Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/202

Rh was so tired an' hungry that we went into some place or other an' got our breakfast. When we started out ag'in we kep' on up one street an' down another, an' askin' everybody who looked as if they had two grains of sense—which most of 'em didn't look as if they had mor'n one, an' that was in use to get 'em to where they was goin'. At last, a little ways down a small street, we see'd a crowd, an' the minute we see it, Jone an' me both said in our inside hearts: 'There she is!' An' sure enough, when we got there, who should we see, with a ring of street-loafers an' boys around her, but Mrs. Andrew Jackson, with her little straw hat an' her green carpet slippers, a-dancin' some kind of a skippin' fandango, an' a-holdin' out her skirts with the tips of her fingers. I was jus' a-goin' to rush in an' grab her when a man walks quick into the ring and touches her on the shoulder. The minute I see'd him I knowed him. It was our old boarder!"

"It was?" exclaimed Euphemia.

"Yes, it was truly him, an' I didn't want him to see me there in such company, an' he most likely knowin' I was on my bridal trip, an' so I made a dive at my bonnet to see if I had a veil on; an' findin' one, I hauled it down.

"'Madam,' says the boarder, very respectful, to Mrs. Jackson, 'where do you live? Can't I take you home?' 'No, sir,' says she, 'at least, not now. If you have a carriage, you may come for me after a while. I am waiting for the Bank of the United States to open, an' until which time I must support myself on the light fantastic toe,' an' then she tuck up her skirts an' begun to dance ag'in. But she didn't make more'n two skips before I rushed in, an' takin' her by the arm, hauled her out o' the ring. An'