Scarlet Ibis

The flower garden is prim, the house a gleaming white, and the pale fence across the yard stands straight and spruce.

The unexpected illness turned the formerly energetic girl into a bedridden ____.

He was a burden in many ways.

We’d bedeck ourselves with our handiwork and loll about thus beautiful, beyond the touch of the everyday world.

“I won’t touch it,” he said sullenly.

With success so imminent, we decided not to tell anyone until he could walk.

Aunt Nicey said that, after so much talk, if we produced anything less tremendous than a Resurrection, she was going to be disappointed.

When Peter was ready to go to sleep, the peacock spread his magnificent tail, enfolding the boy gently like a closing go-to-sleep flower, burying him in the gloriously iridescent, rustling vortex.

When Peter was ready to go to sleep, the peacock spread his magnificent tail, enfolding the boy gently like a closing go-to-sleep flower, burying him in the gloriously iridescent, rustling vortex.

Of course, I was old enough to know this wouldn’t work out, but the picture he painted was so beautiful and serene that all I could do was whisper Yes, yes.

That summer, the summer of 1918, was blighted.

In May and June there was no rain and the crops withered, curled up, then died under the thirsty sun.

“I certainly did,” Doodle reiterated, scowling at me over the top of his iced-tea glass, and we were quiet again.

“I certainly did,” Doodle reiterated, scowling at me over the top of his iced-tea glass, and we were quiet again.

Doodle stopped eating, with a piece of brad poised ready for his mouth, his eyes popped round like two blue buttons.

On the topmost branch a bird the size of a chicken, with scarlet feathers and long legs, was perched precariously.

Far off in the marsh a rail was scolding, and over on the beach locusts were singing in the myrtle trees.

I hadn’t run too far before I became tired and the flood of childish spite evanesced as well.

For a long long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.

Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my own infallibility He, too, now believed in my infallibility, so we set the deadline for these accomplishments less than a year away, when, it had been decided, Doodle could start school.