118
I always knew what sort of weather
We were going to have,
For Cynthia never wore her feather
When the weather would be bad.
PARTISAN REVIEW
But when the days were warm and bright
Cynthia wore a feather.
Sometimes black and sometimes white,
The color doesn't count whatever.
Ockersly, come up for another drink, said he for one admired the
sound of it quite a lot. Lutz offered this:
With teats distended with their milky store,
Such numerous lowing herds, before my door,
Their painful burden
to
unload did meet,
That we with butter might have washed our feet.
They moved away from the desk and typewriter, and as noon
slipped past Abbott had Lutz climbing bookcase ladders and reading
aloud from the poets and everyone else. When Lutz got somewhat
thick-tongued, Ockersly took a turn. But he was only good at Sir
Thomas Browne and, though he was magnificent at that, he made all
the rest sound like Browne. Abbott took a turn, but his eyes were bad
and the reading gave him a monstrous headache and he had to lie down
with his eyes closed. Recovering, he sat up and had Ockersly sing for
them. He had just had a go at "Old Bangum" when Cookie brought in
a tray of his famous little sandwiches. He stayed for a drink, and the
four of them tried some barbershop. Later they went out onto the
terrace and cranked up a record player. They spent some pleasant hours
listening to music and playing canasta, at which Cookie proved
indomitable even after he got so stewed he believed they were at sea and
kept slowly leaning back and forth. Later, upon Abbott's command,
Cookie, Ockersly, and Lutz donned get-ups: Cookie a Chinaman's
black silk suit, cap, and pigtail; Ockersly his red riding jacket and
jodhpurs; and Lutz tried on a priest's garb, with soutane. For a while
Abbott wore a Little Boy BluelLord Fauntleroy suit which Cookie had
made for him, but he had to take it off after a while because he got hot
inside it and was panting loudly. The evening was expansive and very
long, with scenes from
Romeo and Juliet,
more singing, and some
dancing, in all of which Abbott participated with gusto. I hazily recall
Father Lu tz writing on a blackboard with yellow chalk, while Abbott
stood back scolding him and repeating the words Lutz crookedly
