Spooky Texas by S. E. Schlosser

Author:S. E. Schlosser
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461746447
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press

ETERNAL ROUNDUP

Then I am caught up again in the exultation of the eternal roundup, thriving on the vain hope of the cowboys who chase the Devil’s herd through the lightning strikes. A gust of wind slaps across my face, and pounding rain soaks my skin. Shouting “Yip-e-i-o,” I spur my black stallion and race after the Devil’s herd, forever and ever, world without end.

16

Little Eight John

JACKSONVILLE

Little Eight John, he never listened to his Mama. No, sir! Not even when she told him things for his own good. He thought life was a lot funnier when he didn’t mind. He’d sass his Mama something awful, and if she told him not to do a thing, he’d go right out and do it, laughing all the time.

“Johnny, don’t you go stomping on any toads, you hear me?” called his Mama. “Stomping on toads brings bad luck to the family. You leave toads alone.”

“Yes, Mama,” Little Eight John said with a solemn face and a twinkle in his eyes. Then he walked right down to the swamp land and squashed the toads flat with his little foot. Up at the house, a big wind sprang up and carried all his Mama’s washing clean away. All the family drawers were flapping at the top of a tree for the neighbors to see.

Little Eight John laughed and laughed at the sight of those flapping drawers, and then went to find some more toads to stomp. When his sister caught the whooping cough that night, everyone in the family knew who to blame.

The next morning, Little Eight John’s Mama grabbed him by the ear and said: “We are going to the church to pray for your sister, Little Johnny. And you’se going to behave!”

“Yes, Mama,” Little Eight John said with a solemn face and a twinkle in his eyes.

While his Mama prayed for the Lawd to heal his sister, Little Eight John captured all the spiders and flies he could find and mashed them into the hymn books so the words looked all wrong. Then he laughed quietly to himself and knelt beside his mother until she was done praying. When they got home, all the taters in his Daddy’s garden were crawling with worms.

“Little Eight John, don’t you go climbing in the trees,” his Daddy told him that afternoon after lunch. “The birds bring us good luck, so you keep away.”

“Yes, Daddy” Little Eight John said with a solemn face and a twinkle in his eyes.

As soon as his Daddy left the room, he ran outside and climbed up into the trees. “Shoo, birds, shoo,” he called, and then mewed like a hungry cat until all the birds were frightened away. That very same instant all the butter his Mama was churning went sour and there weren’t no butter for dinner and no taters, neither, and it was all on account of that Little Eight John.

“Little Johnny, don’t you sit in that chair backwards,” his Mama said at breakfast the next day. “It’ll bring bad luck.

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