“Praise de Lawd!” Vinegar laughed. “I’s glad I kept my good senses and didn’t git skeart!”
“Skeart!” Hitch1 Diamond mocked derisively2. “You wus so skeart you wus squealin’ like a burnt pig!”
“I warn’t really a coward,” Vinegar said defensively. “But I wus sort of discreet3. An’ I wusn’t by myself in dat—dis whole mob of niggers wus movin’ from side to side in dis here prairie like butter-beans b’ilin’ in a kittle.”
“Shore dey wus,” Hitch Diamond answered. “Dey wus skeart an’ I wus skeart an’ eve’ybody wus skeart—escusin’ you.”
“Dat ole airship is jes’ like a ole dog widout no teeth—it makes a lot of noise, but ’tain’t no harm,” Vinegar said complacently4.
Suddenly, from the direction of the setting sun, a long, slanting5 shadow crossed the prairie like a black knife cutting through their composure and leaving them wide open to the terror which approached.
The airplane was advancing upon them, apparently6 just skirting the tops of the trees, and the noise of the exhaust of the engine was deafening7, terrifying, nerve-racking, a sound which reminded these country negroes of nothing so much as a great forest fire in a cane8-brake where the popping of the cane is like the musketry of battle. They did not know whether to run or lie down or stand still, but finally their action was universal and automatic—they tumbled over on the ground like a lot of dead geraniums in a broken pot. All of this was an experience so entirely9 new to them that there was no precedent10; they had never been along that path before. That great motor sounded to them like disease and death, and it made enough noise to make a snail11 jump through a barrel-hoop.
But there is one thing every negro can do. His fright is like kerosene12 poured on hot coals: it goes up in vapor13 and goes off with a bang. When those explosive sounds began to prod14 the negroes like hat-pins running into their ears, they began to howl and pray, and from five or six hundred throats there arose an assorted15 series of yells—they sang a long scale of variegated16 vociferations of fright—and they uttered implorations and prayers, and made promises to the God of heaven in return for his protection, promises which they could not have remembered in sober moments, much less performed.
As the machine came nearer to them and looked like it was coming down to the ground to mow17 them down with its wide-spreading wings, five hundred men, women, and children flattened18 themselves upon the ground, uttered a farewell gasp19 like a fish dying in the bottom of a boat and prayed that God would remove all rotundity and make them as flat as a withered20 leaf to meet this emergency that was upon them.
When about one hundred feet above the ground the aviator21 tossed out of the machine Hitch Diamond’s bag of cotton waste. Had he known the contents of that bag he would have tossed it out a long time before. During all his stunts23 in the air he had held this sack of worthless cotton waste, and out of the kindness of a heart that was full of love for a woman he had returned it to the rightful owners.
The bag landed on the shoulders of Vinegar Atts. Vinegar merely spread out like a busted24 bag of oats and sang an up-and-down tune25 of assorted prayers like the howling of a hound dog. After a long time, when the exhaust of the engine sounded far away, he slowly rose up like a mouse in a trap, scared and begging on its hind26 legs.
“My Gawd!” he whooped27. “I had a powerful good chance fer heaven dat time. I’m got more lives dan a litter of kittens!”
Then, seeing the bag of cotton waste on the ground, for some reason he got the notion that Hitch Diamond had hit him on the back with that bag. He picked it up and struck Hitch over the head with it.
Hitch cautiously raised his head and elevated his face toward the sky, his nose wrinkled up like the front of a washboard. The airplane was far away. He slowly turned his head and saw Vinegar standing28 beside him with a bag of cotton waste in his hand. His eyes stuck out like the buttons on an overcoat, and he rose from the ground and started for Vinegar with a bellow29 of rage which had made him famous in the pugilistic ring in the South.
As if in answer to a signal every negro rose from the ground and started a free-for-all fight, a rough-and-tumble affair which is the delight of the darky and generally does no great harm. Men and women pushed and pounded at each other, and grunted30, and slapped faces, and wrestled31, bouncing chunks32 of wood off of each other’s heads and going after each other’s skin like they were working by the job and wanted to get it all off right away.
Far up in the sunset sky, getting smaller and smaller as it climbed, the beautiful airplane passed into the purple and gold shadows of the closing day and disappeared from their sight.
There was an awed35 silence which was broken after a moment by the snarling36 voice of Pap: “Whar is dat Red Cutt gone at?”
“He’s done gone!” dozens of voices answered.
“Did he hab our money on him?”
“Yep, he tuck it all!” Vinegar howled.
“I said I’d make dat nigger fly!” Pap exclaimed. “An’ now he has done flew!”
“De way he flew is de only way he could fly,” Skeeter Butts37 laughed. “I’m satisfied in my mind dat nigger didn’t know any more about a airship dan a dog knows about a white shirt. And now he’s done run off wid my dollar.”
“I don’t keer,” Vinegar said. “I done got my dollar’s wuth of fun outen dat machine, an’ I expeck I’d better be gittin’ back to town. I’m got to preach at de Shoofly church to-night.”
In the fight which had occurred the bag of cotton which the aviator had dropped from his machine had been torn to pieces and the cotton scattered38 all over the prairie. A number of negro boys amused themselves by throwing the wads of cotton at each other and at their elders. One negro boy picked up a wad and hurled39 it at the fat stomach of the Rev40. Vinegar Atts.
Vinegar doubled up with a yell of pain, and then stooped and picked up something.
It was a buckskin bag, which Vinegar had last seen in the possession of Red Cutt.
With trembling fingers Vinegar untied42 the buckskin bag and drew out a large number of soiled bills. There was a shout of delight which James Gannaway could have heard fifteen thousand feet in the air.
“When dat nigger, Red Cutt, climbed up into dat machine, he hid dat money in my sack of cotton,” Hitch howled, “an’ now we done get it all back. Bless Gawd!”
So it was a happy band which moved slowly back to Tickfall. Vinegar Atts forgetting all about his automobile43 walked back to town with the others. He improvised44 a song on the way which he taught his fellow pilgrims. The chorus, repeated many times, was this:
“De airships fly up to de sky
An’ circle all de stars around.
While yuthers try to fly on high—
Lawd, keep my foots on solid ground.”
When they had sung the chorus for about the first time there was great excitement in Tickfall, four miles away.
The first army airplane ever seen in that neighborhood flew over the town, and every man, woman, and child was looking at it. The aviator gave an exhibition of stunt22 flying. First, a series of loops, then tail slides, then what he would have called a “stall,” a maneuver45 in which the machine was brought to a dead stop after reaching the apex46 of an upward curve. Then he did side slides and nose dives. It was wonderful to the people of Tickfall to see the number of evolutions that pilot put his machine through.
There were all kinds of funny stunts, and that machine cut all sorts of queer figures like a playful kitten of the clouds.
The people of Tickfall thought that he was doing all of that for them—but they were greatly mistaken.
Everything James Gannaway did was a message telling a certain girl that all was well with him, that he would return to the aviation camp with his own beautiful lie and her beautiful truth, and that he anticipated no trouble before him. Most of all, it was a message of passionate47 love to that same girl, who now sat alone in her buggy on a sandy road and looked up at the airplane with eyes that filled with tears and glowed with love like stars.
The End
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1
hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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derisively
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| adv. 嘲笑地，嘲弄地 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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7
deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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8
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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9
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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snail
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| n.蜗牛 | |
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kerosene
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| n.(kerosine)煤油，火油 | |
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vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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prod
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| vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励 | |
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assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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17
mow
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| v.割（草、麦等），扫射，皱眉；n.草堆，谷物堆 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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aviator
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| n.飞行家，飞行员 | |
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stunt
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| n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长 | |
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23
stunts
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| n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24
busted
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| adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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26
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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whooped
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| 叫喊( whoop的过去式和过去分词 )； 高声说； 唤起 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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29
bellow
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| v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道 | |
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30
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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32
chunks
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| 厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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37
butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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38
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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39
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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40
rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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41
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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42
untied
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| 松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决 | |
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43
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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44
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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45
maneuver
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| n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略 | |
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46
apex
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| n.顶点，最高点 | |
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47
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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