And I sot there all alone, and a-meditatin" on things, and a-wonderin" what under the sun he wuz a-traipsin up to Joe Charnick"s for at that time of night, and a-worryin" some for fear he wuz a-keepin" Miss Charnick up, and a-spozin" in my mind what Miss Charnick would do, to get along with the meetin" house, and the Conference question, if she wuz a member. (She is a very sensible woman, Jenette Charnick is, very, and a great favorite with me, and others.) And I got to thinkin" how prosperus and happy she is now, and how much she had went through. And I declare the hull thing come back to me, all the strange and curius circ.u.mstances connected with her courtship and marriage, and I thought it all out agin, the hull story, from beginnin" to end.
The way it begun wuz-and the way Josiah Allen and me come to have any connectin with the story wuz as follers: Some time ago, and previus, we had a widder come to stay with us a spell, she that wuz Tamer Shelmadine, Miss Trueman Pool that now is.
Her husband died several years ago, and left her not over and above well off. And so she goes round a-visitin", and has went ever sense his death. And finds sights of faults with things wherever she is, sights of it.
Trueman wuz Josiah"s cousin, on his own side, and I always made a practice of usin" her quite well. She used to live neighbor to me before I wuz married, and she come and stayed nine weeks.
She is a tall spindlin" woman, a Second Adventist by perswasion, and weighs about ninety-nine pounds.
Wall, as I say, she means middlin" well, and would be quite agreeable if it wuzn"t for a habit she has of thinkin" what she duz is a leetle better than anybody else can do, and wantin" to tell a leetle better story than anybody else can.
Now she thinks she looks better than I do. But Josiah sez she can"t begin with me for looks, and I don"t spoze she can, though of course it hain"t to be expected that I would want it told of that I said so. No, I wouldn"t want it told of pro or con, especially con. But I know Josiah Allen has always been called a pretty good judge of wimmen"s looks.
And now she thinks she can set hens better than I can-and make better riz biscuit. She jest the same as told me so. Any way, the first time I baked bread after she got here, she looked down on my loaves real haughty, yet with a pityin" look, and sez: "It is very good for yeast, but I always use milk emptin"s."
And she kinder tested her head, and sort o" swept out of the room, not with a broom, no, she would scorn to sweep out a room with a broom or help me in any way, but she sort o" swept it out with her mean. But I didn"t care, I knew my bread wuz good.
Now if anybody is sick, she will always tell of times when she has been sicker. She boasts of layin" three nights and two days in a fit. But we don"t believe it, Josiah and me don"t. That is, we don"t believe she lay there so long, a-runnin".
We believe she come out of "em occasionally.
But you couldn"t get her to give off a hour or a minute of the time. Three nights and two days she lay there a-runnin", so she sez, and she has said it so long, that we spoze, Josiah and me do, that she believes it herself now.
CHAPTER XIII.
Curius, hain"t it? How folks will get to tellin" things, and finally tell "em so much, that finally they will get to believin" of "em themselves-boastin" of bein" rich, etc., or bad. Now I have seen folks boast over that, act real haughty because they had been bad and got over it. I"ve seen temperance lecturers and religious exhorters boast sights and sights over how bad they had been. But they wuzn"t tellin" the truth, though they had told the same thing so much that probable they had got to thinkin" so.
But in the case of one man in petickuler, I found out for myself, for I didn"t believe what he wuz a sayin" any of the time.
Why, he made out in evenin" meetin"s, protracted and otherwise, that he had been a awful villain. Why no pirate wuz ever wickeder than he made himself out to be, in the old times before he turned round and become pious.
But I didn"t believe it, for he had a good look to his face, all but the high headed look he had, and sort o" vain.
But except this one look, his face wuz a good moral face, and I knew that no man could cut up and act as he claimed that he had, without carryin" some marks on the face of the cuttin" up, and also of the actin".
And so, as it happened, I went a visitin" (to Josiah"s relations) to the very place where he had claimed to do his deeds of wild badness, and I found that he had always been a pattern man-never had done a single mean act, so fur as wuz known.
Where wuz his boastin" then? As the Bible sez, why, it wuz all vain talk. He had done it to get up a reputation. He had done it because he wuz big feelin" and vain. And he had got so haughty over it, and had told of it so much, that I spoze he believed in it himself.
Curius! hain"t it? But I am a eppisodin", and to resoom. Trueman"s wife would talk jest so, jest so haughty and high headed, about the world comin" to a end.
She"d dispute with everybody right up and down if they disagreed with her-and specially about that religion of hern. How sot she wuz, how extremely sot.
But then, it hain"t in me, nor never wuz, to fight anybody for any petickuler religion of theirn. There is sights and sights of different religions round amongst different friends of mine, and most all on "em quite good ones.
That is, they are agreeable to the ones who believe in "em, and not over and above disagreeable to me.
Now it seems to me that in most all of these different doctrines and beliefs, there is a grain of truth, and if folks would only kinder hold onto that grain, and hold themselves stiddy while they held onto it, they would be better off.
But most folks when they go to follerin" off a doctrine, they foller too fur, they hain"t megum enough.
Now, for instance, when you go to work and whip anybody, or hang "em, or burn "em up for not believin" as you do, that is goin" too fur.
It has been done though, time and agin, in the world"s history, and mebby will be agin.
But it hain"t reasonable. Now what good will doctrines o" any kind do to anybody after they are burnt up or choked to death?
You see such things hain"t bein" megum. Because I can"t believe jest as somebody else duz, it hain"t for me to pitch at "em and burn "em up, or even whip "em.
No, indeed! And most probable if I should study faithfully out their beliefs, I would find one grain, or mebby a grain and a half of real truth in it.
Now, for instance, take the doctrines of Christian Healin", or Mind Cure. Now I can"t exactly believe that if I fell down and hurt my head on a stun-I cannot believe as I am a layin" there, that I hain"t fell, and there hain"t no stun-and while I am a groanin" and a bathin" the achin" bruise in anarky and wormwood, I can"t believe that there hain"t no such thing as pain, nor never wuz.
No, I can"t believe this with the present light I have got on the subject.
But yet, I have seen them that this mind cure religion had fairly riz right up, and made "em nigher to heaven every way-so nigh to it that seemin"ly a light out of some of its winders had lit up their faces with its glowin" repose, its sweet rapture.
I"ve seen "em, seen "em as the Patent Medicine Maker observes so frequently, "before and after takin"."
Folks that wuz despondent and hopeless, and wretched actin", why, this belief made "em jest blossom right out into a state of hopefulness, and calmness, and joy-refreshin" indeed to contemplate.
Wall now, the idee of whippin" anybody for believin" anything that brings such a good change to "em, and fills them and them round "em with so much peace and happiness.
Why, I wouldn"t do it for a dollar bill. And as for hangin" "em, and brilin" "em on gridirons, etc., why, that is entirely out of the question, or ort to be.
And now, it don"t seem to me that I ever could make a tree walk off, by lookin" at it, and commandin" it to-or call some posys to fall down into my lap, right through, the plasterin"- Or send myself, or one of myselfs, off to Injy, while the other one of me stayed to Jonesville.
Now, honestly speakin", it don"t seem to me that I ever could learn to do this, not at my age, any way, and most dead with rheumatiz a good deal of the time.
I most know I couldn"t.
But then agin I have seen believers in Theosiphy that could do wonders, and seemed indeed to have got marvelous control over the forces of Natur.
And now the idee of my whippin" "em for it. Why you wouldn"t ketch me at it.
And Spiritualism now! I spoze, and I about know that there are lots of folks that won"t ever see into any other world than this, till the breath leaves their body.
Yet i"ve seen them, pure sweet souls too, as I ever see, whose eyes beheld blessed visions withheld from more material gaze.
Yes, i"ve neighbored with about all sorts of religius believers, and never disputed that they had a right to their own religion.
And I"ve seen them too that didn"t make a practice of goin" to any meetin" houses much, who lived so near to G.o.d and his angels that they felt the touch of angel hands on their forwards every day of their lives, and you could see the glow of the Fairer Land in their rapt eyes.
They had outgrown the outward forms of religion that had helped them at first, jest as children outgrow the primers and ABC books of their childhood and advance into the higher learnin".
I"ve seen them folks i"ve neighbored with "em. Human faults they had, or G.o.d would have taken them to His own land before now. Their imperfections, I spoze sort o" anch.o.r.ed "em here for a spell to a imperfect world.
But you could see, if you got nigh enough to their souls to see anything about "em-you could see that the anchor chains wuz slight after all, and when they wuz broke, oh how lightly and easily they would sail away, away to the land that their rapt souls inhabited even now.
Yes, I"ve seen all sorts of religius believers and I wuzn"t goin" to be too hard on Tamer for her belief, though I couldn"t believe as she did.
CHAPTER XIV.
He come to our house a visitin" along the first week in June, and the last day in June wuz the day they had sot for the world to come to an end. I, myself, didn"t believe she knew positive about it, and Josiah didn"t either. And I sez to her, "The Bible sez that it hain"t agoin" to be revealed to angels even, or to the Son himself, but only to the Father when that great day shall be." And sez I to Trueman"s wife, sez I, "How should you be expected to know it?"
Sez she, with that same collected together haughty look to her, "My name wuzn"t mentioned, I believe, amongst them that wuzn"t to know it!"
And of course I had to own up that it wuzn"t. But good land! I didn"t believe she knew a thing more about it than I did, but I didn"t dispute with her much, because she wuz one of the relatives on his side-you know you have to do different with "em than you do with them on your own side-you have to. And then agin, I felt that if it didn"t come to an end she would be convinced that she wuz in the wrong on"t, and if she did we should both of us be pretty apt to know it, so there wuzn"t much use in disputin" back and forth.
But she wuz firm as iron in her belief. And she had come up visitin" to our home, so"s to be nigh when Trueman riz. Trueman wuz buried in the old Risley deestrict, not half a mile from us on a back road. And she naterally wanted to be round at the time.
She said plain to me that Trueman never could seem to get along without her. And though she didn"t say it right out, she carried the idea (and Josiah resented it because Trueman was a favorite cousin of his"n on his own side.) She jest the same as said right out that Trueman, if she wuzn"t by him to tend to him, would be jest as apt to come up wrong end up as any way.
Josiah didn"t like it at all.
Wall, she had lived a widowed life for a number of years, and had said right out, time and time agin, that she wouldn"t marry agin. But Josiah thought, and I kinder mistrusted myself, that she wuz kinder on the lookout, and would marry agin if she got a chance-not fierce, you know, or anything of that kind, but kinder quietly lookin" out and standin" ready. That wuz when she first come; but before she went away she acted fierce.
Wall, there wuz sights of Adventists up in the Risley deestrict, and amongst the rest wuz an old bachelder, Joe Charnick.
And Joe Charnick wuz, I s"poze, of all Advents, the most Adventy. He jest knew the world wuz a comin" to a end that very day, the last day of June, at four o"clock in the afternoon. And he got his robe all made to go up in. It wuz made of a white book muslin, and Jenette Finster made it. Cut it out by one of his mother"s nightgowns-so she told me in confidence, and of course I tell it jest the same; I want it kep.
She was afraid Joe wouldn"t like it, if he knew she took the nightgown for a guide, wantin" it, as he did, for a religious purpose.