Sprigg

“ Now my son Manitou-Echo has fallen in love with your son Sprigg, Sprigg being a boy more after his own heart than any young human being he has known for more than a hundred years. Of all fleet-footed fairies, Manitou-Echo, be it known, is the fleetest, and it is the chief delight of his existence to run races with fast boys. Sprigg, he says, is the fastest boy that has skipped upon the green earth since the days of Little Winged Moccasin, the boy who ran to the setting sun in quest of his shadow, [Pg 38] which he had lost at noonday. ”

“ Then there was that other adventure with the two Indians, in which he should certainly have lost his life but for the timely assistance of brave Pow-wow. Now, Sprigg, what would you do miles and miles away from home, in the dark and lonesome woods, were you to see one of these terrible red men running to meet you, yelling like a demon—all hideously painted, rifle in hand, belt stuck full of tomahawks and scalping knives, eh?"
"I would scamper away as fast as Shank's mare could carry me," promptly rejoined our hero, who, though vain as a young peacock, was as bold as a young game-cock. ”

“ So he stays just there; and when he is found, if ever he is found at all, the grass and the weeds and the dead leaves of the trees have gathered about him and covered him up—nothing left but his bones and his buttons to tell you whether his name was John or Sprigg. And, Sprigg" here Elster lowered her [Pg 33] voice as if he of whom she would speak might hear her—"there is one bear in the woods so large and strong and bold that five dogs as large and strong and bold as Pow-wow would be no match for him in a fight. ”

“ Deeper and deeper into the heart of the mountain they sank; deeper and deeper into the heart of the earth; the ball of light no longer a phosphorescent gleam, but a flame of living fire. But it was not long before they had descended again to the level ground, which they traversed for some distance, then, for the first time since quitting the farther side of the swamp, came they to a pause.
Sprigg looked around him. Nothing could he see, saving the bear, the red moccasins behind him, the red moccasins before him ”

“ In brief, then, and in sweet earnest, too, the object we have in view is intended mainly [Pg 39] for Sprigg's own good; and, as the means to this end, my son Manitou-Echo has sent, as a present to your son Sprigg, a pair of red moccasins, to put him, as I have just said, on an equal footing in the trial of speed between them. Refuse the gift, and nothing shall follow therefrom, be it for good or for evil. Accept the gift, and good—nothing but good—shall come of it, sooner or later. ”

“ They soon penetrated the thicket, and a bird hopped so near them, that they could not avoid hitting it.—Grubb fired, and Sprigg's gun echoed the report.
"Ve've done him!" cried Spriggs.
"Ve!—me, if you please."
"Vell—no matter," replied his chum, "you shot a bird, and I shot too!—Vot's that?—my heye, I hear a voice a hollering like winkin; bolt!"
Away scampered Spriggs, and off ran Grubb, never stopping till he reached a high paling, which, hastily climbing, he found himself literally upon tenter-hooks.
"There's a man a coming, old fellow," said an urchin, grinning.
"A man coming! ”

“ The best feather bed in the house was Sprigg's; so was the warmest place by the fire, which he would share with nobody, but Pow-wow, the dog—the only creature, four-footed or two-footed, with whom he could be in contact for a [Pg 5] whole day without coming to hard rubs. If a deer-skin proved, upon dressing, an uncommonly nice piece of buckskin, fine, fair and soft, straight, it was cut up and made into moccasins, breeches and hunting shirt for Sprigg ”

“ Viewed in the right light, these ills are precisely what you deserve; precisely what you need for your own good. But come, quiet down and cheer up, and take a fresh start; go on and make a clean breast of it by telling us the whole story. You climbed the fence——"
Thus put to it, Sprigg fell to and told the whole thing, from beginning to end—all just as it had happened. Indeed, he made so clean a breast of it as to confess that he had cursed the moccasins on flinging them away in his pet of wrath. ”

“ Spriggs took Possession of the Ship with eighteen Men, left Low in the Night, and came to the West-Indies. This Separation was occasioned by a Quarrel with Low, concerning a Piece of Justice Spriggs would have executed upon one of the Crew, for killing a Man in cold Blood, as they call it, one insisting that he should be hang’d, and the other that he should not. ”

“ Spriggs then stood to the Northward, towards Burmudas, or the Summer Isles, and took a Scooner belonging to Boston; he took out all the Men and sunk the Vessel, and had the Impudence to tell the Master, that he designed to encrease his Company on the Banks of Newfoundland, and then would sail for the Coast of New-England in quest of Captain Solgard, who attack’d and took their Consort Charles Harris, Spriggs being then in Low’s Sloop, who very fairly run for it. ”

“ Spriggs, hastily, as her husband rose.
“After they're spliced,” said the vindictive Mr. Spriggs, resuming his seat, “I'll go round and I'll play about with their front-door till—”
He broke off abruptly as his daughter, darting into the room, closed the door with a bang that nearly extinguished the lamp, and turned the key. Before her flushed and laughing face Mr. Spriggs held his peace.
“What's the matter?” she asked, eying him. “What are you looking like that for?”
“Too much draught—for your mother,” said Mr. Spriggs, feebly. “I'm afraid of her asthma agin.” ”

“ When Spriggs was alive we were half-clemmed, but nothing could we get from the parish, 'cos they said 'e was an able-bodied man. Spriggs wasn't a lazy man, and 'e did try for work, and he wasn't a drunkard though 'e did fall down under the motor-bus, one of his mates standing 'im a drink on a empty stomach, which we all knows flies quicker to the 'ead. It don't seem right as married ladies a-carrying the kiddies should always go 'ungry, but it's the fact. ”

“ The birds vill die a nat'ral death for me, I can tell you.”
“It vos a terrible blow—certainly,” said Spriggs; “but these things vill happen in the best riggle'ated families!”
“How can that be? there's no piece, in no quiet and respectable families as I ever seed!”
And with this very paradoxical dictum, Mr. Grubb trudged on, leading himself by the nose; Spriggs exerting all his eloquence to make him think lightly of what Grubb considered such a heavy affliction ”

“ S., after supper I'm going up into the attic, and if Nathan Tarbox comes round and asks for me, you say that I'm out of town."
"But it wouldn't be true, Spriggins," replied his wife.
"I know it won't; but he wants me to arrest the giant, and it's as much as my life is worth," answered the constable, desperately. "I don't think I'm a coward, but I ain't a match for a giant."
The farmer, however, did not come round. He had only made the statement to frighten Spriggins, and retaliate upon him for his joke about the tiger. ”

“ Potter had just taken Ethel Spriggs into the kitchen to say good- by; in the small front room Mr. Spriggs, with his fingers already fumbling at the linen collar of ceremony, waited impatiently.
"They get longer and longer over their good-bys," he complained.
"It's only natural," said Mrs. Spriggs, looking up from a piece of fine sewing. "Don't you remember—"
"No, I don't," said her husband, doggedly. "I know that your pore father never 'ad to put on a collar for me; and, mind you, I won't wear one after they're married, not if you all went on your bended knees and asked me to." ”

“ Spriggs "if no more news is heard of Mr. Sheene till then well Miss Winston can come and procure her money and various other papers which will of course be hers and then this place can be sold."
"Yes" said Lord Beaufort and I suppose [250] Mr. Netherby will be the head man till then.
"Well yes" replied Mr. Spriggs "he must certainly be here to look after the place, and of course I shall look in occasionally to see all goes well; another young man can be got to be under Mr. Netherby as Mr. Wilson has gone to prison for attempted robbery; do you agree to that Mr. Netherby?" ”

“ He paused a moment at the door to glance up and down the street, and then the door closed softly behind him. Mrs. Spriggs looked at her husband.
“Called away to Australia by special telegram,” said the latter, winking. “Bill White is a trump; that's what he is.”
“Oh, George!” said his wife. “Did you really write that letter?”
Mr. Spriggs winked again.
THE TEST
PEBBLESEA was dull, and Mr. Frederick Dix, mate of the ketch Starfish, after a long and unsuccessful quest for amusement, returned to the harbor with an idea of forgetting his disappointment in sleep. ”

“ Spriggs, fiercely; “if Alfred throws her over for that, he's no man.”
“Pride is his great fault,” said his wife, mournfully. .
“It's no good taking up troubles afore they come,” observed Mr. Spriggs. “P'r'aps Gussie won't come ere.
“He'll come straight here,” said his wife, with conviction; “he'll come straight here and try and make a fuss of me, same as he used to do when we was children and I'd got a ha'penny. I know him.”
“Cheer up, old gal,” said Mr. Spriggs; “if he does, we must try and get rid of 'im ”

“ Turning to the right and the left and observing nothing, they boldly advanced in order to appropriate the spoil.
“Here's feathers at any rate,” said Spriggs, “ve've blown him to shivers, by jingo!”
“And here's a bird! hooray!” cried the delighted Grubb—“and look'ee, here's another—two whole 'uns—and all them remnants going for nothing as the linen-drapers has it!”
“Vot are they, Dick?” inquired Spriggs, whose ornithological knowledge was limited to domestic poultry; “sich voppers ain't robins or sparrers, I take it.”
“Vy!” said the dubious Mr. ”

“ I take for granted it is neither Wiggins nor Spriggins, and that we shall get on famously together, and be capital friends forever. ”

“ Frigg was unwilling to trust any one but herself with the effort to realize such hopes. Once more she went over the world, gathering around her all the races of men, one after the other, and as she mentioned the name of Balder, tears flowed from all eyes.
For three months she visited all the forests and all the mountains, the seas and the lakes and the animals that live in the waters and the mountains; and seas and lakes and mountains wept. She went even to the abode of the giants, the enemies of the gods, and her grief made the giants also weep; every tree wept and every rock wept. ”

“ I rushed to the scene of the disturbance, and found poor Frisky up in one corner of the barn, and our old white gander, Ginger, before him, pounding him fiercely with his wings. I drove Ginger away, and Master Frisky ran between my legs for protection. This was but one of many similar plights from which I rescued this curious pup.
He would get his nose pecked for poking into the hencoop to see the chickens; the cat would scratch him when he got too free with her kittens; and often he would come scurrying into the yard with his tail between his legs, and a large dog in hot pursuit. ”

“ Spragg did not ignore the gesture: he did not even withhold his hand. In his code the cut, as a conscious sign of disapproval, did not exist. In the south, if you had a grudge against a man you tried to shoot him; in the west, you tried to do him in a mean turn in business; but in neither region was the cut among the social weapons of offense. Mr. Spragg, therefore, seeing Moffatt in his path, extended a lifeless hand while he faced the young man scowlingly. Moffatt met the hand and the scowl with equal coolness. ”

“ His body was yellow and green, and his claws scarlet, and his tail was so long that it lay in a hundred coils. Frisk was so terrified at the sight of it that he did not know where to hide. Charming, quite determined to get the water or die, now drew his sword, and, taking the crystal flask which Pretty Goldilocks had given him to fill, said to Frisk:
“I feel sure that I shall never come back from this expedition; when I am dead, go to the Princess and tell her that her errand has cost me my life. Then find the King my master, and relate all my adventures to him.” ”

“ Mrs. Spragg cast a frightened glance at her husband. These struggles between two resolute wills always brought on her palpitations, and she wished she had her phial of digitalis with her.
"A parterre box costs a hundred and twenty-five dollars a night," said Mr. Spragg, transferring a toothpick to his waistcoat pocket.
"I only want it once."
He looked at her with a quizzical puckering of his crows'-feet. "You only want most things once. Undine." ”

“ Spragg was obliged to own.
Her daughter looked at her with a kind of chill commiseration. "You never CAN," she murmured, turning away.
She stretched herself out moodily on one of the pink and gold sofas, and lay there brooding, an unread novel on her knee. Mrs. Spragg timidly slipped a cushion under her daughter's head, and then dissembled herself behind the lace window-curtains and sat watching the lights spring out down the long street and spread their glittering net across the Park. It was one of Mrs. Spragg's chief occupations to watch the nightly lighting of New York. ”

“ The girl's eyes held genuine alarm; even the pug was forgotten, and lay breathing audibly into her muff.
"Never more sane,” said Sprague cheerfully. “Don't you see? I've thought in turn that I was a business man, a cad, a cowboy, an actor, a short-story writer, and a playwright. When these fifteen pounds pounds are gone I shall know what the mischief I am. Perhaps I shall turn out to be a man; think of the joys of discovery! The man who finds the south pole won't be in it with me.” ”