SCENE II.
MERCEDES, URSULA.
URSULA,
after a silence.
Has he gone, the good padre?
MERCEDES.
Yes, dear soul.
Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich / [by Thomas Bailey Aldrich] [electronic text]
About this Item
- Title
- Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich / [by Thomas Bailey Aldrich] [electronic text]
- Author
- Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 1836-1907
- Publication
- Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company
- 1885
- Rights/Permissions
The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials are in the public domain in the United States. If you have questions about the collection please contact Digital Content & Collections at dlps-help@umich.edu, or if you have concerns about the inclusion of an item in this collection, please contact Library Information Technology at LibraryIT-info@umich.edu.
DPLA Rights Statement: No Copyright - United States
- Link to this Item
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http://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAD9188.0001.001
- Cite this Item
-
"Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich / [by Thomas Bailey Aldrich] [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAD9188.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 16, 2024.
Pages
Page 248
URSULA,
reflectively.
He was your uncle once.
MERCEDES.
Once? Yes, and always. How you speak!
URSULA.
He is not gay any more, the good padre. He is getting old... getting old.
MERCEDES.
To hear her! and she eighty years last San Miguel's day!
URSULA.
What day is it?
MERCEDES,
laying one finger on her lips.
Hist! Chiquita is waking.
URSULA,
querulously.
Hist? Nay, I will say my say in spite of all. Hist? God save us! who taught thee to say hist to thy elders? Ay, ay, who taught thee?... What day is it?
MERCEDES,
aside.
How sharp she is awhiles!
(Aloud.)
Pardon, pardon! Here is little Chiquita, with both eyes wide open, to Page 249
help me beg thy forgiveness.
(Takes up the child.)
See, she has a smile for grandmother... Ah, no, little one, I have no milk for thee; the trouble has taken it all. Nay, cry not, dainty, or that will break my heart. URSULA.
Sing to her, nieta. What is it you sing that always hushes her? 'T is gone from me.
MERCEDES.
I know not.
URSULA.
Bethink thee.
MERCEDES.
I cannot. Ah—the rhyme of The Three Little White Teeth?
URSULA,
clapping her hands.
Ay, ay, that is it!
MERCEDES
rocks the child, and sings:
Who is it opens her bright blue eye, Bright as the sea and blue as the sky? — Chiquita! Who has the smile that comes and goes Like sunshine over her mouth's red rose?— Muchachita!
Page 250
What is the softest laughter heard, Gurgle of brook or trill of bird, Chiquita? Nay, 't is thy laughter makes the rill Hush its voice and the bird be still, Muchachita!
Ah, little flower-hand on my breast, How it soothes me and gives me rest! Chiquita! What is the sweetest sight I know? Three little white teeth in a row, Three little white teeth in a row, Muchachita!
As Mercedes finishes the song a roll of drums is heard in the calle. At the first tap she starts and listens intently, then assumes a stolid air. The sound approaches the door and suddenly ceases.