The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart

by Opal Stanley Whiteley

But I have some more necessary things that the mamma has not knows of. There is my two books that Angel Mother and Angel Father did write in and I do study in every day, and the pictures of mother and père and the pictures of grandmère and grandpère [and tante] and oncle, and all the others that I do love much every day; and to-day there was needs to give the dear picture of père a wash in the brook because last time on yesterday, when I did kiss him, a little piece of jam from my bread and butter got on his dear face that does look so like him. And after I did come from the brook I put them all away in a careful way in the box I do keep them in, and I said a little prayer.

And I went to bring to the old log the willow whistle the shepherd did make for me when it was the borning time of the lambs, and the two flutes he did make of reeds. And now I do have most of my necessaries in the hollow log. There by it is the lily plant the soul of Peter Paul Rubens has loves for to be near. And I have planted it in a little flower-pot Sadie McKibben has given to me. And when we are moved moves to the mill town I will put the lily plant under the window of the room I do have sleeps in, so that what the soul of Peter Paul Rubens does love to be near will be near unto where I am.

And in the hollow log there is the old logging boot of the husband of Dear Love, that he has given me to keep some of my rock collections in. And there is the bath-towel of Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus that Dear Love has made for him. And there is the color pencils that the fairies did bring to the moss-box. And there is many brown papers that Sadie McKibben has given me to print prints on. And there is the cushion Lola did make for Lucian Horace Ovid Virgil to sit on in my desk at school. And there is all the patches I do pin on my underskirt for my animal friends to ride in. And there is the track of Elizabeth Barrett Browning that I did dig up in the lane. It has so much of poetry in it. And there is one of the gray neckties of the man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice, that he did give to me for Brave Horatius to wear. And there is the bib of Elsie’s baby that Elsie did give me for Menander Euripides Theocritus Thucydides to wear when he was nursing the bottle.

And there is seven of the tail-feathers of Lars Porsena that he did lose when he did lose his tail. And there is four old horse-shoes of William Shakespeare that the blacksmith did have allows for me to have when he was putting new shoes onto William Shakespeare. And there is the thimble of Dear Love that she has given me to carry drinks of water to the folks in the hospital. And there is the little bell of Peter Paul Rubens that he did use to wear to service in the cathedral. And there is Elsie’s baby’s little old shoe that got worn out and she gave it to me for Nannerl Mozart to sleep in. And there is the lid of Sadie McKibben’s coffee-pot that she did give me when it came off. She always did sing over that lid when cooking-time was come. And there is the traveling-case of Minerva that the pensée girl with the far-away look in her eyes did make for me to carry all the christening robes of Minerva’s children in, and more pieces of white cloth and little ribbons the pensée girl did put into Minerva’s traveling case for christening-time come next year. And there is the egg-shells Ben Jonson and Sir Francis Bacon and Pius VII and Nicholas Boileau and Edmund Spenser and Oliver Goldsmith and John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont and Cardinal Richelieu and Sir Walter Raleigh and the rest of Minerva’s children hatched out of. I have thinks there is needs for me to carry those egg-shells in my apron when we go moves to the mill town, so they will not have breaks. And there is the little gray shawl Sadie McKibben so made for Nannerl Mozart.

And there is the little cap that Dear Love did make for my Louis II, le Grand Condé. It has got a feather in it. He did nibble the end off the feather, and he had mouse-wants to chew the tassel that she did put on the bag she did make for me to carry him in. And there is the ribbon bow off Elsie’s garter she did give me for Felix Mendelssohn to wear. I have heard the women folks at the farmhouse say this world would be a nice world if there were n’t any mice in it. I think it would be a most lonesome place. And there is the big handkerchief of the man of the long step that whistles most all of the time that he did give to me for Brave Horatius to wear around his neck. And there is Elsie’s old lace collar that Elizabeth Barrett Browning does wear to cathedral service. And there is one of the whiskers of Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus that he did lose.

And there is all the portraits of my friends on poker-chips. And there is the other white poker-chips that are waiting waits for pictures to be drawed on them. And there is the blue and the red poker-chips that is the breakfast and supper plates of the folks in the nursery and the hospital. And there is Minerva’s white cap that she does wear to cathedral service with the ruffles on it like are on the morning cap of Jenny Strong. And there is the long green string I pulled my tooth with. And there is the split jacket of Padre Martini, that he did last wear before he was become a grown-up cigale. And there is the bottle of Menander Euripides Theocritus Thucydides—the bottle that used to be a brandy bottle. And there is the skins of the caterpillars they did grow too big for when they were growing into papillons and phalènes. And there is the two tail-feathers of Agamemnon Menelaus Dindon. And there is Solomon Grundy’s christening robe. And there is the little fleur watering-pot the fairies did bring that I do give my friends shower-baths with. And there is the cocoon that Charlotte Brontë, the big velvet brown phalène, did hatch out of; and there is more cocoons that other phalènes did hatch out of. And there is the ribbon bow Elsie has given me off her other garter for the pet squirrel Geoffroi Chaucer that the cat did hurt but is well again. And there is a whole new box of [mentholatum] that Sadie McKibben has given me for the little folks I find with hurts in the mill town. And there is the four vaseline bottles that got empty after the young husband of Elsie did use all the vaseline in them to keep his pumpadoor smooth. I have uses for those vaseline bottles to keep food in for the folks of the nursery.

These things I have now in the log. Others of my necessary things I will bring this eventime and on to-morrow and the next day and the day after that.

Some of us go to the mill town, but not all of us so go. Dear Solomon Grundy is sold to a man that does live at one of the edges of the mill town. Aphrodite is going to stay stays here, and so is Mathilde Plantagenet and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Anthonya Mundy and the gentle Jersey cow and Savonarola and Agamemnon Menelaus Dindon; and Plato and Pliny are going to live on in the barn. Brave Horatius is going goes with Aidan of Iona come from Lindisfarne, and too Menander Euripides Theocritus Thucydides is going with the shepherd to the blue hills.

Minerva is going to town with us, and so is Sir Francis Bacon and Ben Jonson and Pius VII and Nicholas Boileau and Sir Walter Raleigh and all the rest of her dear children, and Clementine and Napoleon and Andromeda. And by-and-by Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus is coming comes to the mill town, and so is Felix Mendelssohn and Louis II, le Grand Condé, and Nannerl Mozart and some of her children, and Lucian Horace Ovid Virgil and Geoffroi Chaucer and the caterpillar folks in the nursery. All are when I do have homes fixed for them about the house we are going to live in in the mill town.

Until then Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus is going to stay with Dear Love and her husband, and, too, Dear Love does say Lucian Horace Ovid Virgil can live under her doorsteps until I do have a place fixed for him under the doorstep of the house we are going to live in in the mill town. And Sadie McKibben is going to take care of Geoffroi Chaucer and bring him in to me at the house we are going to live in at the mill town. And the man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice is going to take care of all my mouse friends in his bunk-house, and he is going goes to feed the folks in the nursery and the hospital.