[...]... nails It ran up and down the major and minor diatonics, up and down the chromatic, with the speed and fury of a typhoon, and the attention to detail of Paderewski—at his best, when he makes the women faint and with the power and volume of a church organ with all the stops pulled out It shook and It trilled and It quavered, and It gargled as if It had a barrel of glycothermoline in It' s mouth and had... breeze rose and swept the sky and ocean till they were one and the same blue, the blue that comes highest at Tiffany's; and little puffs of shore birds came in on the breeze and began to run up and down on the beach, jabbing their bills into the damp sand and flapping their little wings It was like Eden—Eden -by- theSea—I wouldn't have been surprised if Eve had come out of the woods yawning and stretching.. .IT Prana Beach would be a part of the solid west coast if it wasn't for a half circle of the deadliest, double-damned, orchidhaunted black morass, with a solid wall of insects that bite, rising out of it But the beach is good dry sand, and the wind keeps the bugs back in the swamp Between the beach and the swamp is a strip of loam and jungle, where some niggers live and a god I landed on Prana... to do, with a heathen It- god strolling around Yes, the thing came out on the beach, in full view of where I was, but I couldn't see it, because of the pitch dark It came out, and made noises with its feet in the sand—up and down—up and down—scrunch— scrunch—something like a man walking, and not in a hurry Something like it, but not exactly The It' s feet (they have seven toes according to the nigger... again—jumped a major fifth, held it till it must have been half burst for breath, and then went down the scale an octave, hitting every note in the middle, and giving the effect of one damned soul meeting another out in eternity and yelling for pure joy and malice The finish was a whoop on the low note so loud that it lifted my hair Then the howl was cut off as sharp and neat and sudden as I've seen a Chinaman's... believe a word of it if, I say, just then It began to cut loose—back of you—way off to the left—way off to the right—why you'd have been scared It wasn't the noise it made so much as the fact that it could make any noise at all Shut your mouth tight and hum on the letter m-mmmmmmm—that's it exactly Only It' s was ten times as loud, and vibrating The vibrations shook me where I stood With the wind right,... pocket, and so I carry one on purpose See? Not an airy, fairy Lillian, but an honest, hard-working Jane good to clean a pipe with So I fished out the slip of skin (with the one I had then) and spread it out on my knee, and translated what was written on it, for the thousandth time Can you read that? The old-fashioned S's mix you up It' s straight modern Italian I don't know what the ink's made of, but the. .. was the duty that I owed to humanity; to share the treasure was the duty that I owed to myself So I got together some niggers, and the fancy craft I've described (on shares with a Singapore Dutchman, who was too fat to come himself, and too much married), and made a start You're bothered by my calling them niggers Is that it? Well, the Mason and Dixon line ran plump through my father's house; but mother's... find out The thing had five toes, like a man, which was a relief But unlike nigger feet, the thumb toe and the index weren't spread The thumb bent sharply inward, and mixed its pad mark with that of the index Furthermore, though the impress of the toes was very deep (down-slanting like a man walking on tiptoe), the heel marks were also very deep, and between toe and heel marks there were no other marks... touch the ground as often as a man's would have done in walking the distance There'd be one scrunch and then quite a long pause before the next It sounded like a very, very big man, taking the very longest steps he could But there wasn't any more mouth work And for that I'm still offering up prayers of thanksgiving; for, if—say when it was just opposite where I lay, and not fifty yards off it had let off . alt="" The Project Gutenberg EBook of IT and Other Stories, by Gouverneur Morris This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, . it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www .gutenberg. net Title: IT and Other Stories Author: Gouverneur Morris Release. solid wall of insects that bite, rising out of it. But the beach is good dry sand, and the wind keeps the bugs back in the swamp. Between the beach and the swamp is a strip of loam and jungle,