_How Opal Makes Prepares to Move. How she Collects All the Necessary
Things, Bids Good-bye to Dear Love, and Learns that her Prayer has
been Answered._
We are going to move to the mill town. For a whole week, every
morning now after the morning works is done the mamma does have me
to help her make prepares to move; and after I do be helps to the
mamma, then I do work at making prepares for moving my belongings
when we go goes to the mill town.
I have made begins a week ago. I have been carrying my belongings
to inside an old log a little way away from the house we do live
in. Moving is a big amount of problem. But mostly now I do have my
prepares done. I am going to take with me when we go goes to the mill
just my necessary things--the mamma does say none but my necessary
things can go. She said that was my blue calico apron and my gray
calico apron and the clothes that goes under them and my two pair
of stockings and the shoes I have on and my sun-bonnet and my slate
and Cyr’s Reader.
But I have some more necessary things that the mamma has not knows
of. There is my two books that Angel Mother and Angel Father did
write in and I do study in every day, and the pictures of mother
and père and the pictures of grandmère and grandpère and tante and
oncle, and all the others that I do love much every day; and to-day
there was needs to give the dear picture of père a wash in the brook
because last time on yesterday, when I did kiss him, a little piece
of jam from my bread and butter got on his dear face that does look
so like him. And after I did come from the brook I put them all away
in a careful way in the box I do keep them in, and I said a little
prayer.
And I went to bring to the old log the willow whistle the shepherd
did make for me when it was the borning time of the lambs, and
the two flutes he did make of reeds. And now I do have most of my
necessaries in the hollow log. There by it is the lily plant the soul
of Peter Paul Rubens has loves for to be near. And I have planted
it in a little flower-pot Sadie McKibben has given to me. And when
we are moved moves to the mill town I will put the lily plant under
the window of the room I do have sleeps in, so that what the soul of
Peter Paul Rubens does love to be near will be near unto where I am.
And in the hollow log there is the old logging boot of the husband of
Dear Love, that he has given me to keep some of my rock collections
in. And there is the bath-towel of Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus
that Dear Love has made for him. And there is the color pencils that
the fairies did bring to the moss-box. And there is many brown
papers that Sadie McKibben has given me to print prints on. And
there is the cushion Lola did make for Lucian Horace Ovid Virgil
to sit on in my desk at school. And there is all the patches I do
pin on my underskirt for my animal friends to ride in. And there is
the track of Elizabeth Barrett Browning that I did dig up in the
lane. It has so much of poetry in it. And there is one of the gray
neckties of the man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice,
that he did give to me for Brave Horatius to wear. And there is the
bib of Elsie’s baby that Elsie did give me for Menander Euripides
Theocritus Thucydides to wear when he was nursing the bottle.
And there is seven of the tail-feathers of Lars Porsena that he did
lose when he did lose his tail. And there is four old horse-shoes
of William Shakespeare that the blacksmith did have allows for me
to have when he was putting new shoes onto William Shakespeare. And
there is the thimble of Dear Love that she has given me to carry
drinks of water to the folks in the hospital. And there is the little
bell of Peter Paul Rubens that he did use to wear to service in the
cathedral. And there is Elsie’s baby’s little old shoe that got worn
out and she gave it to me for Nannerl Mozart to sleep in. And there
is the lid of Sadie McKibben’s coffee-pot that she did give me when
it came off. She always did sing over that lid when cooking-time was
come. And there is the traveling-case of Minerva that the pensée
girl with the far-away look in her eyes did make for me to carry all
the christening robes of Minerva’s children in, and more pieces of
white cloth and little ribbons the pensée girl did put into Minerva’s
traveling case for christening-time come next year. And there is
the egg-shells Ben Jonson and Sir Francis Bacon and Pius VII and
Nicholas Boileau and Edmund Spenser and Oliver Goldsmith and John
Fletcher and Francis Beaumont and Cardinal Richelieu and Sir Walter
Raleigh and the rest of Minerva’s children hatched out of. I have
thinks there is needs for me to carry those egg-shells in my apron
when we go moves to the mill town, so they will not have breaks. And
there is the little gray shawl Sadie McKibben so made for Nannerl
Mozart.
And there is the little cap that Dear Love did make for my Louis II,
le Grand Condé. It has got a feather in it. He did nibble the end off
the feather, and he had mouse-wants to chew the tassel that she did
put on the bag she did make for me to carry him in. And there is the
ribbon bow off Elsie’s garter she did give me for Felix Mendelssohn
to wear. I have heard the women folks at the farmhouse say this world
would be a nice world if there were n’t any mice in it. I think it
would be a most lonesome place. And there is the big handkerchief
of the man of the long step that whistles most all of the time that
he did give to me for Brave Horatius to wear around his neck. And
there is Elsie’s old lace collar that Elizabeth Barrett Browning
does wear to cathedral service. And there is one of the whiskers of
Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus that he did lose.
And there is all the portraits of my friends on poker-chips. And there
is the other white poker-chips that are waiting waits for pictures
to be drawed on them. And there is the blue and the red poker-chips
that is the breakfast and supper plates of the folks in the nursery
and the hospital. And there is Minerva’s white cap that she does wear
to cathedral service with the ruffles on it like are on the morning
cap of Jenny Strong. And there is the long green string I pulled my
tooth with. And there is the split jacket of Padre Martini, that he
did last wear before he was become a grown-up _cigale_. And there is
the bottle of Menander Euripides Theocritus Thucydides--the bottle
that used to be a brandy bottle. And there is the skins of the
caterpillars they did grow too big for when they were growing into
_papillons_ and _phalènes_. And there is the two tail-feathers of
Agamemnon Menelaus Dindon. And there is Solomon Grundy’s christening
robe. And there is the little fleur watering-pot the fairies did
bring that I do give my friends shower-baths with. And there is the
cocoon that Charlotte Brontë, the big velvet brown phalène, did hatch
out of; and there is more cocoons that other phalènes did hatch out
of. And there is the ribbon bow Elsie has given me off her other
garter for the pet squirrel Geoffroi Chaucer that the cat did hurt
but is well again. And there is a whole new box of mentholatum that
Sadie McKibben has given me for the little folks I find with hurts
in the mill town. And there is the four vaseline bottles that got
empty after the young husband of Elsie did use all the vaseline in
them to keep his pumpadoor smooth. I have uses for those vaseline
bottles to keep food in for the folks of the nursery.
These things I have now in the log. Others of my necessary things I
will bring this eventime and on to-morrow and the next day and the
day after that.
Some of us go to the mill town, but not all of us so go. Dear Solomon
Grundy is sold to a man that does live at one of the edges of the
mill town. Aphrodite is going to stay stays here, and so is Mathilde
Plantagenet and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Anthonya Mundy and
the gentle Jersey cow and Savonarola and Agamemnon Menelaus Dindon;
and Plato and Pliny are going to live on in the barn. Brave Horatius
is going goes with Aidan of Iona come from Lindisfarne, and too
Menander Euripides Theocritus Thucydides is going with the shepherd
to the blue hills.
Minerva is going to town with us, and so is Sir Francis Bacon and Ben
Jonson and Pius VII and Nicholas Boileau and Sir Walter Raleigh and
all the rest of her dear children, and Clementine and Napoleon and
Andromeda. And by-and-by Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus is coming
comes to the mill town, and so is Felix Mendelssohn and Louis II,
le Grand Condé, and Nannerl Mozart and some of her children, and
Lucian Horace Ovid Virgil and Geoffroi Chaucer and the caterpillar
folks in the nursery. All are when I do have homes fixed for them
about the house we are going to live in in the mill town.
Until then Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus is going to stay with Dear
Love and her husband, and, too, Dear Love does say Lucian Horace
Ovid Virgil can live under her doorsteps until I do have a place
fixed for him under the doorstep of the house we are going to live
in in the mill town. And Sadie McKibben is going to take care of
Geoffroi Chaucer and bring him in to me at the house we are going
to live in at the mill town. And the man that wears gray neckties
and is kind to mice is going to take care of all my mouse friends
in his bunk-house, and he is going goes to feed the folks in the
nursery and the hospital.
And often it is I am going to come comes back again here to cathedral
service and talks with them I know, and to leave letters for the
fairies in the moss-box. I have thinks about the mill town. Maybe
in the fields over on the other side of the mill town--maybe there
there will be _étourneau_ and _ortolan_ and _draine_ and _durbec_ and
_loriot_ and _verdier_ and _rossignol_ and _pinson_ and _pivoine_.
When I am come to the mill town, I will go explores to see, and I
will build altars for Saint Louis. Now I go to see Dear Love.
When I was come near unto her little house, I had seeing of Dear
Love. She was sitting on the steps by her door drying her hair in
the sun. It did wave little ripples of light when the wind did go in
a gentle way by. She let me have feels of its touches. And she did
give me a kiss on each cheek and one on the nose when she lifted me
onto her lap. And then Dear Love did tell me a secret. It’s hers and
her husband’s secret that the angels did let them know ahead--they
are going to have a baby soon.
I felt a big amount of satisfaction. It is about time that prayer
was answered. Some prayers you pray a little while and answers come.
Some prayers you pray more times and answers don’t come. I have not
knows of why. But prayers for babies get answered soon--most always
they do. The time is so long I have been praying prayers for Dear
Love to have a baby soon. And now the angels have told her it’s
going to come in about five months. I have thinks that is quite a
time long to wait waits.
And Dear Love has showed me the clothes the angels did tell her to
make ahead for its coming. And there is two little shirts and bands,
and very long underskirts with feather stitches in them, and there’s
a little cream kimona with a blue ribbon bow on it. I looked looks at
it a long time. And Dear Love said she was going to make one just
like it for Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus. I am glad. And there was
more little clothes, and while we was looking at them the husband of
Dear Love did come in the door and he did look adores at Dear Love.
It’s just our secret--just Dear Love’s and her husband’s and mine.
Nobody knows it but just us three, and Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus
and Brave Horatius and Edward I and lovely Queen Eleanor of Castile
and Michael Angelo Sanzio Raphael and Aphrodite and Lucian Horace
Ovid Virgil and Felix Mendelssohn and Plato and Pliny and Minerva
and her chickens and Menander Euripides Theocritus Thucydides and
Louis II, le Grand Condé, and the willows that grow by Nonette.
Now Brave Horatius and me and Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus are
going to prayers in the cathedral. The great pine tree is saying a
poem, and there is a song in the tree-tops.
POSTSCRIPT
After this I lived in a great many other lumber camps, and there
were new people and new animal friends and new nurseries and other
cathedrals. I studied in the woods and wrote down what I saw
and heard. In the spring of 1918 I went from Oregon to Southern
California, to do more research work in natural science, earning my
way by teaching nature classes. In the winter of 1918 I published my
first nature-book, paying for it by taking orders for it in advance.
In the summer of 1919 I came East, hoping to be able to get another
nature-book published. In my going to see publishers, I came to the
editor of the _Atlantic_. While I was telling the editor about this
book, he asked me if I never kept a diary, and this is the answer.
After the seventh year and far on into other years I continued the
diary; but perhaps some other time the story of all these things
will be pieced together and made into another book.
[Transcriber’s Notes:
Errors in punctuation were repaired.
In Contents, “xxi” was changed from “xvii”.
Except for the following changes, spelling and hyphenation have been
preserved as printed in the original.
Page 17, “thought” changed from “though” (I thought that a walk).
Page 33, “fairies” changed from “faires” (if the fairies yet).
Page 48, “would n’t” changed from “wouldn’t” (ham would n’t be
cut up).
Page 50, “maybe” changed from “may be” (thinks maybe his teeth).
Page 87, “that” changed from “what” (baby that has satisfaction).
Page 100, “Grand” changed from “Grande” (le Grand Condé, was asleep).
Page 139, “do” changed from “bo” (I do sing it).
Page 149, duplicated “to” deleted (to go away).
Page 154, “pancake” changed from “pankcake” (and the pancake-turner).
Page 167, “asfiditee” changed from “asafiditee” (piece of asfiditee
I did).
Page 170, “Nicholas” changed from “Nicolas” (Nicholas Boileau
and Jean).
Page 194, “Plantagenet” changed from “Plantagenent” (is enough
for Mathilde Plantagenet).
Page 218, “could n’t” changed from “couldn ’t” (we could n’t play
together); and
“By-and-by” changed from “By and-by” (By-and-by I did hear
Solomon).
Page 245, “oléandre” changed from “oleandre” (cornope, oléandre,
iris).
Page 252, “mentholatumed” changed from “metholatumed” (I have
mentholatumed).
Page 276, duplicated “and tante” deleted (and tante and oncle).
Page 280, “mentholatum” changed from “metholatum” (box of mentholatum
that Sadie).]