Submit Tewksbury cried and wept, and wept and cried, caused by remembrances, it wuz spozed. Of which, more anon, and bimeby.
And Drusilly Sypher, Deacon Sypherses wife, almost had a spazzum, caused by admiration and bein" so highly tickled.
I myself didn"t shed any tears, as I have said heretofore. And what kep" me calmer wuz, I knew, I knew from the bottom of my heart, that she went too fur, she wuzn"t megum enough.
And then she went on to draw up metafors, and haul in ill.u.s.trations, comparin" married life and single-jest as likely metafors as I ever see, and as good ill.u.s.trations as wuz ever brung up, only they every one of "em had this fault-when she got to drawin" "em, she drawed "em too fur. And though she brought the school-house down, she didn"t convince me.
Once she compared single life to a lonely goose travellin" alone acrost the country, "cross lots, lonesome and despairin", travellin" along over a th.o.r.n.y way, and desolate, weighed down by melancholy and gloomy forebodin"s, and takin" a occasional rest by standin" up on one cold foot and puttin" its weery head under its wing, with one round eye lookin" out for dangers that menaced it, and lookin", also, perhaps, for a possible mate, for the comin" gander-restless, wobblin", oneasy, miserable.
Why, she brought the school-house down, and got the audience all wrought up with pity, and sympathy. Oh, how Submit Tewksbury did weep; she wept aloud (she had been disappointed, but of this more bimeby).
And then she went on and compared that lonesome voyager to two blissful wedded ones. A pair of white swans floatin" down the waveless calm, bathed in silvery light, floatin" down a shinin" stream that wuz never broken by rough waves, bathed in a sunshine that wuz never darkened by a cloud.
And then she went on to bring up lots of other things to compare the two states to-flowery things and sweet, and eloquent.
She compared single life to quant.i.ties of things, strange, weird, melancholy things, and curius. Why, they wuz so powerful that every one of "em brought the school-house down.
And then she compared married life to two apple blossoms hangin" together on one leafy bough on the perfumed June air, floatin" back and forth under the peaceful benediction of summer skies.
And she compared it to two white lambs gambolin" on the velvety hill-side. To two strains of music meltin" into one dulcet harmony, perfect, divine harmony, with no discordant notes.
Josiah hunched me, he wanted me to cry there, at that place, but I wouldn"t. He did, he cried like an infant babe, and I looked close and searchin" to see if my handkerchief covered up all his vest.
He didn"t seem to take no notice of his clothes at all, he wuz a-weepin" so-why, the whole schoolhouse wept, wept like a babe.
But I didn"t. I see it wuz a eloquent and powerful effort. I see it was beautiful as anything could be, but it lacked that one thing I have mentioned prior and before this time. It lacked megumness.
I knew they wuz all impressive and beautful ill.u.s.trations, I couldn"t deny it, and I didn"t want to deny it. But I knew in my heart that the lonely goose that she had talked so eloquent about, I knew that though its path might be tegus the most of the time, yet occasionally it stepped upon velvet gra.s.s and blossomin" daisies. And though the happy wedded swans floated considerable easy a good deal of the time, yet occasionally they had their wings rumpled by storms, thunder storms, sudden squalls, and et cetery, et cetery.
And I knew the divine harmony of wedded love, though it is the sweetest that earth affords, I knew that, and my Josiah knew it-the very sweetest and happiest strains that earthly lips can sing.
Yet I knew that it wuz both heavenly sweet, and divinely sad, blended discord and harmony. I knew there wuz minor chords in it, as well as major, I knew that we must await love"s full harmony in heaven. There shall we sing it with the pure melody of the immortals, my Josiah and me. But I am a eppisodin", and to continue and resoom.
Wall, we wuz invited to meet the young female after the lecture wuz over, to be introduced to her and talk it over.
She wuz the Methodist minister"s wive"s cousin, and the minister"s wife told me she wuz dretful anxious to get my opinion on the lecture. I spoze she wanted to get the opinion of one of the first wimmen of the day. For though I am fur from bein" the one that ort to mention it, I have heard of such things bein" said about me all round Jonesville, and as far as Loontown and Shackville. And so, I spoze, she wanted to get hold of my opinion.
Wall, I wuz introduced to her, and I shook hands with her, and kissed her on both cheeks, for she is a sweet girl and I liked her looks.
I could see that she was very, VERY sentimental, but she had a sweet, confidin", innocent look to her, and I give her a good kissin" and I meant it. When I like a person, I do like "em, and visy-versey.
But at the same time my likin" for a person mustn"t be strong enough to overthrow my principles. And when she asked me in her sweet axents, "How I liked her lecture, and if I could see any faults in it?" I leaned up against Duty, and told her, "I liked it first-rate, but I couldn"t agree with every word of it."
Here Josiah Allen give me a look sharp enough to take my head clear off, if looks could behead anybody. But they can"t.
And I kept right on, calm and serene, and sez I, "It wuz very full of beautiful idees, as full of "em as a rose-bush is full of sweetness in June, but," says I, "if I speak at all I must tell the truth, and I must say that while your lecture is as sweet and beautiful a effort as I ever see tackled, full of beautiful thoughts, and eloquence, still I must say that in my opinion it lacked one thing, it wuzn"t mean enough."
"Mean enough?" sez she. "What do you mean?"
"Why," sez I, "I mean, mean temperature, you know, middleinness, megumness, and whatever you may call it; you go too fur."
She said with a modest look "that she guessed she didn"t, she guessed she didn"t go too far."
And Josiah Allen spoke up, cross as a bear, and, sez he, "I know she didn"t. She didn"t say a word that wuzn"t gospel truth."
Sez I, "Married life is the happiest life in my opinion; that is, when it is happy. Some hain"t happy, but at the same time the happiest of "em hain"t all happiness."
"It is," sez Josiah (cross and surly), "it is, too."
And Serena Fogg said, gently, that she thought I wuz mistaken, "she thought it wuz." And Josiah jined right in with her and said: "He knew it wuz, and he would take his oath to it."
But I went right on, and, sez I, "Mebby it is in one sense the most peaceful; that is, when the affections are firm set and stabled it makes "em more peaceful than when they are a-traipsin" round and a-wanderin". But," sez I, "marriage hain"t all peace."
Sez Josiah: "It is, and I"ll swear to it."
Sez I, goin" right on, cool and serene, "The sunshine of true love gilds the pathway with the brightest radiance we know anything about, but it hain"t all radiance."
"Yes, it is," sez Josiah, firmly, "it is, every mite of it."
And Serena Fogg sez, tenderly and amiably, "Yes, I think Mr. Allen is right; I think it is."
"Wall," sez I, in meanin" axcents, awful meanin", "when you are married you will change your opinion, you mark my word."
And she said, gently, but persistently, "That she guessed she shouldn"t; she guessed she was in the right of it."
Sez I, "You think when anybody is married they have got beyend all earthly trials, and nothin" but perfect peace and rest remains?"
And she sez, gently, "Yes, mem!"
"Why," sez I, "I am married, and have been for upwards of twenty years, and I think I ought to know somethin" about it; and how can it be called a state of perfect rest, when some days I have to pa.s.s through as many changes as a comet, and each change a tegus one. I have to wabble round and be a little of everything, and change sudden, too.
"I have to be a cook, a step-mother, a housemaid, a church woman, a wet nurse (lots of times I have to wade out in the damp gra.s.s to take care of wet chickens and goslins). I have to be a tailoress, a dairy-maid, a literary soarer, a visitor, a fruit-canner, a adviser, a soother, a dressmaker, a hostess, a milliner, a gardener, a painter, a surgeon, a doctor, a carpenter, a woman, and more"n forty other things.
"Marriage is a first-rate state, and agreeable a good deal of the time; but it haint a state of perfect peace and rest, and you"ll find out it haint if you are ever married."
But Miss Fogg said, mildly, "that she thought I wuz mistaken-she thought it wuz."
"You do?" sez I.
"Yes, mem," sez she.
I got up, and sez I, "Come, Josiah, I guess we had better be a-goin"." I thought it wouldn"t do no good to argue any more with her, and Josiah started off after the mair. He had hitched it on the barn floor.
She didn"t seem willin" to have me go; she seemed to cling to me. She seemed to be a good, affectionate little creetur. And she said she would give anything almost if she could rehea.r.s.e the hull lecture over to me, and have me criticise it. Sez she: "I have heard so much about you, and what a happy home you have."
"Yes," sez I, "it is as happy as the average of happy homes, any way."
And sez she, "I have heard that you and your husband wuz just devoted to each other." And I told her "that our love for each other wuz like two rocks that couldn"t be moved."
And she said, "On these very accounts she fairly hankered after my advice and criticism. She said she hadn"t never lived in any house where there wuz a livin" man, her father havin" died several months before she was born; and she hadn"t had the experience that I had, and she presumed that I could give her several little idees that she hadn"t thought on."
And I told her calmly "that I presumed I could."
It seemed that her father died two months after marriage, right in the midst of the mellow light of the honeymoon, before he had had time to drop the exstatic sweetness of courtship and newly-married bliss and come down into the ordinary, everyday, good and bad demeanors of men.
And she had always lived with her mother (who naturally worshipped and mentally knelt before the memory of her lost husband) and three sentimental maiden aunts. And they had drawed all their knowledge of manhood from Moore"s poems and Solomon"s Songs. So Serena Fogg"s idees of men and married life wuz about as thin and as well suited to stand the wear and tear of actual experience as a gauze dress would be to face a Greenland winter in.
And so, after considerable urgin" on her part (for I kinder hung back and hated to tackle the job, but not knowin" but that it wuz duty"s call), I finally consented, and it wuz arranged this way: She wuz to come down to our house some day, early in the mornin", and stay all day, and she wuz to stand up in front of me and rehea.r.s.e the lecture over to me, and I wuz to set and hear it, and when she came to a place where I didn"t agree with her I wuz to lift up my right hand and she wuz to stop rehearsin", and we wuz to argue with each other back and forth and try to convince each other.
And when we got it all arranged Josiah and I set out for home, I calm in my frame, though dreadin" the job some.
CHAPTER III.
But Josiah Allen wuz jest crazy over that lecture-crazy as a loon. He raved about it all the way home, and he would repeat over lots of it to me. About "how a man"s love was the firm anchor that held a woman"s happiness stiddy; how his calm and peaceful influence held her mind in a serene calm-a waveless repose; how tender men wuz of the fair sect, how they watched over "em and held "em in their hearts."
"Oh," sez he, "it went beyond anything I ever heard of. I always knew that men wuz good and pious, but I never realized how dumb pious they wuz till to-night."
"She said," sez I, in considerable dry axents-not so dry as I keep by me, but pretty dry-"No true man would let a woman perform any manuel labor."
"Wall, he won"t. There ain"t no need of your liftin" your little finger in emanuel labor."
"Manuel, Josiah."
"Wall, I said so, didn"t I? Hain"t I always holdin" you back from work?"
"Yes," sez I. "You often speak of it, Josiah. You are as good," sez I, firmly, "full as good as the common run of men, and I think a little better. But there are things that have to be done. A married woman that has a house and family to see to and don"t keep a hired girl, can"t get along without some work and care."
"Wall I say," sez he, "that there hain"t no need of you havin" a care, not a single care. Not as long as I live-if it wuzn"t for me, you might have some cares, and most probable would, but not while I live."
I didn"t say nothin" back, for I don"t want to hurt his feelin"s, and won"t, not if I can help it. And he broke out again anon, or nearly anon-
"Oh, what a lecture that wuz. Did you notice when she wuz goin" on perfectly beautiful, about the waveless sea of married life-did you notice how it took the school house down? And I wuz perfectly mortified to see you didn"t weep or even clap your hands."
"Wall," sez I, firmly, "when I weep or when I clap, I weep and clap on the side of truth. And I can"t see things as she duz. I have been a-sailin" on that sea she depictured for over twenty years, and have never wanted to leave it for any other waters. But, as I told her, and tell you now, it hain"t always a smooth sea, it has its ups and downs, jest like any other human states."
Sez I, soarin" up a very little ways, not fur, for it wuz too cold, and I was too tired, "There hain"t but one sea, Josiah Allen, that is calm forever, and one day we will float upon it, you and me. It is the sea by which angels walk and look down into its crystal depths, and behold their blessed faces. It is the sea on whose banks the fadeless lilies blow-and that mirrors the soft, cloudless sky of the Happy Morning. It is the sea of Eternal Repose, that rude blasts can never blow up into billows. But our sea-the sea of married life-is not like that, it is ofttimes billowy and rough."
"I say it hain"t," sez he, for he was jest carried away with the lecture, and enthused.
"We have had a happy time together, Josiah Allen, for over twenty years, but has our sea of life always been perfectly smooth?"
"Yes, it has; smooth as gla.s.s."
"Hain"t there never been a cloud in our sky?"
"No, there hain"t; not a dumb cloud."
Sez I, sternly, "There has in mine. Your wicked and profane swearin" has cast many and many a cloud over my sky, and I"d try to curb in my tongue if I was in your place."
""Dumb" hain"t swearin"," sez he. And then he didn"t say nothin" more till anon, or nearly at that time, he broke out agin, and sez he: "Never, never did I hear or see such eloquence till to-night I"ll have that girl down to our house to stay a week, if I"m a living Josiah Allen."