Old Josh, in: The Borrower's Laugh!
Old Josh, in:
The Borrower’s Laugh!
(1874)
When Old Josh got thirsty for whisky, and didn’t have a cent to his name to acquire any, he managed to borrow—or better put, utter politely, with what he got used to calling ‘His Borrower’s Laugh,’ Josh never really tried to be humorous, he just was, and when he did try, was when he wanted that whisky from someone, usually Amos, or Granny Mae, and that is when he was obvious, and not very humorous.
It was weeks since Josh had a swig of good old corn whiskey; how he managed to exist was beyond his boy’s understanding.
Josh was now pleading with Granny Mae in the Hightower kitchen of the mansion, for a bottle of corn whiskey, which she sold, and charged seventy-five cents for. Josh told Mae, he’d pay her back later (which often he did, and which he also, often forgot to), and now he gave her an unbecoming laugh, that lingered between a minute and two.
“Com-on...!” he said, in slurred speech.
“No,” said Mae to Josh.
Then Josh made one more nervous attempt, granny Mae stopped cooking her soup momentarily, and saw blank eyes staring at her, and she stared back,
“You’d think Josh, I waz the only one in Ozark that made moonshine!”
Then Granny Mae took a long look at Josh’s gloomy face, and the longer she looked the more she became to sympathize with him, and so she gave in, and gave him a bottle—she had three hidden behind a fifty-pound sack of potatoes.
When Josh got back to his shanty, he waved Amos, Jordon, and Silas over, and they went into the shack, and he pulled out the bottle of moonshine, happier than a bear with a fifty-pound honeycomb in his hands, and poured four glasses half full, “Drinks on me boys…!” he said as he poured with a trembling hand.
No: #75 8-10-2008
The Borrower’s Laugh!
(1874)
When Old Josh got thirsty for whisky, and didn’t have a cent to his name to acquire any, he managed to borrow—or better put, utter politely, with what he got used to calling ‘His Borrower’s Laugh,’ Josh never really tried to be humorous, he just was, and when he did try, was when he wanted that whisky from someone, usually Amos, or Granny Mae, and that is when he was obvious, and not very humorous.
It was weeks since Josh had a swig of good old corn whiskey; how he managed to exist was beyond his boy’s understanding.
Josh was now pleading with Granny Mae in the Hightower kitchen of the mansion, for a bottle of corn whiskey, which she sold, and charged seventy-five cents for. Josh told Mae, he’d pay her back later (which often he did, and which he also, often forgot to), and now he gave her an unbecoming laugh, that lingered between a minute and two.
“Com-on...!” he said, in slurred speech.
“No,” said Mae to Josh.
Then Josh made one more nervous attempt, granny Mae stopped cooking her soup momentarily, and saw blank eyes staring at her, and she stared back,
“You’d think Josh, I waz the only one in Ozark that made moonshine!”
Then Granny Mae took a long look at Josh’s gloomy face, and the longer she looked the more she became to sympathize with him, and so she gave in, and gave him a bottle—she had three hidden behind a fifty-pound sack of potatoes.
When Josh got back to his shanty, he waved Amos, Jordon, and Silas over, and they went into the shack, and he pulled out the bottle of moonshine, happier than a bear with a fifty-pound honeycomb in his hands, and poured four glasses half full, “Drinks on me boys…!” he said as he poured with a trembling hand.
No: #75 8-10-2008
posted by Dennis and Rosa Siluk at 9:38 PM
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