Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
SAMANTHA AT CONEY ISLAND
[Illustration: _Marietta Holley_ [_Samantha_]]
SAMANTHA AT CONEY ISLAND
AND
A THOUSAND OTHER ISLANDS
BY
JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE
(Marietta Holley)
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD
Bible House, New York
COPYRIGHT, 1911
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD
THE PLIMPTON PRESS NORWOOD MASS U.S.A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
In Which the Coney Island Microbe Enters Our Quiet Home 1
CHAPTER TWO
We set sail for Thousand Island Park and have a real good time,
but Josiah murmurs about Coney. 23
CHAPTER THREE
We seek Quiet and Happiness in their beautiful hants and mingle
with the pleasure seekers of Alexandria Bay. 39
CHAPTER FOUR
We enjoy the hospitalities of Whitfield's aunt's boardin'-house
at the Park, and my pardner goes a-fishin' 57
CHAPTER FIVE
Josiah's imagination about his fishin' exploits carries him to a
pint where I have to rebuke him, which makes him dretful huffy 73
CHAPTER SIX
In which I draw the matrimonial line round my pardner and also
keep my eye on Mr. Pomper 87
CHAPTER SEVEN
In which Josiah proposes to dance and Mr. Pomper makes an
advance 101
CHAPTER EIGHT
In which Mr. Pomper declares his intenshuns an' gives his
views on matrimony 123
CHAPTER NINE
In which Mr. Pomper makes a offer of marriage and Faith has
a wonderful experience 147
CHAPTER TEN
We Hear a Great Temperance Sermon, but Josiah Still Hankers
for Coney Island 163
CHAPTER ELEVEN
In Which We Return Home, and I Perswaide Josiah to Build a
Cottage for Tirzah Ann 183
CHAPTER TWELVE
In Which Josiah Still Works at His Plan for Tirzah Ann's
Cottage, and Decides to Send His Lumber C. O. W. 201
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
In Which Josiah and Serenus Depart Sarahuptishusly for
Coney Island and I Start in Pursuit 211
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Curious Sights I Seen An' the Hair-Raisin' Episodes I
Underwent in My Agonizin' Search for My Pardner 221
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I Visit the Moon, the Witchin' Waves, Open Air Circus,
Advise the Monkeys, Make the Male Statute Laugh, but
Do Not Find Josiah 233
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Wonderful and Mysterious Sights I Saw in Steeple Chase
Park, and My Search There for My Pardner 249
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
In Which I Continue My Search for Josiah Through Dreamland,
Huntin' for Him in Vain, and Return to Bildad's at Night,
Weary and Despairin' 273
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Josiah Found at Last! the Awful Fire at Dreamland and the
Terrible Sights I Saw There 293
CHAPTER NINETEEN
We Return to Jonesville and Josiah Builds Tirzah Ann's
Cottage With Strange Inventions and Additions 309
CHAPTER TWENTY
Faith Comes to Visit Us. We Attend the Camp Meetin' at
Piller Pint, and Faith Meets the Lover of Her Youth 327
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_Marietta Holley_ [_Samantha_] _Frontispiece_
"_Serenus Gowdey tramped up and down our
kitchen floor swingin' his arms and describin'
the wonders of Coney Island._" 8
"_The old deacon couldn't stand such talk. He
turned him outdoors, slammed the door in his
face, and forbid Faith to speak to him
again._" 14
"_I liked Castle Rest. It seemed a monument
riz up to faithful, patient mothers by the hand
of filial gratitude and love._" 49
"_I tried to stop him. I didn't want him to
demean himself before the oarsmen tryin' to find
boats that hadn't been hearn on in hundreds of
years._" 68
"_'I won't wear a veil,' sez he stoutly. But
the next time a gale come from the sou'west I
laid the brim back and tied the veil in a big
bow knot under his chin._" 83
_"'What does ail you, Samantha, lockin' arms
with me all the time--it will make talk! he
whispered in a mad, impatient whisper, but I
would hang on as long as Mr. Pomper wuz
around."_ 99
_"As they come nigh me I riz up almost wildly
and ketched holt of my pardner and sez I:
'Desist! Josiah Allen, stop to once!' The aged
female looked at me in surprise."_ 132
"_'No,' sez Mr. Pomper, 'I want it done as
speedily as possible, fer my late lamented left
me thirteen children, two pairs of triplets, two
ditto of twins, and three singles.'_" 144
"_Mr. Pomper, thinkin' he would see better,
got up on the bench, and jest as he shouted out
'How firm a foundation,' the bench broke and
down he come._" 169
"_And then he would call in Uncle Nate Peedick
and they would bend their two gray bald heads
and talk about specifications and elevations
till my brain seemed most as soft as
theirn._" 196
"_'Serenus and Josiah are havin' a gay time at
Coney Island. I've jest had a card from
Serenus,' sez Miss Gowdey. You could have
knocked me down with a pin feather._" 215
"_I stood before what seemed to be a great
city. Endless white towers riz up as if callin'
attention to 'em._" 227
"_On we went under the waterfall, up, up,
down, down, and finally shot out jest where we
got in._" 231
THE WITCHING WAVES "_Folks get into
little automobiles and steer 'em
themselves._" 236
"_A boat full of men and women set out from
the highest peak, shot down the declivity like
lightnin' and dashed 'way out on the other side
of the bridge._" 239
"_Rows of high-headed mettlesome hosses._" 247
"_I'm tellin' the livin' truth, as she towered
up in front on me, her breast opened and a man's
face looked out on me._" 254
"_As I went down with lightnin' speed I had'nt
time to think much._" 259
"_Pretty soon it begun to move and one by one
they wuz throwed off and went down I know not
where._" 261
_"As I went into Dreamland it seemed as if all
the folks in the city was there."_ 267
_"We got in a small boat and wuz carried round
and round till we dived into a dark tunnel."_ 277
_"I went forward to see the Head Hunters. I
sez to 'em 'I've hearn of your doin's and I want
to advise you for your good_.'" 282
_"It wuz a sight to see, acres and acres of
sand dotted with men, wimmen, and children."_ 287
"_I rushed forwards and cried to the lordly
beast above, jest ready to spring: 'Don't harm
Josiah! Devour me instead._'" 304
"_I myself never sot foot on the Bowery; I
wuzn't goin' to nasty up my mind with it, though
I hearn there wuz some good things to be seen
there._" 314
"_'The suller!' He stood agast, perfectly
dumb-foundered but wuzn't goin' to give in he
had made a mistake. It wuz too mortifying to his
pride._" 319
"_I don't know how long they stood there, his
eyes searchin' the dear face and findin' a
sacred meanin' in it._" 348
CHAPTER ONE
IN WHICH THE CONEY ISLAND MICROBE ENTERS OUR QUIET HOME
SAMANTHA AT CONEY ISLAND AND A THOUSAND OTHER ISLANDS
CHAPTER ONE
IN WHICH THE CONEY ISLAND MICROBE ENTERS OUR QUIET HOME
When Serenus Gowdey got back last fall from Brooklyn, where his twin
brother, Sylvester, lives, he couldn't talk about anything but Coney
Island. He slighted religion, stopped runnin' down relations, politics
wuz left in the lurch, and cows, hens, and crops, wuz to him as if
they wuzn't. He acted crazy as a loon about that Island.
Why, Sylvester'ses wife told Miss Dagget and she told the Editor of
the Augur's wife, and she told Ben Lowry's widder, and she told the
Editor of the Gimlet's mother-in-law, and she told me. It come
straight, that Serenus only stayed there nights and to a early
breakfast, but spent his hull durin' time to Coney Island, and he a
twin too. She said Sylvester felt so hurt she wuz afraid it would
make a lastin' hardness. And it made me enough trouble too, yes
indeed! for he would come and pour out his praises of that frisky,
frivolous spot into Josiah's too willin' ears, till he got him as wild
as he wuz about it.
Why, evenin's after he'd been there recountin' its attractions till
bed-time, Josiah would be so wrought up he'd ride night mairs most all
night. He'd spring up in bed cryin' out, "All aboard for Coney
Island!" or, "There is the Immoral Railway! See the divin' girls, and
the Awful Tower. Get a hot dog; look at the alligators, etc., etc." I
gin him catnip to soothe his nerve, but that didn't git the pizen out
of his system; no, acres of catnip couldn't.
Oh, how dead sick I'd git of their talk, Coney Island! Luna Park! Well
named, I'd say to myself, it is enough to make anybody luny to hear so
much about it. Steeple Chase! chasin' steeples, folly and madness.
Dreamland! night mairs, most probable. Why, from Serenus' talk that I
hearn onwillingly about toboggan slides, merry-go-rounds, swings,
immoral railways, skatin' rinks, diving girls, loops de loops, and
bumps de bumps, trips to the moon and trashy shows of all kinds I got
the idee there wuzn't nothin' there God had made, only the Ocean and
the little incubator babies, though them two shows wuzn't what you
might call similar and the same size. Why, I myself, with my powerful
mind, would git so cumfuddled hearin' his wild and glarin'
descriptions, that my brain would seem to turn over under my foretop,
and I didn't wonder at Josiah's bein' led away by it, much as I
lamented it, for he soon declared that go there he would.
In vain I reminded him that he wuz a deacon and a grand-father. He
said he didn't care how many deacons he wuz, or how many
grand-fathers; he wuz goin' to see that beautiful and entrancin' place
with his own eyes. I tried to quell him down, but couldn't quell him
worth a cent, with Serenus firin' him up on the other side.
One Sunday, Elder Minkley preached an eloquent sermon describing the
glories of the New Jerusalem, and Josiah said goin' home that from
Serenus' tell, the elder had gin a crackin' good description of Coney
Island.
I groaned aloud. And he sez, "You may groan and sithe all you're a
minter; I shall see that magnificent place before I die."
"Well," sez I coldly, "I don't want to talk about it Sunday. If
you've got to talk about shows and Pleasure Huntin', do it week days,
and don't pollute this sacred day with it."
"Pollute nothing!" sez he, and we didn't speak for over two milds. But
another weariness wuz ahead on me, and another strain on my overworked
ear pans. Jest about this time, Whitfield Minkley, our Tirzah Ann's
husband, got jest as much carried away and enthused over some other
Islands, though he had more to show for his het up state of mind. One
thousand and seventy wuz the number of islands he fell voylently in
love with and tried to make us the same. He had been to Canada on
bizness and went through them islands, and wuz overcome by their
extreme beauty. I'd heard that Whitfield's islands wuz as beautiful as
anything this side of the Heavenly gardens. Still, with Serenus on one
side praisin' up Coney, and Whitfield on the other praisin' up his
islands, I got so dead tired of 'em that I wished there wuzn't a
single island on the hull face of the earth. Yes, extreme weariness
had got me so low down as that.
One evenin', Serenus had been there and talked three hours stiddy,
describin' the charms and attractions of his island. The rush and
roar of the mechanical amusements, so wonderful they made scientific
men wonder. The educated animals that showed how fur animals could be
made to reason and understand. The constant hustle and bustle of the
immense crowds, ever comin', ever goin', ever movin', never stoppin'.
He stood up some of the time describin' the wonders and splendors
there, and tramped up and down our kitchen floor, swingin' his arms
and actin', till, when he left at late bed-time, Josiah wuz pale with
longin', and when I got up to lock the door and let out the cat, my
head seemed to go round and round, and I had to hang onto the door nob
to stiddy myself.
And the very next forenoon Whitfield and Tirzah Ann and little Delight
come to spend the day. Her name is Anna Tirzah, but I called her
Heart's Delight, she wuz so sweet and pretty, and we've shortened it
into Delight. I wuz glad to see 'em and done well by 'em in cookin'. I
had a excelent dinner started--roast fowl and vegetables and orange
puddin', etc.--but Whitfield, jest as soon as he sot down, begun to
descant on the beauty of his islands. I groaned and sithed out in the
buttery. "Islands agin! I had one island last night till bed-time, and
now I've got one thousand and seventy ahead on me."
[Illustration: "_Serenus Gowdey tramped up and down our kitchen floor
swingin' his arms and describin' the wonders of Coney
Island._" (_See page 7_)]
He begun jest as I put my potatoes on to bile, I wuz goin' to smash
'em with plenty of cream and butter; I hearn him till dinner wuz on
the table, and I wuz turnin' out the rich, fragrant coffee and addin'
the cream to it, and his praise on 'em wuz still flowin' in a stiddy
stream, and then I asked him, in one of his short pauses for breath,
how Grout Nickelson's rumatiz wuz.
He answered polite but brief, and resoomed the subject nearest and
dearest. I then, with dizzy foretop and achin' ear pans, tried to turn
his mind onto politics and religion, no avail. I tried cotton cloth,
carbide, lamb's wool blankets, Panama Canal, literatoor, X rays, hens'
eggs, Standard Oil, the school mom, reciprocity, and the tariff; not a
mite of change, all his idees swoshin' up against them islands, and
tryin' to float off our minds there with hisen. I thought of what I'd
hearn Thomas J. read about Tennyson's character, who "didn't want to
die a listener," and I sez in a firm voice, "I've had a letter from
Cousin Faithful Smith. She's comin' here next spring to make a
visit."
Whitfield said he should love to see Cousin Faith, but whilst she wuz
here, we all ort to go to the Thousand Islands.
Sez Josiah firmly, "We ort to take her to Coney Island," and he went
on rehearsin' Serenuses praises, and the education and the bliss one
could git there. He rid his hobby nobly, but Whitfield, bein' young
and spry, could ride his hobby faster and furder, till finally Josiah
got discouraged, and sot still a spell, and then scratched his head,
and went out to the barn. And Whitfield seated himself with ease on
his hobby, which pranced about us till, well as I love the children, I
felt relieved to see 'em go, for my head felt as if the river wuz
rushin' through it. And after they left and we driv over to the post
office, it seemed as if the democrat wuz a boat and the dusty road a
broad, liquid stream, down which we wuz glidin' and the neighin' of
the old mair (we had to leave her colt to home) wuz the snort of a
steamer. My dreams that night wuz about the Saint Lawrence, kinder
swoshy and floatin' round.
Well, the cold winter passed away, as winters will, if you have
patience to wait (or if you don't either, to be exact and truthful).
The shiverin' earth begun to git a little warmer, kinder shook
herself and partly throwed off the white fur robe she'd wore all
huddled round herself so long, and as the sun looked down closter and
more smilin' it throwed it clear off and begun to put on its new green
spring suit. Them same smiles, only more warm and persuadin' like,
coaxed the sweet sap up into the bare maple tops in Josiah's sugar
bush and the surroundin' world, till them same sunny smiles wuz packed
away in depths of sugar loaves and golden syrup in our store room.
Wild-flowers peeped out in sheltered places; pussy willows bent down
and bowed low as they see their pretty faces in the onchained brook;
birds sung amongst the pale green shadders of openin' leaves; the west
wind jined in the happy chorus. And lo! on lookin' out of our winder
before we knowed it, as it were, we see Spring had come!
And with the spring come my expected visitor, Faithful Smith. She is
my own cousin on my own side, called by some a old maid. But she
hain't so very old, and she's real good-lookin'--better than when she
wuz a girl, I think, for life has been cuttin' pure and sweet meanin's
into her face, some as they carve beauty into a cameo. She's kinder
pale and her sweet soul seems to look right out at you from her soft
gray eyes, and the lay of her hull face is such that you would think,
if the fire of happiness could be built up under it (in her soul), it
would light up into loveliness.
She wuz disappinted some years ago (or I d'no what you would call it)
when she sent the man away herself. But she had a Bo when she wuz a
girl by the name of Richard West. Dick West wuz the fullest of fun you
ever see, though generous and good hearted; but he boasted on not
believin' anything, and Faithful's father, bein' a church member of
the closest kind, and she brung up as you may say, right inside the
tabernacle, with her Pa's phylakracy hangin' on the very horns of the
altar, you may know what opposition Richard got from her Pa and her
own conscience. Her conscience, as so many good girl's consciences
are, wuz a perfect tyrant, and drove her round--that, and her Pa. He
wanted to be a good man, but wuz bigoted and couldn't see no higher
than the top of the steeple, and didn't want to. And take these facts,
with her deep true love for Richard, you may know she got tossted
about more'n considerable.
Richard would make fun right in meetin'--make fun of their religious
observances--and finally, though he wuz good natured, and did all his
pranks through light-hearted mischief and not malice, yet at last he
did git mad at the old deacon, who wuz comin' it dretful strong on him
with his doctrines and exhortin' him, tellin' him he wuz a lost soul
and had been from before his birth. Then Richard sassed him right back
and told him he didn't believe in _his_ idee of the Deity.
The old deacon couldn't stand such talk. He turned him outdoors,
slammed the door in his face, and forbid Faith to speak to him again.
She obeyed her Pa and her own conscience; but it seemed to take all
the nip out of her life. You see, she loved this young man; and when
anyone like Faith loves it hain't for a week or a summer, but for
life.
He writ to her burnin' words of love and passion, for he loved her too
in the old-fashioned way Adam did Eve--no other woman round, you know.
And the words he writ wuz, I spoze, enough to melt a slate stun, let
alone a heart, tender and true. She never writ a word back, and at
last she wouldn't read his letters and sent 'em back onopened. That
madded him and he went on from bad to worse, swung right out into
wickedness. He seemed to git harder and harder, and finally seein' he
could make no more impression on Faith than he could on white clear
crystal, he went off west, as fur as Michigan at first, so I hearn,
and so on, I don't know where to.
[Illustration: "_The old deacon couldn't stand such talk. He turned him
outdoors, slammed the door in his face, and forbid Faith
to speak to him again._" (_See page 13_)]
Well, Faith lived on in the old home, very calm and sweet actin', with
a shadder on her pretty face, worryin' dretful about her lover, so it
wuz spozed. But at last it seemed to wear off and a clear white light
took its place on her gentle forward, as if her trouble had bleached
off the earthly in her nature so her white soul could show through
plain. Mebby she'd got willin' to trust even _his_ future with the
Lord.
Dretful good to children and sick folks and them that wuz in trouble,
Faith wuz. Good to her Pa, who wuz very disagreable in his last days,
findin' fault with his porridge and with sinners, and most of them
round him. But she took care on him patient, rubbed his back and
soaked his feet, and read the Sams to him, and reconciled him all she
could, and finally he went out into the Great Onknown to find out his
own mistakes if he had made any, and left Faith alone.
The house wuz a big square one with a large front yard with some
Pollard willers standin' in a row in front on't, through which the
wind come in melancholy sithes into the great front chamber at night
where Faith slept, or ruther lay. And the moon fallin' through the
willers made mournful reflections on the clean-painted floor, and I
spoze Faith looked at 'em and read her past in the white cold rays and
her future too.
She hired a man and his wife to live in part of the house, and she
herself lived on there, a life as cold and colorless as a nun's. But
there wuz them that said that she loved that young West to-day jest as
well as she did the day they parted, bein' one of the constant naters
that can't forgit; that she kep' his birthdays every year, but
sarahuptishously, and on the anniversary of the day she parted with
him, nobody ever see her from mornin' till night.
The tall Pollard willers wuz the only ones that could look down into
her chamber, and see how she looked, or what she wuz doin'. And they
never told, only jest murmured and sithed, and kinder took on about it
in their own way. But the next day, Faith always looked paler and
sweeter than ever, they said.
Well, I wuz glad enough to see Faith. I think a sight on her and she
of me, and we had a real good time. Josiah sez to me the day after
she come, "She is the flower of your family!"
And I told him I didn't know as I should put it in jest that way, and
he might jest as well be mejum, sez I, "You're quite apt to demean the
relation on my side, and if you take it into your head to praise one
of the females, you no need to go _too_ high."
"Well," he repeated, "she is the flower of the Smith race. Of course,"
sez he, glancin' at my liniment and then off towards the buttery full
of good vittles, "I always except _you_, Samantha, who I consider the
fairest flower that ever blowed out on the family tree of Smith."
Josiah is a man of excelent judgment. But to resoom backward, I had a
dretful good visit with Faith and enjoyed her bein' with us the best
that ever wuz. Instead of makin' work she helped, though I told her
not to. She would wipe and I would wash, and we would git through the
dishes in no time. She hunted round in my work basket and found some
nightcaps I'd begun and would finish 'em, put more work on 'em than I
should, for I slight my every day sheep's-head nightcaps. But she
trimmed 'em and cat-stitched 'em, till they wuz beautiful to look
upon. She wuz always very sweet and gentle in her ways. As wuz said
of her once, she entered a room so quietly and gracefully, she made
all the other wimmen there feel as if they'd come in on horse-back.
Now that I hadn't seen her for some time, it seemed as if I hadn't
remembered how lovely and interestin' she wuz.
We had a good visit talkin' about the world's work, and reciprocity,
and Woman's suffrage--which we both believed in--and hens, both
settin' and layin'. And we talked about the relation on our two sides.
Of course, some of the wimmen hadn't done as we thought they ort to;
but we didn't run 'em, only wuz sorry they wuz so different.
There wuz Aunt Nancy John and Aunt Nancy Jim, widders of the two old
Smith twins. I told Faith I wuz sorry they wuzn't more like her mother
and mine, our mothers wuz so much better dispositioned, and fur better
lookin', and didn't try to color their hair and act younger than they
wuz; and Uncle Preserved's boy, a lawyer, I told Faith it wuz a pity
he wuzn't more like our Thomas Jefferson, though it wuzn't to be
expected that there _could_ be two boys amongst the relations so
nearly perfect as Thomas Jefferson wuz; but I didn't act hauty, only
wuz sorry he hadn't turned out so well.
And Uncle Lemuel's two girls, I said I wouldn't want it told out of
the family, but they wuz extravagant and slack, and their houses
didn't look much like Tirzah Ann's and Maggie's house. But we hadn't
ort to expect many such housekeepers as our children wuz. And we
talked about the Thousand Islands and she promised to go out with
Josiah and me the next summer if nothin' happened. And Josiah then and
there, tried to make us promise to go to Coney Island on our way
there. "On our way," sez I, "it would be five hundred milds out of our
way!"
"And well worth it!" sez he, "to see what Serenus see, and hear what
Serenus hearn. Why I git so carried away jest hearin' about that
magnificent spot that I have to fairly hang onto myself to keep from
startin' there to once bareheaded."
"I know it, Josiah; you've acted luny about it. And if jest hearin'
about it harrers your nerve so, what would seein' it do?"
"My nerve ain't harrered," he sez.
Sez I, "Can you deny I have had to give you quarts of catnip after you
have had a seancy with Serenus about that frivolous spot, full of
hilarity and temptation?"
"Because you have drownded out my insides with catnip, it hain't no
sign I needed it. And I tell you, Samantha Allen, you may demean that
grand glorious place all you're a minter; I shall see it ere long. It
is the shinin' gole I have rared up in front of me and I'm bound to
set on it."
Sez I, "If you hain't got any nobler gole than that ahead on you I
pity you from the bottom of my heart." And to kinder skair him I sez
agin, "Do you, a Christian deacon, want to act frisky and go
pleasure-huntin' at your age?"
"Why," sez he, "Serenus sez it is the most entrancin'ly beautiful and
fascinatin' spot on earth. He sez, and can prove, it is the biggest
playground in the hull world, to say nothin' of what you can learn
there, and folks come from foreign countries jest to see it. Their
first question when they land is, 'Where is Coney Island? Lead me to
it!'"
"Oh shaw!" sez I.
"Well, it is so, and why should such droves of folks go there if it
hain't worth it? Serenus sez and can prove, that a million folks go
there in one day sometimes, and hundreds of thousands most every
day."
Sez I solemnly, "Do you remember the him, 'Broad is the road that
leads,' you know where. 'And thousands walk together there.' Do you
want to walk with 'em, Josiah?"
"Yes, I do, and lay out to."
Oh how deep the pizen had gone into his solar system! I see scarin'
didn't do no good, so I tried tender talk to wean him from the idee. I
told him I thought too much on him to resk him there in such crowds.
He wuz too small boneded and his head too weak to grapple with the
lures and temptations that would surround him, and I'd never give my
consent to his goin,' much less lead him into temptation.
"Lead your granny!" sez he in a rough axent. And that wuz all the good
my lovin' talk did.
Faith said she didn't care about goin'. But we took her to visit the
children, though the day I took her to Whitfield's he had of course,
jest like Josiah, to ride that hobby of hisen which raced and cavorted
round us, till before night he got us both most as wild as he wuz
about the Islands. But she had to go from our house to Uncle Ornaldo
Smithses, and had promised to visit friends out to Ohio durin' the
summer. I hated to have her go.
CHAPTER TWO
WE SET SAIL FOR THOUSAND ISLAND PARK AND HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME, BUT
JOSIAH MURMURS ABOUT CONEY.
CHAPTER TWO
WE SET SAIL FOR THOUSAND ISLAND PARK AND HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME, BUT
JOSIAH MURMURS ABOUT CONEY.
Soon after, Whitfield wuz obleeged to go to Canada agin on that
bizness and go through them Thousand Islands, and said he felt like
jumpin' off the boat, swimmin' ashore and buyin' the hull on 'em, they
wuz so entrancin'ly lovely. But by holdin' onto his principles and
patience (of course he'd got quite a lot of patience, he'd been
married a number of years) he managed to git through without jumpin'
off the boat and tacklin' the job of buyin' 'em, but said to himself,
"If my life is spared to finish up that bizness I'll come back and buy
ten or a dozen."
So sure enough on his way back he stopped off at Alexandria Bay and
tackled a real estate agent to see what he would ask for a few islands
close to the beautiful Bay. He had a idee, I spoze, of locatin' the
relation on his side and hern round on the different Islands, mebby
an island apiece. But to his surprise and horrow he found that the
price for the smallest one wuz appallin'. But he vowed that if it took
every cent of money he had (and he's quite well off) he would own a
piece of one big enough for a house.
So, after searchin' both by water and by land, he found a buildin'
spot he felt able to buy. It wuz on one end of an island that wuz
called Shadow Island, mebby because the shadder of the tall trees upon
it wuz mirrored so plain in the water, makin' it look as if there wuz
another and fairer isle below.
There wuz a big empty house standin' on one end of the Island, the
owner bein' in Europe and not wantin' to rent it. There wuz a portion
of it smooth and grassy, though the grass wuz kinder thin in places,
the rocks come up so clost to the surface. But as I told Whitfield,
stun is cleaner than dirt, and more healthy, unless you have 'em both
throwed at you, in that case dirt is more healthy. He said the spot
wuz dry and there wuz some hemlock and pine trees standin' on one end
on't, and under 'em wuz a carpet of the rich brown leaves and pine
needles that Whitfield thought would be beautiful for little Delight
to play in.
And on the spot he'd picked out for a house the soil wuz deep enough
for a good suller. Tirzah Ann always did love sullers; she kinder took
to 'em. She has to go down suller most the first thing when she comes
home visitin'. She never seems to want anything, only to sort o' look
round. Some say her ma wuz so; but there is worse things to take to
than sullers, and I wuz glad enough there wuz a place there where
Tirzah Ann could have one.
Well, I declare I fell in love with the place myself. And he beset us
to go out and see it, and early in the summer we sot sail, the hull on
us, for the Thousand Island Park, a good noble campin' ground, though
middlin' hot in some spots. I've been asked what made it so much
hotter there round the Tabernacle than it was up to Summer Land, where
the Universalists wuz encamped. And I don't spoze it is because they
believe in hotter places, but it kinder sets folks to thinkin'. Both
places are pleasant and cool enough in moderate weather.
I hadn't no idee that so beautiful a spot wuz so nigh us. For as near
as we've lived to 'em, Josiah and I never laid eyes on them islands
before. But I've hearn of folks that lived within' hearin' of Niagara
Falls that never see that grand and stupendous wonder of the world;
they didn't see it just because they _could_. Queer, hain't it? But it
is a law of nater, and can't be changed.
So one warm lovely mornin' we sot out. We went by way of Cape Vincent
which we found afterwards wuzn't the nearest way, but we didn't care,
for it gin us a bigger and longer view of the noble St. Lawrence. Cape
Vincent is a good-lookin' place, though like Josiah and myself, it
looks as if it had been more lively and frisky in its younger days.
Pretty soon the big boat hove in sight. We embarked and got good
seats, Whitfield full of bliss to think he wuz started for his
islands.
And sure enough, tongue can never tell the beauty and grandeur we
floated by that afternoon; nor pen can't, no, a quill pen made out of
a eagle's wing couldn't soar high enough. And my emotions, as I took
in that seen, would been a perfect sight if anybody could got holt of
'em, as I rode along on that mighty river that is more like a ocean
than a river, holdin' the water that flows from the five great inland
seas of North America, the only absolutely tide-less river in the
world. It is so immense in size that the spring freshets that disturbs
other big rivers has no effect on its mighty depths, though once in a
while, every three years, I think it is, the river draws in her old
breath in an enormous sithe two or three feet deep, and stays so for
some time. I d'no what makes it nor nobody duz. But truly there is
enough in this old world to sithe about, as deep sithes as a mortal or
a river can heave.
But to resoom forwards. The beautiful river bore us onwards, the green
shores receedin' on each side till pretty soon it got to be not much
shore but seemin'ly all river, all freshness and freedom and blue
sparklin' water, and blue sky above. Nater wuz foldin' us in her
faithful arms and sweepin' us away from the too civilized world into
the freshness and onstudied beauty of her own hants.
I sot there perfectly entranced, and nothin' occurred to break my rapt
musin's save my pardner's request for a nut cake and a biled egg, and
a longin' murmer about Coney Island and a wish that he wuz started for
there. But that didn't seem to quell my emotions down. I handed the
food to him with a hand that seemed some distance off from my real
self.
The first big island we went by wuz called Carleton. Standin' on it,
loomin' up tall and solemn and mysterious, wuz some high stun towers.
They stood up there as if tellin' us how little we knew. They looked
like great exclamation points set there to express the futility of our
boasted knowledge.
Who built them chimblys? Who started the fires under 'em? Who drinked
the tea that wuz steeped there? What kind of tea wuz it? Did the water
bile? How did them tea drinkers feel and look and act while them
chimblys carried off the smoke of their fire? What wuz their highest
aspirations and idees? What wuz their deepest joy and keenest pain?
What goles did they see ahead on 'em, and did they ever set down on
them goles? I can't tell nor Josiah can't. A hundred years ago one
moulderin' old head-stun leaned over the grave of one of that company.
Wuz it a glad or a sad heart that rested there in that ancient grave?
Well, the sadness or the joy is jest as much lost and forgot as the
smoke that wafted up towards the sky on the June and December mornin's
of 1600 odd.
As I thought of all these things, them lofty towers riz up like
gigantick skeleton fingers outstretched mockin'ly. They seemed to be
sayin' to me and Josiah and the world at large, "You may boast of
your inventions, your marvels of this age, your civilization, your
glory, your pryin' into dark continents and unexplored regions of land
and science. But what do you know anyway? Of what consequence are you?
How soon your life and your memory will be utterly wiped out and
forgotten. How soon the careless sun will forget the shadow you cast
on the earth's bosom. How soon the green grass of the forgettin' earth
will grow fresh and untrodden and cover up the traces of your eager
footsteps, no matter how deep you thought you had made the track you
walked in. How soon it is all wiped away as if it had never been. And
Mom Nater, instead of weepin' over your loss, goes on wreathin' new
flowers for new hands to gather, and mebby forgits to drop even a bud
on the dusty mound where you lay sleepin'--the sleep of long
forgetfulness.
"Of what account are you anyway? Poor blind voyagers, floatin' by me
jest as so many generations have gone past--canoe and white sails
floatin' along, floatin' along, comin' in view of me in the fur blue
hazy distance, comin' into the broad light before me and glidin' off
and disappearin' in the shadows. Forever and ever, new ones comin,'
comin', goin', goin', year after year, generation after generation.
And here we have stood calm, settled down, pintin' up into the heavens
where our history is gathered up, where the ones that made our history
are gathered like the drops of spray from the river that has washed on
the shores at our feet, and then evaporated up agin into the blue
sky."
And as I lost sight of them stun towers in the distance, they seemed
to say, "Float on, poor voyagers; float along with your pitiful little
crumbs of knowledge and wisdom carried so proudly. How soon the
shadows will drift apart to take you into 'em and then close up and
hold you there forever. And out of the shinin' west new faces will
come growin' plainer and plainer as the boat draws near; they will
shine out full and clear in front of me and then glide away into the
mist--I shall lose sight of 'em jest as I do of you to-day. Comin'!
comin'! goin'! goin'! They will look at me and wonder jest as you do
to-day, and I will say to 'em jest as I do to you, 'Hail and
farewell!'"
Oh what emotions I did have! And I hadn't more'n got to this pint in
my meditatin', when I hearn a voice on the off side on me (Josiah wuz
on the nigh side).
The voice said, "Oh how I wish I could be put back there jest a
minute and see what them tall towers see when they wuz built!"
I felt that here wuz a congenial soul and I felt friendly to him as
one would hail a familiar sail when they wuz floatin' on foreign
waters. The voice went on:
"Oh how I wish I could be a fly, and fly back there for a hour."
Instinctively I looked round. The speaker weighed three hundred pounds
if he did an ounce, and the idee of his bein' turned into a fly seemed
to bring down my soarin' emotions more than considerable. Truly, we
ort to be careful how we handle metafors. If he'd said he wanted to be
changed into a elephant or a camel, or even a horse, it wouldn't have
seemed so curious, but a fly!!! Dear me!
Clayton is a good-lookin' drowsy sort of a place, and kinder mixed up
lookin' from the aft forecastle, where I stood; but at last the little
foot bridge that connected us with the shore wuz took up, the old boat
gin a loud yell to skair the children and young folks back from the
water's edge, and the boat riders from fallin' off the boat, and we
sot out agin and floated along.
And now pretty soon the islands grew closter and closter together,
and we wouldn't no more than go by one lovely one, than another more
perfect lookin' hove in sight, and then another and another, each one
seemin'ly more beautiful than the last.
Some times we would go clost up to the shore, by islands whose green
forests swep' clear down to the water's edge, makin' the water look
green and cool and shady, and the water would narrow itself down
between two houses seemin'ly jest to be accomodatin', and run along
between 'em like a little rivulet with water lilies and buttercups
dippin' down into it on each side and boys wadin' acrost. Jest think
on't, that big noble-sized river, dwindlin' itself down jest to
obleege somebody.
And sometimes big houses would loom up jest above the water's edge,
their daintily shaded winders lookin' down into the green waves and
reflected there, anon a stately mansion would set back a little with
towers and pinnacles risin' above the green trees, and cool shady
walks windin' by summer houses and bright posy beds, and gayly dressed
folks walkin' along the beautiful paths, and mebby a pretty girl
settin' in a boat, and a hull fleet of boats filled with gay pleasure
seekers would glide along like gayly plumed sea birds, and fur in the
distance and on every side white sails would sail on like bigger birds
of white plumage, all set out for the Isle of Happiness.
I pinted out the metafor to Josiah.
"Isle of Happiness?" he sez, sort o' dreamy like. "That's right.
Serenus sez its everywhere, all over the place."
"What place?" sez I, suspicion darkenin' my foretop.
"Why, Coney Island," sez he, "that's the only Isle of Happiness I ever
hearn tell on."
I gin him a look. "Would you compare Coney Island with the beautiful
Isle of Happiness that the poets sing on?" I sez, severe like.
"Where is it?" sez he.
"Why," sez I, "It ain't ennywheres. Its a metafor of the brain."
"Is it ketchin'?" sez he. "Seems to me I've hearn tell of that disease
before!" And then before I could gin him an indignant response, he
stuck his fingers in his ears and sot there grinnin' like a jimpanzee
all the time I wuz speakin' out my mind. But to resoom.
Anon a bridge would rise up its fairy arch and connect two islands
together, each one holdin' a mansion that looked like a palace, and
the bright awnin's of the winders, the pillars and pinnacles, and gay
colors, reflected in the water makin' fairy palaces below as well as
above, and made the hull seen as we journeyed on one of enchantment,
that would made the grand Vizier of Bagdad turn green with envy. And
every palace, mansion, and cottage had its pretty boat-house, with the
water layin' there smooth and invitin' waitin' for the boats to be
lanched on its bosom, actin' for all the world like a first class
family stream, warranted to carry safe and not kick and act in the
harness. And then mebby the very next minute it would swell itself out
agin, and be twenty or thirty milds acrost, rushin', hurryin', and
dashin' itself along, hastenin' to the sea.
Actin' as if it had sunthin' dretful pressin' and important to tell
it, and mebby it had. Who knows the language of the liquid waves as
they whisper to each other on sunny beaches and at the meetin' of
placid waters, makin' love to each other like as not--one tellin' the
other of the sweet cow-slip and ferny medders it had to leave at the
loud call of its love, the River. The River murmuring back deep words
of worship and gratitude at the feet of its newly arrived love.
And then mebby the comin' rivulet complains, moanin' kinder low and
sorrowful, as it swashes up on sharp stuny beaches, for what it left
behind. Meadows and orchards full of May's rosy blossoms, low grassy
shores fringed with flowers and fresh, shinin' grasses. And white,
dimpled baby feet mebby that waded out in its cool shallows. Pretty
faces that bent over its sheltered pools, as in a lookin' glass,
wavin' locks that scattered gold light down into the water, bright
eyes that shone like stars above it. I shouldn't wonder a mite if it
missed 'em and tried to say so in its gentle, pensive swish, swash,
swish.
And then mebby the River resented it and kinder roared at it; mebby
that is what it is sayin' in its louder and more voylent tones,
upbraidin' it for lookin' back to its more single and lonesome career,
when it now has _Him!_ _Him!_ Rush! Roar! Crush! Roar! Roar!
We can't tell what the river is talkin' about, in its calm gentle
moods or its voylent ones. Who knows what the loud angry scream and
screech of the deep waves say as the tempest and storm presses down on
'em and the Deep answers back in a voice of thunder, with its great
heart beatin' and heavin' up and throbbin' in its mad pain and
frenzy? Who knows what it is roarin' out, as it meets opposin' forces,
wave and rock, and dashes aginst 'em--fightin' and dashin' and tryin'
to vanquish 'em like as not? Who can translate the voice of the
waters? I can't, nor Josiah, nor nobody.
CHAPTER THREE
WE SEEK QUIET AND HAPPINESS IN THEIR BEAUTIFUL HANTS AND MINGLE WITH
THE PLEASURE SEEKERS OF ALEXANDRIA BAY.
CHAPTER THREE
WE SEEK QUIET AND HAPPINESS IN THEIR BEAUTIFUL HANTS AND MINGLE WITH
THE PLEASURE SEEKERS OF ALEXANDRIA BAY
Sometimes we would sail through the green water, so clost to the shore
we could almost pick off some of the cedar and pine boughs as we went
past, and we could look off into the green and sunny aisles of the
trees into beautiful solitude and quiet. And we'd want to foller Quiet
and Happiness back into them beautiful hants. And then agin, we'd
float by an island where there would be lots of white tents, with
wimmen and children and men and boys standin' out wavin' their
handkerchiefs and shoutin' to us, good natered and sociable.
And agin we'd go by a kinder high island with a tall, noble mansion
standin' up on it with towers and balconies, and winders all
ornamented off, and flags a-flyin'. And every house and every tentin'
ground had their own little wharfs runnin' down into the water and
boats hitched to 'em, jest as we'd hitch the old mair and colt to a
hitchin' post. And most of 'em had picturesque boat-houses painted up
like the houses.
And all of these pretty houses and towers and flags and boats and
everything wuz reflected down into the water, so there wuz handsome
pictures above, and still more extremely beautiful ones below. For the
sunlight shadow pictures wuz more beautiful fur than the reality, as
is often the case. Every little sail-boat and canoe had its white
shadder floatin' along by it, shinin' out from the blue and sea-green
surface of the water.
Josiah wuz turrible interested in tryin' to see if the reflections wuz
exactly like the real seen up above, and he kept leanin' over the edge
of the boat tryin' to turn his head upside down so's to git a better
look, and at last he nearly fell overboard into the water only I
grabbed him quick.
Sometimes,--I don't know what made it,--there would be long lines of
light in different colors layin' on the water; long waveless furrows
of palest amethyst, lilock, pale rose-color, and pearl, soft green and
blue, way off and near to, wide and long and changin' all the time.
Why, some of the time it would seem as if the surface of the river wuz
a shinin' pavement made of them glowin' and lustrous colors, that you
might walk out on. And then agin, cold Reality would say to you that
if you tried it, you'd most probable git drownded.
Anon we went by a island with a house standin' on it, the hull thing
seemin'ly nothin' but house right in the strongest current of the
river, and on the end of the island wuz a wheel fixed that run all the
machinery of the house, lightin' it, and pumpin' water, and runnin'
the coffee mill and sewin' machine, and rockin' the cradle, for all I
know.
The river waitin' on 'em, and doin' it cheerful. A soarin' soul of
power and might, so strong that a wink from its old eye-lids could
swallow up a fleet of ships, and a flirt of its fingers overthrow a
army of strongest men and toss 'em about like leaves on an autumn
gale. To see such a powerful, noble body, that wuz used to doin' the
biggest kind of jobs, quietly bucklin' down pumpin' water to supply a
tea-kettle, and churn a little butter, mebby!
Why, thinks I, what a lesson to hired girls that is, they're always so
fraid of doin' a little more than it is their place to do. They're so
fraid of settin' back a chair, if it is their place to cook, and so
afraid of bilin' a egg if it is their place to slick up the house.
Why, it wuz a lesson in morals to see that big grand river crumplin'
down to do housework for a spell.
Frontenac Island used to be called Round Island, I guess because it
wuz kinder square in shape. It is a handsome place with a immense
hotel[A] settin' back most a quarter of a mild, and jined by a long
railed balcony with another, makin' room enough, it seemed to me, for
an army. The broad, handsome path leadin' up to it wuz bordered with
beautiful flowers and shrubs, lookin' lovely against the vivid green
of the lawn.
I liked the name Frontenac first rate, and Point Vivian, and the name
of the hotel on St. Lawrence Park, Lotus, seemed highly appropriate
for the idle hours of rest and pleasure in the balmy summer-time.
And that park, while it could pass itself off for an island, wuz
really the main land. And if you wanted a doctor on a dark, stormy
night, you could get one without going on the wild waves; and if you
got skairt in the night and sot off to run, you could run as fur as
you wanted to without gittin' drownded.
I spoke to Josiah about this and he agreed with me, though he took the
occasion to bring in Coney Island, much to my shagrin.
"I wish," sez he, "I wish we could stop off somewheres and git a hot
dog."
"A hot dog?" sez I, consternation showin' in my foretop. "Don't you
know that dogs roamin' round loose and overhet in this sultry weather
is apt to git mad and bite you?"
"'Tain't that kind of animile I mean. I mean the kind they eat--in
Coney Island."
"Do they eat dogs in Coney Island?" I asks in a faint voice.
"Yes," sez he.
"And would you eat enny on't?"
"Why not?" sez he.
"Why not?" I cries regainin' my voice to once. "Josiah Allen, have you
became a canibal like them as lives in heathen lands and welcomes
civilized folks with open mouths?"
"Oh," sez he, "'tain't nothin' like that. These dogs hain't made o'
people. No, they air made from sassiges and cooked in front of a open
grate fire. They call 'em hot dogs and Serenus sez--"
I didn't gin him no chance to tell what Serenus sez. I sez many things
to him there and then that wuz calculated to make him forgit Coney
Island for awhile.
But to resoom forwards. We went by a big castle that wuz built up on a
hill on a island of considerable size with quite a grove of trees on
it. It wuz a noble, gray stun castle, with high towers and pinnacles
shinin' up toward the blue sky--Castle Rest, its name wuz, and I
thought most probable anybody could rest there first rate. The one
that built it and the one it wuz built for, had gone up into another
castle to rest, the great Castle of Rest, whose walls can't be moved
by any earthly shock. A good little mother it wuz built for, a
hard-workin', patient, tired-out little mother, who wuz left with a
house full of boys, and not much in the house, only boys. How she
worked and toiled to keep 'em comfortable and git 'em headed right,
washin', cookin', makin', and mendin'; learnin' 'em truthfulness,
honesty, and industry with their letters; teachin' 'em the
multiplication table and the commandments; trimmin' off their childish
faults, same as she did their hair; clippin' 'em off with her own
anxious lovin' hands. Mebby puttin' a bowl on their heads and cuttin'
round it, or else shinglin' 'em. But 'tennyrate doin' her best for
them, soul and body, till she got 'em headed right. Some on 'em givin'
their hull lives to help men's souls, lovin' this old world mebby for
their ma's sake, because it held so many other good wimmen; for they
jest about worshipped her all on 'em. And one of her boys, while the
rest of 'em wuz helpin' men and wimmen to build up better lives, he
wuz buildin' up his creed of helpfulness and improvement in bricks and
mortar, tryin' to do good, there hain't a doubt on't.