In Watermelon Alley the Farraguts were spending their evening as usual
on the little rickety porch. Sometimes they howled gossip to other
people on other rickety porches. The thin wail of a baby arose from a
near house. A man had a terrific altercation with his wife, to which
the alley paid no attention at all.
There appeared suddenly before the Farraguts a monster making a low
and sweeping bow. There was an instant's pause, and then occurred
something that resembled the effect of an upheaval of the earth's
surface. The old woman hurled herself backward with a dreadful cry.
Young Sim had been perched gracefully on a railing. At sight of the
monster he simply fell over it to the ground. He made no sound, his
eyes stuck out, his nerveless hands tried to grapple the rail to
prevent a tumble, and then he vanished. Bella, blubbering, and with
her hair suddenly and mysteriously dishevelled, was crawling on her
hands and knees fearsomely up the steps.
Standing before this wreck of a family gathering, the monster
continued to bow. It even raised a deprecatory claw. "Doh' make no
botheration 'bout me, Miss Fa'gut," it said, politely. "No, 'deed. I
jes drap in ter ax if yer well this evenin', Miss Fa'gut. Don' make no
botheration. No, 'deed. I gwine ax you to go to er daince with me,
Miss Fa'gut. I ax you if I can have the magnifercent gratitude of you'
company on that 'casion, Miss Fa'gut."
The girl cast a miserable glance behind her. She was still crawling
away. On the ground beside the porch young Sim raised a strange bleat,
which expressed both his fright and his lack of wind. Presently the
monster, with a fashionable amble, ascended the steps after the girl.
She grovelled in a corner of the room as the creature took a chair. It
seated itself very elegantly on the edge. It held an old cap in both
hands. "Don' make no botheration, Miss Fa'gut. Don' make no
botherations. No, 'deed. I jes drap in ter ax you if you won' do me
the proud of acceptin' ma humble invitation to er daince, Miss
Fa'gut."
She shielded her eyes with her arms and tried to crawl past it, but
the genial monster blocked the way. "I jes drap in ter ax you 'bout er
daince, Miss Fa'gut. I ax you if I kin have the magnifercent gratitude
of you' company on that 'casion, Miss Fa'gut."
In a last outbreak of despair, the girl, shuddering and wailing, threw
herself face downward on the floor, while the monster sat on the edge
of the chair gabbling courteous invitations, and holding the old hat
daintily to his stomach.
At the back of the house, Mrs. Farragut, who was of enormous weight,
and who for eight years had done little more than sit in an armchair
and describe her various ailments, had with speed and agility scaled a
high board fence.
[Illustration: "Mrs. Farragut"]