“’Most all great inventions and discoveries look strange at first.”
And I sez, almost mechanically, “Yes, that is so, Josiah.”
And he spoke out ag’in, “Napoleon Boneparte wuz a small man, but what a
generel he wuz! What a leader! How fiery he wuz!”
And I sez, “Yes,” ag’in.
And he sez, a-brightenin’ up in his thoughts, and in delicate defference
to me,—
“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Wall, the next mornin’ the fire wuz built in the furnace, and, it bein’
hot weather, it heat the house beautifully. It wuz about ninety in the
shade, so the furnace heat the house warm, and the agent and men looked
triumphant, and ag’in Josiah’s apprehensions rose, and he wondered how
he wuz goin’ to get through the winter with it without meltin’ right
down in our tracts.
But I kep’ cool, or as cool as I could in dog-days, and didn’t say much.
Wall, it run along, and run along, the furnace always a-goin’, to dry
the plasterin’, and Josiah’s stock of winter coal kep’ a-dwindlin’ down.
Whatever else the furnace could do, or couldn’t do, it could devour coal
with the best of ’em. Like some folks I have seen, it wuz small in size,
but had a immense appetite.
Ton after ton vanished like tales that wuz told, into its insatiable
mouth (door of furnace).
But as the weather wuz still hot, it heat the house beautifully, so
Josiah didn’t complain. But he lay awake nights a-worryin’ about the
effects of heat.
But finally there come on a cold snap, jest as I wuz a-gettin’ the new
house cleaned, and carpets put down, and I found there wuzn’t a room I
could set down in, it wuz so cold.
It wuz a very cold day when I had the dinin’-room carpet put down, and I
had hired a stout healthy woman, two hundred pounds wuz her weight, and
her temperature wuz above normal, it wuz so good.
I went over to the house that mornin’, and I shivered imperceptibly as I
walked through the rooms,—I didn’t venter to set,—and I met Josiah
a-comin’ up from the suller with his mittens on, and a comforter round
his neck, and his teeth a-chatterin’.
And I sez to him, “Hain’t you glad you didn’t sell your mittens and
comforter, Josiah?”
And he sez, real snappish, “I wouldn’t be a fool!”
And I sez, “I didn’t mean no hurt, Josiah,” and I added further, as I
clapped my hands together to warm ’em, “We are both sufferers, Josiah
Allen.”
“Wall,” sez he, “when we get into the house it will be different. Then
we can give it a fair test.”