other beautiful islands and trees covered with spires and ruffs
peepin' out of the green. And way off, way off like white specks
growin' bigger every minute, wuz great ships floatin' in, and nearer
still would be anon or oftener majestic ships and steamers ploughin'
along through the blue waves, sailin' on and goin' right by and
mindin' their own bizness.
Well, when at last we did tear ourselves away from the environin' seen
and walk acrost the broad piazzas and into the two immense hotels, as
we looked around on the beauty of our surroundin's, nothin' but the
inward sense of religious duty seemed strong enough to draw us back to
Thousand Island Park, though that is good-lookin' too.
But the old meetin' house with its resistless cords, and the cast-iron
devotion of a pardner wound their strong links round me and I wuz more
than willin' to go back at night. Josiah didn't come with us, he'd
gone fishin' with another deacon he'd discovered at the Park.
Well, we santered through the bizness and residence streets and went
into the free library, a quaint pretty building full of good books
with a memorial to Holland meetin' you the first thing, put up there
by the hands of Gratitude. And we went into the old stun church, which
the dead master of Bonnie Castle thought so much on and did so much
for, and is full of memories of him. Whitfield thinks a sight of his
writings; he sez "they dignify the commonplace, and make common things
seem oncommon." Katrina, Arthur Bonniecastle, Miss Gilbert, Timothy
Titcomb the philosopher, all seemed to walk up and down with Whitfield
there.
And while there we took a short trip to the Lake of the Isles, a
lovely place, where instead of boats full of gigglin' girls with
parasols, and college boys with yells and oars, the water lilies float
their white perfumed sails, and Serenity and Loneliness seem to kinder
drift the boat onwards, and the fashion-tired beholder loves to hasten
there, away from the crowd, and rest.
Every mind can be suited at the Islands, the devotee of fashion can
swirl around in its vortex, and for them who don't care for it there
are beautiful quiet places where that vortex don't foam and geyser
round, and all crowned with the ineffable beauty of the St. Lawrence.
And we sailed by the Island of Summer Land (a good name), where a
beloved pastor and his children in the meetin' house settled down so
long ago that Fashion hadn't found out how beautiful the Thousand
Islands wuz. They come here for rest and recreation, and built their
cottages along the undulatin' shore in the shape of a great letter S.
It wuz a pretty spot.
When the boat wuz ready to go back at night I wuz, and wuz conveyed in
safety at about six p.m. to the bosom of my family. I say this
poetically, for the bosom wuzn't there when I got back; it hadn't come
in from fishin' yet, and when it did come it wuz cross and fraxious,
for the other deacon had caught two fish and he hadn't any. He said he
felt sick, and believed he wuz threatened with numony, but he wuzn't;
it wuz only madness and crossness, that kinder stuffs anybody up some
like tizik.
Well, Whitfield found a letter that made it necessary for him to
return to Jonesville to once, and of course Tirzah Ann, like the fond
wife and mother she wuz, would take little Delight and go with him.
But after talkin' to Josiah, Whitfield concluded they would stay over
one day more to go fishin'. So the very next mornin' he got a big
roomy boat, and we sot out to troll for fish. The way they do this is
to hitch a line on behind the boat and let it drag through the water
and catch what comes to it. And as our boat swep' on over the glassy
surface of the water that lay shinin' so smooth and level, not hintin'
of the rocks and depths below, I methought, "Here we be all on us, men
and wimmen, fishin' on the broad sea of life, and who knows what will
tackle the lines we drop down into the mysterious depths? We sail
along careless and onthinkin' over rush and rapid, depth and shallow,
the line draggin' along. Who knows what we may feel all of a sudden on
the end of the line? Who knows what we may be ketchin' ontirely
onbeknown to us? We may be ketchin' happiness, and we may be layin'
holt of sorrow. A bliss may be jerked up by us out of the depth; agin
a wretchedness and a heart-ache may grip holt the end of the line.
Poor fishers that we be! settin' in our frail little shallop on deep
waters over onknown depths, draggin' a onceasin' line along after us
night and day, year in and year out. The line is sot sometimes by
ourselves, but a great hand seems to be holdin' ours as we fasten on
the hook, a great protectin' Power seems to be behind us, tellin' us
where to drop the line, for we feel sometimes that we can't help
ourselves."
I wuz engaged in these deep thoughts as we glided onwards. Josiah wuz
wrestlin' with his hat brim, he would have acted pert and happy if it
hadn't been for that. At my request he had bought a straw hat to cover
his eyes from the sun and preserve his complexion, and so fur is that
man from megumness that he had got one with a brim so broad that it
stood out around his face like a immense white wing, floppin' up and
down with every gust of wind. He had seen some fashionable young
feller wear one like it and he thought it would be very becomin' and
stylish to get one for a fishin' excursion, little thinkin' of the
discomfort it would give him.
"Plague it all!" sez he, as it would flop up and down in front of his
eyes and blind him, "what made me hear to you, goin' a-fishin' blind
as a bat!"
Sez I, "Why didn't you buy a megum-sized one? Why do you always go to
extremes?"
"To please you!" he hollered out from under his blinders. "Jest to
please you, mom!"
Sez I, "Josiah Allen, you know you did it for fashion, so why lay it
off onto me? But," sez I, "if you'll keep still I'll fix it all
right."
"Keep still!" sez he, "I don't see any prospect of my doin' anything
else when I can't see an inch from my nose."
"Well," sez I, "push the brim back and I'll tie it down with my braize
veil."
"I won't wear a veil!" sez he stoutly. "No, Samantha, no money will
make me rig up like a female woman right here in a fashionable summer
resort, before everybody. How would a man look with a veil droopin'
down and drapin' his face?"
"Well," sez I, "then go your own way."
But the next time a gale come from the sou'west he wuz glad to submit
to my drapin' him; so I laid the brim back and tied the veil in a big
bow knot under his chin. Then agin he reviled the bow, and said it
would make talk. But I held firm and told him I wuzn't goin' to tear
my veil tiein' it in a hard knot. And he soon forgot his discomposure
in wearin' braize veils, in his happiness at the idee of ketchin'
fish, so's to tell the different deacons on't when he got home.
[Illustration: "_'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._"
(_See page 82_)]
Men do love to tell fish stories. Men who are truthful on every other
pint of the law, will, when they measure off with their hands how long
the fish is that they ketched, stretch out that measure more'n
considerable.
Well, as I say, as our boat glided on between the green islands, anon
in shadder and then agin out in sunny stretches of glassy seas, I
looked off on the glorified distance and thought of things even furder
away than that. Tirzah Ann wuz engaged in tryin' to keep the sun out
of her face; she said anxiously she wuz afraid she would git a few
frecks on her nose in spite of all she could do. Whitfield wuz amusin'
Delight, and Josiah ever and anon speakin' of Coney Island and askin'
if it wuzn't time to eat our lunch. So the play of life goes on.
We didn't ketch much of anything, only I ketched considerable of a
headache. Tirzah Ann ketched quite a number of frecks; she complained
that she had burnt her nose. Delight did, I guess, ketch quite an
amount of happiness, for the experience wuz new to her, and children
can't bag any better or more agreeable game than Novelty. And
Whitfield did seem to ketch considerable enjoyment; he loves to be out
on the water.
My pardner drew up one tiny, tiny fish out of the depths; it looked
lonesome and exceedingly fragile, but oh how that man brooded over
that triumph! And by the time we reached Jonesville and he related
that experience to the awe-struck neighbors it wuz a thrillin' and
excitin' seen he depictered, and that tiny fishlet had growed, in the
fertile sile of his warm imagination, to such a length, that I told
him in confidence out to one side, that if I ever hearn him go on so
agin about it, and if that fish kep' a growin' to that alarmin'
extent, I should have to tell its exact length; it wuz jest as long as
my middle finger, for I measured it on the boat, foreseein' trouble
with him in this direction.
It made him dretful huffy, and he sez, "I can't help it if you do have
a hand like a gorilla's."
It hain't so; I never wore higher than number 7. But I have never seen
him since pull out his hands so recklessly measurin' off the
dimensions of that fish, or gin hints that it took two men to carry it
up from the boat to the hotel, and insinuate on how many wuz
nourished on it, and for how long a time.
No, I broke it up. But Josiah Allen hain't the only man that stretches
out the fish they have ketched, as if they wuz made of the best kind
of Injy rubber. It seems nateral to men's nater to tell fibs about
fish. Curious, hain't it? That is one of the curious things that lay
holt of our lines. And wimmen have to see squirmin' at their feet anon
or oftener, game that flops and wriggles and won't lay still and grows
all the time.
CHAPTER SIX
IN WHICH I DRAW THE MATRIMONIAL LINE ROUND MY PARDNER AND ALSO KEEP MY
EYE ON MR. POMPER
CHAPTER SIX
IN WHICH I DRAW THE MATRIMONIAL LINE ROUND MY PARDNER AND ALSO KEEP
MY EYE ON MR. POMPER
The next mornin' Whitfield and Tirzah went home, Josiah and I thinkin'
we would stay a few days longer. And what should I git but a letter
from Cousin Faithful Smith sayin' that her Aunt Petrie beyond Kingston
wuz enjoyin' poor health, and felt that she must have Faith come and
visit her before she went West. So she wuz goin' to cut short her
visit to the Smithses and go to her Aunt Petrie's on her way to the
West, and as she had heard Josiah and I wuz to the Islands, she would
stop and stay a few days with us there. And as the letter had been
delayed, she wuz to be there that very day on the afternoon boat. So
of course Josiah and I met her at Clayton. And I went to the
boardin'-house keeper to see if I could git her a room.
But she wuz full, Miss Dagget wuz; and when anybody is full there is
no more to be said; so with many groanin's from my pardner, on account
of the higher price, we concluded we would git rooms at the hotel,
that big roomy place, with broad piazzas runnin' round it and high
ruffs. And as Josiah said bitterly, the ruffs wuzn't any higher than
the prices. And I told him the prices wuzn't none too high for what we
got, and I sez, "We are gittin' along in years and don't often rush
into such high expenses, so we'll make the venter."
And he groaned out, "Good reason why we don't make the venter often,
unless we want to go on the Town!"
And then he kinder brightened up and wondered if he couldn't make a
dicker with the hotel-keeper to take a yearlin' steer to pay for our
two boards.
And I sez, "What duz he want of a yearlin' steer here in the midst of
a genteel fashion resort?"
And he snapped me up and said he didn't know as there wuz anything
onfashionable or ongenteel about a likely yearlin'. Sez he, "I'll bet
they'd take it at Coney Island."
"Well, what would he do with it here?" sez I.
"Why, do as I do with it; let it grow up and make clear gain on its
growth."
"Oh shaw!" sez I, "he couldn't have it bellerin' round amongst the gay
and fashionable throng."
"It wouldn't beller," sez he, "if he fed it enough."
I broke it up after a long talk, for I wouldn't let him demean himself
by askin' the question and bein' refused, and then he said he wuz
goin' to ask him if he would take white beans for his pay, or part of
it, or mebby, sez he, "he would like to take a few geese."
"Geese!" sez I, "what would they want with geese squawkin' round
here?"
"Why," sez he, "you know they would look handsome swimmin' round in
the water in front of the hotel. And he might gin out, if he wuz a
mind to, that they wuz a new kind of swans; they do such things at
Coney Island."
Sez I, "Are you a deacon or are you not? Are you a pillow in the
meetin' house or hain't you a pillow?"
"I didn't say he had _got_ to do thus and so, I said he might if he
wanted to."
Sez I, "You keep your geese and pray to not be led into temptation."
And then the truth come out, he hated the geese and wanted to git rid
of 'em. Men always hate to keep geese, it is one of their ways, though
they love soft pillows and cushions as well as wimmen do, or better,
it is one of their curious ways to love the effects of geese dearly
and hate the cause and demean it.
Well, by givin' up the best part of the forenoon to the job I ground
him down onto not tryin' to dicker with any barter, but to walk up
like a man and pay for our two boards. Faith is real well off and
kinder independent sperited, and I knew she wouldn't let us pay for
hern, and at last we got a good comfortable room for ourselves and one
for Faith, not fur from ourn. Both on 'em looked out onto the
beautiful river, and I had lots of emotions as I looked out on it,
although they didn't rise up so fur as they would, if I hadn't had
such a tussel with my pardner, so true it is that chains of cumberin'
cares and Josiahs drag down the aspirin' soul-wings for the time
bein'. But I laid out to take sights of comfort in more tranquil and
less dickerin' times, in lookin' out on the beauty and glory of the
waters, and fur off, into the beautiful distance lit with the mornin's
rosy light, and "sunset and evenin' star."
We sot off on the afternoon boat for Clayton. Faith seemed real glad
to see us and we visey versey. And it wuz a joy to me to see her
admiration of the Islands as we swep' by 'em and round 'em on our way
to the Park.
We got back in time to git ready for supper in pretty good sperits;
the dinin' room wuz large and clean and pleasant, the waiters doin'
all they could for us, and we had a good supper and enough on't. And
speakin' of the waiters, most of 'em wuz nice boys and girls, tryin'
to git an education; some on 'em had been to college and wanted to
earn a little more money to finish their education, and some wuz
learnin' music and wanted more money to go on with their lessons--good
plan, I think--they will be as likely agin to succeed as if they wuz
sot down and waited on. It is a good thing, as the Bible sez, "to bear
the yoke in your youth," and though I spoze the yoke weighed down
considerable heavy on 'em, specially on excursion days, and when there
wuz folks hard to please, yet I thought they will come out all right
in the end.
Some on 'em wuz studyin' for the ministry, and I thought they would
git a real lot of patience and other Christian virtues laid up agin
the time of need. Though here, as in every other walk of life, there
wuz some that wuz careless and slack.
But to resoom forwards. I see at the table there wuz the usual summer
tourists round me, care-worn fathers and weary dyspeptic mothers with
two or three flighty, over-dressed daughters, and a bashful, pale son
or two, and anon a lady with a waist drawed in to that extent that you
wondered where her vital organs wuz. And how could any live creeter
brook the agony them long steel cossets wuz dealin' the wearer? You
could see this agony in the dull eyes, pale face and wan holler cheeks
wearin' the hectic flush of red paint. And the little pinted shues,
with heels sot in the very center of the nerves, ready to bring on
prostration, and blindness.
Right by that agonized female would be a real lady. English, mebby,
with a waist the size the Lord give and Fashion had not taken away.
With good, sensible shues on, dealin' out comfort to the amiable
feelin' feet; rosy cheeks, bright eyes, all bearin' witness to the
joys of sensible dressin' and sensible livin'.
And then there wuz bright pert-lookin' young wimmen, travelin' alone
in pairs, and havin' a good time to all human appearance. Anon
good-lookin', manly men, with sweet pretty wives and a roguish, rosy
little child or so. Sad lookin' widder wimmen, some in their weeds,
but evidently lookin' through 'em. Anon a few single men with
good-lookin' tanned faces, enjoyin' themselves round a table of their
own, and talkin' and laughin' more'n considerable. Respectable,
middle-aged couples, takin' their comfort with kinder pensive faces,
and once in awhile a young girl as adorably sweet and pretty as only
American girls can be at their best.
But on my nigh side, only a little ways acrost from us sot the
ponderous man I remembered on my journey thither who wanted to be a
fly. Furder and furder it seemed from amongst the possibles as he
towered up sideways and seemed to dwarf all the men round him, though
they wuz sizeable. And gittin' a better look at him, I could see that
he had a broad red face, gray side whiskers and one eye. That one eye
seemed to be bright blue, and he seemed to keep it on our table from
the time we come in as long as we sat there.
That evenin' in the parlor he got introduced to us. Mr. Pomper, his
name wuz, and we all used him well, though I didn't like "the cut of
his jib," to use a nautical term which I consider appropriate at a
watering-place.
But go where we would, that ponderous figger seemed to be near. At the
table he sot, where that one eye shone on us as constant as the sun to
the green earth. In our walks he would always set on the balcony to
watch us go and welcome us back. And in the parlor we had to set under
the rakin' fire of that blue luminary. And if we went on the boats he
wuz there, and if we stayed to home there wuz he.
And at last a dretful conviction rousted up in me. It come the day we
went the trip round the Islands. We enjoyed ourselves real well, until
I discerned that huge figger settin' in a corner with that one eye
watchin' our party as clost as a cat would watch a mouse. Can it be,
sez I to myself, that that man has formed a attachment for me?
No, no, it cannot be, sez I to myself. And yet I knowed such things
did occur in fashionable circles. Men with Mormon hearts hidden under
Gentile exteriors wuz abroad in the land, and such things as I
mistrusted blackened and mormonized the bosom of Mr. Pomper, did
happen anon and oftener. And I methought if so, what must I do? Must I
tell my beloved companion? Or must I, as the poet sez, "Let
concealment, like a worm in the rug, feed on my damaged cheek?"
But thoughts of the quick, ardent temper of my beloved companion bade
me relinquish the thought of confidin' in him. No, I dassent, for I
knew that his weight wuz but small by the steelyards, and Mr. Pomper's
size wuz elephantine, with probably muscles accordin'. No, I felt I
must rely on myself. But the feelin's I felt nobody can tell. Thinks
I, "It has come onto me jest what I have always read and scorfed at";
for I had always thought and said that no self-respectin' female need
be inviggled unless she had encouraged the inviggler, or had a hand in
the invigglin'. But alas! with no fault of my own, onless it wuz my
oncommon good looks,--and of course them I couldn't help,--here I wuz
the heroine of a one-eyed tragedy, for I felt that the smoulderin'
fire burnin' in that solitary orb might bust forth at any time and
engulf me and my pardner in a common doom.
But two things I felt I could do; I could put on a real lot of
dignity, and could keep a eagle watch onto my beloved pardner, and if
I see any sign of Mr. Pompers attacktin' him, or throwin' him
overboard, I felt the strength of three wimmen would be gin to me, and
I could save him or perish myself in the attempt. In accordance with
them plans, when Mr. Pomper approached us bringin' us some easier
chairs, I confronted him with a look that must have appauled his
guilty mind, and when he sez to me:
"It is a pleasant day, mom."
I looked several daggers at him and some simiters, and never said a
word. And when a short time afterwards he asked me what time of day it
wuz, pretendin' his watch had stopped, I looked full and cold in his
face for several minutes before I sez in icy axents, "I don't know!"
Every word fallin' from my lips like ice-suckles from a ruff in a
January thaw, and then I turned my back and went away from him.
Vain attempt! What wicked arts men do possess! He pretended to believe
I wuz deef, and with that pretext he dasted to approach still nearer
to me and kinder hollered out:
"What time of day is it?"
I see I must answer him, or make a still more sentimental and
romantick seen, and I sez, with extreme frigidity and icy chill, "I
don't know anything about it."
[Illustration: _"'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." (See page 100)_]
And then I turned on my heel and walked off. In such noble and prompt
ways did I discourage all his overtoors, and every time I see him
approach my pardner, if they wuz anywhere near the outer taff-rail of
the boat, I would approach and lock arms with Josiah Allen, killin'
two birds with one stun, for that act both ensured safety to my
heart's idol, and also struck a blow onto Mr. Pomperses nefarious
designs. He see plain that I idolized my pardner. Once or twice, so
hardly is oncommon virtue rewarded in this world, Josiah spoke out
snappishly:
"What duz ail you to-day, Samantha, lockin' arms with me all the
time--it will make talk!" he whispered in a mad, impatient whisper,
and he would kinder wiggle his arm to make me leggo'; but secure in my
own cast-iron principles, I would hang on as long as Mr. Pomper wuz
round.
CHAPTER SEVEN
IN WHICH JOSIAH PROPOSES TO DANCE AND MR. POMPER MAKES AN ADVANCE
CHAPTER SEVEN
IN WHICH JOSIAH PROPOSES TO DANCE AND MR. POMPER MAKES AN ADVANCE
The day wuz a tegus one to me, borne down as I wuz by the constrainin'
atmosphere of a onwelcome and onlawful attachment. And it took all the
principle I had by me to git up even a emotion of pity for the
one-eyed watcher, whose only recreation seemin'ly durin' that long,
long day wuz to watch our party as clost as any cat ever watched a rat
hole, and to kinder hang round us. Faith kep' pretty clost to me all
day and seemed to take a good deal of comfort watchin' the entrancin'
scenery round us.
Oh what beautiful sights! What enchantin' views of the water; or, if
the light struck it jest right, the long, blue, undilating plain,
dotted with gold points of light. Islands with the virgin forest
stretchin' down to the edge of the water, and cool green shadders
layin' on the velvet and mossy sward as you could see as you looked
into the green aisles. And all sorts of trees with different foliage,
some loose and feathery, some with shinin' leaves, glitterin' where
the rain had washed 'em the night before; some towerin' up towards the
heavens, shakin' their heads at the sun; some droopin' down as if
weighted with their wealth of branches and green leaves; anon a tree
covered with flowers, and then some evergreens, and anon one that had
ketched in its brilliant leaves the red hectic of autumn fever and
blazed out in crimson and yeller. And then a hull lot of evergreens
standin' up straight and tall by the water's edge, and as fur back as
you could see, but sort o' reachin' out their green arms towards the
river. And them on the edge, lookin' down into the clear depths and
seein' there another island, a shadow island layin' beautiful and
serene with nothin' disturbin' its beauty but the shinin' ripples
wavin' the fairy branches below, like the soft wind rustlin' the tree
tops overhead.
So we sailed on by hamlet and town, rounded tree-crowned promontores,
swep' out into broader vistas stretchin' out like a lake, anon goin'
by a big island lookin' like the shore of the mainland, goin' right up
aginst it seemin'ly, as if the boat must strike it and git onto
wheels and travel as a wagon if it calculated to proceed onwards at
all. But jest as we would think in a nautical way: "Land ahoy! land
ahoy! oh, heave out and walk afoot," jest as these nautical terms
would be passin' through our alarmed foretops, the boat would turn its
prow slowly but graceful, round to a port-the-helm, or starboard
ditto, and we would glide out through a narrow way onbeknown to us,
onto a long, glassy road layin' fair and serene ahead.