I was going to tell you about “Gapper Skyblue.” “Gapper” means grandpa.
He wears all the time blue overalls, faded out, and a jacket like them.
That’s why they call him “Gapper Skyblue.” He’s a very poor old man. He
saws wood. We found him leaning up against a tree. Benjie and I were
together. His hair is all turned white, and his back is bent. He had
great patches on his knees. His hat was an old hat that he had given
him, and his shoes let in the mud. I wish you would please to be so good
as to send me both your old-fashioned india-rubbers, to make balls of,
as quick as holes come. Most all the boys have lost their balls. And
please to send some shoe-strings next time, for I have to tie mine up
all the time now with some white cord that I found, and it gets into
hard knots, and I have to stoop my head way down and untie ’em with my
teeth, because I cut my thumb whittling, and jammed my fingers in the
gate.
Old Gapper Skyblue’s nose is pretty long, and he looked so funny leaning
up against a tree, that I was just going to laugh. But then I remembered
what you said a real gentleman would do. That he would be polite to all
people, no matter what clothes they had on, or whether they were rich
people or poor people. He had a big basket with two covers to it, and we
offered to carry it for him.
He said, “Yes, little boys, if you won’t lift up the covers.”
We found ’t was pretty heavy. And I wondered what was in it, and so did
Benjie. The basket was going to “The Two Betseys.”
When we had got half-way there, Dorry and Tom Cush came along, and
called out: “Hallo! there, you two. What are you lugging off so fast?”
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We said we didn’t know. They said, “Let’s see.” We said, “No, you can’t
see.” Then they pushed us. Gapper was a good way behind. I sat down on
one cover, and Benjie on the other, to keep them shut up.
Then they pulled us. I swung my arms round, and made the sand fly with
my feet, for I was just as mad as anything. Then Tom Cush hit me. So I
ran to tell Gapper to make haste. But first picked up a stone to send at
Tom Cush. But remembered about the boy that threw a stone and hit a boy,
and he died. I mean the boy that was hit. And so dropped the stone down
again and ran like lightning.
“Go it, you pesky little red-headed firebug!” cried Tom Cush.
“Go it, Spunkum! I’ll hold your breath,” Dorry hollered out.
The dog, the shaggy dog that licked my face when I was lying under the
trees, he came along and growled and snapped at them, because they were
hurting Benjie. You see Benjie treats him well, and gives him bones. And
the master came in sight too. So they were glad to let us alone.
The basket had rabbits in it. Gapper Skyblue wanted to pay us two cents
apiece. But we wouldn’t take pay. We wouldn’t be so mean.
When we were going along to school, Bubby Short came and whispered to me
that Tom and Dorry were hiding my bird’s eggs in a post-hole. But I got
them again. Two broke.
Bubby Short is a nice little fellow. He’s about as old as I am, but over
a head shorter and quite fat. His cheeks reach way up into his eyes.
He’s got little black eyes, and little cunning teeth, just as white as
the meat of a punkin-seed.
I had to pay twenty cents of that quarter you sent, for breaking a
square of glass. But didn’t mean to, so please excuse. I haven’t much
left.
Your affectionate grandchild,