as interestin' to me as a subject could be, yet I felt then, and feel
now, that though transcendentalism may be more agreable talkin'
matter, and may be indulged in at times, yet such commonplace subjects
as herb drink has to be brung forwards and sort o' hung onto by our
minds, in order to anchor 'em as it were to the land of Megumness,
where I would fain tarry myself and have my near and dearest dwell.
But Faith said she didn't want any catnip, and jest before Josiah come
in she kissed me good night, and I said, "Good night, dear, and 'God
be with you till we meet again.'"
I knew she thought everything of that him, and thought mebby it would
sort o' quiet her some since she rejected the paneky I spoke of. But
her face at the very last looked white and riz up and luminous, and
her eyes shone. I felt queer.
The next day wuz Sunday and Josiah and I went to the Tabernacle to
meetin'. Faith havin' a headache didn't go. But before I go any
furder I will back up the boat and moor it to the shore, while I tell
you what the result wuz so fur as Mr. Pomper wuz concerned. At the
breakfast table next mornin' he cast languishin' glances at Faith, and
then looked round the room proudly as much as to say:
"Gentlemen and ladies, behold my choice, and I hain't sorry I chose
her out of the throng of waitin' wimmen."
But some time durin' that day he found out his mistake. I don't know
exactly how Faith managed to pierce the rhinocerous hide of his
self-conceit with the truth, but she did somehow let him know that his
attentions wuz futile, futiler than he ever mistrusted his attentions
could be.
But he wuzn't danted and down-casted more'n several minutes, I guess,
for anon I see him walkin' with a woman almost as ponderous as he wuz,
and as she wuz all janglin' with black jet and as humbly as humbly
could be, I mistrusted that he had gone back to his allegiance to the
widder, and I think he looked happier than I had ever seen him. He
looked as if he wuz rejoiced that his temporary thraldom to sentiment
wuz over, and common sense and practical gain wuz in the ascendancy
agin. And though it hain't much matter, I will say I read his
marriage in the paper the next week:
"Amaziah Pomper to Euphrasia, relict of Elnathan Fatt."
But I d'no as Faith knew anything about it, for she didn't stay with
us only a few days longer, she went on to visit her aunt Petrie and so
on to the Ohio, makin' a solemn promise to me to stop and visit us on
her way home the last of September. Well, I will now onhitch the boat
and row back, and then let it sail on down the stream of history. As I
said, the next day after that singular experience of Faith's wuz
Sunday, and my pardner and I went to the Tabernacle. We wuz told that
there wuz to be oncommon exercises that day owin' to the visit of a
great Evangelist from the West. Lots of folks had come on the night
boats so as to be there to hear him. For if the angel Gabriel wanted
to preach there to lost sinners, he couldn't land there on Sunday
unless he swum or come cross lots (that is, unless he flowed down).
The folks on that island are too good to let anyone come there to
meetin' unless they come sarahuptishously. I asked a trustee once why
it wuz wicked for folks to ride there to meetin'.
And he said, "A merciful man is merciful to his beast."
Sez I, "A steamer hain't a beast, and if it wuz, it wouldn't tucker it
out much to come over from the bay or Clayton." And he said the
sailors would have to toil to git 'em there.
"So the driver and the horses have to toil to git sinners to meetin'
on the main land," sez I. And he said, "The steamers would make noise
and confusion, and disturb the sweet Sabbath calm." I felt there wuz
some truth in this, though it wouldn't make nigh so much noise as the
thousands of church bells clangin' out church time in cities and
villages.
Sez he, "If we allowed boats to land here we should be overrun with
excursionists who don't care for Sunday as a day of holy quiet and
rest, and our peaceful Sabbath would be turned into a carnival of
pleasure seekers, flirtations, giggles, brown paper parcels, egg
shells, cigar smoke and sandwiches."
And I sez, "Like as not that is so." And I felt that mebby he wuz in
the right on't. But some don't like it and feel that they'd ort to
take the resk.
CHAPTER TEN
WE HEAR A GREAT TEMPERANCE SERMON, BUT JOSIAH STILL HANKERS FOR CONEY
ISLAND
CHAPTER TEN
WE HEAR A GREAT TEMPERANCE SERMON, BUT JOSIAH STILL HANKERS FOR
CONEY ISLAND
Ever since I had been to the Thousand Island Park, my mind had roamed
onto that idee of the Tabernacle with a sort of or. It is a big
impressive word and one calculated to impress a stranger and
sojourner. And so when we made up our minds to attend to it I almost
instinctively put on my best alpacky dress (London brown) and I also
run a new ribbin into my braize veil and tied it round my bunnet so it
would hang in graceful folds adown the left side of my frame, I also
put on my black mitts and my mantilly with tabs; of course I carried
my faithful umbrell.
I looked well. Faith had a bad headache, I guess the job of gittin'
that information into Mr. Pomper's head had tuckered her out, so I and
my pardner sot off alone. All the way there my mind wuz real riz up
thinkin' I wuz goin' to see sunthin' very grand lookin' and
scriptural, and I said over and over to myself a number of times with
deep respect and or, "Tabernacle! Tabernacle!"
Yes, I felt some as if I wuz the Queen of Sheba and Josiah wuz
Solomon, though I might have knowed, my pardner lacked the first
ingregient in Solomon's nater, wisdom. And I probable wuzn't so dressy
as Miss Sheba, 'tennyrate I hadn't no crown or septer, a brown straw
bunnet and umbrell meetin' my wants better, but not nigh so dashy
lookin'. But my feelin's all come from the name of the place we wuz
bound for, and the patriarchical, Biblical past my mind wuz rovin'
round in. Yes, my mind wuz rousted up and runnin' on the trimmin's of
the Ark and Temple. I thought like as not I should see purple curtains
hung on shinin' poles, jest so many cubits long and high, and gorgeous
carpets to walk on and ornaments and fringes and tossels.
I would not ask questions, but I wuz prepared for splendid lookin'
things and lots of 'em. Well, if you'll believe me there wuzn't a
thing there that I expected to see, not a ornament or curtain or
tossel, and nothin' but jest common ground to walk on like our suller
bottom or dooryard. And long benches all through it as fur as the eye
could reach almost.
The platform wuz big as most meetin' housen, but bare and plain, and
there wuz what seemed to be sheets hung up round the hull concern,
though rolled up so we could see out all round us. There wuz only one
way it come up to my idees, and that wuz the cubits. I should think it
wuz jest about as many cubits long and broad as anything ever wuz or
ever will be. They say it will hold five thousand folks, and I should
judge they wuz all there that mornin', and had brung their children
and relations on both sides.
They wuz havin' a song service when we went in, and to hear five
thousand voices or so fillin' that Tabernacle full of high and
inspirin' melody, wuz indeed a treat. It filled it so full that it
oozed out of the sheets on all sides and soared up through the
encirclin' green trees, up, up towards the blue sky, and no knowin'
how much furder it did go upwards, clear up to Heaven like as not, for
that place we have always been told is the home of music. It wuz
sunthin' to remember as long as you lived to hear that great flood of
melody flow out and swash and sway round us, bearin' us some distance
away from ourselves.
My Josiah tuned up and sung jest as loud as any of 'em, but his
singin' would have sounded better if he had sung the tune the rest
did. He sung the tune he had always been used to singin' hims in, he
is dretful sot on it, and don't like to change. But as he seemed to
enjoy it so much, and the great rush of melody wuz so powerful his
voice wuz onnoticed. The him wuz, "How firm a foundation ye saints of
the Lord."
Mr. Pomper wuz jest ahead on us, and thinkin' he would see better, I
spoze had got up on the bench, and jest as he shouted out with the
rest, "How firm a foundation," the bench broke and down he come, but
in the big volume of sound, his yell of fright wuzn't heard no more
than the note of a mosquito in a cyclone.
In the intervals of silence Josiah sot and made comments to me on the
surroundin' seen, that alas made me know his mind wuzn't riz up on
such hites as mine wuz. He commented on the looks of the men around
him, and cast the idee in my face that there wuzn't any on 'em so good
lookin' as he wuz, or nigh so distinguished in their means. I felt
sorry to think he wuz so blinded, though of course he looks good to
me. And he talked about the wimmen and advanced the idee that they
well might take pattern by his pardner in their looks and deportment.
Josiah after all is a man of good sense.
[Illustration: "_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._"
(_See page 168_)]
As I looked round me, I liked the place more and more. What need wuz
there of upholstery and carpets? Brussels never turned out such a
carpet as old Mom Nater had spread all round that Temple of hern. Old
Gobelin never wove such tapestry. No Empress of the wonder-laden East
ever had hung in her boodore such a marvelous green texture as drooped
down in emerald canopies above us. No golden lamp ever gin such a
light as sifted down over the matchless green overhead, to light that
solemn sanctuary. No organ ever gin out such sweet sound as the birds
warbled anon or oftener. No jeweled ornaments ever sparkled on a altar
like the emerald and gold winged butterflies flutterin' round that
sacred hant, amongst the wild flowers that blossomed even up to the
door. And it seemed as if the soul could soar up easier somehow when
you could look right into the blue mystery of the sky, the trackless
path that souls mount up on in prayer and praise. Somehow plaster and
mortar seem more confinin'. Though I d'no as it really makes any
difference. Heaven is over all, and the soul's wings can pierce the
heaviest material, bein' made in jest that strong and delicate way,
but yet it seemed more free and soarin' somehow, and as if the path
heavenward wuz clearer.
The breezes kind of hung off and didn't come in. Josiah said they wuz
afraid to land on Thousand Island Park for fear of bein' fined for
travelin' on Sunday, but it wuzn't so, they didn't come because it wuz
so sultry and kinder muggy.
I'd hearn that the man who wuz goin' to preach wuz a dretful smart
man, a Evangelist and Temperance Lecturer. A man so gifted and good
that folks would go milds and milds to hear him, he seemed to hold the
secret of inspirin' men and wimmen, and rousin' 'em out of their cold
icy states, and drawin' 'em right along towards the mounts he
habitually stood on. He'd done sights of good, sights on it.
And anon I see a stir round the preacher's stand that made me know the
speaker of the day, the great Revivalist and Temperance worker had
come. And most immegiately a tall figger passed through the crowd that
made way for him reverentially. There wuz a smile and a good look on
his face for all the bretheren round him, some like a benediction,
only less formal. As he come out on the stand and stood before us I
could see that there wuz a light shinin' on his face as if ketched
from some heavenly and divine power. His eyes wuz soft and deep
lookin', as if he knew jest how mean and weak humanity wuz, and wuz
sorry for folks, and would like to tell 'em the secret he had found
out, how to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, specially
the devil.
His smile wuz sad and sweet, jest about half-and-half. His features
wuz good, and his hair, which wuz light brown to start with, wuz
considerable gray round his forward. His voice wuz like the sound of
deep waters that penetrates through all lighter voices and that you
hear through 'em all, jest as you hear the voice of the great River
through all the murmurin's of the trees and bird song on the shore. He
gin out a him in that sweet melogious voice that wuz as good as
singin' or better. The him told how, though we could not climb up into
Heaven to bring the Lord Christ down, yet how love had still its
Olivet and Faith its Galilee. And one verse wuz:
The healing of that seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch it in life's care and stress
And we are strong again.
And oh the truth of them verses! As that man read and prayed and
spoke, that seamless dress seemed to float along by us, worn by the
pityin' Christ, we laid holt on it with our yearnin' longin's and
outreachin' sperits, and felt that strength had gone out of it into
our souls.
His prayer seemed to bring Heaven so near to us that we could almost
look in. He asked the Lord to draw nigh to us, and He did. He asked
Him to help us bear our daily trials and temptations, and the weary
wearin' cares of life, and we felt that He would help us. We felt that
that sweet strong appeal for the Comforter to come into our lives to
bless and strengthen us for good work, wuz answered then and there.
The Word he read wuz that incomparable chapter in Hebrews, in which
Paul tells of the mighty works wrought by faith, of them who through
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of
lions, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight,
turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead
raised to life agin. And on to the end of that matchless chapter.
And the text wuz, "Wherefore seeing we are encompassed about by so
great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin
that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us."
And then follered a sermon that wuz better than any I ever hearn in my
life, and I have sot under splendid preachers in my day. But this,
though delivered in simple language wuz so helpful, lifting us,
holding us up, so we could ketch a glimpse of the right way and
inspire us with the strength to foller it.
He pinted out to us the sins that so easily beset us, easily indeed.
Not the old sins of Adam and Noah and the rest--patriarchal sins that
made us feel reproachful towards the old sinful patriarchs and
comfortable toward ourselves. No, he pinted out the besettin' sins
that are rampant and liable to ruin us in the nineteen hundreds. After
speakin' of the other deadly sins that are liable to lay holt on us,
such as oncharitableness, envy, jealousy, bigotry, intolerance,
injustice, over-weaning ambition, and other personal and national
sins, he spoke at length of that monster sin, that national disgrace,
Intemperance.
I spoze it wuz some as if when you tapped a barrel filled with pure
water, why pure water would flow out of it. And I spoze he wuz so full
of his great life work aginst that gigantick evil Intemperance, that
them ideas had to flow out when the plug of silence wuz removed. And
readin' what he had about them who through faith had stopped the mouth
of lions, escaped the edge of the sword, I spoze he wanted to make his
hearers feel that they too could so arm themselves with faith and the
power of His might, as to stop the mouths of these nineteenth century
lions, overthrow the laws entrenched in lion-like strength in the
stronghold of National protection, and escape the edge of the sword of
personal greed and selfishness, and put to flight the army of the
aliens from God and the good of humanity.
And I spoze when he thought of them wimmen who had received their dead
raised to life agin, he thought of the yearly sacrifice to
Intemperance, the thousands and thousands of husbands, sons, brothers
who are struck by the death blight now, makin' ready to fall into
those oncounted graves. And he wanted to roust 'em up and save their
souls and bodies alive and give them back to these wimmen agin, raised
from the dead.
Yes, his warnin's and appeals wuz all directed to this present time
and preached to us. He never mentioned them old Egyptians who wuz all
dead and drownded out years ago, both by the Red sea, and the long
swosh of the sea of Time, or the old Jews and Hebrews, nor he didn't
dwell on science or philosophy, but he pressed the truth home to the
hearts of his hearers, how the Lord Jesus had once dwelt upon earth,
how He had passed through all the cares and sufferings that we wuz
passing through, how He wuz tempted by the sins, pained by the griefs
of the world, and how He pitied us and would help us.
As I say, instead of Bible crimes that had been committed centuries
ago, he dwelt strong and as if his hull heart wuz in his words on that
terrible national crime back of most all the other sins and crimes of
to-day. That stands a huge black shape blocking up the world's
progress, that we ort to try our best to fight aginst, and how we had
a Helper. And his idee wuz that good men, clergymen and such, who are
wont to stand off and look down on the battlefield, ort to buckle on
their armor and join in the warfare. And he said that if sometimes
the battle smoke hid the form of our great High Priest and Helper we
mustn't forgit that He wuz there, lookin' on, seeing how the battle
went between the Right and the Wrong, and giving His help towards the
right side in His own good time, and he gin us to understand that:
All the blood that falls in righteous cause,
Each crimson drop shall nourish snowy flowers,
And quicken golden grain bright sheaves of good,
That under happier skies shall yet be reaped.
"For," sez he:
When Right opposes Wrong, shall Evil win?
Nay, never; but the years of God are long.
And he counseled his hearers to keep on and work--work and follow the
leadin' of Him who shall conquer all sin and evil.
It wuz a grand and powerful effort. It wuzn't so flowery as I've
hearn, but the strength, the pathos of it wuz wonderful. I didn't
wonder as I hearn him talk of what I'd been told that day by different
ones of how people flocked to hear him, how he might have the choice
of big city churches with big salaries accordin', but he had chosen to
stay by the common people. Had elected that he would not have wealth
and station, that he would go about tellin' of the love of God, urgin'
men to accept Him, goin' about doin' good.
As we listened to him, everything seemed possible, the right seemed
possible to do, it almost seemed as if we felt the crown restin' on
our tired foretops. And he ended the sermon as he had begun it with a
few words from the Book, "Now bretheren quit ye like men, be
steadfast, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." And then
agin he breathed out his very soul in prayer, and we wuz lifted up
some distance towards the Better Country. As he ended his words we all
heaved some long sithes and seemed to fall down some distance, and
found ourselves to our great surprise still on the old earth.
A enthusiastick little woman, who'd shouted out, "Amen!" with the best
of 'em sez to me, "Wasn't that sermon a grand one?"
"Yes," sez I, "it come right from his heart, and went to mine. It
lifted me up some distance above the earth," sez I.
"Yes," sez she, "the Elder is one of the saints on earth, but we are
afraid he hain't long for this world."
"Why?" sez I.
"He don't take any care of himself. He lives alone with an old
housekeeper who is dretful slack and don't have any faculty, and he
don't have things for his comfort, though he don't complain. He gits
no end of money, but gives it all away, or it is wasted to home. I
went to his house once on business,--I am from the West," sez
she,--"and it wuz so bare and desolate lookin' that I almost cried. He
ort to marry," sez she, "I have five daughters myself, and three
onmarried nieces and they all say the same thing, that he ought to be
married to some woman who would jest worship him, for no woman could
help it, and take care on him. For," sez she with a shrewd look, "the
smartest men and the most spiritual ones are the most helpless, come
to things of this world."
"Yes," sez I, "our minister to Jonesville could no more make a mess of
cream biscuit than he could fly. He is great on the Evidences, and a
great Bible expounder, but he couldn't sew on a button so it wouldn't
pucker the cloth, if he should cry like a babe."
"No," sez she, "I presume not, my girls are splendid with the needle,
and good cooks, and so religious--it's a sight! and so are my
sister's three girls, though they don't quite come up to my five."
Well, there wuz a stir in the crowd. The Elder had come down and wuz
shakin' hands right and left with them that crowded up to him. The
little woman pressed towards him and I wuz drawed along in her wake by
the crowd, some as a stately ship is swep' on by a small tug and the
flowin' waves. And anon, after shakin' hands with her, he took my hand
in hisen. A emotion swep' through me, a sort of electric current that
connects New Jerusalem to Jonesville and Zoar. He bent his full sweet
penetratin' look onto me, it seemed to go through my head clear to my
back comb, and he sez,
"Have I met you before?"
"Yes," sez I, "in sperit, we have met, I want to thank you for the
words you have said this day. It seems to me I shall be good for some
time, it seems that I _must_ after hearin' your discourse, and I want
to thank you for it, thank you earnest and sincere."
He smiled sort o' sad and yet riz up, and sez, "We are all wayfarers
here on a hard journey, and if I can help anyone along the way, it is
I who should be thankful, and," sez he, "may God bless you, sister!"
And he passed on.
But he seemed to leave a wake of glory behind him as he went, some
like the glow on the water when the sun walks over it, a warmin' life
givin' influence that comes from a big soul filled with light and
goodness. I seemed to be riz up above the earth all the way back to
the hotel, though in body I wuz walkin' afoot by the side of my
pardner. He too wuz enthused by the sermon--I had reconized his little
treble voice shoutin' out "Amen!" and he said now that it wuz grand,
powerful!
"Yes," sez I, "and good and holy and tender!"
"Yes indeed!" sez he. And he added, "Speakin' of tenderness, I do hope
the beef will be tenderer than it wuz yesterday. I don't believe they
have such beef to Coney Island."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
IN WHICH WE RETURN HOME, AND I PERSWAIDE JOSIAH TO BUILD A COTTAGE FOR
TIRZAH ANN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
IN WHICH WE RETURN HOME, AND I PERSWAIDE JOSIAH TO BUILD A COTTAGE
FOR TIRZAH ANN
The next afternoon Faith started on her visit to her aunt beyend
Kingston. And immegiately after her departure, Josiah said he'd got to
go home right away. Sez he, "It hain't right to leave Ury to bear all
the brunt of the work alone."
Sez I, "Ury has got over the hardest of the work, and writ so."
"Well," sez he, "I'm a deacon and I can't bear the thought of
religious interests languishin' for my help."
Sez I, "Seven folks wuz baptized last Sunday: the meetin' house wuz
never so prosperous."
And then he went on and said political ties wuz drawin' him, and he
brung up fatherly feelin's for the children, and cuttin' up burdocks,
and buildin' stun walls, and etcetery. But bein' met with plain Common
Sense in front of all these things, he bust out at last with the true
reason: "I hain't no more money to spend here, and I tell you so,
Samantha, and I mean it!"
And I sez, "Why didn't you say so in the first place, it would have
been more noble."
And he said a man didn't care much about bein' noble when they'd got
down to their last cent (he's got plenty of money, though I wouldn't
want it told on, for rich folks are always imposed upon, and charged
higher).
Well, suffice it to say, we concluded to go home the next day and did
so. And though I felt bad to leave the horsepitable ruff where I'd
enjoyed so much kind and friendly horspitality yet to the true home
lover there are always strong onseen ties that bind the heart to the
old hearth stun, and they always seem to be drawin' and tuggin' till
they draw one clear back to the aforesaid stun and chimbly. Josiah
paid for our two boards like a man, and we embarked for Clayton and
from thence traveled by cars and mair to our beloved home.
And right here let me dispute another wicked wrong story, we never had
to pay a cent for gittin' offen the Thousand Island Park. It is a base
fabrication to say folks have to pay to git out. They let us out jest
as free and easy as anything, and I thought they acted kinder smilin'
and good feelin'. What a world of fibs and falsehoods we are livin'
in!