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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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At this instant, Haley appeared on the verandah. Somewhat mollified by cer- tain cups of very good coffee he came out smiling and talking, in tolerably re- stored humor. Sam and Andy, clawing for certain fragmentary palm-leaves, which they were in the habit of considering as hats, flew to the horse-posts to be ready to “help Mas’r.” Sam’s palm-leaf had been ingeniously disentangled from all pretensions to braid, as respected its brim; and the slivers starting apart, and standing upright, gave it a blazing air of freedom and defiance, quite equal to that of any Fejee chief; while the whole brim of Andy’s being departed bodily, he rapped the crown on his head with a dexterous thump, and looked about well pleased, as if to say, “Who says I haven’t got a hat?” “Well, boys,” said Haley, “look alive now; we must lose no time.” “Not a bit of him, Mas’r!” said Sam, putting Haley’s rein in his hand, and holding his stirrup, while Andy was untying the other two horses. The instant Haley touched the saddle, the mettlesome creature bounded from the earth with a sudden spring, that threw his master sprawling, some feet off, on the soft, dry turf. Sam, with frantic ejaculations, made a dive at the reins, but only succeeded in brushing the blazing palm-leaf aforenamed into the horse’s eyes, which by no means tended to allay the confusion of his nerves. So, with great ve- hemence, he overturned Sam, and, giving two or three contemptuous snorts, flour- ished his heels vigorously in the air, and was soon prancing away towards the lower end of the lawn, followed by Bill and Jerry, whom Andy had not failed to |
