Next I dipped the Plymouth Rock rooster in. He did object to being dyed blue. He was quite fidgety. I had decides not to coax any more folks from the chicken yard to get dyed blue feathers. I looked looks about the house we live in. I had seeing of a box of matches the mamma did leave on a chair in the bedroom. The mamma has said I must n’t touch a box of matches on the cupboard shelf. And I don’t. But she did n’t say I must n’t touch them when she leaves them on a chair. So I have took the box of matches and it has had its dip. It has a limp feel. I have put it on the back steps to get its form again. And all the matches that was in the box have had their dips in the dye-blue water. I have laid them in rows on the grass to have a dry.
And now I do have thinks how nice it will be on next time when dyeing day is come if the mamma does have seeing as how I could be helps—being as I now do have so much knowing of the ways of dyeing. I have thinks a big amount of helps I could be. Now while the things I have dyed do dry, I am going goes to the cathedral to have a long service there, for this is the borning day of Saint Louis in 1215. And many wheres there is needs for me to go to tell the plant-folk all about this being the day of his borning. And too it is the borning day of Oliver Cromwell in 1599, and the borning day of Padre Martini in 1706, and it is the going-away day of Torquato Tasso in 1595. The winds sing of these. And the great pine tree is saying a poem about this day.
[CHAPTER XXIV
How the Mamma’s Wish Came True, and how Opal was Spanked for it; and of the Likes which Aphrodite Had for a Clean Place to Live in.]
In the morning of to-day, before I did eat my bowl of mush and milk for breakfast, I did go to the cathedral to say thank prayers for the good works of Leonardo da Vinci, for this is the day of his going away in 1519. When after-breakfast works was done, the mamma did have me to churn. While I did make the handle with the cross sticks on it go up and down in the churn, I did have hearing of the little glad songs all the fleurs were singing out in the field. When the butter was come, the mamma did take it out the churn. She put all the little yellow lumps in a wood bowl. Then she gave to them pats and more pats. When she got through patting the butter into its proper form, the mamma did throw the butter-paddle over on the cook-table. She said she hoped and wished that she would never see that butter-paddle again. She won’t. After I heard her say that, I floated it away in the creek. It made a nice boat. It did sail along in a bobby way. I took Solomon Grundy with me. I just let him dabble his toes. When he is an older pig, he can wade right out into the creek with me. His eyes did look bright to-day while I was telling him what we was going to do when he got to be a bigger pig.
When I was come back to the house we live in, the mamma did spank me. Then she did send me to get that butter-paddle in a hurry. It was making bobs by the reeds by the old rail fence where the singing creek goes under and on. I brought it back to her and then she did take and spank me again. Now I have wonders about things—the mamma did say she wished she would never see it again.
After I did mind the baby and sleeps was come upon it, then I did walk into the garden. I went there to find out how much things had grown since last time I was there. First I pulled up a bean plant. It looked a little more big—the two peek-a-boo leaves did. After I looked close looks at it, I did plant it again. Then I pulled up a radish. It was doing nicely and I ate it. I forgot to give it close looks before I put it in my mouth to see how much it did grow since that last time. After I swallowed it, I pulled up another radish to find out. It was doing well. I put it back in the garden again and I went to the house and got it a drink of buttermilk. I carried it out to it in the papa’s shaving-mug. There was more drink than one radish needs, so I did give four onions and two more radishes sips of buttermilk. And I did give to the papa’s shaving-mug some washes in the brook, and I put it back in its place on the shelf again. Just then the mamma had comes into the house. And there was more spanks. The back part of me does feel sore feels. I have thinks I will go and give geology lectures to the folks in the nursery, and too I will sing them lullaby songs and the bird and fleur chant de fête de grandpère of niverolle and ortolan and verdier and étourneau and nenufar and éclaire and ulmaire and fraxinelle.
A PATH TO “EXPLORES” IN THE FAR WOODS
[Photograph: [A PATH TO “EXPLORES” IN THE FAR WOODS]]