April 17th.<\/p>\n
And another was silly little Mr. B\u2013\u2013r, my little golden calf. What a \u2013 don’t call names! I owe him a grudge for \u201ccold hands,\u201d and the other day, when I heard of his being wounded at Shiloh, I could not help laughing a little at Tom B\u2013\u2013r’s being hurt. What was the use of throwing a nice, big cannon ball, that might have knocked a man down, away on that poor little fellow, when a pea from a popgun would have made the same impression? Not but what he is brave, but little Mr. B\u2013\u2013r is so soft.<\/p>\n
Then there was that rattle-brain Mr. T\u2013\u2013t who, commencing one subject, never ceased speaking until he had touched on all. One evening he came in talking, and never paused even for a reply until he bowed himself out, talking still, when Mr. Bradford, who had been forced to silence as well as the rest, threw himself back with a sigh of relief and exclaimed, \u201cThis man talks like a woman!\u201d I thought it the best description of Mr. T\u2013\u2013t’s conversation I had ever heard. It was all on the surface, no pretensions to anything except to put the greatest possible number of words of no meaning in one sentence, while speaking of the most trivial thing. Night or day, Mr. T\u2013\u2013t never passed home without crying out to me, \u201cCes jolis yeux bleus!\u201d<\/em> and if the parlor were brightly lighted so that all from the street might see us, and be invisible to us themselves, I always nodded my head to the outer darkness and laughed, no matter who was present, though it sometimes created remark. You see, I knew the joke. Coming from a party escorted by Mr. B\u2013\u2013r, Miriam by Mr. T\u2013\u2013t,<\/a>1<\/sup> we had to wait a long time before Rose opened the door, which interval I employed in dancing up and down the gallery \u2013 followed by my cavalier \u2013 singing, \u2013<\/p>\n \u201cMes jolis yeux bleus, which na\u00cfve remark Mr. B\u2013\u2013r, not speaking French, lost entirely, and Mr. T\u2013\u2013t endorsed it with his approbation and belief in it, and ever afterwards called me \u201cCes jolis yeux bleus.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBleus comme les cieux,
\nMes jolis yeux bleus
\nOnt ravi son \u00e2me,\u201d etc.;<\/a>2<\/sup><\/p>\n
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