Page:The Atlantic Monthly Volume 2.djvu/634

626 Wan' to hear another? Say.

—Funny, wasn'it? Made me laugh,—

I'm too modest, I am, by half,—

Made me laugh 's though I sh'd split,—

Cahn' a fellah like fellah's own wit?

—Fellahs keep sayin',—"Well, now that's nice;

Did it once, but cahn' do it twice."—

Don' you b'lieve the'z no more fat;

Lots in the kitch'n 'z good 'z that.

Fus'-rate throw, 'n' no mistake,—

Han' us the props for another shake;—

Know I'll try, 'n' guess I'll win;

Here sh' goes for hit 'm ag'in!

Here I thought it necessary to interpose.—Professor,—I said,—you are inebriated. The style of what you call your "Prelude" shows that it was written under cerebral excitement. Your articulation is confused. You have told me three times in succession, in exactly the same words, that I was the only true friend you had in the world that you would unbutton your heart to. You smell distinctly and decidedly of spirits.—I spoke, and paused; tender, but firm.

Two large tears orbed themselves beneath the Professor's lids,—in obedience to the principle of gravitation celebrated in that delicious bit of bladdery bathos, "The very law that moulds a tear," with which the "Edinburgh Review" attempted to put down Master George Gordon when that young man was foolishly trying to make himself conspicuous.

One of these tears peeped over the edge of the lid until it lost its balance,—slid an inch and waited for reinforcements,—swelled again,—rolled down a little further,—stopped,—moved on,—and at last fell on the back of the Professor's hand. He held it up for me to look at, and lifted his eyes, brimful, till they met mine. I couldn't stand it,—I always break down when folks cry in my face,—so I hugged him, and said he was a dear old boy, and asked him kindly what was the matter with him, and what made him smell so dreadfully strong of spirits.

Upset his alcohol lamp,—he said,—and spilt the alcohol on his legs. That was it.—But what had he been doing to get his head into such a state?—had he really committed an excess? What was the matter?—Then it came out that he had been taking chloroform to have a tooth out, which had left him in a very queer state, in which he had written the "Prelude" given above, and under the influence of which he evidently was still.

I took the manuscript from his hands and read the following continuation of the lines he had begun to read me, while he made up for two or three nights' lost sleep as he best might.

respecting an old arm-chair.

At Cambridge. Is kept in the College there.

Seems but little the worse for wear.

That's remarkable when I say

It was old in President Holyoke's day.

(One of his boys, perhaps you know,

Died, at one hundred, years ago.)

He took lodging for rain or shine

Under green bed-clothes in '69.

Know old Cambridge? Hope you do.—

Born there? Don't say so! I was, too.

(Born in a house with a gambrel-roof,—

Standing still, if you must have proof.—

"Gambrel?—Gambrel?"—Let me beg

You'll look at a horse's hinder leg,—

First great angle above the hoof,—

That's the gambrel; hence gambrel-roof.)

—Nicest place that ever was seen,—

Colleges red and Common green,

Sidewalks brownish with trees between.

Sweetest spot beneath the skies

When the canker-worms don't rise,—

When the dust, that sometimes flies

Into your mouth and ears and eyes,

In a quiet slumber lies,

Not in the shape of unbaked pies

Such as barefoot children prize.

A kind of harbor it seems to be,

Facing the flow of a boundless sea.

Bows of gray old Tutors stand

Ranged like rocks above the sand;

Rolling beneath them, soft and green,

Breaks the tide of bright sixteen,—

One wave, two waves, three waves, four,

Sliding up the sparkling floor;

Then it ebbs to flow no more,

Wandering off from shore to shore

With its freight of golden ore!

—Pleasant place for boys to play;—