Chapters from My Autobiography | Page 8

house built by my father five years before. That is, some of us
lived in the new part, the rest in the old part back of it--the "L." In the
autumn my sister gave a party, and invited all the marriageable young
people of the village. I was too young for this society, and was too
bashful to mingle with young ladies, anyway, therefore I was not
invited--at least not for the whole evening. Ten minutes of it was to be
my whole share. I was to do the part of a bear in a small fairy play. I
was to be disguised all over in a close-fitting brown hairy stuff proper
for a bear. About half past ten I was told to go to my room and put on
this disguise, and be ready in half an hour. I started, but changed my
mind; for I wanted to practise a little, and that room was very small. I
crossed over to the large unoccupied house on the corner of Main and
Hill streets,[4] unaware that a dozen of the young people were also
going there to dress for their parts. I took the little black slave boy,
Sandy, with me, and we selected a roomy and empty chamber on the
second floor. We entered it talking, and this gave a couple of
half-dressed young ladies an opportunity to take refuge behind a screen
undiscovered. Their gowns and things were hanging on hooks behind
the door, but I did not see them; it was Sandy that shut the door, but all
his heart was in the theatricals, and he was as unlikely to notice them as
I was myself.
That was a rickety screen, with many holes in it, but as I did not know
there were girls behind it, I was not disturbed by that detail. If I had
known, I could not have undressed in the flood of cruel moonlight that
was pouring in at the curtainless windows; I should have died of shame.
Untroubled by apprehensions, I stripped to the skin and began my
practice. I was full of ambition; I was determined to make a hit; I was
burning to establish a reputation as a bear and get further engagements;
so I threw myself into my work with an abandon that promised great
things. I capered back and forth from one end of the room to the other
on all fours, Sandy applauding with enthusiasm; I walked upright and
growled and snapped and snarled; I stood on my head, I flung
handsprings, I danced a lubberly dance with my paws bent and my
imaginary snout sniffing from side to side; I did everything a bear
could do, and many things which no bear could ever do and no bear

with any dignity would want to do, anyway; and of course I never
suspected that I was making a spectacle of myself to any one but Sandy.
At last, standing on my head, I paused in that attitude to take a minute's
rest. There was a moment's silence, then Sandy spoke up with excited
interest and said--
"Marse Sam, has you ever seen a smoked herring?"
"No. What is that?"
"It's a fish."
"Well, what of it? Anything peculiar about it?"
"Yes, suh, you bet you dey is. Dey eats 'em guts and all!"
There was a smothered burst of feminine snickers from behind the
screen! All the strength went out of me and I toppled forward like an
undermined tower and brought the screen down with my weight,
burying the young ladies under it. In their fright they discharged a
couple of piercing screams--and possibly others, but I did not wait to
count. I snatched my clothes and fled to the dark hall below, Sandy
following. I was dressed in half a minute, and out the back way. I swore
Sandy to eternal silence, then we went away and hid until the party was
over. The ambition was all out of me. I could not have faced that giddy
company after my adventure, for there would be two performers there
who knew my secret, and would be privately laughing at me all the
time. I was searched for but not found, and the bear had to be played by
a young gentleman in his civilized clothes. The house was still and
everybody asleep when I finally ventured home. I was very
heavy-hearted, and full of a sense of disgrace. Pinned to my pillow I
found a slip of paper which bore a line that did not lighten my heart,
but only made my face burn. It was written in a laboriously disguised
hand, and these were its mocking terms:
"You probably couldn't have played bear, but you played bare very
well--oh, very very well!"

We think boys are