THE EMBARKATION.
And so it wuz settled, and Martin bein’ writ to to git another ticket,
he got it, and sent it in a letter to us. But what he would say when he
see the passenger who wuz goin’ to use it I knew not, but I knew that
Alice and Adrian wuz good-natered, and would feel as I did about usin’
folks well. And then I remembered that complaint in Martin’s eyes, and
felt that if he didn’t take to Al Faizi, he would most probble be so
near-sighted that he couldn’t see him much, if any.
And so it turned out (to go ahead of the wagon a spell, or, ruther, to
paddle backwards a few furlongs), after the first conversation Martin
held with him, and see what his bizness wuz over here in America and
wuz a-goin’ to be in Europe--Martin’s eyes wuz so bad that he couldn’t
see him hardly ever.
But Alice wuz sweet and courteous to him, and Adrian liked him
dretfully from the first. And Al Faizi, when he first see Alice’s sweet
face, he stood stun still for more’n quite a spell.
And on his dark, handsome face dawned a look sech as a man might have
who had been walkin’ a considerable time through a underground way,
who had come out full in view of the mornin’ sun a-risin’ up on a June
world.
I d’no as anybody noticed that look but jest me; I don’t believe they
did, for Martin wuz talkin’ to Josiah in a dretful kind and patronizin’
way, and Alice wuz all took up a-lookin’ with her heart’s eye on the
land where her prince reigned.
And Adrian wuz, as I say, dretful took up with Al Faizi, and see
nothin’ in his dark, expressive face only what he looked for, and what
he found in it from day to day all through our tower--the good nater
of a patient comrade, who loved him for his own bright, winnin’ little
self, and loved him more for the sake of another, whose heart’s joy
Adrian wuz.
Martin’s eye complaint seemed to be real bad so fur as the noble
heathen wuz concerned.
I guess Al Faizi, in the first conversation he had with him, tackled
him in the everlastin’ cause of jestice, and pity, and mercy--subjects
that Martin hain’t “_o fay_” in (that is French. I seldom use foreign
languages, but I’ve hearn Maggie use it considerable, and know it is
lawful).
No; Martin and Al Faizi looked on this earth and the things of life
with sech different pairs of eyes that I d’no as they could be said to
look on this old planet on the same side.
Al Faizi looked on the deep side of subjects. He looked fur down under
the outside current to try to discern the hidden springs, from whence
these clear and turbid torrents flowed.
If he found a spring that yielded black water, his first thought wuz to
give warnin’ and try to dam it up.
Martin would try to keep it a-humpin’, so’s to utilize it--sell the mud
that flowed from it, mebby.
Al Faizi’s gaze pierced through the clouds of earth, and rested on the
gold pinnacles of Heaven.
Martin clutched handfuls of the gold ore of earth and held it clost to
his eyes, and so shet out the sight of the Heavenly City.
One wuz honestly a-tryin’ to sweep away utterly the vile sperits of
ignorance, evil, and want, etc., etc. Martin wuz for catchin’ ’em and
hitchin’ ’em to his lawn-mower, to keep the lawn smooth round the house
of his earthly tabernacle.
Curous extremes as ever met, I believe, and as interestin’ to witness
from day to day as the most costly and curous menagerie of wild animals
would be.
But, as I said, Martin’s eyes bein’ formed in jest that way, he wuzn’t
able to hardly see the noble heathen after that first interview.
Wall, to go back to the wagon agin and proceed onwards with my history,
or paddle back to the steamer.
At last the last minute come--Ury and Philury had took us to the cars
and been shooken by the hands, and amidst fervent good-byes had been
adjured over and over about the necessity of keepin’ the cat out of the
milk room, and the gate shet between the garden and paster, etc., etc.,
etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
And they had promised faithfully to adhere to our wishes, and to advise
us of the results in weekly letters.
We let ’em move right in and have half of everything--butter, cheese,
eggs, wool, black caps, etc. And they wuz highly tickled as well as we.
Thomas Jefferson and Maggie had gone with us to the station, where
Whitfield and Tirzah Ann put in a late appearance, on account of
Tirzah’s bein’ ondecided whether to wear a thick or a thin dress; the
day bein’ one of them curous ones when you don’t really know whether it
will be hazy or warm.
And they’d come in time to kiss us and clasp our hands in partin’.
[Illustration: In time to kiss us and clasp our hands in partin’.]
The girls both brought bokays with ’em, and Babe, the darlin’, brought
a bunch of English violets to send to Adrian, knowin’ that he jest
worshipped that posy--and it’s one of my favorites, too. Wall, the
last words wuz said to us, Al Faizi had made his last low bow to the
children, and said the last polite, melodious adieu, and we embarked on
to the cars.
But I looked back, and I see Tirzah Ann a-wrestlin’ with her polynay,
that had got ketched into her parasol, and Whitfield a-helpin’ her to
ondo herself.
And I see Maggie’s sweet, upward look to the car winder, and met the
clear, affectionate, comprehendin’ look of my boy, Thomas Jefferson.
It is curous how well acquainted our sperits be with each other, hisen
and mine, and always has been, from the time when he sot on my lap as a
child. Our souls are clost friends, and would be if he wuzn’t no kin to
me.
He is a young man of a thousand, and he understands my mind without my
speakin’, and I do hisen.
But to resoom. It had been arranged that we should proceed directly to
a hotel that wuz nigh to the Atlantic, and Martin should call for us
there, his own residence bein’ in a opposite direction.
We did so, and after a good meal--and we all did jestice to it, bein’
hungry--a big carriage driv up, and Martin alighted from it and come
in.
Anon we embarked in it, and after a seen of almost indescribable
tumult, owin’ to the screamin’ of drivers, the conflict of passin’
wagons and carriages and dray carts, etc., etc., etc., etc.
And after numerous givin’s up on my part that now indeed wuz the time I
wuz to “likewise perish,” we found ourselves on the big steamer’s deck
that wuz to bear us away from our own native land.
Lots of folks wuz there a-takin’ leave of friends. Some wuz weepin’,
some wuz laughin’, some wuz talkin’, and that las’ some wuz multiplied
by hundreds and thousands, seemin’ly.
And piles of flowers lay round, offerin’s to and from fond hearts that
must sever.
Adrian had his bunch of sweet blue violets, and the violets wuzn’t any
sweeter than his eyes. And I, even at the resk of losin’ my umbrell,
clutched my precious bokays--the frail links that seemed to connect me
with my own native Jonesville and my loved ones there.
Josiah seemed to be lookin’ round for somebody he could scrape
acquaintance with.
And Al Faizi stood in that silent way of hisen, with his dark, ardent
face seemin’ly on the lookout for sunthin’ or other he could learn, and
a-seein’ every move that Alice made, as I could see, though nobody else
noticed it.
Martin wuz a-flyin’ round, busy a-seein’ to everything. Alice wuz a
little apart a-bendin’ over the side of the great ship. She seemed to
be lookin’ intently on sunthin’ or somebody on the pier, and as we
sailed off I see her snowy handkerchief wave out, and where she’d been
a-lookin’ I see an arm lifted up and another white handkerchief wave
out a farewell.
[Illustration: Her big blue eyes wuz full of tears.]
When I looked clost at her, I see that her big blue eyes wuz full of
tears.
As for me, I wuz tryin’ my best to keep my equilibrum, for the boat
tosted some, and my equilibrum hain’t what it would be if it hadn’t had
the rheumatiz so much.
But my umbrell helped me some; I planted it down and leaned heavy on
it, and in its faithful companionship and support I found some relief
as I see the land sail swift away from me, seemin’ to be in a hurry to
go somewhere.
And I sez in my heart--“Good-bye, dear old Land! you no need to be in
sech a hurry to go back and dissapear in the distance; no truer lover
did you ever have than she who now witnesses your swift departure,” and
even in my reverie wantin’ to be exact, I added--“she whose name wuz
once Smith.”
Quite a while did I stand there until Reason and also Josiah told me
that I had better seek my state-room.
I don’t find no fault with that room, it probble wuzn’t its fault that
the narrer walls riz up so many times, and seemed to hit me in my head
and stomach, specially the stomach, and then anon turn round with me,
and teeter, and bow down, and hump up, and act.
No; the little room wuzn’t to blame, and my sufferin’s with Josiah
Allen for the three days when he lay, as he said, in a dyin’ state,
right over my head--
I a-sufferin’ twice over--once in myself and agin in my other and more
fraxious and worrisome self.
The wild demeanors, the groans, the frenzied exclamations, and anon the
faint and die-away actions of that man can’t never be described upon,
and if it could, it would make readin’ that no man would want to read,
nor no woman neither.
But after a long interval, in which, while I wuz a-layin’, a-tryin’ in
a agonized way to think how I wanted my effects distributed amongst the
survivors--I would be called away from that contemplation to receive
my pardner’s last wills and testaments, and I heard anon or oftener,
spoke in solemn axents--
“Bury me in the dressin’-gown, Samantha.”
He clung to that idee, even in his lowest and most sinkin’est moments.
I reached up, or tried to, and took holt of his limp hand that dangled
down over my head, and I sez--
“You will live, Josiah, to wear it out.”
And as feeble as he wuz, and as much as he had wanted to die, them
words would seem to sooth him some, and be a paneky to him.
I repeated ’em often, for they seemed to impress him where more
affectionate and moral arguments failed.
But I may as well hang up a double rep curtain between my hearers and
the fearful seens that wuz enacted in our state-rooms for nearly three
days and nights.
I hang a rep curtain, so’s it would shelter the seens more; cretonne is
too thin.
But some of the seens are so agonizin’ and sharp pinted that they seem
to pierce even through that envelopin’ drapery.
One of them dagger-like episodes wuz of the fog horns.
If Josiah’s testementary idees and our united wretchedness would have
let me doze off some in rare intervals, the tootin’ of them horns would
be sure to roust me up.
Yes, they made the night dretful--ringin’ of bells, tootin’ of horns,
etc.
And once, it wuz along in the latter part of the night, I guess, I
heard a loud cry a-risin’ above the fog horn. It seemed to be a female
in distress.
And Josiah wuz all rousted up in a minute.
And sez he--“Some female is in distress, Samantha! Where is my
dressin’-gown?” Sez he, “I will go to her rescue!” And he rung the bell
wildly for the stewardess, and acted.
Sez I--“Josiah Allen, come back to bed! no woman ever yelled so loud
as that and lived! If it is a female she’s beyend your help now.” And
I curdled down in bed agin, though I felt queer and felt dretful sorry
for her; but felt that indeed that yell must have been her last, and
that she wuz now at rest.
But he wuz still wildly arrangin’ his gown, and hollerin’ for the
tossels--they’d slipped off from it.
“Where is them dum tossels?” he yelled; “must I hear a female yell like
that and not fly to her rescue? Where is the tossels?” he yelled agin.
“You don’t seem to have no heart, Samantha, or you’d be rousted up!”
“I am rousted up!” sez I; “yes, indeed, I have been rousted up ever
sence I laid my head onto my piller; but if you wuz so anxious to help
and save, Josiah, you wouldn’t wait for tossels!”
But at that minute, simultaneous and to once, the chambermaid come to
the door, and he found his tossels.
“Who is that female a-screamin’?” sez Josiah, a-tyin’ the cord in a big
bow-knot.
“That is the Syren,” sez she. And she slammed the door and went back;
she wuz mad to be waked up for that.
“The Syren!” sez Josiah; “what did I tell you, Samantha?” And sez he,
a-smoothin’ out the tossels, “I wouldn’t have missed the sight for a
dollar bill! How lucky I found my tossels!” sez he.
“Yes, dretful lucky,” sez I faintly, for I wuz wore completely out by
my long night watches, and I felt fraxious.
“Yes,” sez he, “I wouldn’t have appeared before a Syren without them
red tossels for no money. I always wanted to see a Syren!” sez he,
a-smoothin’ out the few hairs on each side of his cranium.
Sez he, “She wuz probble a-screamin’ for her lookin’-glass and comb;
I’ll go to once on deck. It is a bad night; if she has missed her comb,
I might lend her my pocket-comb,” sez he.
“You let Syrens alone, Josiah Allen!” sez I, gittin’ rousted up; “you
don’t want to meddle with ’em at all! and do you come back to bed.”
“Not at all,” sez he; “here is the chance of my lifetime. I’ve always
wanted to see a Syren, and now I’m a-goin’ to!”
And he reached up to a peg and took down his tall plug hat, and put it
on kinder to the side of his head in as rakish a lookin’ way as you
ever see a deacon’s hat in the world; he then took his umbrell and
started for the door.
[Illustration: Then took his umbrell and started for the door.]
Agin come that loud and fearful yell; it did, indeed, seem to be a
female in direst agony.
“But,” I sez, “I don’t believe that’s any Syren, Josiah Allen; we read
that her voice lures sailors to foller her; no sailor would be lured by
that voice, it is enough to scare anybody and drive ’em back, instead
of forrered.
“What occasion would a Syren have to yell in sech a blood-curdlin’ way,
Josiah Allen?”
“Wall,” sez he, put to his wits’ end, “mebby her hair is all snarled up
by the wind and salt water, and in yankin’ out the snarls, it hurts her
so that she yells.”
I see the common sense of this, for the first night I had used soap
and salt water my hair stood out like quills on my head, and it almost
killed me to comb it out. “But,” sez I, “Syrens are used to wind storms
and salt water. I don’t spoze their hair is like other folkses.”
Agin come that fearful, agonizin’ yell.
Agin Josiah sez--“While we are a-bandyin’ words back and forth, I am
losin’ the sight,” and agin he made for the door.
But I follered him and ketched holt of the tossels.
He paused to once. He feared they would be injured.
Sez I, “Come back to bed; how it would look in the Jonesville paper to
hear that Josiah Allen had been lured overboard by a Syren, for they
always try to drown men, Josiah!” sez I.
“Oh, shaw!” sez he; “they never had me to deal with. I should stand
still and argy with her--I always convince the more opposite sect,” sez
he, lookin’ vain.
But I see the allusion to drowndin’ made him hesitate, and sez he--
“You don’t spoze there is any danger of that, do you, Samantha? I would
give a dollar bill to tell old Gowdey and Uncle Sime Bentley that I’d
interviewed a Syren!” sez he. “It would make me a lion, Samantha, and
you a lioness.”
“I shan’t be made any animal whatsoever, Josiah Allen, by follerin’ up
a Syren at this time of night. They never did anything but harm, from
their grandmothers’ days down, and men have always been fooled and
drownded by ’em!” sez I; “you let Syrens alone and come to bed,” sez I;
“you’re a perfessor and a grandfather, Josiah Allen, and I’d try to act
becomin’ to both on em,” sez I.
He fingered the red tossels lovin’ly.
“Sech a chance,” sez he, “mebby I never shall have agin. I don’t spoze
any man who ever parlied with ’em wuz ever so dressy in his appearance,
and so stylish--no knowin’ what would come of it!” sez he. He hated to
give up the idee.
“Wall,” sez I, “it’s rainin’ as hard as it can; them tossels never
would come out flossy and beautiful agin, they would all be limped and
squashed down and spilte.”
“Do you think so?” sez he anxiously.
He took off his hat and put down his umbrell, and sez he--“It may be as
well to not foller the investigation to-night; there will probble be a
chance in fairer weather.”
But the next day we found out that the Syren wuz a thing they fixed
onto the fog horn for certain signals, and Josiah felt glad enough that
he hadn’t made no moves to talk with her.
I wuz glad on the side of common sense. He on the account of them
tossels.
But after we found out what it wuz, and all about it, that fog horn
made us feel dretful lonesome and queer when we heard it, half
asleep and half awake. It would seem as if one half of our life wuz
a-hollerin’ out to the other half.
Youth and middle age a-callin’ out to each other----
“Loss! loss!” and “Gain! gain!” as the case might be.
Jonesville and London, “Yell! yell!”
Love! peace! death! danger! “Shriek! shriek!”
Them you love who wuz here on earth, and them who’d gone over the Great
Flood, “Shout! shout!”
“Ship ahoy! What hail!”
Queer sounds as I ever hearn floated in on them high yells, borne by
the winds and the washin’ waves of ocean depths and the misty billows
from Sleep Land, broken up some as they drifted and mixed with the
billows of our own realm.
But daylight would always seem to calm down this tumult and bring more
lusid and practical idees.
Wall, the time come when we tottered up on deck, two pale, thin
figgers, to be confronted by other faces that wuz as wan, and some that
wuz wanner.
[Illustration: We tottered up on deck, two pale, thin figgers.]
But after these days we begun to feel first-rate. Alice and Adrian had
had a hard time of it, so I had learned before from the stewardess. And
I’d sent ’em lovin’ messages time and agin, and they me.
Martin, I don’t believe, had a minute’s sickness, nor Al Faizi. They
both seemed to be real chipper; though they both seemed to be perfect
strangers to each other; and I spoze they wuz and will be to all
eternity--even if they wuz settin’ on the same seat on high.
Their two souls hain’t made right to ever be intimate with each other.