"
I listened to the wooings of the black boys to the breeze. They liked
not the prospect of sweeping the boat home. They implored for wind with
cooings, with petulant whistlings, and with gentle but novel
objurgations. But it came not, and so the afternoon passed and evening
fell, and the butterflies, a faint, thin stratum, drifted on.
Then as a final challenge to the breeze that we longed for, and which
had resisted all appeals, "Come on big wind and kill little boat!"
exclaimed an irresponsible boy, whose ears had long ached with the days
dull silence, and who saw no prospect of hot turtle steak for supper.
As if to take up the gauntlet, a faint zephyr flicked the listless cheek
of the ocean, and slapped the sails. The boom swayed and swung over, the
boat, without guidance, idly headed off, and we flopped home to the
placid bay before the unenergetic breeze, which was all that Nature in
her idle hour could spare.
THE SERPENT BEGUILED
Eve Avenged
"You do yet taste
Some subtleties o' the isle that will let not you
Believe things certain."
Once upon a time--not so very long ago either--an unpretentious poultry
farm was started.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292