Page:Tales of the Jazz Age.djvu/155

Rh : (Dreamily) No. I do prose. I do verse only when I am stirred.


 * (Murmuring) Stirred by a spoon


 * I have always loved poetry. I can remember to this day the first poem I ever learned by heart. It was "Evangeline."


 * That's a fib.


 * Did I say "Evangeline"? I meant "The Skeleton in Armor."

Parker and Davis Sittin' on a fence Tryne to make a dollar Outa fif-teen cents.
 * I'm a low-brow. But I can remember my first poem. It had one verse:


 * (Eagerly) Are you growing fond of literature?


 * If it's not too ancient or complicated or depressing. Same way with people. I usually like 'em not too ancient or complicated or depressing.


 * Of course I've read enormously. You told me last night that you were very fond of Walter Scott.


 * (Considering) Scott? Let's see. Yes, I've read "Ivanhoe" and "The Last of the Mohicans."


 * That's by Cooper.


 * (Angrily) "Ivanhoe" is? You're crazy! I guess I know. I read it. : "The Last of the Mohicans" is by Cooper.


 * What do I care! I like O. Henry. I don't see how he ever wrote those stories. Most of them he wrote in prison. "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" he made up in prison.