For a few moments she
confined herself to ejaculations of "Well! well! well!" and the name of the
Deity. Then, "The town is bu'nt up; the army done 'rendered, an' Mahs
William come back ragged ez a buzzard!"
I did not interrupt her. I could think of nothing to say, and began to be
afraid that something was the matter with my brains. Meanwhile Mammy was
bustling about, and before I knew it she had started the little fire into a
blaze and the tea was boiling.
The flickering light glinted over the walls. At first I did not heed what
it revealed; then I saw it glow and fade over some early efforts of my own,
frame-less crudities, to which Mammy had fallen heir. They had become old
masters! What centuries ranged themselves between the birth of those
pictures and now!
This time tea was nectar, and after I had eaten a little cold middling
bacon and hoe-cake, that she had put before me on a fractured member of our
old Canton set, I took a more cheerful view of life. I believe that I would
have shed tears over these poor relics from happier days, except that I was
not quite conscious that anything was real that day.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142