About four o’clock that afternoon somebody in the Gaitskill home asked where Orren Randolph Gaitskill was. He had not been seen since he left the house that morning to attend the Sunday-school.
Miss Virginia Gaitskill called Captain Kerley Kerlerac on the telephone and asked if Orren had been in his class that morning.
When a devilish boy happens to be the brother of an angelic girl, even a disillusioned1 war-veteran finds that lad possessed2 of qualities which he loves and admires for the boy’s sister’s sake.
Kerlerac informed her that he had missed Orren very much, that he was the brightest boy in his class, that all the others had made anxious inquiry3 about him, that he was about to call at the Gaitskill home to inquire if Orren was sick.
“Hello! Hello! What’s that?” he exclaimed.
The telephone clicked in his ear, indicating that she had hung up the receiver.
“I believe that giggle meant that she called me a liar,” he announced to his immortal7 soul. A reminiscent light beamed in his eyes. “She hasn’t changed in the past fifteen years—little spitfire!”
For half an hour Miss Virginia found something else to think about besides her wandering brother, but as the evening wore on, and he did not appear, she began to get uneasy again.
“That dang boy has played hookey and gone out in the woods with that pickaninny,” Colonel Gaitskill announced.
“No danger of that,” Gaitskill said easily. “These little niggers around here can go across that swamp like a fox. They can’t get lost.”
But as the shadows lengthened10 across the Gaitskill lawn the women of the household were thrown into a panic. They insisted that it was not a natural or ordinary thing for Orren to miss his meals; that a hungry boy might be having a very good time at some amusement, but he would always be willing to postpone11 his play to eat, resuming his play after this meal.
“That’s so,” Gaitskill admitted. “When I was a boy nothing was ever more attractive to me than the consumption of food, and I enjoy being regular at my meals now. But, maybe he ate his lunch somewhere else?”
By telephone they made inquiry of every place where they thought Orren could have eaten. He had not been seen at any of those places.
Gaitskill saw that he was going to have to get out and hunt that boy. The prospect12 did not appeal to him. That boy was a nuisance. If he was lost, it was good riddance. He wasn’t worth finding—let him find himself. He went to the telephone and called up Captain Kerley Kerlerac.
“Say, Kerl, where’s that damn little pet nigger of yours?”
“Haven’t seen him to-day, Colonel.”
“He’s run off somewhere with Orren, and Orren hasn’t come home yet.”
“I’ll find him,” Kerley said eagerly.
“Oh, no! Don’t trouble yourself,” Gaitskill smiled. “I just wanted to know about Little Bit.”
Gaitskill sat down with a sly grin. He was getting old, he reflected, and the strenuous13 life was no longer attractive. If a searching party should have to be organized, he had now laid its foundation. It was a certainty that Kerlerac would organize the party and lead the search. Good old Kerl would see that Virginia’s brother was not lost.
It does not take a rumor14 long to spread over a little village. In a brief time, it was known to the remotest parts of Tickfall that Little Bit and Orren Gaitskill were lost.
Little Bit’s mother, in spite of the fact that she had fourteen others just like him in her cabin, aroused all the negro section of the town by her frantic15 wails16. She announced in a voice like a calliope that she knew that her angel child had fallen into a well, had been eaten by an alligator17, had been bitten by a snake, had been drowned in a bayou, had been stolen and carried away by white folks, had been lost in the swamp—and she howled like a banshee over each one of these possibilities, and others of the same general nature as she thought of them.
A great bellow18 of excitement went up from all the negroes, and a band of them hurried to the home of Captain Kerlerac to inquire the latest information about Little Bit. Their excitement was contagious19, and the captain caught it, the white citizens of the town were inoculated20, and in an incredibly short time the town was seething21 with an intense desire to organize a search-party and explore the woods for the lost boys.
“We’ll wait until night, men,” Kerlerac said. “If the boys don’t come in by dark, we will go out on the Little Moccasin Road and build fires on the highway for ten miles. Wherever they may be in the swamp, they will see that trail of fire and come to it.”
“Don’t bother Colonel Gaitskill with it,” Kerley suggested. “He’s getting too old to be running around at night and exposing himself. If the boys don’t come in by dark, I will ring the court-house bell. Meet me there.”
It had not been very long since Kerlerac had been a boy himself. He knew every spot in that vicinity which was dear to boys, white and black. He listed each one in his mind and started on a lone8 search to each of these places.
His automobile23 carried him first to all the swimming-holes, then to the old picnic-grounds, then to the old tabernacle, where the negro camp-meetings were held, to the pool where the colored members of the Shoofly church conducted their baptizings, to the old stables and sheds around the fair-grounds. Finally, he left his machine beside the road and walked across the field to the old cotton-shed beside the sand pit.
The noise of shouting and laughter came to him before he arrived upon the scene. It was no trouble to locate the two boys as they splashed and paddled and fought with water and dived to the bottom to rise with a handful of sand to throw at each other.
Time had ceased to move for those two youngsters. Sunrise and sunset were just the same to them. A score of apple-cores strewn along the sandy shore indicated that they had lunched well and were not hungry.
“Hey, you!” Kerley called.
The two boys looked up with surprise.
“Come out of that water!” Kerley commanded. “Don’t you know it is nearly night?”
The astonishment24 on their faces when informed of the passage of time indicated that they had been completely engrossed25 with their amusement.
They climbed out of the water near Kerlerac and gave that gentleman a surprise.
“You’ve both got on your clothes!” he exclaimed. “Are you too lazy to strip when you take a Sunday swim?”
“Naw, suh. But our fust swim wus a mistake, Marse Cap’n,” Little Bit chattered26, chilled by the wind after his day of activity in the water. “Us got on a raff an’ de raff wouldn’t hol’ us up.”
“Don’t report to me,” Kerley laughed. “March along home now! Right face! Forward!”
A little later Kerlerac marched the two wet youngsters upon the lawn and made them stand at attention in the presence of a dozen hysterical27 women.
“Here are your mud-cats, Colonel,” he smiled. “I found them paddling in the pond in the old sand pit.”
“I didn’t intend to get wet, Uncle Tom,” Org began, “but the raft was not large enough——”
“That’s enough for you,” Gaitskill cut him off. “Go around to the rear of the house.”
Miss Virginia Gaitskill stood upon the steps smiling.
“I think I knew you once, Miss Gaitskill,” Kerlerac said. “We were both younger then.”
“You were seven and I was five,” Virginia smiled, as she extended her hand.
“I remember,” Kerlerac answered. “You gave me a chocolate rat with a rubber tail. I could hold the tail and bounce the rat, or I could lay the rat down and watch it wiggle its tail very lifelike. I ate that rat, rubber-tail and all.”
“You gave me a rabbit-foot in a green-plush box,” Virginia laughed. “I did not eat the foot or the box. I have them both yet.”
“I have something that you did not give me,” Kerlerac said earnestly. “I stole it from you. I carried it through three battles across the sea. It is your picture as you were then.”
“Have I changed since then?” the girl asked, because she did not know what else to say.
“Yes. The photograph I have of you shows a little spitfire girl astride of a wabble-wheeled velocipede.”
“Oh—” that young lady gasped.
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1
disillusioned
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| a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的 | |
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2
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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3
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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4
panegyric
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| n.颂词，颂扬 | |
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5
giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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6
wry
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| adj.讽刺的；扭曲的 | |
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7
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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8
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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9
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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10
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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12
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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13
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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14
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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15
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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16
wails
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| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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17
alligator
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| n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼) | |
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18
bellow
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| v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道 | |
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19
contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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20
inoculated
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| v.给…做预防注射( inoculate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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22
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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23
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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24
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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25
engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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26
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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