The Storyteller.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2191, 21 September 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Storyteller.

THE SACCULAR SEA-SERPENT,

(By Broughton Brandeburg.)

“You can alius larn somethin’ from , tlio„ other foller,” said Limpy Hawes slowly, , one rainy afternoon as he broke open a bale of bay for the elephants. “It's odds on he’s been some place and seen somethin’ you hain’t, and no man can’t’ 'know too much so long as lie’s got ta live on the same earth with wimmen.” He scattered tho hay along the line headed by the King of Menagorlistened to the noise of the circus in the main tent to tell which sot,of turns was on in order to measure his leisure, then flung his quid at an empty corn barrel, and I knew a story was coming.

“If Doc Smith, Doogan-Dhugann, and the Old Man,had listened to me there would n’t. none of what I’m agoin’ to tell you ’a ’appened. “ Y’see the crops was bad out West and tho show was doin’ purty poor in August the season this thing happened. The Old Man gits an offer to take the show East to Babylon City, all the big hotel-keepers along tho boardwalk agreein’ to guarantee him so- many thousand a day. lie signs a contrack, cancels all the road dates except one more week, and begins shippin’ heavy truck from the show straight to Babylon City. It would ’a’ , been all right if he’d ’a’ stopped there, but he figgered there’d got to be some strong press-agent and advance work done to make September day, and he shipped Doc Smith on to handle the newspapers, and Doogan-Dhugann, that' highly edicated Irish-Scotch dang fool, to help him. ’Course I had ta git tangled up with them, bein’ put in charge of the big elephants and all the ext’ry critters sent on ahead. If Trouble was a bull, you kin jest bet I’d be a

red rag “"Well, sir, traveliu’ East them fellers begun to work already. That sure looked like a bad sign, from the front. They went buttin’ their heads ag’in the car winders tryin’ to think up some new press-agent gag that hadn’t never been sprung. I kep’ a-sayin’ tb ’em, they better stick to the old ones, but no,, sir, they would li’t listen; they wouldn’t have none of it. They wanted somthin’ brand new and, by jingy hickles, they got it. They sartinly got the newest thing that ever busted out a’ the misty future inta the roar of the present. ’ “Sence it was a show they was pluggin’, and our show was purty strong on menagerie, the fake they was hopin’ ,to build must have somethin’ to do with critters. I purt’ near went down. on my knees beggin ’em to stay .inside the bounds and turn loose a couple:a’ twenty foot snakes to ramble down the boardwalk till they was ketched, ’r let one a’ the 01d,,-family .'"chums a’ toothless lions git out and go for a santer along the beach jest when the childern was bein’ took inta tho ocean waves. No, air, it must be new, and I reckon what I said about snakes must ’a’ give Doogan-Dhugann his idee, for all .of a sudden he begun to jig up ’n’ down ,’n’ laugh fit to kill. “‘I got it,’ says he, ‘I got it—a eacular. searsarpint!’ “ ‘A circular what!’ says Doc. “ ‘I said saccular ’ “Then he explained that up to that time sea-sarpents had been confined to masters’ and first mattes’ adyatizin’ some new, Scotch licker, but that none kadn’ never gallivanted up, hoary-headed and glarin’, from the caves a’ Nepohune to call at a seaside .resort where five thousand families in swimmin’ would be there to welcome, him to their city. “ ‘Great, by the jumps a’ Juno, great!’ says Doc Smith, ‘but, am I wrong when I surmise there hain’t a snake critter. with the show that we kin turn loose in this salt water?’ “I nods my head most emphatic. “ ‘Heaven. forgive you,’ says Doog, so sorrowful I thought he’d cry. ‘Ain’t you got any more kindlin’ fancy to build upon the skeleton of my great idee! Don’t you know what saccular means? I’m agoin’ to make one_; out a rubber gas-bags so’s it’ll float on the waves and by bobbin’ up ■ ’n’ down ack like real life, and when we plant her a couple of miles from shore, if slie don’t Wake up interest in animal life, along this boardwalk, 1 ain’t no mechanic.’ “ ‘Say, -Doog, we got ta have the ‘Mayor ’r some leadin’ citizens out there to see it dost up so’s to give me a leadin’ line in the papers and make it convincin’. “The Mayor of Babylon City sees a geniune sea-sar-pent*.” ’ says Doc Smith, and I had a kind of wet-towel fcclin’ down my back, for X knowed I was goin’ to be a third partner in a state of Coiltinyous Anxiety terminatin’ maybe in a close-fittin’ suit of tar ’if feathers, cut a. la Jersey. “■Well, sir, them fellers couldn’ work too fast ’r too-hard gittin’ ready. Doog! runs away to New York ’n’

shows up in a day’r two with a shalein! 'hand, a-watery eye, and a loss of appetite, blit lie hrung back twelve gas-bags of fine rubber shaped like holsters when they was blowed up, and a little gas-tank ’bout a foot high Abat’d niake enough gas to float a bond issue, says he. Also he had a lot a’ paints, tin scales, -false hair, and silk for rnakin’ Mr. Snakie’s britches. Doc. Smith wore his Prince Albert all the time them days and -jined all the beefsteak clubs and jest mixed it up local in general. We hadn’t been there three days before ho was out drivin’ with the Mayor. Aeo he finds a young goslin’ by the name of Alborfcus Alfredson, who wroto ‘Seaside Saunterings’ for the papers in tho summer and : shovelled coal cigaretes in the winter. The only place tliom fools would •lissen to mo was on not lettin’ Ally in on tlie game. Says I, ‘Don’t do it, don’t' tell him nothin’ ; if he’d ketch the smallpox ho couldn’ keep it-.’ “While they was nlannin’ I goes right ahead gittin’ ready for tho show, though I kep’ a-sighin’ and a-

leemr down-sperited, tor somctmn kep’ a-sayin’ mebbe it wasn’t no use, tnebbo there’d never bo no show. “Four days’ before the show was to the whole a’ Babylon City and all ’long down the Jersey coast was waitin’ for it. I says to Doe Smith that we was sure to do a good business, and he bettor not turn the gas inta the sarpent. “No, sir,’ says he, ‘X don’t give that up. It’s the greatest press agent job since Artemus Ward was born. It’s got to go. It will atfcrack more attentin than a earthquake.’ “Attention! Blowing Gabriel! “The next mornin’ Doog come up

to mo all grinni»’, tickled to death with liisself. “ ‘The lovely boast is all ready. Doc will bo down in a minit; then we’ll go in and try it in tho liig tank.’ “I soon that all the doors was tight shot and none a’ my men wasn’t peepin’ in the cracks; then Doog pulls out a bundle no biggor’n a sack of flour. “ ‘lt’s all in here,’ ho says. ‘You and I’ll go out to-morrow mornin’ about six miles, we’ll blow up each gas-sne'k, makin’ tho ones in tho middle big, and tho ones at tho tail littler, tie on his beautiful striped overcoat, button on his interestin’ head, and tho little weights and clockworks to let out the gas and mnko him sink in just two hours. Then wo will hustle back ’ “Doc Smith can’t wait to toll his share and he busts right in: “ ‘Beforo I start out with tho Mayor, Alderman O’Shaughnessy, Jake Schnittermacher of the Beefsteak Club, and the others for tho mornin’ fishin’, I’ll run tho launch dost up, give ’em a good look, then turn and scoot for the shore. The wind and tide will have brung it in to about two miles from the beach before we git back, and it will come a mile closter so’s everybody can seo it from the beach, then it will go down—into —the—briny deeps as if he was stealin’ the old man’s will from tho safe, in the second act.’

“AH this time Doogan-Dhugann was workin’ away with his bags and gas-machine, and to git the upper hand a’ my feelin’s I went outside to see if they’s anybody around the door. When I came in ag’in, tak’m’oath there’s the durndest lookin’ thing floatin’ in that tank yon over seen in all your born days. I went all of a tremble thin'kin’ about the Mayor and the aklernjen the next day. "It was plumb forty foot long and two foot through in the middle, and it was black on top, and red, yeller, and black striped underneath, the color scheme bein’ on the tight silk overcoat Doog had slipped on him. two big bat’s wings on foldin’ umbrel-la-frames stuck out on each, side, held up by a thin, wide, flat gas-bag. And its head! Oh, my golly! Eyes of paint'erl isinglass big as soup-plates, a long fringe of green and yeller hair round its red mouth, and great big red nose-holes. Doog had put a hand fog-horn inside the jaws, and some more clockwork and gas-bags, and all to onct it went ‘Waugh—an —auglil’ like a mad bull. “Says I to tliem: “ ‘Don’t you reckon it’s jest as much murder to skeer an alderman ’r two to death as it is to stick a knife inta ’em?’ “They both stopped laughin’ right quick and looked seryous. “ ‘Aw, shucks, I won’t take ’em dost enough in the lancli to really skeer- ’em to death,’ says Doc, purtendin’ he ain’t kind a’ shaky liisself. “Well, sir, you can purt’ near guess my feelin’s. I went from that shed straight down town and found out what trains was leavin’ town

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about that time a’ day, and where they could be ketched outside a’ the city limits. I made up-my mind to stick till the last horn, blowed, but it looked to me as if Doog. and Doc was goiu’ to git all the ‘attention’ they was lookin’ for. “Early next mornin’ I goes down to the dock and there was .Doog waitin’ with one a’ them-put-a-put-a-put gas’lene boats and some fishin’ tackle for a bluff. In the bottom was .the little gas-machine and. the bundle with the flattened-out gas-bags and the red, yeller, and black overcoat for Snakie. - “Tak’m’oatk I felt like I was gettin’ ready to make myself at home in a morgue. “ ‘And you will do it?’ says I to Doog. - “And he says, ‘I will.’ “The waves wasn’t runnin’ none too high for the little boat we had, but jden'-.v, enough to give Snakie a fine nach’ul swimmin’ motion. AVe gets out about the light distance jest on the edge of the fishin’-banks, and we begins makin’. the saccular beast, as Doog calls him. First we’d fill a bag from the machine, then shove itside that appalling overcoat. Somehow it didn’ go as smooth as it 1 did in t lie shed with the tank. AVe must ’a’ be'en piore than an hour gittin’ Snr.k.io ready to float. The wind was blowin’ inshore fine, and I seen that when he let him go he’d float right up to the beach, .where all the guests of Babylon City would be bathin’. I minded to that, since the. ocean’s on one side, the bay on the tuthor, they wasn’t many short cuts out a’ Babylon City, either. I tell you what, I felt purty dam bad. “ ‘Aw, brace up, Limpy ; the clockwork will let out the gas and sink it 1 lor.g before it really gits up close 1 enough to scare anybody seryus,’ says ' Doog. ; “It was a kind a’ misty out there, : arid we wasn’ keepin’ a very good 1 lock-out. All to onct I seen a boat. > “ ‘Holy jumpin Jerusalem, there comes Doc with the mayor and al--5 dermen already; I can soo their fishI _l_l_ J T 1T„

n -tackle, 1 yells. “ ‘Heave 'Over itho beast, quick, 1 lays Boog. “Someitliin’ dropped off in tlie boat i.s -.ve done it, hut I was so dura near lrifled wU idlin' that awful sight that I didn’ notice it until we was in are’ll a quarter of a. mile a way. AVe was goin’ north- so that Hoc Smith’s fish in’ Tanch avouldn’ see us; and as I was lookin’ hack watcliin’ that hl-ack, shiny-hacked thing with silver scales around his neck and his awful hairy imutli, seemin’ly swiinmin’ along on top a’ the waves, I iosfc couldn’ say ■nothin’ or do nothin’ till I lieard H : >g gaspin’ kind a’ skeered like: “ ‘My G-oshsamighty ! The sinkin’ works iias fell off!’ “I jest shoved ia ’'.-tile more push inta .the leover, headed her for the

djfk, nnd 6ays: “ ‘There’s a train for Pliiladclphy at two.’ “Jest then I heard a, yell come 11 jatin’ over the Water from the fisli-iu’-lanch. Alderman O’Shaughnessy u n standin’ up on the front a’ the lanch, his eyes stickin’ out purt’ neai as fur as his middle vest-buttons. He was wavin’-his arms up ’n’ down anti p’intin’ ahead. Then the Mayor anc Doe and the tuthers jumped up t< look. One feller was jest tailin’ t drink, and when he seen the purt;

water boast abend the bottle dropped out of bis fist liko <a brick off a ckitmlcy. “Tbo Inneh stopped and the axci torn on t aboard .was terrible. All tbo time rwo -was goin’ for tbo shore to bent tlio Dutch. Doogwas lookin’ back witli «. pair of opery-glasses. “ ‘My gorry, soniotbin’s wrong, Limpy; til© tiling’s jumpin’ from tho top o’ one wave> ito the tutlior,’ says be. Tho lanc.li w<as now goin’ clostor

to investigate. AH wt onot she ibegun to turn around. Then that 'awful critter hogius to bawl, ‘Wnugli—a u —-a ugh ! Waugh—an—a ugh I’ “ ‘My igorry, Limpy,’ sin's Doog again, fast ian’ axcited, ‘the water and air in the shod. I have put in too much gas. It’s too light and it’s gain’ to git lighter.’ “And then we give a grotm a’ horror, for we see old Snnkie, flop pin’ his big wings and wagglin’ his wildeyed, hairy head, riz right up and begin to fly straight toward, shore. “ ‘Throw the gas-machine over, and for heaven’s sake don’t let any one see us Innd !’ yells Doog. “Over goes the gas-machine 'and all the evidences of crime 1 We was so busy steerin’ to a lonely dock and actin’ innercent we didn’t seo how much was goin’ on till I ketched sight

of a lookout- runnin' out of one oi the towers on the pier with a spyglass in his hand, wavin’ it around and yellin’ to,the people below. Then they looked and begun climbin’ up on the bath-houses and the porches and so on to see. “We slid in to the dock land tied ip without anyone noticin’ us, they vas all so busy gazin’- off to sen, an’ lien .as we looked back we punty near died to take notice tbit Snakio was coinin’ along -at a fine gait with the wind, not more’ll three hundred yard behind the lanch, which wins purt’ near .bustin’ with anxiety to git to shore. The -Mayor was stand-in’ tip on the back poppin’ awny .at tlio devourin’ beast with a revolver, and Doc Smith was throwin’ a, bucket of sea-water over O’Sliauglinessy and some other alderman that’bad ifn.inited, I reckon. All along the coast yon could hear that howling, ‘Waugh— tail —a ugh!’ “My boy, any boy, how can I tell you the rumpus goin’ on along the boardwalk, the bcucli, and .them hotel ■piazzas! Swimmers,was hittin’ out for shore like mad, wimmen was runnin’ up ’n’ down the sand screamin’ and tryin’ to find children that somebody else, had hid careful-in the bathGiouses. Wet fat men Und wimmen, not even clothed in their right minds, was poppin’ in and out of the bathhouses and runnin’ to the hotels. A policeman was yellin’ for somebody to bring him a gun. All around people was draggin’ indoors .them that dropped down outside. I looked at Doog and he turned his face ia.way. “Says I, ‘There’s a whole two hours till train time yit.’ “Jest (then -we come to the telegraph office and meets Ally without any hat, runnin' to .send the news to the papers: “ ‘Bulletin! .Mayor Dowd and ; phrty of aldermen while fishin’ off Babylon City, (attacked by one-bun-derd-foot flying sea-sarpent. .Mon- ) ster attackin’ wimmen .and children on the beaclx. Whole coast in ter- ! ror.’

“ ‘Try i+o act as sheered as you kin, Limpy, +o 'avoid suspicion,’ says Doog. “ ‘Act skeered ! I oan hardly walk now,’ says I. 5 “Somethin’ was' wrong with the wind. Old Snakio had chased the boat dost in to the pier, then he kind a’ stopped and kep’ mountin’ higher ’n’ higher. He plunnh looked.jest like li e was flyin’ and .swimmin’ in the air. I)itrn near all the town Was runnin’ inland by this time, and the rest was inside the houses, sliuttin’ the shutters and lockin’ the doors. The fisliiu’ party had got out of rthe lanch and was runnin’ as hard as they could for the board-walk; them that could run, I mean. Doc and the Mayor and two life-savers was carryin’ Alderman O’Shaughnessy by his hands ’n’ feet. AVe run down to meet ’em. Some .of ’em was so done . out they crawled on their hands and lenees up the steps into a cafay. “ ‘Oh, Doog, Doog, I loved you as 1a brother,’ whispers Doc Smith when he got close up and the others had gone on. ‘How.could you do it, how coukl you do it! ’ “Well, sir, .that.purty bird of our’n kep’. sparin’ higlier ’n’ higher and suddenly hit-a fast streak-of wind and went sailin’ inland over the town like a eagle.- ‘Waugh—au-Aiugh!’ lie says iike lie’s hungry. Ally comes runnin’ to the telegraph office. “ ‘Bulletin ! Horrible flyin’ seasarpent was first seen by Mayor Dowd swimmin’ on tox> of the water; but oil see’n’ the boat in which the fiishin’ party was, it lashed its bail, roared like a lion, and gave battle. Mayor .Dowd badly wounded it, as droppin’ blood showed. Thousands barely escaped with their lives from the beach. It is now flyin’ in the direction of Pleasantville.’ “Ally got, Pleasantville and all the towns west on the telephone, and laid it out .to git results as they seen the critter. “ ‘Here’s a message for you, Ally, says the operator when ho got done. ‘.Jest lissen -to -this: “ ‘ “Get some brorno seltzer, a cold ] hath, and stop wasting our money for telegraph tolls. Now York Gazette.” ’ “Five minutes more and .Pleasantville calls up and Ally sends this: . “‘Bulletin! Babylon City flyin’ sea-sarpent appeared at Pleasantville dost down over Tooker’s woods. Farmers flecin’ for safety to the village report seein’ the sarpint, which is sorely wounded .and bleedin’ profuse, open its mouth and let seven email arpents not over seven feet long [rop into the woods, whore they are lidin’.’

“ ‘Reckon you ought t’ V (been around when they was fixin’ up the live-stock for Adam, 1 ©ays Doc Smith to Doog, who set chewin’ that Ted heard of his’n and watehin’ the clock’s hand git round to two. “Then Egg Harbor reported that the Babylon City sea-sarpint had swooped down on two farmer’s chil--1 drew in a field and carried off Areunah Snitzer, seven years old. L “ ‘.Ravenous beast!’ says Doog. , “By-en-by Cedar Bake hollered out that " ‘the -Babylon City sea-sarpint r appeared here at forty minutes after one and immediately sought .tile lake , opposite Bmindirger’s palatial hotel, 1 where it was jined by a second and ~ smaller sarpent from the depths of i, the lake. The two are now disportin’ ' i themselves despite a hail of rifle-halls | poured upon them from the hunters I i gathered at the hotel.’ li “ ‘ Important if true,’ says Doc. j ! “ Atsioii was callin’ at tlie same : time ; and when Cedar Lake got through, reported that Snakie was

in tho.. Million River, . plumb thinly miles Lorn Cedar Lake. “‘That makes ten, big ’a’ little,' says Doe. “ ‘ Limpy, it ain’t safe for us to try to travel through, that country. Wo bettor stay lioro. There’s an awful lot a’ good pree-agent imatorial going to wasto hack there,’ says Doog. “ Tak’m’oath I ’uz gittin’ so biumfu/.zlcd with all tho lyin’ and all tho skeertness that I. agred to stay, and

wo let the two train go. Jest then Atco reports seoin’ tho sarpont, and gives u purty good description ; only says it was travelin’ toward; Babylon .City. “‘Jumpin’ Jerusalem, has the wind i changed: P’ says Doc. By this time :they..-was. thousands of people out,in. front and ,a man was Tendin' bulletins,.same .asj if-it,.was election time. I runs out. to sonso the wind, and.sure as you’re born, it was .blowin’ strong from the north-west.. Old Snakio anust: be. cornin’ hack. What durn. fools live was to miss.that train 1 “ ‘ Long about four o’clock he was over Windsor, ‘.still carry,in’ the Spitzor, child in his ( talons,’ and jest about dark Brigantine Junction was havin’ fits as tho vile ibeast sailed plumb over tho chimley-tops and stole two sheep and ten chickens. (

I reckon ,he s eb the iSpitzer kid,’ says,Doog. “Alderman O’Shaugluiessy’s brother come over lookin’ like a yard of crape ’n’ sayin’ that his dear .Mike hadn’ regained consciousness only long enough to ask for a drink. Also :it ’peared to me the wind was failin’ las the sun went down. J ’uz feelin’ mighty feeble myself, I tell you. Doog ididn’ help it mono by Sayin’, ‘You know when the air changes temiperclmre, fly in’ things is likely to light.’ “ Ulso, tak’m’oath eveiy durn man that had anythin’ ho could shoot with had got it out and got it loaded, and they was sittin’ on the housetops’ and a-waitin’ while the stars icome out and the full moon come up. We knowed jest about two bunches a’ bird-shot ’r rifle-balls inta old Snakie and down he’d come. That sunipslious event oeeurin’, somethin’ else’s likely to drop around there purty quick and sudden. “ The people had igot over their sheer and they was talkin’ real nasty ! about wliat they was goin’ to do if

como back .that way. il reckoned they wouldn’ be no less dnpleasaiit ’n’ obligin’ with us. “‘Boys,’ says Doog, leanin’ over <jlost to us, ‘ sence I see you’re ..purity du i n sure to find it out later on tonight, I reckon I better tell you now that .the paper I lined his head with :is some a’ our hand-bills.’ “I thought -Doc Smith .was goin to cry, for by that ; lie knoiwed the bluff he’d been fixin’ up wouldn’ be ho good. It meant lyncliin’, by golly. “ I felt like the hymn feller, says : “ ‘Life’s troubled stream draws hear tile sea, A ripph-\, then-—eternity.’ “It looked li'ko purty good-sized

ripples and somo rocks for us too. “Purty soon there was a bangin’ of guns this side a’ Pleasanivillo, and then big’n’ black, in the sky come over old Snakio flyin so close down that my insides ielt liko n,\ ribs was foldin’ their fingers to pray. Bang 1 bang 1 bang 1 Reckon lie got shot at five hundred times before ho got over Babylon City; then lie stood still, and somethin’ seemed to perzess him to go up, which lie dono, wabblin’ liis head ’n’ floppin’ his wings slow, as .we -could see in the moonlight. Bangl bang! bang! Kis gas for the horn was all gone and lie didn’t have a word to 6ay. “By Jingy liickles, I reckoned he’d come down every crack, but ho didn’t. He jest hung round, goin’ higher. Someone broke the tip of a wing and still he didn’ come down, I ’uz io fa- gone I didn’ keer much if La did’r didn’t, jest so wo got it ever t. >th. The wind was cornin’ up somo, too, and I noticed the smoke from the powdr-liouse stack kind a’ went up a little and then slanted down and down tell it was plumb down on the water, way out at the end of the pier. By the jumps a’ Juno, I thought a’,somethin’, and I grabbed a doubiebur’led shotgun out of a kid’s bands and run lialf-way out on tile pier, wi tollin' back over my shoulder. “On old Snakio come tell lie was crossin’ the boardwalk four hundred feet above anythin’. Bang! bang! bangety-bang! You’d’a’thought : t the blankey-blank son-of-a-sea-cook ) v.&s Waterloo bein’ fought on the j Fourth a’ July. Faster ’n’ faster he flew and nothin’ seemed to tooli him. There’s goin’ to bo somo happy days for the ships at sea, thinks I.

purty soon■ lie begun to'come down; but there wasn’ nobody but ono o’ two tliat’d followored mo out oil tlio pier that had guns, and tlmy coul.i’ srem to hit him. 110 was coinin’ down fast now. ‘ ‘Ho’s goin’ to light, in tho water! Got him quick!’ 'yells the crowd. “I went n-billin’ out furder on'the pier and jest got changed around right when ho corao plumb between mo and the moon; mid I gavo it to him with both bar’ls—ono in tho middle, tuther tords tlie head. They was a granl poppin’ liko big paper sacks, and down tho pieces dropped, sinkin’ down out a’ sight into tho son. “Mobbo it ’uz the kick a’ tho gun, but I wont a-tumblin’ down on ’lie pier, and when I camo round Do? Smith was leadin’ mo back by the arm’ and wo passed a great big crowd that was cherrin’ Alderman Reilly, who was explainin’ to tliau liow lio’d done tlie job by puttin’ two explodin’ bullets into the fleshy port or the sea-snrpont’s body. “Yes-sireo, lyin’ is bad enough, bub

livin’ up to a big lio’s a durn sight harder work ’n bein’ an honest politician. “Anyhow, tho people began to come to Babylon City next day in soil’d train-loads; and when tlie show opened a grand display was made «f the snakes on tho critter bill, with some big twenty-four sheet posters of the pythons, and wo did more business in September than in the whole foregoin’ season. But, my boy, did you ever notice that there ain’t no rubber balloon men with this show? That’s oil account of my fee’ll' ’s. I git a chill every time I see a bunch of ’em bobbin’ around in the air.”