The idee! of that little skeletin with her skinny lips drawed back from her shinin" fish teeth, a singin". The idee on"t!
But truly, he wuz destracted and knew not what he did. The mariner in charge looked destracted. And the bystanders a standin" by wuz amazed, and horrowfied by the spectacle of his actin" and behavin". And I knew not how I should termonate the seen, and withdraw him away from where he wuz.
But in my destraction and agony of sole, I bethought me of one meens of quietin" him and as it were terrifyin" him into silence and be the meens of gettin" on him to leave the seen. I begoned to Ardelia to come forward and I sez in a whisper to her, "Take out your pencil and a piece of paper and stand up in front of him and go to writin" some of your poetry,"
And then I sez agin in tender agents, "Be calm, Josiah."
"And I tell you that I won"t be calm! And I tell you," a shakin"
his fist at that pale mariner, "I tell you to bring out -- "
At that very minute he turned his eyes onto Ardelia, who stood with a kind of a fur-away look in her eyes in front of him with the paper in her hand, and sez he to me, "What is she doin"?"
"She is composin" some poetry onto you, Josiah Allen," sez I, in tremblin" axents; for I felt that if that skeme failed, I wuz undone, for I knew I had no ingredients there to get him a extra good meal. No, I felt that my tried and true weepon wuz fur away, and this wuz my last hope.
But as I thought these thoughts with almost a heatlightnin"
rapidety, I see a change in his liniment. It did not look so thick and dark; it began to look more natural and clear.
And sez he in the same old way I have heerd him say it so many times, "Dumb it all! What duz she want to write poetry on me for? It is time to go home." And so sayin", he almost tore us from the seen.
I gin Ardelia that night 2 yards of lute-string ribbon, a light pink, and didn"t begrech it. But I have never dast, not in his most placid and serene moments - I have never dast, to say the word "Mermaid" to him.
Truly there is something that the boldest female pardner da.s.sent do. Mermaids is one of the things I don" dast to bring up. No!
no, fur be it from me to say "Mermaid" to Josiah Allen.
XII.
A DRIVE TO SARATOGA LAKE.
Josiah and me took a short drive this afternoon, he hirin" a buggy for the occasion. He called it "goin" in his own conveniance,"
and I didn"t say nothin" aginst his callin" it so. I didn"t break it up for this reasun, thinkses I it is a conveniance for us to ride in it, for us 2 tried and true souls to get off for a minute by ourselves.
Wall, Josiah wuz dretful good behaved this afternoon. He helped me in a good deal politer than usual and tucked the bright lap-robe almost tenderly round my form.
Men do have sech spells. They are dretful good actin" at times.
Why they act better and more subdueder and mellerer at sometimes than at others, is a deep subject which we mortals cannot as yet fully understand. Also visey versey, their cross, up headeder times, over bearin" and actin". It is a deep subject and one freighted with a great deal of freight.
But Josiah"s goodness on this afternoon almost reached the Scripteral and he sez, when we first sot out, and I see that the horse"s head wuz turned towards the Lake. Sez he, "I guess we"ll go to the Lake, but where do you want to go, Samantha? I will go anywhere you want to go."
And he still drove almost recklessly on lakewards. And sez he, "We had better go straight on, but say the word, and you can go jest where you want to." And he urged the horse on to still greater speed. And he sez agin, "Do you want to go any particular place, Samantha?"
"Yes," sez I, "I had jest as leves go there as not."
"Wall, I knew there would be where you would want to go." And he drove on at a good jog. But no better jog than we had been a goin" on.
Wall the weather wuz delightful. It wuz soft and balmy. And my feelin"s towered my pardner (owin" to his linement) wuz soft and balmy as the air. And so we moved onwards, past the home of one who wuz true to his country, when all round him wuz false, who governed his state wisely and well, held the lines firm, when she wuz balky, and would have been glad to take the lines in her teeth and run away onto ruin; past the big grand house of him who carried a piece of our American justice way off into Egypt and carried it firm and square too right there in the dark. I s"pose it is dark. I have always hearn about its bein" as dark as Egypt. Wall, anyway he is a good lookin" man. They both on "em are and Josiah admitted it - after some words.
Wall anon, or perhaps a little after, we came to where we could see the face of Beautiful Saratoga Lake, layin" a smilin" up into the skies. A little white cloud wuz a restin" up on the top of the tree-covered mountain that riz up on one side of the lake, and I felt that it might be the shadow form of the sacred dove Saderrosseros a broodin" down over the waters she loved.
That she loved still, though another race wuz a bathin" their weary forwards in the tide. And I wondered as I looked down on it, whether the great heart of the water wuz constant; if it ever heaved up into deep sithes a thinkin" of the one who had pa.s.sed away, of them who once rested lightly on her bosem, bathed their dark forwards and read the meanin" of the heavens, in the moon and stars reflected there.
I don"t know as she remembered "em, and Josiah don"t. But I know as we stood there, a lookin" down on her, the lake seemed to give a sort of a sithe and a shiver kind a run over her, not a cold shiver exactly, but a sort of a shinin", glorified shiver. I see it a comin" from way out on the lake and it swept and sort a shivered on clean to the sh.o.r.e and melted away there at our feet.
Mebby it wuz a sort o" sithe, and mebby agin it wuzn"t.
I guess it felt that it wuz all right, that a fairer race had brought fairer customs and habits of thoughts, and the change wuz not a bad one. I guess she looked forward to the time when a still grander race should look down into her shinin" face, a race of free men, and free wimmen; sons and daughters of G.o.d, who should hold their birthright so grandly and n.o.bly that they will look back upon the people of to-day, as we look back upon the dark sons and daughters of the forest, in pity and dolor.
I guess she thought it wuz all right. Any way she acted as if she did. She looked real sort o" serene and calm as we left her, and sort o" prophetic too, and glowin".
Wall, we went by a long first rate lookin" sort of a tarven, I guess. It wuz a kind of a dark red color, and dretfully flowered off in wood - red wood. And there we see standin" near the house, a great big round sort of a buildin", and my Josiah sez,
"There! that is a buildin" I like the looks on. That is a barn I like; built perfectly round. That is sunthin" uneek. I"ll have a barn like that if I live. I fairly love that barn." And he stopped the horse stun still to look at it.
And I sez in sort o" cool tones, not entirely cold, but coolish: "What under the sun do you want with a round barn? And you don"t need another one."
"Wall, I don"t exactly need it, Samantha, but it would be a comfert to me to own one. I should dearly love a round barn."
And he went on pensively, - "I wonder how much it would cost. I wouldn"t have it quite so big as this is. I"d have it for a horse barn, Samantha. It would look so fashionable, and genteel.
Think what it would be, Samantha, to keep our old mair in a round barn, why the mair would renew her age."
"She wouldn"t pay no attention to it," sez I. "She knows too much." And I added in cooler, more dignifieder tones, but dretful meanin" ones, "The old mair, Josiah Allen, don"t run after every new fancy she hears on. She don"t try to be fashionable, and she haint high-headed, except," sez I, reasenably, "when you check her up too much."
"Wall," sez he, "I am bound to make some enquiries. h.e.l.lo!" says he to a bystander a comin" by. "Have you any idee what such a barn as that would cost? A little smaller one, I don"t need so big a one. How many feet of lumber do you s"pose it would take for it? I ask you," sez he, "as between man and man."
I nudged him there, for as I have said, I didn"t believe then, and I don"t believe now, that he or any other man ever knew or mistrusted what they meant by that term "as between man and man."
I think it sounds kind o" flat, and I always oppose Josiah"s usin" it; he loves it.
Wall, the man broke out a" laughin" and sez he, "That haint a barn, that is a tree."
"A tree!" sez I, a sort o" cranin" my neck forward in deep amaze.
And what exclamation Josiah Allen made, I will not be coaxed into revealin"; no, it is better not.
But suffice it to say that after a long explanation my companion at last gin in that the man wuz a tellin" the truth, and it wuz the lower part of a tree-trunk, that growed once near the Yo Semity valley of California. Good land! good land!
Josiah drove on quick after the man explained it, he felt meachin", but I didn"t notice his linement so much, I wuz so deep in thought, and a wonderin" about it; a wonderin" how the old tree felt with her feet a restin" here on strange soil - her withered, dry old feet a standin" here, as if jest ready to walk away restless like and feverish, a wantin" to get back by the rushin" river that used to bathe them feet in the spring overflow of the pure cold mountain water. It seemed to me she felt she was a alien, as if she missed her strong st.u.r.dy grand old body, her lofty head that used to peer up over the mountains, and as if some day she wuz a goin" to set off a walkin" back, a tryin" to find "em.
I thought of how it had towered up, how the sun had kissed its branches, how the birds had sung and built their nests against her green heart, hovered in her great, outstretched arms. The birds of a century, the birds of a thousand years. How the storms had beat upon her; the first autumn rains of a thousand years, the first snow-flakes that had wavered down in a slantin"
line and touched the tips of her outstretched fingers, and then had drifted about her till her heart wuz almost frozen and she would clap her cold hands together to warm "em, and wail out a dretful moanin" sound of desolation, and pain.
But the first warm rain drops of Spring would come, the sunshine warmed her, she swung out her grand arms in triumph agin, and joined the majestic psalm of victory and rejoicing with all her grand sisterhood of psalmists. The stars looked down on her, the sun lit her lofty forward, the suns and stars of a thousand years. Strange animals, that mebby we don"t know anything about now, roamed about her feet, birds of a different plumage and song sung to her (mebby).
Strange faces of men and women looked up to her. What faces had looked up to her in sorrow and in joy? I"d gin a good deal to know. I"d have loved to see them strange faces touched with strange pains and hopes. Tribulations and joys of a thousand years ago. What sort of tribulations wuz they, and what sort of joys? Sunthin" human, sunthin" that we hold in common, no doubt.
The same pain that pained Eve as she walked down out of Eden, the same joy that Adam enjoyed while they and the garden wuz prosperus, wuz in their faces most probable whether their forwards wuz pinted or broad, their faces black, copper colored or white.
And the changes, the changes of a thousand years, all these the old tree had seen, and I respected her dry dusty old feet and wuz sorry for "em. And I reveryed on the subject more"n half the way home, and couldn"t help it. Anyway my revery lasted till jest before we got to the big gate of the Race Course.
And right there, right in front of them big ornamental doors, we see Miss G. Washington Flamm, with about a thousand other carriages and wagons and Tally ho"s and etcetry, and etcetry. Josiah thinks there wuz a million teams, but I don"t. I am mejum; there wuzn"t probable over a thousand right there in the road.