"Well, I have got one out here, and I will bring it in."
"What is the price?" says I.
"One hundred and ninety dollars," says he.
"There won't be no need of bringin' it in at that price," says I, "for I
have heerd Josiah say, that he wouldn't give a cent over a hundred
dollars."
"Well," says the feller, "I'll tell you what I'll do. Your countenance
looks so kinder natural to me, and I like the looks of the country round
here so well, that if your mind is made up on the price you want to pay,
I won't let a trifle of ninety dollars part us. You can have it for one
hundred."
Well, the end on't was, he brung it in and sot it up the other end of
the parlor, and drove off. And when Josiah come in from his work, and
Thomas J. come home from Jonesville, they liked it first rate.
But the very next day, a new agent come, and he looked awful skairt when
he katched sight of that organ, and real mad and indignant too.
"That villain haint been a tryin' to get one of them organs off onto
you, has he?" says he.
"What is the trouble with 'em?" says I, in a awestruck tone, for he
looked bad.
"Why," says he, "there is a heavy mortgage on every one of his organs.
If you bought one of him, and paid for it, it would be liable to be took
away from you any minute when you was right in the middle of a tune,
leavin' you a settin' on the stool; and you would lose every cent of
your money."
"Good gracious!" says I, for it skairt me to think what a narrow chance
we had run. Well, finally, he brung in one of hisen, and sot it up in
the kitchen, the parlor bein' full on 'em.
And the fellers kep' a comin' and a goin' at all hours. For a spell, at
first, Josiah would come in and talk with 'em, but after a while he got
tired out, and when he would see one a comin' he would start on a run
for the barn, and hide, and I would have to stand the brunt of it alone.
One feller see Josiah a runnin' for the barn, and he follered him in,
and Josiah dove under the barn, as I found out afterwards. I happened to
see him a crawlin' out after the feller drove off. Josiah come in a
shakin' himself--for he was all covered with straw and feathers--and
says he:
"Samantha there has got to be a change."
"How is there goin' to be a change?" says I.
"I'll tell you," says he, in a whisper--for fear some on 'em was
prowlin' round the house yet--"we will git up before light to-morrow
mornin', and go to Jonesville and buy a organ right out."
I fell in with the idee, and we started for Jonesville the next mornin'.
We got there jest after the break of day, and bought it of the man to
the breakfast table. Says Josiah to me afterwards, as we was goin' down
into the village:
"Let's keep dark about buyin' one, and see how many of the creeters will
be a besettin' on us to-day."
So we kep' still, and there was half a dozen fellers follerin' us round
all the time a most, into stores and groceries and the manty makers, and
they would stop us on the sidewalk and argue with us about their organs
and pianos. One feller, a tall slim chap, never let Josiah out of his
sight a minute; and he follered him when he went after his horse, and
walked by the side of the wagon clear down to the store where I was, a
arguin' all the way about his piano. Josiah had bought a number of
things and left 'em to the store, and when we got there, there stood the
organ man by the side of the things, jest like a watch dog. He knew
Josiah would come and git 'em, and he could git the last word with him.
Amongst other things, Josiah had bought a barrel of salt, and the piano
feller that had stuck to Josiah so tight that day, offered to help him
on with it. And the organ man--not goin' to be outdone by the other--he
offered too. Josiah kinder winked to me, and then he held the old mare,
and let 'em lift. They wasn't used to such kind of work, and it fell
back on 'em once or twice, and most squashed 'em; but they nipped to,
and lifted again, and finally got it on; but they was completely
tuckered out.
And then Josiah got in, and thanked 'em for the liftin'; and the organ
man, a wipin' the sweat offen his face--that had started out in his hard
labor--said he should be down to-morrow mornin'; and the piano man, a
pantin' for breath, told Josiah not to make up his mind till _he_ came;
he should be down that night if he got rested enough.
And then Josiah told 'em that he should be glad to see 'em down a
visitin' any time, but he had jest bought a organ.
I don't know but what they would have laid holt of Josiah, if they
hadn't been so tuckered out; but as it was, they was too beat out to
look anything but sneakin'; and so we drove off.
The manty maker had told me that day, that there was two or three new
agents with new kinds of sewin' machines jest come to Jonesville, and I
was tellin' Josiah on it, when we met a middle-aged man, and he looked
at us pretty close, and finally he asked us as he passed by, if we could
tell him where Josiah Allen lived.