Why, that was what I told that man. It all did sound queer. I heard them say some more. Then I had understanding. I had knows then it was the girl that has no seeing they was having talks about, because I was waiting waits for her on yesterday when the man did tell me that. I felt queerness in my throat and I could n’t see either. I could n’t see the green caterpillar on the leaf by the man that said it. And Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus had looks like a gray cloud in my arms.
More the men said. They talked it all over again. They said she smelled the smoke of the brush-fire, and not having sees of it, she did walk right into it and all her clothes did have fire; and then she ran, and her running did make the fire to burn her more—and she stubbed her toe and fell. She fell in a place where there was mud and water. She was rolling in it when they found her. And all the fire-pains that was did make her moan moans until hours after, when she died. They say she died. And I could n’t see Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus or Brave Horatius or anything then.
When after a while I did come again the way that goes to the house we live in, I did have sees of the little fleurs along the way that she so did love. I have thinks they were having longings for her presence. And I so was too. But I do have thinks her soul will come again to the woods. And she will have sees of the blooming of the fleurs in the field she has loves for. I go now to write a message on a leaf for her like I do to Angel Father and Angel Mother. I will put one by the ferns, and I will tie one to a branch of the singing fir tree. And I will pray that the angels may find them when they come a-walking in the woods. Then they will carry them up to her in heaven there.
[CHAPTER XXVII
Of a Cathedral Service in the Pig-Pen.—How the World Looks from a Man’s Shoulder.]
In the morning of to-day, being as I could not get the fence down about the pig-pen so Aphrodite could get out to go to service in the cathedral, I did have decides to have cathedral service in the pig-pen.
I brought large pieces of moss and lovely ferns. I got a wood-box so Brave Horatius could get in. After he was in the pig-pen, I did use the box for an altar. I lay moss upon it and ferns about it. While I was fixing it Lars Porsena did perch on my shoulder and he stayed there for service. Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus nestled by my side. Solomon Grundy and Anthonya Mundy, who has n’t as much curl in her tail as Solomon Grundy—these lay by their mother Aphrodite and me and all the other little pigs. I sat on a board and Clementine did perch on the edge of the feeding-trough. In its middle was her sister hen Andromeda. Felix Mendelssohn did snuggle up in my right apron pocket. And in the left apron pocket was that lovely toad, Lucian Horace Ovid Virgil.
After some long time, when we all did get settled down to quietness, I did start service. It took a long time to get quietness because the dear folks were n’t used to having cathedral service in the pig-pen. After the third hymn I did preach the morning sermon. I did choose for my text: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.” I had to peek through the pig-pen fence to do it, for it did have more tallness than I did have. I lifted most all the congregation up to have a peek. I did lift them one at a time. And so they saw and lifted up their eyes unto the hills, but most of them did n’t. They looked in different ways. Some saw God’s goodness in the grass and some did see it in the trees, and Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus did not have seeing for more than for the piece of cheese I did have hid in my sleeve for him. He gave his cheese squeak. I gave him a nibble. Then we had prayers.
Rain is come some more. It came all night. And earth is damp again and things grow more in the garden. Some things grow very fast. Weeds so do. When the rain did stop having come-downs on this morning, then the mamma did have me to hoe in between the rows of things that do grow in the garden. As I did go along, I did have talks with these folks that grow in the garden there. I did tell them little poems. And I did sing to them little songs. As I did go along between the rows, Brave Horatius did follow after. I had thinks about the things growing there. I wonder if I would get roots like the plants in the garden, if I planted my feet some inches in the soil and did keep still quite a time long. I have thinks I will try it some day and find out.
As I did go on, I did have sees there were earthworms on the window-panes over the young cabbage-plants. The grown-ups say the earthworms rained down. They are mistaken. Those earthworms crawled up. I’ve watched them do it. They were about in many places. I have been learning things about earthworms. I think being an earthworm must be an interesting life. I wonder how it feels to stretch out long and then get short again. I went goes on, to pull weeds by the bean-folks. I went back some steps to look looks at them. Those bean-folks in the garden are such climbers. Their thoughts reach up toward the sky. And they climb up on the poles we put in the garden there.