LXXII.
THE DEVIL ON AN EXCURSION.
I wonder how many boys and girls have ever witnessed a cyclone—a great big hurricane of wind and rain, of lightning and thunder, that just knocks down all the trees and takes the roofs off all the houses.
It is a terrible thing, the cyclone is!
The other day one came to our town. We could look up into the sky and see coming, from afar, a great big black cloud that looked for all the world like a balloon—a great big balloon, ever so large. The wind was blowing at a rapid rate, the dust flying, and everybody was frightened.
The roof was lifted off the school house, a church was blown down, many houses were unroofed, and men and beasts were alike hurled right and left. I do not think anybody was killed but a great many were frightened nearly to death.
The cyclone took one poor little boy and landed him in the midst of a mud puddle. The little fellow stretched out stiff and stark, as if he had been killed. An old man ran up to the edge of the ditch and said:
“Isaac, is you dead?”
Isaac said nothing, but his eyes, were rolling in their sockets. The old man asked again:
“Isaac, is you dead? ’Cause ef you is dead d’ain’t no use uv my comin’ in dar to try to git you out.”
This time Isaac grunted, rolled his eyes, and asked:
“De Goodnis Gracious! I See Dat Ole Cycloom Comin’ Back Ag’in. He Look Blackah and Wussah Dan He Done Befo’. Run, Isaac, Run!”
“Where is he, Uncle Reuben?”
“Whar’s who?” asked Uncle Reuben.
“The devil,” said Isaac.
“He done gone,” said Uncle Reuben, “he done clean gone; but you bettah git up f’um dar!”
“I can’t,” said Isaac. “I can’t; I’m ’most dead!”
Uncle Reuben studied a short while. He was planning what to do next. He didn’t want to go into the mud and water and get his clothes soiled in trying to rescue the little boy. By-and-by Uncle Reuben threw up his hands, looked up the big road and said:
“De goodnis gracious! I see dat ole cycloom cornin’ back ag’in. He look blackah and wussah dan he done befo’. Run, Isaac, run!”
You ought to have seen Isaac jump out of that hole. He got out hallooing, and he ran and hallooed for nearly a quarter of a mile. Uncle Reuben hallooed after him to stop, but it did no good. The poor little fellow was well nigh scared to death.
A few days after the cyclone Uncle Reuben was telling some of his friends about the occurrence. Among other things he said:
“Little Isaac wasn’t ready fur Judgment—dat’s all! He wasn’t ready! W’en a man’s ready to go to judgment, he ain’t ’fraid uv nothin’. No, sah; he ain’t ’fraid uv nothin’. Isaac wasn’t ready, an’ he hallooed an’ squealed jes like death done struck him. Mens, I tell you, dat ole cycloom jes ’tuck de roof off’n ev’ybody’s house. Look like ev’ybody’s house he come to he dip down an’ say, ‘Take yo’ hat off to me; don’t you see me cornin’; ain’t you got no mannahs?’ Den he’d strike ’em an’ take deir hats off hisse’f. He took de roof off’n de cullud school house an’ he took de roof off’n de white school house. De cycloom ain’t no respectah uv persons—he sho ain’t. W’en little Isaac done come to his senses an’ done got clean ovah his fright, I ax’d him what a cycloom was. He told me dat a cycloom wa’n’t nothin’ ’tall in dis worl’ but de debbil on a flyin’ ’scursion. The mo’ I think ’bout it, the mo’ I b’lieve dat boy was right. De cycloom sho is de debbil on a ’scursion, an’ w’en de debbil is a-ridin’ you’d bettah lay low.”