"
"_Assidyus_ trees? Why don't you talk United States while
you're about it, 'n' not fire yer long-range words round here?
_Assidyus!_ What does it mean, anyhow?"
"Can't prove it by me. That's what he called 'em, 'n'
I never forgot it."
"Assidyus--assidyus--it don't sound as if it meant nothing', to me."
"Assiduous means 'busy,'" said the man from Tennessee,
who had suddenly waked from a brown study, and dropped
off into another as soon as he had given the definition.
"Busy, does it? Wall, I guess we ain't no better off
now 'n we ever was. One tree's 'bout 's busy as another,
as fur 's I can see."
"Wall, there is kind of a meanin' in it to me, but it'sturrible far
fetched," remarked Jabe Slocum, rather sleepily.
"You see, our ellums and maples 'n' all them trees spends part o'
the year in buddin' 'n' gittin' out their leaves 'n' hangin'
em all over the branches; 'n' then, no sooner air they full grown
than they hev to begin colorin' of 'em red or yeller or brown,
'n' then shakin' 'em off; 'n' this is all extry, you might say,
to their every-day chores o' growin' 'n' cirkerlatin' sap, 'n' spreadin'
'n' thickenin' 'n' shovin' out limbs, 'n' one thing 'n' 'nother;
'n' it stan's to reason that the first 'n' hemlocks 'n' them
California redwoods, that keeps their clo'es on right through the year,
can't be so busy as them that keeps a-dressin' 'n' ondressin'
all the time.
Pages:
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78