Page 53

By Jack Joseph Smith

53 Ine NCEAEE Such gentle and certain laughter was: climbing eut of our cemplete innecience | that we-could see our feelings lifting the pollen away se that it no lenger was hanging o1 ish i aL a om ig on our wishess All those faintly red teyngkh dripping freshness: on a sumer afterneen, that was going way beyond all the leve words af bathing angless Hey, there goes my tops; said a little girl giggling abive-mes How did she get up se far3 I thoughts Me-tee, said aneuther voice and me tee, said anouthers * I better take my pants-off, before they beat me, I thoughts There-go my botteme; [ said, Danial toek his shirt eff very slewly and held it in hie-finger tips for a- mement and then let it drep away watching the cloth curl up en the greunds I took my shirt eff quickly and tossed it above a teaching limb and watched it catch itssown wind and flutter findbty below me with the weedss~ Danial was the last bey te take his pants-ef and as-with hie-shirt he let them hang awhile until he decided te epen his -fingeres All! we boys were in our underware watching dbbicate ikttlaigielgigiggle under their-skirtss Gee it was pO eal te-listen to the silly little-thingsj After a few minytes: they had all taken their skirts off and’ began hanging them in. the trees The white enes-were the prettyest with the°s,n se bright ameng all the other different ebipres When they had finished we all lecked inte our dreams and 7 Siewly and ene by one began picking eur second’ appless’ We were in the sree fer a leng time listening for noises-and moving eur faces with the sounds ef each others presences It was almost as if Mrs Metzes was-waiting fer us , te strip all the way, but we didn't dares We all wondered where he was and ia

Original Scan

Page 53

AI Interpretation

GPT

Stripping down to underwear and hanging garments in the branches, the children turn the apple tree into a secret bathing world of innocence, embarrassment, watching, and unfinished daring under the imagined gaze of Mister Metzes.

The transcript is noisy in spots, but the action is clear enough: the boys follow the girls, clothing becomes part of the tree, and everyone drifts into a dreamy, half-erotic child play that still stops short of complete exposure. Mister Metzes remains important not because he appears, but because his possible watching gives the scene its edge.

Claude

The stripping proceeds with ceremonial slowness — Danial letting his shirt curl to the ground, girls hanging skirts on branches — an Edenic passage the narrator loads with the angelic and the bathing.