“Mama, we’ve got our man almost finished. We didn’t have but one marble,
and we used that for one of his eyes. I came in to ask you to give me a
marble, so that we might put in his other eye.”
“It’s too late to bother now, Bobby,” said Mrs. Stamps. “Wait until
to-morrow morning; then I will give you a marble and let you finish your
man.”
The next morning, bright and early, Bobby went out to look for his man.
Lo and behold! the sea had washed the man away during the night. But,
Bobby, of course, did not suspect that. He thought that the man had gone
away of his own accord. So the little fellow spent the entire morning
looking for his man. He looked under the house; he looked in the stable;
he went up to the garret; he walked up and down the beach; he went into
the woods--looking for his man. But his man was nowhere to be found.
Two or three weeks later an African Methodist Episcopal Conference
assembled in Bobby’s town. Among the ministers present there happened
to be a short, chubby, tan-colored brother with only one eye. When Bobby
spied him he examined the man curiously and cautiously from head to
foot. The examination ended, Bobby concluded that that was his man. At
once the little fellow left his mother and went over and took a seat
beside the man. Bobby’s mother was somewhat embarrassed. The man was
evidently pleased, although, to be sure, he himself was not quite
certain why he should be an object of special interest to the little
boy. The man went to the secretary’s table to have his name
enrolled--Bobby went with him. He went into the vestibule to get a drink
of water--and Bobby followed him there. But all the while the man was
still in doubt as to the cause of the little boy’s apparent affection.
By this time, thoroughly exasperated, Bobby’s mother decided to go home.
She approached the pew in a very ladylike manner and said,--
“Bobby, dear, come; we must be going home now.”
“All right, Mama,” said Bobby in dead earnest, “but you will please let
me take my man home with me--won’t you? I just found him to-day, and you
know I’ve been looking for him for over two weeks!”
Then, for the first time, it suddenly dawned upon Mrs. Stamps what was
the matter with Bobby. In spite of herself she laughed heartily at the
boy’s perversity. Finding that his mother hesitated to reply, Bobby
turned to the man and said,--
“Come on: we’re going home now. Why did you leave before I finished
you?”
[1] Published in the Voice of the Negro.