—"Assise!" says Manm-Robert, handing me her own chair;—she is always pleased to see me, pleased to chat with me about creole folk-lore. Then observing a smile exchanged between myself and Mimi, she tells the children to bid me good-day:—"Allé di bonjou' Missié-à!"
One after another, each holds up a velvety cheek to kiss. And Mimi, who has been asking her mother the same question over and over again for at least five minutes without being able to obtain an answer, ventures to demand of me on the strength of this introduction:—
—"Missié, oti masque-à?"
—"Y ben fou, pouloss!" the mother cries out;—"Why, the child must be going out of her senses!... Mimi pa 'mbêté moune conm ça!—pa ni piess masque: c'est la-vérette qui ni." (Don't annoy people like that!—there are no maskers now; there is nothing but the verette!)
[You are not annoying me at all, little Mimi; but I would not like to answer your question truthfully. I know where the maskers are,—most of them, child; and I do not think it would be well for you to know. They wear no masks now; but if you were to see them for even one moment, by some extraordinary accident, pretty Mimi, I think you would feel more frightened than you ever felt before.]...
—"Toutt la nuite y k'anni rêvé masque-à," continues Yzore.... I am curious to know what Mimi's dreams are like;—wonder if I can coax her to tell me....
XIX
... I have written Mimi's last dream from the child's dictation:—[23]
—"I saw a ball," she says. "I was dreaming: I saw everybody dancing with masks on;—I was looking at them. And all at once I saw that the folks who were dancing were all made of pasteboard. And I saw a commandeur: he asked me what I was doing there. I answered him: 'Why, I saw a ball, and I came to look—what of it?' He answered me:—'Since you are so curious to come and look at other folks' business, you will have to stop here and dance too!' I said to him:—'No! I won't dance with people made of pasteboard;—I am afraid of them!'... And I ran and ran and ran,—I was so much afraid. And I ran into a big garden, where I saw a big cherry-tree that had only leaves upon it; and I saw a man sitting under the cherry-tree. He asked me:—'What are you doing here?' I said to him:—'I am trying to find my way out.' He said:—'You must stay here.' I said:—'No, no!'—and I said, in order to be able to get away:—'Go up there!—you will see a fine ball: all pasteboard people dancing there, and a pasteboard commandeur commanding them!'... And then I got so frightened that I awoke."...
... "And why were you so afraid of them, Mimi?" I ask.