"Wall," says I, "why didn"t he stay?"
She said he had to hurry home on account of business. He had come in to the village, to get some money. There was goin" to be a lot of men, wimmen, and children sold in his neighborhood the next mornin", and he thought he should buy a girl, if he could find a likely one.
"Sold?" says I, in curious axents.
"Yes," says Sally. "They sell the inmates of the poor-house, every year, to the highest bidder,-sell their labor by the year. They have "em get up on a auction block, and hire a auctioneer, and sell "em at so much a head, to the crowd. Why, some of "em bring as high as twenty dollars a year, besides board.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUYING TIME.]
"Sometimes, he said, there was quite a run on old wimmen, and another year on young ones. He didn"t know but he might buy a old woman. He said there was an old woman that he thought there was a good deal of work in, yet. She had belonged to one of the first families in the State, and had come down to poverty late in life, through the death of some of her relations, and the villany of others. So he thought she had more strength in her than if she had always been worked. He thought, if she didn"t fetch too big a price, he should buy her instead of a young one. They was so balky, he said, young ones was, and would need more to eat, bein" growin". And she could do rough, heavy work, just as well as a younger one, and probably wouldn"t complain so much; and he thought she would last a year, anyway. It was his way, he said, to put "em right through, and, when one wore out, get another one."
I sithed; and says I, "I feel to lament that I wuzn"t here so"s he could have converted me." Says I, "A race of bein"s, that make such laws as these, hadn"t ort to be disturbed by wimmen meddlin" with "em."
"Yes: that is what he said," says Sally, in a innocent way.
I didn"t say no more. Good land! Sally hain"t to blame. But with a n.o.ble scorn filling my eye, and floating out the strings of my head-dress, I moved off to bed.
Wall, the next mornin" I sent Dorlesky"s errents by Bub Smith to William Wallace, for I felt a good deal f.a.gged out. Bub did "em well, and I know it.
But William Wallace sent him to Gen. Logan.
And Gen. Logan said Grover Cleveland was the one to go to: he wuz a sot man, and would do as he agreed. And Mr. Cleveland sent him to Mr. Edmunds.
And Mr. Edmunds told him to go to Samuel G. Tilden, or Roswell P. Flower.
And Mr. Flower sent him to William Walter Phelps.
And Mr. Phelps said that Benjamin P. Butler or Mr. Bayard was the one to do the errent.
And Mr. Bayard sent him to somebody else, and somebody else sent him to another one. And so it went on; and Bub Smith traipsed round, a carryin" them errents, from one man to another, till he was most dead.
Why, he carried them errents round all day, walkin" afoot.
Bub said most every one of "em said the errents wuz just and right, but they couldn"t do "em, and wouldn"t tell their reasons.
One or two, Bub said, opposed it, because they said right out plain, "that they wanted to drink. They wanted to drink every thing they could, and everywhere they could,-hard cider and beer, and brandy and whisky, and every thing."
And they didn"t want wimmen to vote, because they liked to have the power in their own hands: they loved to control things, and kinder boss round- loved to dearly.
These was open-hearted men who spoke as they felt. But they was exceptions. Most every one of "em said they couldn"t do it, and wouldn"t tell their reasons.
Till way along towards night, a senator he had been sent to, bein" a little in liquor at the time, and bein" talkative; he owned up the reasons why the senators wouldn"t do the errents.
He said they all knew in their own hearts, both of the errents was right and just, to their own souls and their own country. He said-for the liquor had made him very open-hearted and talkative-that they knew the course they was pursuin" in regard to intemperance was a crime against G.o.d and their own consciences. But they didn"t dare to tackle unpopular subjects.
He said they knew they was elected by liquor, a good many of them, and they knew, if they voted against whisky, it would deprive "em of thousands and thousands of voters, dillegent voters, who would vote for "em from morn in" till night, and so they da.s.sent tackle the ring. And if wimmen was allowed to vote, they knew it was jest the same thing as breaking the ring right in two, and destroying intemperance. So, though they knew that both the errents was jest as right as right could be, they da.s.sent tackle "em, for fear they wouldn"t run no chance at all of bein" President of the United States.
"Good land!" says I. "What a idee! to think that doin" right would make a man unpopular. But," says I, "I am glad to know they have got a reason, if it is a poor one. I didn"t know but they sent you round jest to be mean."
Wall, the next mornin" I told Bub to carry the errents right into the Senate. Says I, "You have took "em one by one, alone, now you jest carry "em before the hull batch on "em together." I told him to tackle the hull crew on "em. So he jest walked right into the Senate, a carryin" Dorlesky"s errents.
And he come back skairt. He said, jest as he was a carryin" Dorlesky"s errents in, a long pet.i.tion come from thousands and thousands of wimmen on this very subject. A plea for justice and mercy, sent in respectful, to the lawmakers of the land.
And he said the men jeered at it, and throwed it round the room, and called it all to nort, and made the meanest speeches about it you ever heard, talked nasty, and finally threw it under the table, and acted so haughty and overbearin" towards it, that Bub said he was afraid to tackle "em. He said "he knew they would throw Dorlesky"s errents under the table, and he was afraid they would throw him under too." He was afraid-(he owned it up to me)-he was afraid they would knock him down. So he backed out with Dorlesky"s errents, and never give it to "em at all.
And I told him he did right. "For," says I, "if they wouldn"t listen to the deepest, most earnest, and most prayerful words that could come from the hearts of thousands and tens of thousands of the best mothers and wives and daughters in America, the most intelligent and upright and pure- minded women in the land, loaded down with their hopes, wet with their tears-if they turned their hearts", prayers and deepest desires into ridicule, throwed "em round under their feet, they wouldn"t pay no attention to Dorlesky"s errents, they wouldn"t notice one little vegitable widow, humbly at that, and sort o" disagreeable." And says I, "I don"t want Dorlesky"s errents throwed round under foot, and she made fun of: she has went through enough trials and tribulations, besides these gentlemen- or," says I, "I beg pardon of Webster"s Dictionary: I meant men."
"For," as I said to Webster"s Dictionary in confidence, in a quiet thought we had about it afterwards, "they might be gentlemen in every other place on earth; but in this one move of theirn," as I observed confidentially to the Dictionary, "they was jest men-the male animal of the human species."
And I was ashamed enough as I looked Noah Webster"s steel engraving in the face, to think I had misspoke myself, and called "em gentlemen.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW WOMAN"S PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED.]
Wall, from that minute I gin up doin" Dorlesky"s errents. And I felt like death about it. But this thought held me up,-that I had done my best. But I didn"t feel like doin" another thing all the rest of that day, only jest feel disapinted and grieved over my bad luck with the errents. I always think it is best, if you can possibly arrainge it in that way, to give up one day, or half a day, to feelin" bad over any perticuler disapintment, or to worry about any thing, and do all your worryin" up in that time, and then give it up for good, and go to feelin" happy agin. It is also best, if you have had a hull lot of things to get mad about, to set apart half a day, when you can spare the time, and do up all your resentin" in that time. It is easier, and takes less time than to keep resentin" "em as they take place; and you can feel clever quicker than in the common way.
Wall, I felt dretful bad for Dorlesky and the hull wimmen race of the land, and for the men too. And I kep" up my bad feelin"s till pretty nigh dusk. But as I see the sun go down, and the sky grow dark, I says,-
"You are goin" down now, but you are a comin" up agin. As sure as the Lord lives, the sun will shine agin; and He who holds you in His hand, holds the destinies of the nations. He will watch over you, and me and Josiah, and Dorlesky. He will help us, and take care of us."
So I begun to feel real well agin-a little after dusk.
CHAPTER VIII.
The next morning Cicely wuzn"t able to leave her room,-no sick seemin"ly, but f.a.gged out. She was a delicate little creeter always, and seemed to grow delicater every day.
So Miss Smith went with me, and she and I sallied out alone: her name bein" Sally, too, made it seem more singuler and coincidin".
She asked me if I didn"t want to go to the Patent Office.
And I told her, "Yes," And I told her of Betsy Bobbet"s errent, and that Josiah had charged me expresly to go there, and get him a patent pail. He needed a new milk-pail, and thought I could get it cheaper right on the spot.
And she said that Josiah couldn"t buy his pail there. But she told me what sights and sights of things there wus to be seen there; and I found out when I got there, that she hadn"t told me the 1/2 or the 1/4 of the sights I see.
Why, I could pa.s.s a month there in perfect destraction and happiness, the sights are so numerous, and exceedingly destractin" and curious.
But I told Sally Smith plainly, that I wasn"t half so much interested in apple-parers and snow-plows, and the first sewin"-machine and the last one, and steam-engines and hair-pins and pianos and thimbles, and the acres and acres of gla.s.s cases containing every thing that wus ever heard of, and every thing that never wus heard of by anybody, and etcetery, etcetery, and so 4th, and so 4th. And you might string them words out over choirs and choirs of paper, and not get half an idee of what is to be seen there.
But I told her I didn"t feel half so interested in them things as I did in the copyright. I told Sally plain "that I wanted to see the place where the copyrights on books was made. And I wanted to see the man who made "em."
And she asked me "Why? What made me so anxious?"
And I told her "the law was so curious, that I believed it would be the curiousest place, and he would be the curiousest lookin" creeter, that wuz ever seen." Says I, "I"ll bet it will be better than a circus to see him."
But it wuzn"t. He looked jest like any man. And he had a sort of a smart look onto him. Sally said "it was one of the clerks," but I don"t believe a word of it. I believe it was the man himself, who made the law; for, as in all other emergincies of life, I follered Duty, and asked him "to change the law instantly."