Part 9 (1/2)
”Now, these kind of critters, they're as sh The katydid, she said she felt pins and needles in her back whenever Ant Red looked at her; and the snake-feeders said she shot arries at 'em when they was flyin'
over a craw-fish hole All the beetles and wood-bugs complained of bein' hit itch-bells, and the 'in her
”Well, the spider he told her to coin', but she wasn't sure in her rasshopper jued his eyes out at her; as if she could harittin' pretty lonesome when she concluded to try a projic”
”What's a projic?” inquired Robert Day
”Why, it's a--p'epperation, or--a plan of so Ant Black and all her family, and the spider and all his fas and all their fa folks, and don't leave out a neighbor, to an apple-bee right inside the orchard fence
”So it was pleasant weather, and they all co as nimble and steppin' on the shawl that rapped round his young one And the snake-feeders they helped Miss Katydid over the lowest fence-rail, and here co behind her it looked like a funeral instead of a family percession and she twisted her neck fro apple, kind of wonderin' if they couldn't carry it off
”Little Ant Red had all her children's heads coood dress and white apron, and she says right and left, 'Hoddy-do, sir? hoddy-do, ht in and take cheers And they all shook hands with her as if they'd never dreaht on to the apple and begun to eat And they all e't and e't, till they'dAnt Black she gits her family started, and they carries off chunk after chunk of that apple till the road was black and white speckled between her house and the apple-tree
”Little Ant Red she walks around urgin' them all to help theirselves, and that ot so graspin' and eager, that what does she do but try to help her young ones carry off the whole apple-shell It did look jub'ous to see such a big thing in' it And then Ant Red got on to a clover-head and showed the rest of the company what Ant Black was a-doin' Says Ant Red: 'You ain't e't more'n a mouthful, Mr Grasshopper'
”'No, marm,' says he
”'I s'ze to myself,' says Ant Red, 'here is this polite company, and the snake-feeders don't touch nothin,' and everybedy knows Miss Katydid lives on nothin' but rose-leaf butter, and the bugs and beetles will hardly take enough, to keep 'em alive' 'And I s'ze toapple walkin' off with nobody but Ant Black tosound apple And it looks to me like witchcraft That's what it looks like,' says Ant Red
”They all declared it looked just like witchcraft Ant Black tried to show them how holler the apple was, and they declared if she'd hollered it that way so quick, it itchcraft certain
”So what does they do but pen her and her young ones in the apple-shell and stop it up with s that hadn't been bid come and took part when they see the dirt a-flyin' Ant Red set on the clover-head and teetered
”Non to this present minute,” concluded Zene, ”you never pick up an apple and find a red ant walkin' out of it If ants is there, it's one of them poor black fellers that was shut up at the apple-bee, and they walk out brisk; as if they's glad to find daylight once more”
CHAPTER IX THE GREAT CAMP MEETING
Towards evening of the next day the broken wagon wheel was replaced
By that time the children were not ett So just before sunset they broke up ca the country road until the constellations were swinging overhead Zene took the first good crossway that led to the 'pike, and after waiting to be sure that the noses of Old Hickory and Old Henry were following, he jogged between dewy fence rows, and they cah road, and in tiressed only ten miles that day
Bobaday and Corinne were so sleepy, and their departure fro was taken at such an early hour, that they reht, accohtcap
Very different was Springfield, the county seat of Clark County
That was a toith peoplestreets could be seen, where pleasant houses were shaded with trees
Zene inquired the names of all small places as soon as they entered the on at one side, he waited until Grandett ca before any of them came into view It was a pleasure to Bobaday and aunt Corinne to ride into a town repeating its na to fasten its identity on theiron the road, or perhaps a raph poles with sharp-shod heels; then appeared hu thickly around thens of business flaunted, o so procession of carriages, and in the first carriage aunt Corinne beheld and showed to her nephew a child's coffin ett said it was zinc But aunt Corinne secretly suspected it was old, to enclose some dear little baby whoseelse
At New Carlisle, a sleepy little village where the dogfennel onderfully advanced for June, Zene took the gray fro Old Hickory The gray's shoulder was rubbed by his collar, and Zene reasoned that the lighter weight of the carriage would give hi his bruise Thus paired the horses looked coe a disgrace to them But theyas wide a space as possible between theray and white, old yoke fellows at the plough, who knew nothing of the dignity of carriage drawing, and cared less, who had rubbed noses and shared feed-boxes ever since they were colts, both lifted up their voices in mournful whinneys and refused comfort and correction The white turned his head back over his shoulder and would have halted anywhere until hishis head, and neighing as if his throat were full of tears every tion
The caravan h another little tohich Zene said was named Boston, late on a rainy afternoon Here they crossed the Miah the cracks of which Robert Day and Corinne looked at the full but not very wide stream It flowed beneath them in comparative silence The rain pricked the water's surface into innu up,” said aunt Corinne, in tiin' the water,” said her nepheith long stingers that reach clear out of the clouds”