""Josiah Allen"s wife, Hatye has done real well, and I am glad that I discovered it.""
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Josiah Allen"s wife, Hatye has done real well, and I am glad that I discovered it."]
Wall, that night, when I got back to Miss Plankses, I found a letter from Tirzah Ann, and my worst apprehensions I had apprehended in her case wuz realized.
She and Whitfield wuzn"t a-comin" to the Fair at all.
By the time she got her oyster-sh.e.l.l stockin"s done, the weather had moderated, so it wuz too cool to wear "em, and it was too late then to begin woosted ones (of course, she could buy stockin"s, but she wuz sot on havin" hand-made ones, bein" so much nicer, and so much more liable to attract respect and admiration)--
And then by that time the weather wuz so variable that she didn"t know whether to take summer clothes or winter ones, and so she dallied along till it got so late that Whitfield didn"t dast to take her out at all, she wuz so kinder mauger.
She had wore herself all out a-bonin" down and knittin" them stockin"s, and embroiderin" them night-shirts, and preparin" for the Fair, so they gin up comin".
I felt bad.
CHAPTER XXI.
Wall, it wuz all settled as I wanted it to be. Them two angels, as I couldn"t hardly keep callin" "em, if one of "em wuz a he angel--them two lovely good creeters wuz married right in the place where I wanted "em to be married--right in our parlor, in front of the picter of Grant, and not fur back of the hangin" lamp, but fur enough back so"s to allow of a lovely bell of white roses and lilies to swing over their heads.
The bell wuz made of the white roses, and a fair white lily hung down, a-swingin" its noiseless music out into the hearts below--sacred music which we all seemed to hear in our inmost hearts as we looked into the faces that stood under that magic bell.
Isabelle had on a white muslin gown, plain, but shear and fine, and she wore a bunch of white roses at her belt and at her white throat, and she carried in her hand a bunch of rare ones.
But it all corresponded, for she wuz the white lily herself, as tall, and fair, and queenly.
Only when the words wuz said that made her Tom"s wife, her cheeks flushed up as no white lily ever did, even under the sun"s rosiest rays.
But a sun wuz a-shinin" on her that went beyend any earthly sun--it wuz the rays of the great planet Love that illuminated her face, and lit up her glorified eyes with the light that wuz never on sea nor on sh.o.r.e.
Her husband looked right into her face all the while the Elder wuz a-unitin" "em, a-lookin" at her as if he could not quite believe in his happiness yet--looked at her as one looks at a pearl of great price, when he has recovered it after a long loss.
I sez to Josiah, as I see that look on his face--
"Many waters may not quench it, Josiah Allen, nor floods drown it, can they?"
And he brung me back to the present by remarkin"--
"I wouldn"t bring up drowndins and conflagrations at such a time as this, Samantha."
And I sithed and sez to myself, what I have said so many times to she that wuz Samantha Smith, in strict confidence--
"How different, how different Josiah Allen and I look at things! And still we worship each other, jest about."
Wall, Thomas Jefferson and Maggie wuz there, and Tirzah Ann and Whitfield, and the children, and Krit. The two girls, our daughters, wuz dressed in white, and the Babe stood up by the bride dressed in white, and holdin" a cunnin" little basket of posies in her hand, and they all looked pretty, and felt pretty, and acted so.
We had good refreshments to refresh ourselves with, and everything went off happy and joyous, as weddings should, and will, if True Love stands up with "em; and she is the only Bridesmaid worth a cent.
(I am aware that it is usual to call Love a he, but I believe in fair play, and you may as well call it a she once in a while, specially as the female sect are as lovin" agin as the he ones, so I think.)
Wall, they had lots and lots of presents--nice ones too. Mr. Freeman"s gift to her wuz two diamond and ruby bracelets, that shone on her white wrists like sparks of fire and dew.
Them diamonds seemed to be the mates of the ones that had burned on her finger ever sence a day or two after they met at the World"s Fair.
So you see, though she gin her jewels away in her youth, she found "em agin in her ripe, sweet womanhood. She gin away the jewels of her ambition, her glowin" hopes and desires, for a career, and she found "em more than all made up to her.
But the jewels her husband prized most in her wuz the calm light of patience, and love, and womanliness that shone on her face. They wuz made, them pure pearls of hern, as pearls always are, by long sufferin"
and endurance, and the "constant anguish of patience."
Krit give her for his gift a beautiful cross of precious stones, and I mistrusted, from what I see in her face when he gin it to her, that he meant it to be symbolical, and then agin I don"t know. But, anyway, she wore it a-fastenin" the lace at her white throat.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Krit give her a beautiful cross.]
But I do know that the girls and I gin her some good linen napkins, and towels, and table-cloths, and the boys a handsome set of books.
And I do know that the supper afterwards wuz, although well I know the impoliteness of my even hintin" at it--I do know, and I should lie if I said that I didn"t know it, that that supper wuz a good one--as good a one, so fur as my knowledge goes, as wuz ever put on a table in the town of Lyme, or the village of Jonesville.
And Josiah Allen, he eat too much--fur, fur too much. And I hunched him three times to that effect at the time, to no avail.
And once I stepped on his toe--a dretful warnin" steppin"--and he asked me out loud and snappish (I hit a corn, I spoze, onbeknown to me)--and he asked me right out before "em all, voyalent, "What I wuz a-steppin"
on his toe for?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: I stepped on his toe.]
And so, of course, that curbed me in, and I had to let him go on, and cut a full swath in the vittles. But it wuz some comfort for me to think that most likely he wouldn"t be tempted by a weddin" supper agin--not for some time, anyway. For the Babe wuz but young yet, and we wuz gettin" along.
Yes, that hull weddin" went off perfectly beautiful, and there wuzn"t but one drawback to my happiness on that golden day that united them two happy lovers.
Yes, onbeknown to me a feelin" of sadness come over me--sadness and regret.
It wuzn"t any worriment and concern about the fate of Isabelle and her husband --no; True Love wuz a-goin" out with "em on their weddin"
tower, and I knew if he went ahead of "em, and they wuz a-walkin" in the light of his torch, their way wuz a-goin" to be a radiant and a satisfyin" one, whether it led up hill or down or over the deep waters--yea, even over the swellin" of Jordan.
No, it wuzn"t that, nor anything relatin" to the children, or my dress, or anything--
No, my dress--a new lilock gray alpaca--sot out n.o.ble round my form, and my new head-dress wuz foamin" lookin", but it didn"t foam too much.
No, it wuzn"t that, nor anything about the neighbors--no; they looked some envious at our n.o.ble doin"s, and walked by the house considerable, and the wimmen made errents, and borrowed more tea and sugar, durin" the preparations, than it seemed as if they could use in two years; but I pitied "em, and forgive "em--
And it wuzn"t anything about the children or Krit.
For the children wuz happy in their happy and prosperous hums, and Krit, they say--I don"t tell it for certain--but they say that he come back engaged to a sweet young girl of Chicago--
Come back from the great New World of the World"s Fair, as his ill.u.s.trious namesake went home so long ago, in chains--