Zack

“ He's a bit of a fool at doing most things is Zack, but he's got a gift for jollifications. I couldn't point to where it is myself. Zack's just to come and moon about and drop a word into an ear there and take a woman's arm here and the thing's done. You might call it a knack he has.
THOMAS. He mellers things. That's where it is. It's like this, Mrs. Munning. You can eat cheese without supping ale to it, but you don't get satisfaction. And Paul can run a wedding without Zack being there, but it's not hearty—not what I'd call a jollification. It's stiff and hard. ”

“ Munning for a dawdling slouch, you'll keep the sweet side of me.
SALLY. You do think you're some one because you're going to marry Zack. It might be Mr. Paul the fuss you make.
MARTHA (rising) . It's a pity that folk can't control themselves.
SALLY. If that's meant for me, let me tell you I never lost control of myself in my life.
MARTHA. If the cap fits you can put it on.
SALLY. You'll please to tell me what you mean by that, Martha Wrigley.
MARTHA. Everybody knows you'd hopes of Zack yourself. You're only showing your jealousy. ”

“ The Sirdar sat down, trembling; and Colonel Spottiswoode began to catch the infection of his excitement. They leaned over the table, put their heads together, and straightened out the knotted links of brass. It took shape as a necklace, curiously wrought, an interlacing of many-sized rings. Zack shuffled around from one side of the table to the other; neither of the white men looked up. Lyttleton Bey and McDonald hurried in. They had heard of Zack's disappearance, but seeing him standing there so quietly, at once transferred their curiosity to the recovered heirloom. ”

“ These dogs never barked, and Zack distrusted their intentions; he was scared of dogs that didn't bark and niggers that didn't brag. It gave Zack a crick in the neck trying to watch all the dogs at once. Eagerly he looked around for a brickbat. Bricks don't grow in the desert, and Zack hated to fool away his time throwing loose sand. He couldn't run from those limber-legged gallinippers, so he slapped about him with his wide brimmed hat, and yelled, and yelled, and yelled.
A black speck straightened up from in front of a ragged tent. ”

“ Zack! Oh, Zack!" Zack came tumbling down, glad to leave his job on deck. "Zack, go get those two pistols that Dr. Paulding gave me when I left home."
During Zack's absence no one spoke a word; there was scarcely a change in their positions. ”

“ A sailor with rubber mop scraped the water from the deck, a deck as clean as Selina's kitchen table. Zack scarcely dared to step upon it. Other sailor men were beginning to hang strips of sail-cloth from the roof, and lash their flapping bottoms to the rail. The deck looked like those dripping lanes of canvas which led from the main circus to the side show. Zack couldn't remember a time when it hadn't rained on circus day in Vicksburg. Suddenly he straightened himself, and paid no more attention to the water; Miss Stanton came tripping along with a violin case under her arm. ”

“ Zack Foster, Effendi, dined in lonely grandeur at a table apart, with a Nubian servant of his own. Zack dined diligently. Said slunk outside along the darkened avenue and peeped over the mud wall to see what his master was about. Then he scurried back and reported to other Arabs beyond the gates, "He breaks no bread with the unbeliever. He eats alone. May Allah burn my eyes if I speak not truth." ”

“ Some of the folks picked up spears that glittered in the moonlight. Zack edged away from the spears, and bumped into a group of women. The women ducked and disappeared like prairie dogs. A pot-bellied black child ran out, perfectly naked, stared at Zack for an instant, then turned and fled without a sound. Zack talked mightily, but nobody paid any attention. Throughout the hullabaloo, one old man—a very old man—sat cross-legged on a mat in front of his tent. He looked up in the moonlight and Zack thought he was blind. Zack was half-right, the Sheikh Tabira being one-eyed. ”

“ Well, Zack, I’ve only been trying to be as good as my word.”
“Trying? What do you mean? I don’t understand, old fellow.”
“Never mind: you’ll make it out better some day. Let’s talk about getting aboard ship, and going a buffalo-hunting now.”
They discussed the projected expedition, until Zack grew sleepy. As he fell off into a pleasant doze, Mat went back into the front-room; and, taking from the table Mr. Thorpe’s letter to Mr. Blyth, left Kirk Street immediately for the painter’s house. ”

“ The smile vanished from the Colonel's face, for Zack had flicked him on the raw by suggesting the Christmas bear hunt, which he would miss. But the white man felt his responsibility. "Well, Zack," he said, "the gin is here, and so are we. Go along now and fry your fish; it's nearly time for the men to knock off."
Beckoning for Said to follow, old Zack batted his donkey over the head, and trotted towards the Hot Cat Eating House. ”

“ This appeal, and the narrative which had preceded it, had their due effect on Zack. His ardor for a wandering life of excitement and peril, began to cool in the quiet temperature of the good influences that were now at work within him. “It shan’t be my fault, Blyth, if I don’t deserve your good opinion,” he said warmly. “I know I’ve behaved badly; and I know, too, that I have had some severe provocations. Only tell me what you advise, and I’ll do it—I will, upon my honor, for my mother’s sake.”
“That’s right! that’s talking like a man!” cried Valentine, clapping him on the shoulder. ”

“ It was manifest the young gentleman, if a Quaker, as his coat showed him to be, was quite a free one; and, indeed, the first words I heard him utter (which were also the first that I distinguished after rousing from my long sleep of insensibility) set the matter beyond question. I saw him peer into my face very curiously, and directly heard him call out to his companion—"I say, Snipe, by jingo, uncle Zack's beginning to look like a man in his senses!" ”

“ Are you, or are you not, in earnest in your dislike of commerce and your resolution to be an artist?”
“I mean to be a painter, or I mean to leave home,” answered Zack, resolutely. “If you don’t help me, I’ll be off as sure as fate! I have half a mind to cut the office from this moment. Lend me a shilling, Blyth; and I’ll toss up for it. Heads—liberty and the fine arts! Tails—the tea-merchant!” ”

“ Thorpe, junior, burst into the room.
“Dear old Blyth! how are you?” cried Zack. “Have you had any leap-frog since I was here last? Jump up, and let’s celebrate my return to the painting-room with a bit of manly exercise in our old way. Come on! I’ll give the first back. No shirking! Put down your palette; and one, two, three—and over!”
Pronouncing these words, Zack ran to the end of the room opposite to Valentine; and signalized his entry into the studio by the extraordinary process of giving its owner, what is termed in the technical language of leap-frog, “a capital back.” ”

“ Colonel Spottiswoode glared straight at Zack, glared straight through Zack; then the Colonel smiled, and Old Reliable began to get fidgety. "Zack, you better keep away from those women on that other barge. I know you're not going over there forty times a day to visit a donkey."
Zack grinned sheepishly, like he always did when Colonel Spottiswoode read his mind. As their conversation was getting too personal, Zack reached around for his helmet, and vanished down the companionway. ”

“ MRS. MUNNING. But, Paul——
PAUL. I've got my reasons, mother, and they're sound.
ZACK. There's no great hurry, is there, Paul?
PAUL. If a thing's to be done, it's best done quick. We'll have the banns put up on Sunday.
WRIGLEY. You're in a mighty haste. It's giving things a queerish twist to me.
PAUL. When I've to take a dose of physic, I don't play round because it's got a filthy taste. I get it down.
ZACK. But it's my physic, Paul.
PAUL. You'll do as you're told.
MARTHA. I'm sure I'll try to make you a good wife, Zack. ”

“ VIRGINIA. A weakness! Zack, it isn't——
ZACK. Oh, no. Not that. I'm a teetotaller, Jenny. I get that worked up with the hearty feeling of it that I break the plates. My hand's unsteady. (Takes plates from table.) See! That's steady enough? Yes, but get me waiting at a table full of wedding guests and it seems I've got to break the plates to show my pleasure. And it's not wilful. It's not indeed. It's just anxiety to do things right that makes me do them wrong. Mother's quite right. I'm not a bit of good, but I do miss the outings all the same.
VIRGINIA. Poor Zack. ”

“ The self-control which he thus exhibited did not pass without its reward. Zack got tired of making jokes which were received with the serenest inattention; and, passing at once from the fanciful to the practical, astonished his fellow-lodger, by suddenly communicating a very unexpected and very important piece of news.
“By-the-bye, Mat,” he said, “we must sweep the place up, and look as respectable as we can, before to-morrow night. My friend Blyth is coming to spend a quiet evening with us. I stayed behind till all the visitors had gone, on purpose to ask him.” ”

“ Zack, alone, encouraged the Colonel in whatsoever he desired; at toddy time, or duel, the old darky had always been found ready and proud to assist. [Pg 45]
CHAPTER VI THE BURNED CABIN
A thoroughbred man, sitting a thoroughbred horse, with an articulation that makes them both seem molded into one piece of flesh, is a magnet for admiration; and when Uncle Zack saw both the Colonel and Bob gallop out through the trees, their heads up, their rifles swinging gracefully down, their mounts bristling with power and intelligence, his eyes sparkled and he took a deep breath of satisfaction. ”

“ Now, Zack Munning, who do you think you are? (Stands from him) . You may answer.
ZACK. Well I suppose I'm—— I dunno. I'm nobody much.
VIRGINIA (approaching and lathering) . You can't answer. Then I'll tell you. You are not nobody. You're a person of considerable importance. For one thing, you're the mainstay of your mother's business. When you go to weddings, they're liked, and when you don't they're disliked. Paul is not popular. You are. You may speak.
ZACK. You've no right to run down Paul like that, Jenny. ”

“ Good, I hope?”
“Bad as can be,” returned Mat, gruffly. “Don’t you say another word to me about it. If you do, we part company again. Talk of something else. Anything you like; and the sooner the better.”
Forbidden to discourse any more concerning his friend’s affairs, Zack veered about directly, and began to discourse concerning his own. Candor was one of his few virtues: and he now confided to Mat the entire history of his tribulations, without a single reserved point at any part of the narrative, from beginning to end. ”

“ Such was the point at which the Tribulations of Zack had arrived, at the period when Mr. Valentine Blyth resolved to set up a domestic Drawing Academy in his wife’s room; with the double purpose of amusing his family circle in the evening, and reforming his wild young friend by teaching him to draw from the “glorious Antique.” ”

“ A trooper who looked as though he might be in charge, spoke to Zack.
"Sir, we don't want you or your wife to get panicky, but we have reason to believe that something strange is going on in your woods. These men are from the atomic research laboratory at the University and they are convinced that a flying saucer has landed out there."
"It ain't no flying saucer," Zack spoke wearily.
"It isn't?" one of the gentlemen asked, disappointed, "then what is it?"
"It's Junius, my cow." ”

“ Zack tiptoed away and disappeared behind the house. Brent respectfully waited for the spell to pass; and when, at last, the old gentleman did look up, his eyes, like Zack's, were moist.
"The tobacco ought to be good this year," he said.
"Yes," Brent smiled at his courageous nonchalance, "if we don't have the riders." [Pg 232]
"Riders, pooh," he ridiculed. "You mean, if we don't have any more play of fancy imaginations, and thunderings of overwrought editors, sir!" ”

“ MARTHA. My father's got to see there's no mistake.
ZACK. He's doing pretty well so far.
MARTHA. Yes. My wedding-dress is coming home tonight, too. I'll show it you if you like.
ZACK (swallowing, then) , I'm like a cat on hot bricks till I see that dress.
(Martha and Zack go out.)
VIRGINIA. Poor Zack!
MRS. MUNNING. Fools pay for their folly. Did you come down for your walk with Paul?
VIRGINIA. Yes. It's about the usual time.
MRS. MUNNING. He'll be late this evening. He'd to go to Bollington this afternoon, but he'll bring you back a fairing, Jenny. ”

“ Zack smiled at his own foresight—"Dis sho' is a fine stan' fer a eatin' house; plenty niggers hangin' 'roun' po' ez Job's turkey." Then he nodded his satisfaction; possession of the magic nickel would transform each savage into a customer. Their eyes followed him as he passed amongst them; they watched him intently as he bent over the cook-stove and began to kindle a fire. Some of the Shilluks sidled nearer to the stove, some edged toward Said, who set about cleaning the fish, and Zack played to his gallery. ”

“ ZACK. I don't get any wages.
PAUL. We've given up trusting Zack with money. He lost a shilling on the day you came.
VIRGINIA. Oh dear, then what's to be done? I know. You give Zack the ha'penny for a birthday present. Then he can give it me.
PAUL. What is your present, Jenny?
VIRGINIA. It's a shaving-set.
PAUL. Zack's no use for shaving. He's never shaved in his life.
VIRGINIA. His beard looks that kind of beard. That's why I want him to begin. Give him the ha'penny, Paul. Paul. Oh, it'll not matter. Zack isn't superstitious. Virginia. But I am. All decent-minded women are. ”