Page:Scribner's Monthly, Volume 12 (May–October 1876).djvu/338

332 have followed them with Ah Ri, but turning toward that Mongolian, he was alarmed by a swift spasm of expression that suddenly convulsed Ah Ri's face. He winked both his eyes with the velocity of sheet-lightning, nodded his head with frightful rapidity, and snapped and apparently dislocated every finger on his right hand. Gabriel gazed at him in open-mouthed wonder.

"All litey!" said Ah Ri, looking intently at Gabriel.

"Which?" asked Gabriel.

"All litey! You shabbee 'all litey!' She say 'all litey.'"

"Who's she?" asked Gabriel, in sudden alarm.

"You lifee!—shabbee?—Missee Conloy! She likee you—shabbee? Me likee you!—shabbee? Miss Conloy she say 'all litee!' You shabbee shelliff?"

"Which?" said Gabriel.

"Shelliff! Man plenty chokee bad man!"

"Sheriff, I reckon," suggested Gabriel with great gravity.

"Um! Shelliff. Mebbee you shabbee him bimeby. He chokee bad man. Much chokee. Chokee like hellee! He no chokee you. No. She say shelliff no chokee you. Shabbee?"

"I see," said Gabriel significantly.

"She say," continued Ah Ri, with gasping swiftness, "she say you talkee too much. She say me talkee too much. She say Maxwellee talkee too much. All talkee too much. She say 'no talkee!' Shabbee? She say 'ash up!' Shabbee? She say, 'dly up!' Shabbee? She say 'bimeby plenty talkee—bimeby all litee!' Shabbee?"

"But whar ez she—whar kin I git to see her?" asked Gabriel.

Ah Ri's face instantly discharged itself of all expression! A wet sponge could not have more completely obliterated all penciled outline of character or thought from his blank, slate-colored physiognomy than did Gabriel's simple question. He returned his questioner's glance with ineffable calmness and vacancy, patiently drew the long sleeves of his blouse still further over his varnished fingers, crossed them submissively and orientally before him, and waited apparently for Gabriel to become again intelligible.

"Look yer," said Gabriel, with gentle persuasiveness, "ef it's the same to ye, you'd be doin' me a heap o' good ef you'd let on whar thet July—thet Mrs. Conroy ez. Bein' a man ez in his blindness bows down to wood and stun, ye ain't supposed to allow fur a Christi'n's feelings. But I put to ye ez a far-minded brethren—a true man and a man whatsoever his color—that it's a square thing fur ye to allow to me whar thet woman ez ez my relation by marriage ez hidin'! Allowin' it's one o' my idols—I axes you ez a brother Pagan—whar ez she ? "

A faint, flickering smile of pathetic abstraction and simplicity, as of one listening to far-off but incomprehensible music, stole over Ah Ri's face. Then he said kindly, gently, but somewhat vaguely and unsatisfactorily:

"Me no shabbee Melican man. Me washee shirtee! dollah and hap dozen!" (To be continued.)

TO DORA. Too calm, am I ? What wouldst thou, dear ? Is not my heart at peace ? Because life's sweetest day hath dawned, should rest and comfort cease ? Now that the dearest girl on earth hath rid me of my doubt, Shall I begin to rave and sigh, and wear her patience out ? Yes, calmness is my passion, dear. Not all the joys I know, Nor all the bliss that ever came to heart of man below, Nor all the sweet surprises, nor the rapture of the blest, Should ever make a. lover lose the manhood in his breast. Too calm, my love! Oh, say it not! My soul is like the sea; A glorious calmness should it know in bearing freight like thee; Down to its deepest depths should be a peace unknown before In full tranquillity of love to bear thee evermore.