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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9448-h.zip b/9448-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb0f577 --- /dev/null +++ b/9448-h.zip diff --git a/9448-h/9448-h.htm b/9448-h/9448-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..60d17d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/9448-h/9448-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1472 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>AMONG THE BRETHREN, Part 6.</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; } + .figleft {float: left;} + .figright {float: right;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + PRE { font-family: Times; font-size: 97%; margin-left: 15%;} + // --> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + +<h1>Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 6</h1> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 6. +by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 6. + +Author: Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +Release Date: August 10, 2004 [EBook #9448] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHREN, *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<br><br><hr><br><br> + +<center> +<img alt="002.jpg (24K)" src="images/002.jpg" height="663" width="550"> +<br><br> +<img alt="001.jpg (118K)" src="images/001.jpg" height="912" width="711"> +</center> +<br><br> +<center> +<h1>SAMANTHA +<br><br> +AMONG THE BRETHREN.</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + + +<h3>"JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE"</h3> +<br><br> +<h2>(MARIETTA HOLLEY).</h2> +<br><br><br><br> +<h3><i>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</i></h3>. +<br><br> +<h2>1890</h2> +<br><br><br><br> + +<center> +<h3>Part 6.</h3> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> + + + +<h3> +TO</h3> +<br> +<h3>All Women</h3> + +<p>WHO WORK, TRYING TO BRING INTO DARK LIVES</p> + +<p>THE BRIGHTNESS AND HOPE OF A</p> + +<p>BETTER COUNTRY,</p> + +<p><i>THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED</i>.</p> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + +<p> +Again it come to pass, in the fulness of time, that my companion, Josiah +Allen, see me walk up and take my ink stand off of the manteltry piece, +and carry it with a calm and majestick gait to the corner of the settin' +room table devoted by me to literary pursuits. And he sez to me:</p> + +<p>"What are you goin' to tackle now, Samantha?"</p> + +<p>And sez I, with quite a good deal of dignity, "The Cause of Eternal +Justice, Josiah Allen."</p> + +<p>"Anythin' else?" sez he, lookin' sort o' oneasy at me. (That man +realizes his shortcomin's, I believe, a good deal of the time, he duz.)</p> + +<p>"Yes," sez I, "I lay out in petickuler to tackle the Meetin' House. She +is in the wrong on't, and I want to set her right."</p> + +<p>Josiah looked sort o' relieved like, but he sez out, in a kind of a pert +way, es he set there a-shellin corn for the hens:</p> + +<p>"A Meetin' House hadn't ort to be called she—it is a he."</p> + +<p>And sez I, "How do you know?"</p> + +<p>And he sez, "Because it stands to reason it is. And I'd like to know +what you have got to say about him any way?"</p> + +<p>Sez I, "That 'him' don't sound right, Josiah Allen. It sounds more right +and nateral to call it 'she.' Why," sez I, "hain't we always hearn about +the Mother Church, and don't the Bible tell about the Church bein' +arrayed like a bride for her husband? I never in my life hearn it called +a 'he' before."</p> + +<p>"Oh, wall, there has always got to be a first time. And I say it sounds +better. But what have you got to say about the Meetin' House, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"I have got this to say, Josiah Allen. The Meetin' House hain't a-actin' +right about wimmen. The Founder of the Church wuz born of woman. It wuz +on a woman's heart that His head wuz pillowed first and last. While +others slept she watched over His baby slumbers and His last sleep. A +woman wuz His last thought and care. Before dawn she wuz at the door of +the tomb, lookin' for His comin'. So she has stood ever sense—waitin', +watchin', hopin', workin' for the comin' of Christ. Workin', waitin' for +His comin' into the hearts of tempted wimmen and tempted men—fallen men +and fallen wimmen—workin', waitin', toilin', nursin' the baby good +in the hearts of a sinful world—weepin' pale-faced over its +crucefixion—lookin' for its reserection. Oh how she has worked all +through the ages!"</p> + +<p>"Oh shaw!" sez Josiah, "some wimmen don't care about anythin' but crazy +work and back combs."</p> + +<p>I felt took down, for I had been riz up, quite considerble, but I sez, +reasonable:</p> + +<p>"Yes, there are such wimmen, Josiah, but think of the sweet and saintly +souls that have given all their lives, and hopes, and thoughts to the +Meetin' House—think of the throngs to-day that crowd the aisles of +the Sanctuary—there are five wimmen to one man, I believe, in all the +meetin' houses to-day a-workin' in His name. True Daughters of the King, +no matter what their creed may be—Catholic or Protestant.</p> + +<p>"And while wimmen have done all this work for the Meetin' House, the +Meetin' House ort to be honorable and do well by her."</p> + +<p>"Wall, hain't <i>he</i>?" sez Josiah.</p> + +<p>"No, <i>she</i> hain't," sez I.</p> + +<p>"Wall, what petickuler fault do you find? What has <i>he</i> done lately to +rile you up?"</p> + +<p>Sez I, "<i>She</i> wuz in the wrong on't in not lettin' wimmen set on the +Conference."</p> + +<p>"Wall, I say <i>he</i> wuz right," sez Josiah. "<i>He</i> knew, and I knew, that +wimmen wuzn't strong enough to set."</p> + +<p>"Why," sez I, "it don't take so much strength to set as it duz to stand +up. And after workin' as hard as wimmen have for the Meetin' House, she +ort to have the priveledge of settin'. And I am goin' to write out jest +what I think about it."</p> + +<p>"Wall," sez Josiah, as he started for the barn with the hen feed, "don't +be too severe with the Meetin' House."</p> + +<p>And then, after he went out, he opened the door agin and stuck his head +in and sez:</p> + +<p>"Don't be too hard on <i>him</i>"</p> + +<p>And then he shet the door quick, before I could say a word. But good +land! I didn't care. I knew I could say what I wanted to with my +faithful pen—and I am bound to say it.</p> + +<p><br> JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE, + Bonny View,<br> + near Adams, New York,<br> + Oct. 14th, 1890.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2> +CONTENTS.</h2> +<br> + + +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + +<p><a href="#c23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#c24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#c25">CHAPTER XXV.</a></p> + + + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + + + +<br><br><br><br> + + + + + + + +<a name="c23"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="094c23.jpg (102K)" src="images/094c23.jpg" height="723" width="582"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p> +CHAPTER XXIII.</p> + +<p> +Miss Timson's letter wuz writ to me on the 6th day of his sickness, and +Josiah and me set sail for Loontown on the follerin' day after we got +it.</p> + +<p>I laid the case before the female Sisters of the meetin' house, and they +all counselled me to go. For, as they all said, on account of Sister +Bobbet's fallin' on the apple parin' we could not go on with the work +of paperin' the meetin' house, and so the interests of Zion wouldn't +languish on account of my absence for a day or two any way. And, as the +female Sisters all said, it seemed as if the work I wuz called to in +Loontown wuz a fair and square case of Duty, so they all counselled +me to go, every one on 'em. Though, as wuz nateral, there wuz severel +divisions of opinions as to the road I should take a-goin' there, what +day I should come back, what remiedies wuz best for me to recommend +when I got there, what dress I should wear, and whether I should wear +a hankerchif pin or not—or a bib apron, or a plain banded one, etc., +etc., etc., etc.</p> + +<p>But, as I sez, as to my goin' they wuz every one on 'em unanimus. They +meen well, those sisters in the meetin' house do, every one on 'em.</p> + +<p>Josiah acted real offish at first about goin'. And he laid the case +before the male brothers of the meetin' house, for Josiah wuz fearful +that the interests of the buzz saw mill would languish in his absence. +One or two of the weaker brethren joined in with him, and talked kinder +deprestin' about it.</p> + +<p>But Deacon Sypher and Deacon Henzy said they would guard his interests +with eagle visions, or somethin' to that effect, and they counselled +Josiah warmly that it wuz his duty to go.</p> + +<p>We hearn afterwards that Deacon Sypher and Deacon Henzy wanted to go +into the North Woods a-fishin' and a-huntin' for 2 or 3 days, and it has +always been spozed by me that that accounted for their religeus advice +to Josiah Allen.</p> + +<p>Howsumever, I don't <i>know</i> that. But I do know that they started off +a-fishin' the very day we left for Loontown, and that they come back +home about the time we did, with two long strings of trout.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="095.jpg (48K)" src="images/095.jpg" height="524" width="317"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>And there wuz them that said that they ketched the trout, and them that +said they bought 'em.</p> + +<p>And they brung back the antlers of a deer in their game bags, and some +bones of a elk. And there are them that sez that they dassent, either +one of 'em, shoot off a gun, not hardly a pop gun. But I don't know the +truth of this. I know what they <i>said</i>, they <i>said</i> the huntin' wuz +excitin' to the last degree, and the fishin' superb.</p> + +<p>And there wuz them that said that they should think the huntin' would be +excitin', a-rummagin' round on the ground for some old bones, and they +should think the fishin' would be superb, a-dippin' 'em out of a barell +and stringin' 'em onto their own strings.</p> + +<p>But their stories are very large, that I know. And each one on 'em, +accordin' to their tell, ketched more trouts than the other one, and fur +bigger ones, and shot more deers.</p> + +<p>Wall, Deacon Sypher'ses advice and Deacon Henzy's influenced Josiah a +good deal, and I said quite a few words to him on the subject, and, +suffice it to say, that the next day, about 10 A.M., we set out on our +journey to Loontown.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="096.jpg (123K)" src="images/096.jpg" height="640" width="581"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Miss Timson and Rosy seemed dretful glad to see me, but they wuz pale +and wan, wanner fur than I expected to see 'em; but after I had been +there a spell I see how it wuz. I see that Ralph wuz their hero as well +as their love, and they worshipped him in every way, with their hearts +and their souls and their idealized fancies.</p> + +<p>Wall, he wuz a noble lookin' man as I ever see, fur or near, and as good +a one as they make, he wuz strong and tender, so I couldn't blame 'em.</p> + +<p>And though I wouldn't want Josiah to hear me say too much about it, or +mebby it would be best that he shouldn't, before I had been there 24 +hours I begun to feel some as they did.</p> + +<p>But my feelin's wuz strictly in a meetin' house sense, strictly.</p> + +<p>But I begun to feel with them that the middle of the world wuz there in +that bedroom, and the still, white figure a-layin' there wuz the centre, +and the rest of the world wuz a-revolvin' round him.</p> + +<p>His face wuz worn and marked by the hand of Time and Endeaver. But every +mark wuz a good one. The Soul, which is the best sculptor after all, +had chiselled into his features the marks of a deathless endeavor and +struggle toward goodness, which is God. Had marked it with the divine +sweetness and passion of livin' and toilin' for the good of others.</p> + +<p>He had gi'n his life jest as truly to seek and save them that wuz lost +as ever any old prophet and martyr ever had sense the world began. But +under all these heavenly expressions that a keen eye could trace in his +good lookin' face, could be seen a deathly weakness, the consumin' fire +that wuz a-consumin' of him.</p> + +<p>Miss Timson wept when she see me, and Rosy threw herself into my arms +and sobbed. But I gently ondid her arms from round my neck and give Miss +Timson to understand that I wuz there to <i>help</i> 'em if I could.</p> + +<p>"For," sez I softly, "the hull future time is left for us to weep in, +but the present wuz the time to try to help Ralph S. Robinson."</p> + +<p>Wall, I laid to, Josiah a-helpin' me nobly, a-pickin' burdock leaves +or beet leaves, as the case might be, and a-standin' by me nobly all +through the follerin' night (that is, when he wuz awake).</p> + +<p>Josiah and I took care on him all that night, Miss Timson refusin' to +give him into the charge of underlin's, and we a-offerin' and not to be +refused.</p> + +<p>Wall, Josiah slept some, or that is, I s'poze he did. I didn't hear much +from him from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M., only once I heard him murmer in his +sleep, "buzz saw mill."</p> + + +<p>But every time I would come out into the settin' room where he sot and +roust him up to get sunthin' for me, he would say, almost warmly—</p> + +<p>"Samantha, that last remark of your'n wuz very powerful." And I wouldn't +waste my time nor hisen by tellin' him that I hadn't made no remark, nor +thought on't. I see it would hurt his feelin's, specilly as he would add +in haste—</p> + +<p>"That he didn't see how folks needed so much sleep; as for him, it wuz a +real treat to keep awake all night, now and then."</p> + + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="097.jpg (59K)" src="images/097.jpg" height="521" width="464"> +</center> +<br><br> + + + +<p>No, I would let it go, and ask him for burdock or beet, as the case +might be. Truly I had enugh on my mind and heart that night without +disputin' with my Josiah.</p> + +<p>Ralph S. Robinson would lay lookin' like a dead man some of the time, +still and demute, and then he would speak out in a strange language, +stranger than any I ever heard. He would preach sermons in that +language, I a-knowin' it wuz a sermen by his gestures, and also by my +feelin's. And then he would shet up his eyes and pray in that strange, +strange tongue, and anon breakin' out into our own language. And once he +said:</p> + +<p>"And now may the peace of God be with you all. Amen. The peace of God! +the peace! the peace!"</p> + +<p>His voice lingered sort o' lovin'ly over that word, and I felt that he +wuz a-thinkin' then of the real peace, the onbroken stillness, outside +and inside, that he invoked.</p> + +<p>Rosy would steal in now and then like a sweet little shadow, and bend +down and kiss her Pa, and cry a little over his thin, white hands which +wuz a-lyin' on the coverlet, or else lifted in that strange speech that +sounded so curius to us, a-risin' up out of the stillness of a Loontown +spare bedroom on a calm moonlit evenin'.</p> + +<p>Wall, Friday and Saturday he wuz crazier'n a loon, more'n half the time +he wuz, but along Saturday afternoon the Doctor told us that the fever +would turn sometime the latter part of the night, and if he could sleep +then, and not be disturbed, there would be a chance for his life.</p> + +<p>Wall, Miss Timson and Rosy both told me how the ringin' of the bells +seemed to roust him up and skair him (as it were) and git him all +excited and crazy. And they both wuz dretful anxius about the mornin' +bells which would ring when Ralph would mebby be sleepin'. So thinkin' +it wuz a case of life and death, and findin' out who wuz the one to +tackle in the matter, I calmly tied on my bonnet and walked over and +tackled him.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<a name="c24"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="098c24.jpg (93K)" src="images/098c24.jpg" height="699" width="586"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p> +CHAPTER XXIV.</p> + +<p> +It wuz Deacon Garven and he wuz a close communion Baptist by +perswaision, and a good man, so fur as firm morals and a sound creed +goes.</p> + +<p>Some things he lacked: he hadn't no immagination at all, not one speck. +And in makin' him up, it seems as if he had a leetle more justice added +to him to make up a lack of charity and pity. And he had a good deal +of sternness and resolve gin him, to make up, I spoze, for a lack of +tenderness and sweetness of nater.</p> + +<p>A good sound man Deacon Garven wuz, a man who would cheat himself before +he would cheat a neighber. He wuz jest full of qualities that would +hender him from ever takin' a front part in a scandel and a tragedy. +Yes, if more men wuz like Deacon Garven the pages of the daily papers +would fairly suffer for rapiners, embezzlers, wife whippers, etc.</p> + +<p>Wall, he wuz in his office when I tackled him. The hired girl asked me +if I come for visitin' purposes or business, and I told her firmly, +"business!"</p> + +<p>So she walked me into a little office one side of the hall, where I +spoze the Deacon transacted the business that come up on his farm, and +then he wuz Justice of the Peace, and trustee of varius concerns (every +one of 'em good ones).</p> + +<p>He is a tall, bony man, with eyes a sort of a steel gray, and thin lips +ruther wide, and settin' close together. And without lookin' like one, +or, that is, without havin' the same features at all, the Deacon did +make me think of a steel trap. I spoze it wuz because he wuz so sound, +and sort o' firm. A steel trap is real firm when it lays hold and tries +to be.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="099.jpg (144K)" src="images/099.jpg" height="689" width="628"> +</center> +<br><br> + + +<p>Wall, I begun the subject carefully, but straight to the pint, as my way +is, by tellin' him that Ralph S. Robinson wuz a-layin' at death's door, +and his life depended on his gettin' sleep, and we wuz afraid the bells +in the mornin' would roust him up, and I had come to see if he would +omit the ringin' of 'em in the mornin'.</p> + +<p>"Not ring the bells!" sez he, in wild amaze. "Not ring the church bells +on the Sabbath day?"</p> + +<p>His look wuz skairful in the extreme, but I sez—</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is what I said, we beg of you as a Christian to not ring the +bells in the mornin'."</p> + +<p>"A Christian! A Christian! Advise me as a <i>Christian</i> to not ring the +Sabbath bells!"</p> + +<p>I see the idee skairt him. He wuz fairly pale with surprise and borrow. +And I told him agin', puttin' in all the perticilers it needed to make +the story straight and good, how Ralph S. Robinson had labored for +the good of others, and how his strength had gin out, and he wuz now +a-layin' at the very pint of death, and how his girl and his sister wuz +a-breakin' their hearts over him, and how we had some hopes of savin' +his life if he could get some sleep, that the doctors said his life +depended on it, and agin I begged him to do what we asked.</p> + +<p>But the Deacon had begin to get over bein' skairt, and he looked firm as +anybody ever could, as he sez: "The bells never hurt anybody, I know, +for here I have lived right by the side of 'em for 20 years. Do I look +broke down and weak?" sez he.</p> + +<p>"No," sez I, honestly. "No more than a grannit monument, or a steel +trap."</p> + +<p>"Wall," sez he, "what don't hurt me won't hurt nobody else."</p> + +<p>"But," sez I, "folks are made up different." Sez I, "The Bible sez so, +and what might not hurt you, might be the ruin of somebody else. Wuz you +ever nervous?" sez I.</p> + +<p>"Never," sez he. And he added firmly, "I don't believe in nerves. I +never did. There hain't no use in 'm."</p> + +<p>"It wuz a wonder they wuz made, then," sez I. "As a generel thing the +Lord don't make things there hain't no use on. Howsumever," sez I, +"there hain't no use in disputin' back and forth on a nerve. But any +way, sickness is so fur apart from health, that the conditions of one +state can't be compared to the other; as Ralph S. Robinson is now, the +sound of the bells, or any other loud noise means torture and agony to +him, and, I am afraid, death. And I wish you would give orders to not +have 'em rung in the mornin'."</p> + +<p>"Are you a professor?" sez he.</p> + +<p>"Yes," sez I.</p> + +<p>"What perswaision?" sez he.</p> + +<p>"Methodist Episcopal," sez I.</p> + +<p>"And do you, a member of a sister church, which, although it has many +errors, is still a-gropin' after the light! Do you counsel me to set +aside the sacred and time honored rules of our church, and allow the +Sabbath to go by unregarded, have the sanctuary desecrated, the cause +of religion languish—I cannot believe it. Think of the widespread +desolation it would cause if, as the late lamented Mr. Selkirk sung:</p> + +<p> "'The sound of the church-going bells,<br> + These valleys and hills never heard.'"</p> + +<p>"No church, no sanctuary, no religius observances."</p> + +<p>"Why," sez I, "that wouldn't hinder folks from goin' to church. Folks +seem to get to theatres, lectures, and disolvin' views on time, and +better time than they do to meetin'," sez I. "In your opinin' it hain't +necessary to beat a drum and sound on a bugle as the Salvation Army duz, +to call folks to meetin'; you are dretful hard on them, so I hear."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they make a senseless, vulgar, onnecessary racket, disturbin' and +agrivatin' to saint and sinner."</p> + +<p>"But," sez I, "they say they do it for the sake of religion."</p> + +<p>"Religion hain't to be found in drum-sticks," sez he bitterly.</p> + +<p>"No," sez I, "nor in a bell clapper."</p> + +<p>"Oh," sez he, "that is a different thing entirely, that is to call +worshippers together, that is necessary."</p> + +<p>Sez I, "One hain't no more necessary than the other in my opinion."</p> + +<p>Sez he, "Look how fur back in the past the sweet bells have sounded +out."</p> + +<p>"Yes," sez I candidly, "and in the sweet past they wuz necessary," sez +I. "In the sweet past, there wuzn't a clock nor a watch, the houses wuz +fur apart, and they needed bells. But now there hain't a house but what +is runnin' over with clocks—everybody knows the time; they know it so +much that time is fairly a drug to 'em. Why, they time themselves right +along through the day, from breakfast to midnight. Time their meals, +their business, their pleasures, their music, their lessons, their +visits, their visitors, their pulse beats, and their dead beats. They +time their joys and their sorrows, and everything and everybody, all +through the week, and why should they stop short off Sundays? Why not +time themselves on goin' to meetin'? They do, and you know it. There +hain't no earthly need of the bells to tell the time to go to meetin', +no more than there is to tell the time to put on the tea-kettle to get +supper. If folks want to go to meetin' they will get there, bells or no +bells, and if they don't want to go, bells hain't a-goin' to get 'em +started.</p> + +<p>"Take a man with the Sunday <i>World</i> jest brung in, a-layin' on a lounge, +with his feet up in a chair, and kinder lazy in the first place, bells +hain't a-goin' to start him.</p> + +<p>"And take a woman with her curl papers not took down, and a new religeus +novel in her hand, and a miliner that disapinted her the night before, +and bells hain't a-goin' to start her. No, the great bell of Moscow +won't start 'em.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="100.jpg (55K)" src="images/100.jpg" height="539" width="391"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"And take a good Christian woman, a widow, for instance, who loves +church work, and has a good handsome Christian pasture, who is in +trouble, lost his wife, mebby, or sunthin' else bad, and the lack of +bells hain't a-goin' to keep that women back, no, not if there wuzn't a +bell on earth."</p> + +<p>"Oh, wall, wavin' off that side of the subject," sez he (I had convinced +him, I know, but he wouldn't own it, for he knew well that if folks +wanted to go they always got there, bells or no bells). "But," sez he +wavin' off that side of the subject, "the observance is so time honored, +so hallowed by tender memories and associations all through the past."</p> + +<p>"Don't you 'spoze, Deacon Garven," sez I, "that I know every single +emotion them bells can bring to anybody, and felt all those memorys and +associations. I'll bet, or I wouldn't be afraid to bet, if I believed in +bettin', that there hain't a single emotion in the hull line of emotions +that the sound of them bells can wake up, but what I have felt, and felt +'em deep too, jest as deep as anybody ever did, and jest es many of 'em. +But it is better for me to do without a upliftin', soarin' sort of a +feelin' ruther than have other people suffer agony."</p> + +<p>"Agony!" sez he, "talk about their causin' agony, when there hain't a +more heavenly sound on earth."</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="101.jpg (124K)" src="images/101.jpg" height="693" width="616"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"So it has been to me," sez I candidly. "To me they have always sounded +beautiful, heavenly. Why," sez I, a-lookin' kinder fur off, beyond +Deacon Garven, and all other troubles, as thoughts of beauty and +insperation come to me borne out of the past into my very soul, by the +tender memories of the bells—thoughts of the great host of believers +who had gathered together at the sound of the bells—the great army of +the Redeemed—</p> + +<p> 'Some of the host have crossed the flood,<br> +and some are crossin' now,'</p> + +<p>thinks I a-lookin' way off in a almost rapped way. And then I sez to +Deacon Garven in a low soft voice, lower and more softer fur, than I had +used to him,</p> + +<p>"Don't I know what it is to stand a-leanin' over the front gate on a +still spring mornin', the smell of the lilacs in the air, and the brier +roses. A dew sparklin' on the grass under the maples, and the sunshine +a-fleckin' the ground between 'em, and the robins a-singin' and the +hummin' birds a-hoverin' round the honeysuckles at the door. And over +all and through all, and above all clear and sweet, comin' from fur +off a-floatin' through the Sabbath stillness, the sound of the bells, +a-bringin' to us sweet Sabbath messages of love and joy. Bringin' +memories too, of other mornin's as fair and sweet, when other ears +listened with us to the sound, other eyes looked out on the summer +beauty, and smiled at the sound of the bells. Heavenly emotions, sweet +emotions come to me on the melody of the bells, peaceful thoughts, +inspirin' thoughts of the countless multitude that has flocked together +at the sound of the bells. The aged feet, the eager youthful feet, the +children's feet, all, all walkin' to the sound of the bells. Thoughts +of the happy youthful feet that set out to walk side by side, at their +ringin' sounds. Thoughts of the aged ones grown tired, and goin' to +their long dreamless sleep to their solemn sound. Thoughts of the brave +hero's who set out to protect us with their lives while the bells wuz +ringin' out their approval of such deeds. Thoughts of how they pealed +out joyfully on their return bearin' the form of Peace. Thoughts of how +the bells filled the mornin' and evenin' air, havin' throbbed and beat +with every joy and every pain of our life, till they seem a part of us +(as it were) and the old world would truly seem lonesome without 'em.</p> + +<p>"As I told you, and told you truly, I don't believe there is a single +emotion in the hull line of emotions, fur or near, but what them bells +have rung into my very soul.</p> + +<p>"But such emotions, beautiful and inspirin' though they are, can be +dispensed with better than justice and mercy can. Sweet and tender +sentiment is dear to me, truly, near and dear, but mercy and pity and +common sense, have also a powerful grip onto my right arm, and have to +lead me round a good deal of the time.</p> + +<p>"Beautiful emotion, when it stands opposed to eternal justice, ort to +step gently aside and let justice have a free road. Sentiment is truly +sweet, but any one can get along without it, take it right along through +the year, better than they can without sleep.</p> + +<p>"You see if you can't sleep you must die, while a person can worry along +a good many years without sentiment. Or, that is, I have been told they +could. I don't know by experience, for I have always had a real lot of +it. You see my experience has been such that I could keep sentiment and +comfort too. But my mind is such, that I have to think of them that +hain't so fortunate as I am.</p> + +<p>"I have looked at the subject from my own standpoint, and have tried +also to look at it through others' eyes, which is the only way we can +get a clear, straight light on any subject. As for me, as I have said, +I would love to hear the sweet, far off sound of the bells a-tremblin' +gently over the hills to me from Jonesville; it sounds sweeter to me +than the voices of the robins and swallers, a-comin' home from the South +in the spring of the year. And I would deerly love to have it go on and +on as fur as my own feelins are concerned. But I have got to look at the +subject through the tired eyes, and feel it through the worn-out nerves +of others, who are sot down right under the wild clamor of the bells.</p> + +<p>"What comes to me as a heavenly melody freighted full of beautiful +sentiment and holy rapture comes to them as an intolerable agony, +a-maddenin' discord, that threatens their sanity, that rouses 'em up +from their fitful sleep, that murders sleep—the bells to them seem +murderus, strikin' noisily with brazen hands, at their hearts.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="102.jpg (134K)" src="images/102.jpg" height="644" width="626"> +</center> +<br><br> + + +<p>"To them tossin' on beds of nervous sufferin', who lay for hours fillin' +the stillness with horror, with dread of the bells, where fear and dread +of 'em exceed the agony of the clangor of the sound when it comes at +last. Long nights full of a wakeful horror and expectency, fur worse +than the realization of their imaginin's. To them the bells are a +instrument of torture jest as tuff to bear as any of the other old thumb +screws and racks that wrung and racked our old 4 fathers in the name of +Religion.</p> + +<p>"I have to think of the great crowd of humanity huddled together right +under the loud clangor of the bells whose time of rest begins when the +sun comes up, who have toiled all night for our comfort and luxury. So +we can have our mornin' papers brought to us with our coffee. So we can +have the telegraphic messages, bringing us good news with our toast. +So's we can have some of our dear ones come to us from distant lands in +the morning. I must think of them who protect us through the night so we +can sleep in peace.</p> + +<p>"Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these, our helpers and +benafacters, work all night for our sakes, work and toil. The least we +can do for these is to help 'em to the great Restorer, sleep, all we +can.</p> + +<p>"Some things we can't do; we can't stop the creakin' sounds of the +world's work; the big roar of the wheel of business that rolls through +the week days, can't be oiled into stillness; but Sundays they might get +a little rest Sunday is the only day of rest for thousands of men and +wimmen, nervous, pale, worn by their week's hard toil.</p> + +<p>"The creakin' of the wheels of traffic are stopped on this day. They +could get a little of the rest they need to carry on the fight of life +to help support wife, child, father, husband; but religeon is too much +for 'em—the religeon that the Bible declares is mild, peacible, tender. +It clangs and bangs and whangs at 'em till the day of rest is a torment.</p> + +<p>"Now the Lord wouldn't approve of this. I know He wouldn't, for He was +always tender and pitiful full of compassion. I called it religeon for +oritory, but it hain't religeon, it is a relict of old Barberism who, +under the cloak of Religeon, whipped quakers and hung prophetic souls, +that the secrets of Heaven had been revealed to, secrets hidden from the +coarser, more sensual vision."</p> + +<p>Sez Deacon Garven: "I consider the bells as missionarys. They help +spread the Gospel."</p> + +<p>"And," sez I, for I waz full of my subject, and kep him down to it all I +could, "Ralph S. Robinson has spread the Gospel over acres and acres of +land, and brung in droves and droves of sinners into the fold without +the help of church or steeple, let alone bells, and it seems es if he +ortn't to be tortured to death now by 'em."</p> + +<p>"Wall," he said, "he viewed 'em as Gospel means, and he couldn't, with +his present views of his duty to the Lord, omit 'em."</p> + +<p>Sez I, "The Lord didn't use 'em. He got along without 'em."</p> + +<p>"Wall," he said, "it wuz different times now."</p> + +<p>Sez I, "The Lord, if He wuz here to-day, Deacon Garven, if He had bent +over that form racked with pain and sufferin' and that noise of any kind +is murderous to, He would help him, I know He would, for He wuz good to +the sick, and tender hearted always."</p> + +<p>"Wall, <i>I</i> will help him," sez Deacon Garven, "I will watch, and I will +pray, and I will work for him."</p> + +<p>Sez I, "Will you promise me not to ring the bells to-morrow mornin'; if +he gets into any sleep at all durin' the 24 hours, it is along in the +mornin', and I think if we could keep him asleep, say all the forenoon, +there would be a chance for him. Will you promise me?"</p> + +<p>"Wall," sez he kinder meltin' down a little, "I will talk with the +bretheren."</p> + +<p>Sez I, "Promise me, Deacon Eben Garven, before you see 'em."</p> + +<p>Sez he, "I would, but I am so afraid of bringin' the Cause of Religeon +into contempt. And I dread meddlin' with the old established rules of +the church."</p> + +<p>Sez I, "Mercy and justice and pity wuz set up on earth before bells wuz, +and I believe it is safe to foller 'em."</p> + +<p>But he wouldn't promise me no further than to talk with the bretheren, +and I had to leave him with that promise. As things turned out +afterwuds, I wuz sorry, sorry es a dog that I didn't shet up Deacon +Garven in his own smoke house, or cause him to be shet, and mount a +guard over him, armed nearly to the teeth with clubs.</p> + +<p>But I didn't, and I relied some on the bretheren.</p> + +<p>Ralph wuz dretful wild all the forepart of the night. He'd lay still for +a few minutes, and then he would get all rousted up, and he would set up +in bed and call out some words in that strange tongue. And he would lift +up his poor weak right arm, strong then in his fever, and preach long +sermons in that same strange curius language. He would preach his sermon +right through, earnest and fervent as any sermon ever wuz. I would know +it by the looks of his face. And then he would sometimes sing a little +in that same singular language, and then he would lay down for a spell.</p> + +<p>But along towards mornin' I see a change, his fever seemed to abate and +go down some—very gradual, till just about the break of day, he fell +into a troubled sleep—or it wuz a troubled sleep at first—but growin' +deeper and more peaceful every minute. And along about eight o'clock he +wuz a-sleepin' sweet for the first time durin' his sickness; it wuz a +quiet restful sleep, and some drops of presperation and sweat could be +seen on his softened features.</p> + +<p>We all wuz as still, almost, as if we wuz automatoes, we wuz so afraid +of makin' a speck of noise to disturb him. We kep almost breathless, +in our anxiety to keep every mite of noise out of his room. But I did +whisper to Rosy in a low still voice—</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="103.jpg (133K)" src="images/103.jpg" height="710" width="669"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"Your father is saved, the Lord be praised, we shall pull him through."</p> + +<p>She jest dropped onto her knees, and laid her head in my lap and cried +and wept, but soft and quiet so's it wouldn't disturb a mice.</p> + +<p>Miss Timson wuz a-prayin', I could see that. She wuz a-returnin' thanks +to the Lord for his mercy.</p> + +<p>As for me, I sot demute, in that hushed and darkened room, a-watchin' +every shadow of a change that might come to his features, with a +teaspoon ready to my hand, to give him nourishment at the right time if +he needed it, or medicine.</p> + +<p>When all of a sudden—slam! bang! rush! roar! slam! slam! ding! dong! +bang!!! come right over our heads the wild, deafening clamor of the +bells.</p> + +<p>Ralph started up wilder than ever because of his momentary repose. He +never knew us, nor anything, from that time on, and after sufferin' for +another 24 hours, sufferin' that made us all willin' to have it stop, he +died.</p> + +<p>And so he who had devoted his hull life to religeon wuz killed by it. +He who had gin his hull life for the true, wuz murdered by the false.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="104.jpg (158K)" src="images/104.jpg" height="667" width="645"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>His last move wuz to spread out his hands, and utter a few of them +strange words, as if in benediction over a kneelin' multitude. And I +thought then, and I think still, that he wuz pronouncin' a benediction +on the savages. And I have always hoped that the mercy he besought from +on High at that last hour brought down God's pity and forgiveness on all +benighted savages, and bigoted ones, Deacon Garven, and the hull on 'em.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<a name="c25"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="105c25.jpg (104K)" src="images/105c25.jpg" height="717" width="618"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p> +CHAPTER XXV.</p> + +<p> +The very next day after I got home from Miss Timson'ses, we wimmen all +met to the meetin' house agin as usial, for we knew very well that the +very hardest and most arjuous part of our work lay before us.</p> + +<p>For if it had been hard and tuckerin' to what it seemed the utmost limit +of tucker, to stand up on a lofty barell, and lift up one arm, and +scrape the ceilin', what would it be, so we wildly questioned our souls, +and each other, to stand up on the same fearful hites, and lift <i>both</i> +arms over our heads, and get on them fearful lengths of paper smooth.</p> + +<p>I declare, when the hull magnitude of the task we had tackled riz before +us, it skairt the hull on us, and nuthin' but our deathless devotion to +the Methodist meetin' house, kep us from startin' off to our different +homes on the run.</p> + +<p>But lovin' it as we did, as the very apples in our eyes, and havin' in +our constant breasts a determinate to paper that meetin' house, or die +in the attempt, we made ready to tackle it.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="106.jpg (38K)" src="images/106.jpg" height="450" width="391"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Yet such wuz the magnitude of the task, and our fearful apprehensions, +that after we had looked the ceilin' all over, and examined the +paper—we all sot down, as it were, instinctivly, and had a sort of a +conference meetin' (we had to wait for the paste to bile anyway, it wuz +bein' made over the stove in the front entry). And he would lift up his +poor weak right arm, strong then in his fever, and preach long sermons +in that same strange curius language. He would preach his sermon right +through, earnest and fervent as any sermon ever wuz. I would know it by +the looks of his face. And then he would sometimes sing a little in that +same singular language, and then he would lay down for a spell.</p> + +<p>But along towards mornin' I see a change, his fever seemed to abate and +go down some—very gradual, till just about the break of day, he fell +into a troubled sleep—or it wuz a troubled sleep at first—but growin' +deeper and more peaceful every minute. And along about eight o'clock he +wuz a-sleepin' sweet for the first time durin' his sickness; it wuz a +quiet restful sleep, and some drops of presperation and sweat could be +seen on his softened features.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="107.jpg (158K)" src="images/107.jpg" height="726" width="632"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>We all wuz as still, almost, as if we wuz automatoes, we wuz so afraid +of makin' a speck of noise to disturb him. We kep almost breathless, in +our anxiety to keep every mite of noise out of his room. But I did +whisper to Rosy in a low still voice—it middlin calm, and Miss Gowdy +offered to be the one to carry it back to Jonesville, and change it that +very afternoon—for we could not afford to buy a new one, and we had the +testimony of as many as twenty-one or two pairs of eyes, that the handle +didn't come out by our own carelessness, but by its own inherient +weakness—so we spozed he would swap it, we spozed so. But it wuz +arrainged before we disbanded (the result of our conference), that the +next mornin' we would each one on us bring our offerin's to the fair, +and hand 'em in to the treasurer, so's she would know in time what to +depend on, and what she had to do with.</p> + +<p>And we agreed (also the result of our conference) that we would, each +one on us, tell jest how we got the money and things to give to the +fair.</p> + +<p>And then we disbanded and started off home but I'll bet that each one on +us, in a sort of secret unbeknown way, gin a look on that lofty ceilin', +them dangerus barells, and that pile of paper, and groaned a low +melancholy groan all to herself.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="108.jpg (59K)" src="images/108.jpg" height="552" width="331"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>I know I did, and I know Submit Tewksbury did, for I stood close to her +and heard her. But then to be exactly jest, and not a mite underhanded, +I ort mebby to say, that her groan may be caused partly by the fact that +that aniversery of hern wuz a-drawin' so near. Yes, the very next day +wuz the day jest 20 years ago that Samuel Danker went away from Submit +Tewksbury to heathen lands. Yes, the next day wuz the one that she +always set the plate on for him—the gilt edged chiny with pink sprigs.</p> + +<p>But I'll bet that half or three quarters of that low melancholy groan of +her'n wuz caused by the hardness of the job that loomed up in front of +us, and the hull of mine wuz.</p> + +<p>Wall, that night Josiah Allen wuz a-feelin' dretful neat, fer he had +sold our sorell colt for a awful big price.</p> + +<p>It wuz a good colt; its mother wuz took sick when it wuz a few days old, +and we had brung it up as a corset, or ruther I did, fer Josiah Allen +at that time had the rheumatiz to that extent that he couldn't step his +foot on the floor for months, so the care of the corset come on me, most +the hull on it, till it got big enough to run out in the lot and git its +own livin'.</p> + +<p>Night after night I used to get up and warm milk for it, when it wuz +very small, for it wuz weakly, and we didn't know as we could winter it.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="109.jpg (139K)" src="images/109.jpg" height="633" width="617"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>We kep it in a little warm shed offen the wood house for quite a spell, +but still I used to find it considerable cold when I would meander out +there in a icy night to feed it. But jest as it is always the way with +wimmen, the more care I took on it, the more it needed me and depended +on me, the better I liked it.</p> + +<p>Till I got to likin' it so well that it wuzn't half so hard a job for me +to go out to feed it in the night as it would have been to laid still in +my warm bed and think mebby it wuz cold and hungry.</p> + +<p>So I would pike out and feed it two or three times a night.</p> + +<p>That is the nater of wimmen, the weaker it wuz and the humblier it wuz, +and the more it needed me, the more I thought on it.</p> + +<p>And as is the nater of man, Josiah Allen didn't seem to care so much +about it while it wuz weak and humbly and spindlin'.</p> + +<p>He told me time and agin, that I couldn't save it, and it never would +amount to anythin', and wuzn't nothin' but legs any way, and lots of +other slightin' remarks. And he'd call it "horse corset" in a kind of +a light, triflin' way, that wuz apt to gaul a woman when she come back +with icy night-gown and frosty toes and fingers, way along in the night.</p> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="110.jpg (134K)" src="images/110.jpg" height="684" width="612"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>He'd wake up, a-layin' there warm and comfortable on his soft goose +feather piller and say to me: "Been out to tend to your 'horse corset,' +have you?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Horse corset</i>! 'Wall, what if it wuz?"</p> + +<p>Such language way along in the night, from a warm comfortable pardner to +a cold one, is apt to make some words back and forth.</p> + +<p>And then he'd speak of its legs agin, in the most slightin' terms—and +he'd ask me if didn't want its picter took—etc., etc., etc.</p> + +<p>(I believe one thing that ailed Josiah Allen wuz he didn't want me to +get up and get my feet so cold).</p> + +<p>But, as I wuz a-sayin', though I couldn't deny some of his words, for +truly its legs did seem to be at the least calculation a yard and a half +long, specilly in the night, why they'd look fairly pokerish.</p> + +<p>And though I knew it wuz humbly still I persevered, and at last it +got to thrivin' and growin' fast. And the likelier it grew, and the +stronger, and the handsomer, so Josiah Allen's likin' for it grew and +increased, till he got to settin' a sight of store by it.</p> + +<p>And now it wuz a two-year-old, and he had sold it for two hundred and +fifteen dollars. It wuz spozed it wuz goin' to make a good trotter.</p> + +<p>Wall, seem' he had got such a big price for the colt, and knowin' well +that I wuz the sole cause of its bein' alive at this day, I felt that it +wuz the best time in the hull three hundred and sixty-five days of the +year to tackle him for sunthin' to give to the fair. I felt that the +least he could do would be to give me ten or fifteen dollars for it. So +consequently after supper wuz out of the way, and the work done up, I +tackled him.</p> + + +<br><br><hr><br><br> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 6. +by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHREN, *** + +***** This file should be named 9448-h.htm or 9448-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/4/9448/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 6. + +Author: Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +Release Date: August 10, 2004 [EBook #9448] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHREN, *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + +SAMANTHA + +AMONG THE BRETHREN. + +By + +"Josiah Allen's Wife" + +(Marietta Holley) + + +Part 6 + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Miss Timson's letter wuz writ to me on the 6th day of his sickness, and +Josiah and me set sail for Loontown on the follerin' day after we got +it. + +I laid the case before the female Sisters of the meetin' house, and they +all counselled me to go. For, as they all said, on account of Sister +Bobbet's fallin' on the apple parin' we could not go on with the work +of paperin' the meetin' house, and so the interests of Zion wouldn't +languish on account of my absence for a day or two any way. And, as the +female Sisters all said, it seemed as if the work I wuz called to in +Loontown wuz a fair and square case of Duty, so they all counselled +me to go, every one on 'em. Though, as wuz nateral, there wuz severel +divisions of opinions as to the road I should take a-goin' there, what +day I should come back, what remiedies wuz best for me to recommend +when I got there, what dress I should wear, and whether I should wear +a hankerchif pin or not--or a bib apron, or a plain banded one, etc., +etc., etc., etc. + +But, as I sez, as to my goin' they wuz every one on 'em unanimus. They +meen well, those sisters in the meetin' house do, every one on 'em. + +Josiah acted real offish at first about goin'. And he laid the case +before the male brothers of the meetin' house, for Josiah wuz fearful +that the interests of the buzz saw mill would languish in his absence. +One or two of the weaker brethren joined in with him, and talked kinder +deprestin' about it. + +But Deacon Sypher and Deacon Henzy said they would guard his interests +with eagle visions, or somethin' to that effect, and they counselled +Josiah warmly that it wuz his duty to go. + +We hearn afterwards that Deacon Sypher and Deacon Henzy wanted to go +into the North Woods a-fishin' and a-huntin' for 2 or 3 days, and it has +always been spozed by me that that accounted for their religeus advice +to Josiah Allen. + +Howsumever, I don't _know_ that. But I do know that they started off +a-fishin' the very day we left for Loontown, and that they come back +home about the time we did, with two long strings of trout. + +[Illustration: THE RETURN OF THE HUNTERS.] + +And there wuz them that said that they ketched the trout, and them that +said they bought 'em. + +And they brung back the antlers of a deer in their game bags, and some +bones of a elk. And there are them that sez that they dassent, either +one of 'em, shoot off a gun, not hardly a pop gun. But I don't know the +truth of this. I know what they _said_, they _said_ the huntin' wuz +excitin' to the last degree, and the fishin' superb. + +And there wuz them that said that they should think the huntin' would be +excitin', a-rummagin' round on the ground for some old bones, and they +should think the fishin' would be superb, a-dippin' 'em out of a barell +and stringin' 'em onto their own strings. + +But their stories are very large, that I know. And each one on 'em, +accordin' to their tell, ketched more trouts than the other one, and fur +bigger ones, and shot more deers. + +Wall, Deacon Sypher'ses advice and Deacon Henzy's influenced Josiah a +good deal, and I said quite a few words to him on the subject, and, +suffice it to say, that the next day, about 10 A.M., we set out on our +journey to Loontown. + +[Illustration: "MISS TIMSON AND ROSY SEEMED DRETFUL GLAD TO SEE ME."] + +Miss Timson and Rosy seemed dretful glad to see me, but they wuz pale +and wan, wanner fur than I expected to see 'em; but after I had been +there a spell I see how it wuz. I see that Ralph wuz their hero as well +as their love, and they worshipped him in every way, with their hearts +and their souls and their idealized fancies. + +Wall, he wuz a noble lookin' man as I ever see, fur or near, and as good +a one as they make, he wuz strong and tender, so I couldn't blame 'em. + +And though I wouldn't want Josiah to hear me say too much about it, or +mebby it would be best that he shouldn't, before I had been there 24 +hours I begun to feel some as they did. + +But my feelin's wuz strictly in a meetin' house sense, strictly. + +But I begun to feel with them that the middle of the world wuz there in +that bedroom, and the still, white figure a-layin' there wuz the centre, +and the rest of the world wuz a-revolvin' round him. + +His face wuz worn and marked by the hand of Time and Endeaver. But every +mark wuz a good one. The Soul, which is the best sculptor after all, +had chiselled into his features the marks of a deathless endeavor and +struggle toward goodness, which is God. Had marked it with the divine +sweetness and passion of livin' and toilin' for the good of others. + +He had gi'n his life jest as truly to seek and save them that wuz lost +as ever any old prophet and martyr ever had sense the world began. But +under all these heavenly expressions that a keen eye could trace in his +good lookin' face, could be seen a deathly weakness, the consumin' fire +that wuz a-consumin' of him. + +Miss Timson wept when she see me, and Rosy threw herself into my arms +and sobbed. But I gently ondid her arms from round my neck and give Miss +Timson to understand that I wuz there to _help_ 'em if I could. + +"For," sez I softly, "the hull future time is left for us to weep in, +but the present wuz the time to try to help Ralph S. Robinson." + +Wall, I laid to, Josiah a-helpin' me nobly, a-pickin' burdock leaves +or beet leaves, as the case might be, and a-standin' by me nobly all +through the follerin' night (that is, when he wuz awake). + +Josiah and I took care on him all that night, Miss Timson refusin' to +give him into the charge of underlin's, and we a-offerin' and not to be +refused. + +Wall, Josiah slept some, or that is, I s'poze he did. I didn't hear much +from him from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M., only once I heard him murmer in his +sleep, "buzz saw mill." + +[Illustration: "DIDN'T SEE HOW FOLKS NEEDED SO MUCH SLEEP."] + +But every time I would come out into the settin' room where he sot and +roust him up to get sunthin' for me, he would say, almost warmly-- + +"Samantha, that last remark of your'n wuz very powerful." And I wouldn't +waste my time nor hisen by tellin' him that I hadn't made no remark, nor +thought on't. I see it would hurt his feelin's, specilly as he would add +in haste-- + +"That he didn't see how folks needed so much sleep; as for him, it wuz a +real treat to keep awake all night, now and then." + +No, I would let it go, and ask him for burdock or beet, as the case +might be. Truly I had enugh on my mind and heart that night without +disputin' with my Josiah. + +Ralph S. Robinson would lay lookin' like a dead man some of the time, +still and demute, and then he would speak out in a strange language, +stranger than any I ever heard. He would preach sermons in that +language, I a-knowin' it wuz a sermen by his gestures, and also by my +feelin's. And then he would shet up his eyes and pray in that strange, +strange tongue, and anon breakin' out into our own language. And once he +said: + +"And now may the peace of God be with you all. Amen. The peace of God! +the peace! the peace!" + +His voice lingered sort o' lovin'ly over that word, and I felt that he +wuz a-thinkin' then of the real peace, the onbroken stillness, outside +and inside, that he invoked. + +Rosy would steal in now and then like a sweet little shadow, and bend +down and kiss her Pa, and cry a little over his thin, white hands which +wuz a-lyin' on the coverlet, or else lifted in that strange speech that +sounded so curius to us, a-risin' up out of the stillness of a Loontown +spare bedroom on a calm moonlit evenin'. + +Wall, Friday and Saturday he wuz crazier'n a loon, more'n half the time +he wuz, but along Saturday afternoon the Doctor told us that the fever +would turn sometime the latter part of the night, and if he could sleep +then, and not be disturbed, there would be a chance for his life. + +Wall, Miss Timson and Rosy both told me how the ringin' of the bells +seemed to roust him up and skair him (as it were) and git him all +excited and crazy. And they both wuz dretful anxius about the mornin' +bells which would ring when Ralph would mebby be sleepin'. So thinkin' +it wuz a case of life and death, and findin' out who wuz the one to +tackle in the matter, I calmly tied on my bonnet and walked over and +tackled him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +It wuz Deacon Garven and he wuz a close communion Baptist by +perswaision, and a good man, so fur as firm morals and a sound creed +goes. + +Some things he lacked: he hadn't no immagination at all, not one speck. +And in makin' him up, it seems as if he had a leetle more justice added +to him to make up a lack of charity and pity. And he had a good deal +of sternness and resolve gin him, to make up, I spoze, for a lack of +tenderness and sweetness of nater. + +A good sound man Deacon Garven wuz, a man who would cheat himself before +he would cheat a neighber. He wuz jest full of qualities that would +hender him from ever takin' a front part in a scandel and a tragedy. +Yes, if more men wuz like Deacon Garven the pages of the daily papers +would fairly suffer for rapiners, embezzlers, wife whippers, etc. + +Wall, he wuz in his office when I tackled him. The hired girl asked me +if I come for visitin' purposes or business, and I told her firmly, +"business!" + +So she walked me into a little office one side of the hall, where I +spoze the Deacon transacted the business that come up on his farm, and +then he wuz Justice of the Peace, and trustee of varius concerns (every +one of 'em good ones). + +He is a tall, bony man, with eyes a sort of a steel gray, and thin lips +ruther wide, and settin' close together. And without lookin' like one, +or, that is, without havin' the same features at all, the Deacon did +make me think of a steel trap. I spoze it wuz because he wuz so sound, +and sort o' firm. A steel trap is real firm when it lays hold and tries +to be. + +[Illustration: "THE DEACON DID MAKE ME THINK OF A STEEL TRAP."] + +Wall, I begun the subject carefully, but straight to the pint, as my way +is, by tellin' him that Ralph S. Robinson wuz a-layin' at death's door, +and his life depended on his gettin' sleep, and we wuz afraid the bells +in the mornin' would roust him up, and I had come to see if he would +omit the ringin' of 'em in the mornin'. + +"Not ring the bells!" sez he, in wild amaze. "Not ring the church bells +on the Sabbath day?" + +His look wuz skairful in the extreme, but I sez-- + +"Yes, that is what I said, we beg of you as a Christian to not ring the +bells in the mornin'." + +"A Christian! A Christian! Advise me as a _Christian_ to not ring the +Sabbath bells!" + +I see the idee skairt him. He wuz fairly pale with surprise and borrow. +And I told him agin', puttin' in all the perticilers it needed to make +the story straight and good, how Ralph S. Robinson had labored for +the good of others, and how his strength had gin out, and he wuz now +a-layin' at the very pint of death, and how his girl and his sister wuz +a-breakin' their hearts over him, and how we had some hopes of savin' +his life if he could get some sleep, that the doctors said his life +depended on it, and agin I begged him to do what we asked. + +But the Deacon had begin to get over bein' skairt, and he looked firm as +anybody ever could, as he sez: "The bells never hurt anybody, I know, +for here I have lived right by the side of 'em for 20 years. Do I look +broke down and weak?" sez he. + +"No," sez I, honestly. "No more than a grannit monument, or a steel +trap." + +"Wall," sez he, "what don't hurt me won't hurt nobody else." + +"But," sez I, "folks are made up different." Sez I, "The Bible sez so, +and what might not hurt you, might be the ruin of somebody else. Wuz you +ever nervous?" sez I. + +"Never," sez he. And he added firmly, "I don't believe in nerves. I +never did. There hain't no use in 'm." + +"It wuz a wonder they wuz made, then," sez I. "As a generel thing the +Lord don't make things there hain't no use on. Howsumever," sez I, +"there hain't no use in disputin' back and forth on a nerve. But any +way, sickness is so fur apart from health, that the conditions of one +state can't be compared to the other; as Ralph S. Robinson is now, the +sound of the bells, or any other loud noise means torture and agony to +him, and, I am afraid, death. And I wish you would give orders to not +have 'em rung in the mornin'." + +"Are you a professor?" sez he. + +"Yes," sez I. + +"What perswaision?" sez he. + +"Methodist Episcopal," sez I. + +"And do you, a member of a sister church, which, although it has many +errors, is still a-gropin' after the light! Do you counsel me to set +aside the sacred and time honored rules of our church, and allow the +Sabbath to go by unregarded, have the sanctuary desecrated, the cause +of religion languish--I cannot believe it. Think of the widespread +desolation it would cause if, as the late lamented Mr. Selkirk sung: + + "'The sound of the church-going bells, + These valleys and hills never heard.'" + +"No church, no sanctuary, no religius observances." + +"Why," sez I, "that wouldn't hinder folks from goin' to church. Folks +seem to get to theatres, lectures, and disolvin' views on time, and +better time than they do to meetin'," sez I. "In your opinin' it hain't +necessary to beat a drum and sound on a bugle as the Salvation Army duz, +to call folks to meetin'; you are dretful hard on them, so I hear." + +"Yes, they make a senseless, vulgar, onnecessary racket, disturbin' and +agrivatin' to saint and sinner." + +"But," sez I, "they say they do it for the sake of religion." + +"Religion hain't to be found in drum-sticks," sez he bitterly. + +"No," sez I, "nor in a bell clapper." + +"Oh," sez he, "that is a different thing entirely, that is to call +worshippers together, that is necessary." + +Sez I, "One hain't no more necessary than the other in my opinion." + +Sez he, "Look how fur back in the past the sweet bells have sounded +out." + +"Yes," sez I candidly, "and in the sweet past they wuz necessary," sez +I. "In the sweet past, there wuzn't a clock nor a watch, the houses wuz +fur apart, and they needed bells. But now there hain't a house but what +is runnin' over with clocks--everybody knows the time; they know it so +much that time is fairly a drug to 'em. Why, they time themselves right +along through the day, from breakfast to midnight. Time their meals, +their business, their pleasures, their music, their lessons, their +visits, their visitors, their pulse beats, and their dead beats. They +time their joys and their sorrows, and everything and everybody, all +through the week, and why should they stop short off Sundays? Why not +time themselves on goin' to meetin'? They do, and you know it. There +hain't no earthly need of the bells to tell the time to go to meetin', +no more than there is to tell the time to put on the tea-kettle to get +supper. If folks want to go to meetin' they will get there, bells or no +bells, and if they don't want to go, bells hain't a-goin' to get 'em +started. + +"Take a man with the Sunday _World_ jest brung in, a-layin' on a lounge, +with his feet up in a chair, and kinder lazy in the first place, bells +hain't a-goin' to start him. + +"And take a woman with her curl papers not took down, and a new religeus +novel in her hand, and a miliner that disapinted her the night before, +and bells hain't a-goin' to start her. No, the great bell of Moscow +won't start 'em. + +[Illustration: "BELLS HAIN'T A-GOIN' TO START HIM."] + +"And take a good Christian woman, a widow, for instance, who loves +church work, and has a good handsome Christian pasture, who is in +trouble, lost his wife, mebby, or sunthin' else bad, and the lack of +bells hain't a-goin' to keep that women back, no, not if there wuzn't a +bell on earth." + +"Oh, wall, wavin' off that side of the subject," sez he (I had convinced +him, I know, but he wouldn't own it, for he knew well that if folks +wanted to go they always got there, bells or no bells). "But," sez he +wavin' off that side of the subject, "the observance is so time honored, +so hallowed by tender memories and associations all through the past." + +"Don't you 'spoze, Deacon Garven," sez I, "that I know every single +emotion them bells can bring to anybody, and felt all those memorys and +associations. I'll bet, or I wouldn't be afraid to bet, if I believed in +bettin', that there hain't a single emotion in the hull line of emotions +that the sound of them bells can wake up, but what I have felt, and felt +'em deep too, jest as deep as anybody ever did, and jest es many of 'em. +But it is better for me to do without a upliftin', soarin' sort of a +feelin' ruther than have other people suffer agony." + +"Agony!" sez he, "talk about their causin' agony, when there hain't a +more heavenly sound on earth." + +[Illustration: "A-LEANIN' OVER THE FRONT GATE ON A STILL SPRING +MORNIN'."] + +"So it has been to me," sez I candidly. "To me they have always sounded +beautiful, heavenly. Why," sez I, a-lookin' kinder fur off, beyond +Deacon Garven, and all other troubles, as thoughts of beauty and +insperation come to me borne out of the past into my very soul, by the +tender memories of the bells--thoughts of the great host of believers +who had gathered together at the sound of the bells--the great army of +the Redeemed-- + + 'Some of the host have crossed the flood, and some + are crossin' now,' + +thinks I a-lookin' way off in a almost rapped way. And then I sez to +Deacon Garven in a low soft voice, lower and more softer fur, than I had +used to him, + +"Don't I know what it is to stand a-leanin' over the front gate on a +still spring mornin', the smell of the lilacs in the air, and the brier +roses. A dew sparklin' on the grass under the maples, and the sunshine +a-fleckin' the ground between 'em, and the robins a-singin' and the +hummin' birds a-hoverin' round the honeysuckles at the door. And over +all and through all, and above all clear and sweet, comin' from fur +off a-floatin' through the Sabbath stillness, the sound of the bells, +a-bringin' to us sweet Sabbath messages of love and joy. Bringin' +memories too, of other mornin's as fair and sweet, when other ears +listened with us to the sound, other eyes looked out on the summer +beauty, and smiled at the sound of the bells. Heavenly emotions, sweet +emotions come to me on the melody of the bells, peaceful thoughts, +inspirin' thoughts of the countless multitude that has flocked together +at the sound of the bells. The aged feet, the eager youthful feet, the +children's feet, all, all walkin' to the sound of the bells. Thoughts +of the happy youthful feet that set out to walk side by side, at their +ringin' sounds. Thoughts of the aged ones grown tired, and goin' to +their long dreamless sleep to their solemn sound. Thoughts of the brave +hero's who set out to protect us with their lives while the bells wuz +ringin' out their approval of such deeds. Thoughts of how they pealed +out joyfully on their return bearin' the form of Peace. Thoughts of how +the bells filled the mornin' and evenin' air, havin' throbbed and beat +with every joy and every pain of our life, till they seem a part of us +(as it were) and the old world would truly seem lonesome without 'em. + +"As I told you, and told you truly, I don't believe there is a single +emotion in the hull line of emotions, fur or near, but what them bells +have rung into my very soul. + +"But such emotions, beautiful and inspirin' though they are, can be +dispensed with better than justice and mercy can. Sweet and tender +sentiment is dear to me, truly, near and dear, but mercy and pity and +common sense, have also a powerful grip onto my right arm, and have to +lead me round a good deal of the time. + +"Beautiful emotion, when it stands opposed to eternal justice, ort to +step gently aside and let justice have a free road. Sentiment is truly +sweet, but any one can get along without it, take it right along through +the year, better than they can without sleep. + +"You see if you can't sleep you must die, while a person can worry along +a good many years without sentiment. Or, that is, I have been told they +could. I don't know by experience, for I have always had a real lot of +it. You see my experience has been such that I could keep sentiment and +comfort too. But my mind is such, that I have to think of them that +hain't so fortunate as I am. + +"I have looked at the subject from my own standpoint, and have tried +also to look at it through others' eyes, which is the only way we can +get a clear, straight light on any subject. As for me, as I have said, +I would love to hear the sweet, far off sound of the bells a-tremblin' +gently over the hills to me from Jonesville; it sounds sweeter to me +than the voices of the robins and swallers, a-comin' home from the South +in the spring of the year. And I would deerly love to have it go on and +on as fur as my own feelins are concerned. But I have got to look at the +subject through the tired eyes, and feel it through the worn-out nerves +of others, who are sot down right under the wild clamor of the bells. + +"What comes to me as a heavenly melody freighted full of beautiful +sentiment and holy rapture comes to them as an intolerable agony, +a-maddenin' discord, that threatens their sanity, that rouses 'em up +from their fitful sleep, that murders sleep--the bells to them seem +murderus, strikin' noisily with brazen hands, at their hearts. + +[Illustration: "TOSSIN' ON BEDS OF NERVOUS SUFFERIN'."] + +"To them tossin' on beds of nervous sufferin', who lay for hours fillin' +the stillness with horror, with dread of the bells, where fear and dread +of 'em exceed the agony of the clangor of the sound when it comes at +last. Long nights full of a wakeful horror and expectency, fur worse +than the realization of their imaginin's. To them the bells are a +instrument of torture jest as tuff to bear as any of the other old thumb +screws and racks that wrung and racked our old 4 fathers in the name of +Religion. + +"I have to think of the great crowd of humanity huddled together right +under the loud clangor of the bells whose time of rest begins when the +sun comes up, who have toiled all night for our comfort and luxury. So +we can have our mornin' papers brought to us with our coffee. So we can +have the telegraphic messages, bringing us good news with our toast. +So's we can have some of our dear ones come to us from distant lands in +the morning. I must think of them who protect us through the night so we +can sleep in peace. + +"Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these, our helpers and +benafacters, work all night for our sakes, work and toil. The least we +can do for these is to help 'em to the great Restorer, sleep, all we +can. + +"Some things we can't do; we can't stop the creakin' sounds of the +world's work; the big roar of the wheel of business that rolls through +the week days, can't be oiled into stillness; but Sundays they might get +a little rest Sunday is the only day of rest for thousands of men and +wimmen, nervous, pale, worn by their week's hard toil. + +"The creakin' of the wheels of traffic are stopped on this day. They +could get a little of the rest they need to carry on the fight of life +to help support wife, child, father, husband; but religeon is too much +for 'em--the religeon that the Bible declares is mild, peacible, tender. +It clangs and bangs and whangs at 'em till the day of rest is a torment. + +"Now the Lord wouldn't approve of this. I know He wouldn't, for He was +always tender and pitiful full of compassion. I called it religeon for +oritory, but it hain't religeon, it is a relict of old Barberism who, +under the cloak of Religeon, whipped quakers and hung prophetic souls, +that the secrets of Heaven had been revealed to, secrets hidden from the +coarser, more sensual vision." + +Sez Deacon Garven: "I consider the bells as missionarys. They help +spread the Gospel." + +"And," sez I, for I waz full of my subject, and kep him down to it all I +could, "Ralph S. Robinson has spread the Gospel over acres and acres of +land, and brung in droves and droves of sinners into the fold without +the help of church or steeple, let alone bells, and it seems es if he +ortn't to be tortured to death now by 'em." + +"Wall," he said, "he viewed 'em as Gospel means, and he couldn't, with +his present views of his duty to the Lord, omit 'em." + +Sez I, "The Lord didn't use 'em. He got along without 'em." + +"Wall," he said, "it wuz different times now." + +Sez I, "The Lord, if He wuz here to-day, Deacon Garven, if He had bent +over that form racked with pain and sufferin' and that noise of any kind +is murderous to, He would help him, I know He would, for He wuz good to +the sick, and tender hearted always." + +"Wall, _I_ will help him," sez Deacon Garven, "I will watch, and I will +pray, and I will work for him." + +Sez I, "Will you promise me not to ring the bells to-morrow mornin'; if +he gets into any sleep at all durin' the 24 hours, it is along in the +mornin', and I think if we could keep him asleep, say all the forenoon, +there would be a chance for him. Will you promise me?" + +"Wall," sez he kinder meltin' down a little, "I will talk with the +bretheren." + +Sez I, "Promise me, Deacon Eben Garven, before you see 'em." + +Sez he, "I would, but I am so afraid of bringin' the Cause of Religeon +into contempt. And I dread meddlin' with the old established rules of +the church." + +Sez I, "Mercy and justice and pity wuz set up on earth before bells wuz, +and I believe it is safe to foller 'em." + +But he wouldn't promise me no further than to talk with the bretheren, +and I had to leave him with that promise. As things turned out +afterwuds, I wuz sorry, sorry es a dog that I didn't shet up Deacon +Garven in his own smoke house, or cause him to be shet, and mount a +guard over him, armed nearly to the teeth with clubs. + +But I didn't, and I relied some on the bretheren. + +Ralph wuz dretful wild all the forepart of the night. He'd lay still for +a few minutes, and then he would get all rousted up, and he would set up +in bed and call out some words in that strange tongue. And he would lift +up his poor weak right arm, strong then in his fever, and preach long +sermons in that same strange curius language. He would preach his sermon +right through, earnest and fervent as any sermon ever wuz. I would know +it by the looks of his face. And then he would sometimes sing a little +in that same singular language, and then he would lay down for a spell. + +But along towards mornin' I see a change, his fever seemed to abate and +go down some--very gradual, till just about the break of day, he fell +into a troubled sleep--or it wuz a troubled sleep at first--but growin' +deeper and more peaceful every minute. And along about eight o'clock he +wuz a-sleepin' sweet for the first time durin' his sickness; it wuz a +quiet restful sleep, and some drops of presperation and sweat could be +seen on his softened features. + +We all wuz as still, almost, as if we wuz automatoes, we wuz so afraid +of makin' a speck of noise to disturb him. We kep almost breathless, +in our anxiety to keep every mite of noise out of his room. But I did +whisper to Rosy in a low still voice-- + +[Illustration: "THE LORD BE PRAISED, WE SHALL PULL HIM THROUGH."] + +"Your father is saved, the Lord be praised, we shall pull him through." + +She jest dropped onto her knees, and laid her head in my lap and cried +and wept, but soft and quiet so's it wouldn't disturb a mice. + +Miss Timson wuz a-prayin', I could see that. She wuz a-returnin' thanks +to the Lord for his mercy. + +As for me, I sot demute, in that hushed and darkened room, a-watchin' +every shadow of a change that might come to his features, with a +teaspoon ready to my hand, to give him nourishment at the right time if +he needed it, or medicine. + +When all of a sudden--slam! bang! rush! roar! slam! slam! ding! dong! +bang!!! come right over our heads the wild, deafening clamor of the +bells. + +Ralph started up wilder than ever because of his momentary repose. He +never knew us, nor anything, from that time on, and after sufferin' for +another 24 hours, sufferin' that made us all willin' to have it stop, he +died. + +And so he who had devoted his hull life to religeon wuz killed by it. +He who had gin his hull life for the true, wuz murdered by the false. + +[Illustration: "AND I THOUGHT HE WUZ PRONOUNCIN' A BENEDICTION ON THE +SAVAGES."] + +His last move wuz to spread out his hands, and utter a few of them +strange words, as if in benediction over a kneelin' multitude. And I +thought then, and I think still, that he wuz pronouncin' a benediction +on the savages. And I have always hoped that the mercy he besought from +on High at that last hour brought down God's pity and forgiveness on all +benighted savages, and bigoted ones, Deacon Garven, and the hull on 'em. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The very next day after I got home from Miss Timson'ses, we wimmen all +met to the meetin' house agin as usial, for we knew very well that the +very hardest and most arjuous part of our work lay before us. + +For if it had been hard and tuckerin' to what it seemed the utmost limit +of tucker, to stand up on a lofty barell, and lift up one arm, and +scrape the ceilin', what would it be, so we wildly questioned our souls, +and each other, to stand up on the same fearful hites, and lift _both_ +arms over our heads, and get on them fearful lengths of paper smooth. + +I declare, when the hull magnitude of the task we had tackled riz before +us, it skairt the hull on us, and nuthin' but our deathless devotion to +the Methodist meetin' house, kep us from startin' off to our different +homes on the run. + +But lovin' it as we did, as the very apples in our eyes, and havin' in +our constant breasts a determinate to paper that meetin' house, or die +in the attempt, we made ready to tackle it. + +[Illustration: "WE HAD TO WAIT FOR THE PASTE TO BILE."] + +Yet such wuz the magnitude of the task, and our fearful apprehensions, +that after we had looked the ceilin' all over, and examined the +paper--we all sot down, as it were, instinctivly, and had a sort of a +conference meetin' (we had to wait for the paste to bile anyway, it wuz +bein' made over the stove in the front entry). And he would lift up his +poor weak right arm, strong then in his fever, and preach long sermons +in that same strange curius language. He would preach his sermon right +through, earnest and fervent as any sermon ever wuz. I would know it by +the looks of his face. And then he would sometimes sing a little in that +same singular language, and then he would lay down for a spell. + +But along towards mornin' I see a change, his fever seemed to abate and +go down some--very gradual, till just about the break of day, he fell +into a troubled sleep--or it wuz a troubled sleep at first--but growin' +deeper and more peaceful every minute. And along about eight o'clock he +wuz a-sleepin' sweet for the first time durin' his sickness; it wuz a +quiet restful sleep, and some drops of presperation and sweat could be +seen on his softened features. + +[Illustration: "WE ALL SET AND LAID ON OUR PLANS, AND CUT THE EDGES +OFFEN THE PAPER."] + +We all wuz as still, almost, as if we wuz automatoes, we wuz so afraid +of makin' a speck of noise to disturb him. We kep almost breathless, in +our anxiety to keep every mite of noise out of his room. But I did +whisper to Rosy in a low still voice--it middlin calm, and Miss Gowdy +offered to be the one to carry it back to Jonesville, and change it that +very afternoon--for we could not afford to buy a new one, and we had the +testimony of as many as twenty-one or two pairs of eyes, that the handle +didn't come out by our own carelessness, but by its own inherient +weakness--so we spozed he would swap it, we spozed so. But it wuz +arrainged before we disbanded (the result of our conference), that the +next mornin' we would each one on us bring our offerin's to the fair, +and hand 'em in to the treasurer, so's she would know in time what to +depend on, and what she had to do with. + +And we agreed (also the result of our conference) that we would, each +one on us, tell jest how we got the money and things to give to the +fair. + +And then we disbanded and started off home but I'll bet that each one on +us, in a sort of secret unbeknown way, gin a look on that lofty ceilin', +them dangerus barells, and that pile of paper, and groaned a low +melancholy groan all to herself. + +[Illustration: "THE HANDLE COME OUT."] + +I know I did, and I know Submit Tewksbury did, for I stood close to her +and heard her. But then to be exactly jest, and not a mite underhanded, +I ort mebby to say, that her groan may be caused partly by the fact that +that aniversery of hern wuz a-drawin' so near. Yes, the very next day +wuz the day jest 20 years ago that Samuel Danker went away from Submit +Tewksbury to heathen lands. Yes, the next day wuz the one that she +always set the plate on for him--the gilt edged chiny with pink sprigs. + +But I'll bet that half or three quarters of that low melancholy groan of +her'n wuz caused by the hardness of the job that loomed up in front of +us, and the hull of mine wuz. + +Wall, that night Josiah Allen wuz a-feelin' dretful neat, fer he had +sold our sorell colt for a awful big price. + +It wuz a good colt; its mother wuz took sick when it wuz a few days old, +and we had brung it up as a corset, or ruther I did, fer Josiah Allen +at that time had the rheumatiz to that extent that he couldn't step his +foot on the floor for months, so the care of the corset come on me, most +the hull on it, till it got big enough to run out in the lot and git its +own livin'. + +Night after night I used to get up and warm milk for it, when it wuz +very small, for it wuz weakly, and we didn't know as we could winter it. + +[Illustration: "I WOULD MEANDER OUT THERE IN A ICY NIGHT TO FEED IT."] + +We kep it in a little warm shed offen the wood house for quite a spell, +but still I used to find it considerable cold when I would meander out +there in a icy night to feed it. But jest as it is always the way with +wimmen, the more care I took on it, the more it needed me and depended +on me, the better I liked it. + +Till I got to likin' it so well that it wuzn't half so hard a job for me +to go out to feed it in the night as it would have been to laid still in +my warm bed and think mebby it wuz cold and hungry. + +So I would pike out and feed it two or three times a night. + +That is the nater of wimmen, the weaker it wuz and the humblier it wuz, +and the more it needed me, the more I thought on it. + +And as is the nater of man, Josiah Allen didn't seem to care so much +about it while it wuz weak and humbly and spindlin'. + +He told me time and agin, that I couldn't save it, and it never would +amount to anythin', and wuzn't nothin' but legs any way, and lots of +other slightin' remarks. And he'd call it "horse corset" in a kind of +a light, triflin' way, that wuz apt to gaul a woman when she come back +with icy night-gown and frosty toes and fingers, way along in the night. + +[Illustration: "BEEN OUT TO TEND TO YOUR 'HORSE CORSET,' HAVE YOU?"] + +He'd wake up, a-layin' there warm and comfortable on his soft goose +feather piller and say to me: "Been out to tend to your 'horse corset,' +have you?" + +"_Horse corset_! 'Wall, what if it wuz?" + +Such language way along in the night, from a warm comfortable pardner to +a cold one, is apt to make some words back and forth. + +And then he'd speak of its legs agin, in the most slightin' terms--and +he'd ask me if didn't want its picter took--etc., etc., etc. + +(I believe one thing that ailed Josiah Allen wuz he didn't want me to +get up and get my feet so cold). + +But, as I wuz a-sayin', though I couldn't deny some of his words, for +truly its legs did seem to be at the least calculation a yard and a half +long, specilly in the night, why they'd look fairly pokerish. + +And though I knew it wuz humbly still I persevered, and at last it +got to thrivin' and growin' fast. And the likelier it grew, and the +stronger, and the handsomer, so Josiah Allen's likin' for it grew and +increased, till he got to settin' a sight of store by it. + +And now it wuz a two-year-old, and he had sold it for two hundred and +fifteen dollars. It wuz spozed it wuz goin' to make a good trotter. + +Wall, seem' he had got such a big price for the colt, and knowin' well +that I wuz the sole cause of its bein' alive at this day, I felt that it +wuz the best time in the hull three hundred and sixty-five days of the +year to tackle him for sunthin' to give to the fair. I felt that the +least he could do would be to give me ten or fifteen dollars for it. So +consequently after supper wuz out of the way, and the work done up, I +tackled him. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 6. +by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHREN, *** + +***** This file should be named 9448.txt or 9448.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/4/9448/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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