, and an elephant's, and a locoin with a flea He can lift two or three hundred tiht And none of theot notions of his own, and is very particular, and you can't fool himent, or whatever it is, is perfectly sound and clear, and don't ever make a mistake People think all humans are alike to a flea It ain't so There's folks that he won't go near, hungry or not hungry, and I'm one of them I've never had one of them on me in ”
”Well, sah, I hain't ever heard de likes o' dat befo'” Jim couldn't believe it, and I couldn't; so we had to drop down to the sand and git a supply and see Toht They went for me and Jim by the thousand, but not a one of the it, but there it was and there warn't no getting around it He said it had always been just so, and he'd just as soon be where there was a million of them as not; they'd never touch him nor bother him