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Read Ebook: Johnny Blossom by Zwilgmeyer Dikken Young Florence Liley Illustrator Poulsson Emilie Translator
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Ebook has 1017 lines and 34073 words, and 21 pages
"Good day, John! Now this is very kind of you to come to me, away out here."
"Yes. I thought it was an awfully long time since you had seen me."
"True, so it is. I suppose you are very busy nowadays?"
"Awfully busy. Tonight we are going out fishing."
"I meant particularly at school."
"Oh! Of course I go to school."
"You are a good scholar?"
"Oh, well, I am not the worst. I'm not one of the best either, but I'm not the worst, really."
"But you should be among the best, Johnny Blossom."
There was a short silence.
"It is awfully hard to be among the best, Uncle Isaac," with an apologetic smile.
"Not if a person is industrious, John."
Johnny Blossom suddenly found something the matter with his shoestring. His face was very red when he straightened up again, saying, "How provoking shoestrings are!"
"How are your sisters?"
"Oh, very well."
"My god-daughter, Dagny--she is getting big now?"
"My, oh, my! She is so heavy! You would hardly believe how heavy she is; but I almost know that I could lift her and hold her at arm's length with my arm out like this, perfectly straight!"
"My dear John! You do not try lifting the child at arm's length, as you say?"
"Yes, I tried once. I could do it well enough, too; but you should just see how cross that child is. She roars at nothing."
"But there might be a bad accident if you dropped her."
Johnny smiled condescendingly. "You don't know how strong I am, Uncle Isaac. Look at my muscle here."
Quick as a flash, Johnny's jacket was off and he was displaying his little shirt sleeve. "Look here! Look! Isn't that good muscle?"
Suddenly he glanced around the room. "Isn't there something here I can lift?"
"My dear Johnny! No, no!"
"Yes, that fire-screen will be just the thing."
"No, no, thank you, John. I am willing to believe that you are very strong."
"There! This lamp will do."
A little firm brown hand had already seized upon the big lamp.
Uncle Isaac roused up. "No, no, my boy! Let go the lamp! Let go instantly!"
"Well, if you don't want me to show you. But really, if my little finger were only big enough, I could lift the lamp just with that."
Johnny shook the brown little finger almost in Uncle Isaac's face.
"Why, what have you done to your face, John? You have a big scratch there."
"Oh, that? Well, that's--that's nothing."
"But how did you get it?"
"Why--it--it came so."
"Came so? What do you mean?"
"Oh, we were fighting."
"Why were you fighting?"
"It was just that stupid Tellef Olsen. He bragged so much about being the strongest of all the boys"--
"And then?"
"The whole school said he was the strongest, and that was disgusting, for it wasn't true. I'm a great deal stronger than Tellef. I am really awfully strong, I am."
"And so you fought?"
"Yes. I was up on the fence yesterday, and Tellef Olsen went past in the alley and hit me in the back with a long switch"--
"And then?"
"Why, yes. Then we fought each other, you know."
A silence followed this remark. Since Uncle Isaac said nothing, Johnny continued:
"I beat, too! My, what a thrashing I gave him! Now they'll know I am the strongest. I'd rather be strong than anything else."
Again it was very still.
"You say that, do you, John? You think that to be strong is the greatest thing? Possibly it was, in past ages; but in the future, the man with the most love in his heart, the best man, will be the greatest. Remember that, little John Blossom."
"Yes," continued Uncle Isaac. "He who heals instead of wounds, he who does good and helps the needy, he is the greatest, John Blossom."
Heals and not wounds; does good; helps the needy. Johnny sat staring at his Uncle Isaac. Deep within his heart there lay a weight, a sadness. It was the thought of Tellef Olsen's fishing rod that he had broken to smithereens--Tellef's, who had to go fishing every day or his mother and the children would have nothing to eat; and of the jacket all split, too,--the only one Tellef had.
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