SEEING THE DIFFERENT SPRINGS.
Taking a walk
Immegeatly after dinner (a good one) Josiah Allen, Ardelia Tutt and me
sot out to view and look at the different springs and to partake of the
same. We hadn’t drinked a drop of it as yet. Ardelia had come over to
go with us. She had on a kind of a yellowish drab dress and a hat made
of the same, with some drab and blue bows of ribbon and some pink
holly-hawks in it, and she had some mits on (her hands prespired
dretfully, and she sweat easy). As I have said, she is a good lookin’
girl but soft. And most any dress she puts on kinder falls into the
same looks. It may be quite a hard lookin’ dress before she puts it on,
but before she has wore it half a hour it will kinder crease down into
the softest lookin, thing you ever see. And so with her bonnets, and
mantillys, and everything.
The down onto a goslin’s breast never looked softer than every rag she
had on this very afternoon, and no tender goslin’ itself wuz ever
softer than she wuz on the inside on’t. But that didn’t hinder my
likin’ her.
Wall, anon, or a little before, we came to that long, long buildin’,
beautiful and dretful ornimental, but I could see plain by daylight
what I had mistrusted before, that it wuzn’t built for warmth. It must
be dretful cold in the winter, and I don’t see how the wimmen folks of
the home could stand it, unless they hang up bed quilts and blankets
round the side, and then, I should think they would freeze. They
couldn’t keep their house plants over winter any way - and I see they
had sights of ’em - unless they kep’ ’em down suller.
But howsumever, that is none of my lookout. If they want to be so
fashionable, as to try to live out doors and in the house too, that is
none of my business. And of course it looked dretful ornimental and
pretty. But I will say this, it haint bein’ mejum. I should rather live
either out doors, or in the house, one of the 2. But I am a eppisodin’.
And to resoom.
Josiah Allen paid the money demanded of him and we went in and advanced
onwards to where a boy wuz a pullin’ up the water and handin’ of it
round.
It looked dretful bubblin’ and sparklin’. Why sunthin’ seemed to be a
sparklin’ up all the time in the water and I thought to myself mebby it
wuz water thoughts, mebby it wanted to tell sunthin’, mebby it has all
through these years been a tryin’ to bubble up and sparkle out in
wisdom but haint found any one yet who could understand its liquid
language. Who knows now?
I took my glass and looked close - sparkle, sparkle, up came the tiny
thought sparks! But I wuzn’t wise enough to read the glitterin’
language. No I wuzn’t deep enough. It would take a deep mind, mebby
thousands of feet deep, to understand the great glowin’ secret that it
has been a tryin’ to reveal and couldn’t. Mebby it has been a tryin’ to
tell of big diamond mines that it has passed through - great cliffs and
crags of gold sot deep with the crystalized dew of diamonds.
But no, I didn’t believe that wuz it. That wouldn’t help the world,
only to make it happier, and these seemed to me to be dretful
inspirin’, upliftin’ thoughts. No, mebby it is a tryin’ to tell a cold
world about a way to heat it. Mebby it has been a runnin’ over and is
sparklin’ with bright thoughts about how deep underneath the earth lay
a big fireplace, that all the cold beggars of mortality could set round
and warm _their_ frozen fingers by,—a tryin’ to tell how the heat of
that fire that escapes now up the chimbleys of volcanoes, and sometimes
in sudden drafts blows out sideways into earthquakes, etc., could be
utilized by conveyin’ it up on top of the ground, and have it carried
into the houses like Croton water. Who knows now? Mebby that is it!
Oh! I felt that it would be a happy hour for Samantha when she could
bile her potatoes by the heat of that large noble fire-place. And more
than that, far more wuz the thought that heat might become, in the
future, as cheap as cold. That the little cold hands that freeze every
winter in the big cities, could be stretched out before the big
generous warmth of that noble fire-place. And who built that fire in
the first place? Who laid the first sticks on the handirons, and put
the match to it? Who wuz it that did it, and how did he look, and when
wuz he born, and why, and where?
These, and many other thoughts of similar size and shape, filled my
brane almost full enough to lift up the bunnet, that reposed gracefully
on my foretop, as I stood and held the sparklin’ glass in my hands.
Sparkle! sparkle! sparkle! what wuz it, it wuz a tryin’ to say to me
and couldn’t? Good land! I couldn’t tell, and Josiah couldn’t, I knew
instinctively he couldn’t, though I didn’t ask him.
No, I turned and looked at that beloved man, for truly I had for the
time bein’ been by the side of myself, and I see that he wuz a drinkin’
lavishly of the noble water. I see that he wuz a drinkin’ more than wuz
for his good, his linement showed it, and sez I, for he wuz a liftin’
another tumbler full onto his lips, sez I, “Pause, Josiah Allen, and
don’t imbibe too much.”
Taking the water
“Why,” he whispered, “you can drink all you are a mind to for 5 cents.
I am bound for once, Samantha Allen, to get the worth of my money.”
And he drinked the tumbler full down at one swoller almost, and turned
to the weary boy for another. He looked bad, and eager, and sez I, “How
many have you drinked?”
Sez he, in a eager, animated whisper, “9.” And he whispered in the same
axents, “5 times 9 is 45 ; if it had been to a fair, or Fourth of July,
or anything, it would have cost me 45 cents, and if it had been to a
church social - lemme see - 9 times 10 is 90. It would have cost me a
dollar bill! And here I am a havin’ it all for 5 cents. Why,” sez he,
“I never see the beat on’t in my life.”
And ag’in he drinked a tumbler full down, and motioned to the
frightened boy for another.
But I took him by the vest and whispered to him, sez I, “Josiah Allen,
do you want to die, because you can die cheap? Why,” sez I, “it will
kill you to drink so much.”
“But think of the cheapness on’t Samantha! The chance I have of getting
the worth of my money.”
But I whispered back to him in anxus axents and told him, that I
guessed if funeral expenses wuz added to that 5 cents it wouldn’t come
so cheap, and sez I, “you wont live through many more glasses, and
you’ll see you wont. Why,” sez I, “you are a drowndin’ out your
insides.”
He wuz fairly a gettin’ white round the mouth, and I finally got him to
withdraw, though he looked back longingly at the tumblers and murmured
even after I had got him to the door, that it wuz a dumb pity when
anybody got a chance to get the worth of their money, which wuzn’t
often, to think they couldn’t take advantage on it.
And I sez back to him in low deep axents, “There is such a thing as
bein’ too graspin’, Josiah Allen.” Sez I, “The children of Israel used
to want to lay up more manny than they wanted or needed, and it spilte
on their hands.” And sez I, “you see if it haint jest so with you; you
have been in too great haste to enrich yourself, and you’ll be sorry
for it, you see if you haint.”
And he was. Though he uttered language I wouldn’t wish to repeat, about
the children of Israel and about me for bringin’ of ’em up. But the man
wuz dethly sick. Why he had drinked 11 tumblers full, and I trembled to
think what would have follered on, and ensued, if I hadn’t interfered.
As it wuz, he wuz confined to our abode for the rest of the day.
But I wouldn’t have Josiah Allen blamed more than is due for this
little incedent, for it only illustrates a pervailin’ trait in men’s
nater, and sometimes wimmen’s - a too great desire to amass sudden
riches, and when opportunity offers, burden themselves with useless and
wearysome and oft-times painful gear.
They don’t need it but seeing they have a chance to get it cheap, “dog
cheap “ as the poet observes, why they weight themselves down with it,
and then groan under the burden of unnecessary and wearin’ wealth. This
is a deep subject, deep as the well from which my companion drinked,
and nearly drinked himself into a untimely grave.
Men heap up more riches than they can enjoy and then groan and rithe
under the taxes, the charity given, the envy, the noteriety, the glare,
and the glitter, the crowd of fortune-hunters and greedy hangers-on,
and the care and anxiety. They orniment the high front of their houses
with the paint, the gildin’, the fashion, and the show of enormous
wealth, and while the crowd of fashion-seekers and fortune-hunters pour
in and out of the lofty doorway they set out on the back stoop a
groanin’ and a sithin’ at the cares and sleepless anxietes of their big
wealth, and then they git up and go down street and try their best to
heap up more treasure to groan over.
And wimmen now, when wuz there ever a woman who could resist a good
bargain? Her upper beauro draws may be a runnin’ over with laces and
ribbons, but let her see a great bargain sold for nothin’ almost, and
where is the female woman that can resist addin’ to that already too
filled up beauro draw.
A baby, be he a male, or be he a female child, when he has got a appel
in both hands, will try to lay holt of another, if you hold it out to
him. It is human nater. Josiah must not be considered as one alone in
layin’ up more riches than he needed. He suffered, and I also, for sech
is the divine law of love, that if one member of the family suffers,
the other members suffer also, specially when the sufferin’ member is
impatient and voyalent is his distress, and talks loud and angry at
them who truly are not to blame.
Now I didn’t make the springs nor I wuzn’t to blame for their bein’
discovered in the first place. But Josiah laid it to me. And though I
tried to make him know that it wuz a Injun that discovered ’em first,
he wouldn’t gin in and seemed to think they wouldn’t have been there if
it hadn’t been for me.
I hated to hear him go on so. And in the cause of Duty, I brung up Sir
William Johnson and others. But he lay there on the lounge, and kep’
his face turned resolute towards the wall, in a dretful oncomfertable
position (sech wuz his temper of mind), and said, he never had heard of
them, nor the springs nuther, and shouldn’t if it hadn’t been for me.
Why, sez I, “A Injun brought Sir William Johnson here on his back.”
“Wall,” sez he, cross as a bear, “that is the way you’ll have to take
me back, if you go on in this way much longer.”
“In what way, Josiah?” sez I.
“Why a findin’ springs and draggin’ a man off to ’em, and makin’ him
drink.”
“Why, Josiah Allen,” sez I, “I told you not to drink - don’t you
remember?”
“No! I don’t remember nuthin’, nor don’t want to. I want to go to
sleep!” sez he, snappish as anything, so I went out and let him think
if he wanted to, that I made the Springs, and the Minerals, and the
Gysers, and the Spoutin’ Rock, and everything. Good land! I knew I
didn’t; but I had to rest under the unkind insinnuation. Such is some
of the trials of pardners.
But Josiah waked up real clever. And I brung him up some delicate warm
toast and some fragrant tea, and his smile on me wuz dretful
good-natured, almost warm. And I forgot all his former petulence and
basked in the rays of love and happiness that beamed on me out of the
blue sky of my companion’s eyes. The clear blue sky that held two
stars, to which my heart turned.
Such is some of the joys of pardners with which the world don’t meddle
with, nor can’t destroy.
But to resoom. Ardelia sot down awhile in our room before she went back
to her boardin’ house. I see she wuz a writin’ for she had a long lead
pencil in her right hand and occasionally she would lean her forrerd
down upon it, in deep thought, and before she went, she slipped the
verses into my hand:
“STANZAS ON A MINERAL SPRING.
“Oh! waters that doth bubble up and spout
Oh, didst thou bubble down insted of up,
Thou couldest not with all thy minerals get out
We could not then arise and drink thee in a cup.
“Oh! human waves that float and seeth and tear
Oh wiltest thou not too a learn to bubble up
Instead of down, a lesson deep to bear,
Oh Soul, can here be learned, one smooth, or rough.
“A lesson deep of powerful min-er-als
That act with power the constitution on,[1]
And still that softly bubbles up, and tells
To souls unborn, how sweetly they have ron.
“Oh water that doth mount on slender tip,
And spoutest up some 30 feet, through pole;
Oh Hope, learn thou a lesson from the water’s lip,
Spout out, spout out, in peace from hollow soul.”
[1] As in the case of Mr. Allen, poor dear man.
Sez I, a lookin’ over my specks at Ardelia after I had finished readin’
the verses: “What does ‘ron’ mean? I never heerd of that word before,
nor knew there wuz sech a one.”
Sez she, “I meant ran, but I s’pose it is a poetical license to say
‘ron,’ don’t you think so?”
“Oh, yes,” sez I, “I s’pose so, I don’t know much about licenses, nor
don’t want to, they are suthin’ I never believed in. But,” sez I, for I
see she looked red and overcasted by my remarks, “I don’t s’pose it
will make any difference in a 100 years whether you say ran or ron.”
But sez I, “Ardelia, it is a hot day, and I wouldn’t write any more if
I wuz in your place. If you should heat your bra-, the upper part of
your head, you might not get over it for some time.”
“But,” sez she, “you have told me sometimes to stop on account of cold
weather.”
“Wall,” sez I, “most any kind of weather is hard on some kinds of
poetry.” Sez I, “Poetry is sunthin’ that takes particular kinds of
folks and weather to be successful.” Sez I, “It is sunthin’ that can’t
be tampered with with impunity by Christians or world’s people. It is a
kind of a resky thing to do, and I wouldn’t write any more to-day,
Ardelia.”
And she heard to me and after a settin’ a while with us, she went back
to Mr. Pixley’s.
Samantha tastes the water