As the snortin' and skornful actin' engine tore my body away from
Jonesville, I sot nearly bathed in tears for some time till I wuz
aware that little Tommy wuz weepin' also, frightened I spoze by his
grandma's grief, and then I knew it wuz my duty to compose myself, and
I summoned all my fortitude, put my handkerchief in my pocket, and
give Tommy a cream cookey, which calmed his worst agony. I then
recognized and passed the compliments of the day with Miss Meechim and
Dorothy and pretty little Aronette, who wuz puttin' away our wraps and
doin' all she could for the comfort of the hull of us. Seein' my
agitation, she took Tommy in her arms and told him some stories, good
ones, I guess, for they made Tommy stop cryin' and go to laughin',
specially as she punctuated the stories with some chocolate drops.
Dorothy looked sweet as a rose and wuz as sweet. Miss Meechim come and
sot down by me, but she seemed to me like a furiner; I wuz dwellin' in
a fur off realm Miss Meechim had never stepped her foot in, the realm
of Wedded Love and Pardner Reminiscences. What did Miss Meechim know
of that hallowed clime? What did she know of the grief that wrung my
heart? Men wuz to her like shadders; her heart spoke another
language.
Thinkin' that it would mebbe git my mind off a little from my idol, I
asked her again about Robert Strong's City of Justice; sez I, "It has
run in my mind considerable since you spoke on't; I don't think I ever
hearn the name of any place I liked so well, City of Justice! Why the
name fairly takes hold of my heart-strings," sez I; "has he made well
by his big manufactory?"
"Why, yes, fairly well," sez she, "but he has strange ideas. He says
he don't want to coin a big fortune out of other men's sweat and
brains. He wants to march on with the great army of toilers, and not
be carried ahead of it on a down bed. He says he wants to feel that he
is wronging no man by amassing wealth out of the half-paid labor of
their best years, and that he is satisfied with an equal and
reasonable share of the labor and capital invested. He has the best of
men in his employ and they are all well paid and industrious; all
well-to-do, able to live well, educate their children well, and have
time for some culture and recreation for themselves and their
families. I told him that his ideas were Utopian, but he says they
have succeeded even better than he expected they would. But there will
come a crash some time, I am sure. There must be rich and there must
be poor in this world, or the Scriptures will not be fulfilled."
Sez I, "There ain't no need to be such a vast army of poverty marching
on to the almshouse and grave, if it wuzn't for the dram-shop temptin'
poor human nater, and the greed of the world, and the cowardice and
indifference of the Church of Christ. Enough money is squandered for
stuff that degrades and destroys to feed and clothe all the hungry and
naked children of the world."
"Oh," sez Miss Meechim, "I don't believe all this talk and clamor
about prohibition. My people all drank genteelly, and though of course
it was drink that led to the agony and divorces of three of my
sisters, and my father's first downfall, yet I have always considered
that moderate drinking was genteel. Our family physician always drank
genteel, and our clergyman always kept it in his wine cellar, and if
people would only exert self control and drink genteel, there would be
no danger."
"How duz Robert Strong feel about it?" sez I.
"Oh, he is a fanatic on the subject; he won't employ a man who drinks
at all. He says that the city he is founding is a City of Justice, and
it is not just for one member of a family to do anything to endanger
the safety and happiness of the rest; so on that ground alone he
wouldn't brook any drinking in his model city. There are no very rich
ones there, and absolutely no poor ones; he is completely obliterating
the barriers that always have, and I believe always should exist
between the rich and the poor. Sez I, 'Robert, you are sacrilegiously
setting aside the Saviour's words, "the poor ye shall always have with
you."'
"And he said there was another verse that our Lord incorporated in his
teachings and the whole of his life-work, that he was trying to carry
out: 'Do unto others as ye would have them to do unto you.' He said
that love and justice was the foundation and cap-stone of our
Saviour's life and work and he was trying in his weak way to carry
them out in his own life and work. Robert talked well," sez she, "and
I must confess that to the outward eye his City of Justice is in a
happy and flourishing condition, easy hours of work, happy faces of
men, women and children as they work or play or study. It looks well,
but as I always tell him, there is a weak spot in it somewhere."
"What duz he say to that?" sez I, dretful interested in the story.
"Why, he says the only weak spot in it is his own incompetence and
inability to carry out the Christ idea of love and justice as he wants
to."
"I wish I could see that City of Justice," sez I dreamily, for my
mind's eye seemed to look up to Robert Strong in reverence and
admiration. "Well," sez she, "I must say that it is a beautiful place;
it is founded on a natural terrace that rises up from a broad,
beautiful, green plain, flashing rivers run through the valley, and
back of it rises the mountains."
"Like as the mountains are about Jerusalem," sez I.
"Yes, a beautiful clear stream rushes down the mountain side from the
melting snow on top, but warmed by the southern sun, as it flows
through the fertile land, it is warm and sweet as it reaches Robert's
place. And Robert says," continued Miss Meechim, "that that is just
how old prejudices and injustices will melt like the cold snow and
flow in a healing stream through the world. He talks well, Robert
does. And oh, what a help he has been to me with Dorothy!"
"What duz she say about it?" sez I.
"She does not say so, but I believe she thinks as I do about the
infeasibility as well as the intrinsic depravity of disproving the
Scriptures."
"Well," sez I, "Robert was right about the mission of our Lord being
to extend justice and mercy, and bring the heart of the world into
sweetness, light and love. His whole life was love, self-sacrifice and
devotion, and I believe that Robert is in the right on't."
"Oh, Robert is undoubtedly following his ideas of right, but they
clash with mine," sez Miss Meechim, shakin' her head sadly, "and I
think he will see his error in time."
Here Miss Meechim stopped abruptly to look apprehensively at a young
man that I knew wuz a Jonesville husband and father of twins. He was
lookin' admirin'ly at Dorothy, and Miss Meechim went and sot down
between 'em, and Tommy come and set with me agin.
Tommy leaned up aginst me and looked out of the car window and sez
kinder low to himself:
"I wonner what makes the smoke roll and roll up so and feather out the
sky, and I wonner what my papa and my mama is doin' and what my
grandpa will do--they will be so lonesome?" Oh, how his innocent words
pierced my heart anew, and he begun to kinder whimper agin, and
Aronette, good little creeter, come up and gin him an orange out of
the lunch-basket she had.
Well, we got to New York that evenin' and I wuz glad to think that
everybody wuz well there, or so as to git about, for they wuz all
there at the deepo, excep' them that wuz in the street, but we got
safe through the noise and confusion to a big, high tarven, with
prices as high as its ruff and flagpole. Miss Meechim got for her and
Dorothy what she called "sweet rooms," three on 'em in a row, one for
each on 'em and a little one for Aronette. But I d'no as they wuz any
sweeter than mine, though mine cost less and wuz on the back of the
house where it wuzn't so noisy. Tommy and I occupied one room; he had
a little cot-bed made up for him.
Indeed, I groaned out as I sot me down in a big chair, if he wuz here,
the pardner of my youth and middle age, no room Miss Meechim ever
looked on wuz so sweet as this would be. But alas! he wuz fur away.
Jonesville held on to my idol and we wuz parted away from each other.
But I went down to supper, which they called dinner, and see that
Tommy had things for his comfort and eat sunthin' myself, for I had to
support life, yes, strength had to be got to cling to that black
string that I had holt on, and vittles had to supply some of that
strength, though religion and principle supplied the biggest heft.
Miss Meechim and Aronette wuz in splendid sperits, and after
sup--dinner went out to the theatre to see a noted tragedy acted, and
they asked me to accompany and go with 'em, for I spoze that my looks
wuz melancholy and deprested in extreme, Aronette offerin' to take
care of Tommy if I wanted to go.
But I sez, "No, I have got all the tragedy in my own bosom that I can
'tend to." And in spite of my cast-iron resolution tears busted out
under my eyeleds and trickled down my nose. They didn't see it, my
back wuz turned, and my nose is a big one anyway and could accommodate
a good many tears.
But I controlled my agony of mind. I walked round with Tommy for a
spell and showed him all the beauties of the place, which wuz many,
sot down with him for a spell in the big, richly-furnished parlors,
but cold and lonesome lookin' after all, for the love-light of home
wuz lackin', and looked at the glittering throng passing and
repassing; but the wimmen looked fur off to me and the men wuz like
shadders, only one man seemed a reality to me, and he wuz small
boneded and fur away. And then we went to our room. I read to Tommy
for a spell out of a good little book I bought, and then hearn him say
his prayers, his innocent voice askin' for blessin's from on high for
his parents and my own beloved lonely one, and then I tucked him into
his little cot and sot down and writ a letter to my dear Josiah, tears
dribblin' down onnoticed while I did so.
For we had promised to write to each other every day of our lives,
else I could not, could not have borne the separation, and I also
begun a letter to Philury. I laid out to put down things that I wanted
her to 'tend to that I thought on from day to day after I got away,
and then send it to her bime by. Sez I:
"Philury, be sure and put woolen sheets on Josiah's bed if it grows
colder, and heat the soap stun for him and see that he wears his
woolen-backed vest, takin' it off if it moderates. Tend to his morals,
Philury, men are prone to backslide; start him off reg'lar to meetin',
keep clean bandannas in his pocket, let him wear his gingham neckties,
he'll cry a good deal and it haint no use to spile his silk ones. Oh,
Philury! you won't lose nothin' if you are good to that dear man. Put
salt enough on the pork when you kill, and don't let Josiah eat too
much sassage. And so no more to-night, to be continude."
The next morning I got two letters from my pardner. He had writ a
letter right there in the deepo before he went home, and also another
on his arrival there. Agony wuz in every word; oh, how wuz we goin' to
bear it!
But I must not make my readers onhappy; no I must harrow them up no
more, I must spread the poultice of silence on the deep gaping woond
and go on with the sombry history. After breakfast Miss Meechim got a
big, handsome carriage, drawed by two prancin' steeds, held in by a
man buttoned up to his chin, and invited me to take Tommy and go with
her and Dorothy up to the Park, which I did. They wuz eloquent in
praises of that beautiful place; the smooth, broad roads, bordered
with tall trees, whose slim branches stood out against the blue sky
like pictures. The crowds of elegant equipages, filled with handsome
lookin' folks in galy attire that thronged them roads. The Mall, with
its stately beauty, the statutes that lined the way ever and anon. The
massive walls of the Museum, the beautiful lake and rivulets, spanned
by handsome bridges. It wuz a fair seen, a fair seen--underneath
beauty of the rarest kind, and overhead a clear, cloudless sky.
Miss Meechim wuz happy, though she didn't like the admiring male
glances at Dorothy's fresh, young beauty, and tried to ward 'em off
with her lace-trimmed muff, but couldn't. Tommy wuz in pretty good
sperits and didn't look quite so pale as when we left home, and he
wonnered at the white statutes, and kinder talked to himself, or to
Carabi about 'em, and I kinder gathered from what he said that he
thought they wuz ghosts, and I thought that he wuz kinder reassurin'
Carabi that they wouldn't hurt him, and he wonnered at the mounted
policemen who he took to be soldiers, and at all the beauty with which
we wuz surrounded. And I--I kep' as cheerful a face as I could on the
outside, but always between me and Beauty, in whatsoever guise it
appeared, wuz a bald head, a small-sized figger. Yes, it weighed but
little by the steelyards, but it shaddered lovely Central Park, the
most beautiful park in the world, and the hull universe for me. But I
kep' a calm frame outside; I answered Miss Meechim's remarks
mekanically and soothed her nervous apprehensions as well as I could
as she glanced fearfully at male admirers by remarkin' in a casual way
to her "that New York and the hull world wuz full of pretty women and
girls," which made her look calmer, and then I fell in to once with
her scheme of drivin' up the long, handsome Boolevard, acrost the
long bridge, up to the tomb of Our Hero, General Grant.
Hallowed place! dear and precious to the hull country. The place where
the ashes lie that wuz once the casket of that brave heart. Good
husband, kind father, true friend, great General, grand Hero, sleeping
here by the murmuring waters of the stream he loved, in the city of
his choice, sleeping sweetly and calmly while the whole world wakes to
do him honor and cherish and revere his memory.
I had big emotions here, I always did, and spoze I always shall. But,
alas! true it wuz that even over the memory of that matchless Hero riz
up in my heart the remembrance of one who wuz never heroic, onheeded
and onthought on by his country, but--oh! how dear to me!
The memory of his words, often terse and short specially before
meal-time, echoed high above the memory of him who talked with Kings
and Emperors, ruled armies and hushed the seething battle-cry, and the
nation's clamor with "Let us have peace."
But I will not agin fall into harrow, or drag my readers there, but
will simply state that, in all the seens of beauty and grandeur we
looked on that day--and Miss Meechim wanted to see all and everything,
from magestick meetin' houses and mansions, bearin' the stamp of
millions of dollars, beautiful arches lifted up to heroes and the
national honor, even down to the Brooklyn Bridge and the Goddess of
Liberty--over all that memory rained supreme.
The Goddess of Liberty holdin' aloft her blazin' torch rousted up the
enthusiastick admiration of Dorothy and Miss Meechim. But I thought as
I looked on it that she kinder lifted her arm some as I had seen my
dear pardner lift his up when he wuz a-fixin' a stove pipe overhead;
and that long span uniting New York and Brooklyn only brought to me
thoughts of the length and strength of that apron-string to which I
clung and must cling even though death ensued.
Well, after a long time of sight-seeing we returned to our hotel,
and, after dinner, which they called luncheon, I laid down a spell
with Tommy, for I felt indeed tuckered out with my emotions outside
and inside. Tommy dropped off to sleep to once like a lamb, and I
bein' beat out, lost myself, too, and evening wuz almost lettin' down
her mantilly spangled with stars, when I woke, Tommy still sleepin'
peacefully, every minute bringin' health and strength to him I knew.
Miss Meechim and Dorothy had been to some of the big department stores
where you can buy everything under one ruff from a elephant to a
toothpick, and have a picture gallery and concert throwed in. They had
got a big trunk full of things to wear. I wondered what they wanted of
'em when they wuz goin' off on another long journey so soon; but
considered that it wuzn't my funeral or my tradin' so said nothin'.
Anon we went down and had a good supper, which they called dinner,
after which they went to the opera. Aronette tended to packin' their
clothes, and offered to help me pack. But as I told her I hadn't
onpacked nothin' but my nightgown and sheepshead night-cap I could git
along with it, specially as sheepshead night-caps packed easier than
full crowned ones.
So I took Tommy out for a little walk on the broad beautiful
sidewalks, and it diverted him to see the crowds of handsomely dressed
men and women all seemin' to hurry to git to some place right off, and
the children who didn't seem to be in any hurry, and in seein' the big
carriages roll by, some drawed by prancin' horses, and some by nothin'
at all, so fur as we could see, which rousted up Tommy's wonder, and
it all diverted him a little and mebby it did me too, and then we
retired to our room and had a middlin' good night's rest, though
hanted by Jonesville dreams, and the next morning we left for
Chicago.
Dorothy had never seen Niagara Falls or Saratoga, so we went a few
milds out of our way that she might see Saratoga's monster hotels,
the biggest in the world; and take a drink of the healin' waters of
the springs that gushes up so different right by the side of each
other, showin' what a rich reservoir the earth is, if we only knew how
to tap it, and where.
We didn't stay at Saratoga only over one train; but drove through the
broad handsome streets, and walked through beautiful Congress Park,
and then away to Niagara Falls.
It wuz a bright moonlight night when we stood on the bridge not far
from the tarven where we had our sup--dinner. And Dorothy and Miss
Meechim wuz almost speechless with awe and admiration, they said "Oh,
how sublime! Oh! how grand!" as they see the enormous body of water
sweepin' down that immense distance. The hull waters of the hull chain
of Lakes, or inland Seas, sweepin' down in one great avalanche of
water.
I wanted dretfully to go and see the place where the cunning and
wisdom of man has set a trap to ketch the power of that great liquid
Geni, who has ruled it over his mighty watery kingdom sence the
creation, and I spoze always calculated to; throwin' men about, and
drawin' 'em down into its whirlpool jest like forest leaves or blades
of grass.
Who would have dremp chainin' down that resistless, mighty force and
make it bile tea-kettles; and light babys to their trundle beds, and
turn coffee mills, and light up meetin' houses, and draw canal boats
and propel long trains of cars. How it roared and took on when the
subject wuz first broke to it. But it had to yield, as the twentieth
century approached and the millennium drew nigh; men not so very big
boned either, but knowin' quite a lot, jest chained that great roarin'
obstropulous Geni, and has made it do good work. After rulin' the
centuries with a high hand nobody dastin' to go nigh it, it wuz that
powerful and awful in its might and magesty, it has been made to
serve, jest as the Bible sez:
"He that is mightiest amongst you shall be your servant," or words to
that effect.
But it is a sight, I spoze, to see all the performances they had to go
through, the hard labor of years and years, to persuade Niagara to do
what they had planned for it to do.
But as I say, this great giant is chained by one foot, as it were, and
is doin' good day's works, and no knowin' how much more will be put on
it to do when the rest of its strength is buckled down to work. All
over the great Empire State, mebby, he will have to light the evenin'
lamps, and cook the mornin' meals, and bring acrost the continent the
food he cooks, and turn the mills that grinds the flour to make the
bread he toasts, and sow the wheat that makes the flour, and talk for
all the millions of people and play their music for them--I d'no what
he won't be made to do, and Josiah don't, but I spoze it is a sight to
see the monster trap they built to hold this great Force. We wanted to
go there, but hadn't time.
But to resoom backwards a spell. Miss Meechim and Dorothy was
perfectly awe-struck to see and hear the Falls, and I didn't wonder.
But I had seen it before with my beloved pardner by my side, and it
seemed to me as if Niagara missed him, and its great voice seemed to
roar out: "Where is Josiah? Where is Josiah? Why are you here without
him? Swish, swash, roar, roar, Where is Josiah? Where? Roar! Where?"
Oh, the emotions I had as I stood there under the cold light of the
moon, cold waters rushin' down into a cold tomb; cold as a frog the
hull thing seemed, and full of a infinite desolation. But I knew that
if Love had stood there by my side, personified in a small-sized
figger, the hull seen would have bloomed rosy. Yes, as I listened to
the awestruck, admirin' axents of the twain with me, them words of the
Poet come back to me: "How the light of the hull life dies when love
is gone."
"Oh," sez Miss Meechim, as we walked back to the tarven, takin'
in the sooveneer store on the way, "oh, what a immense body of
water! how tumultous it sweeps down into the abyss below!" I answered
mekanically, for I thought of one who wuz also tumultous at times,
but after a good meal subsided down into quiet, some as the waters of
Niagara did after a spell.
And Dorothy sez, "How the grand triumphal march of the great Lakes, as
they hurry onwards towards the ocean, shakes the very earth in their
wild haste."
I sez mekanically, "Yes, indeed!" but my thoughts wuz of one who had
often pranced 'round and tromped, and even kicked in his haste, and
shook the wood-house floor. Ah, how, how could I forgit him?
And at the sooveneer stores, oh, how I wuz reminded of him there! how
he had cautioned me aginst buyin' in that very spot; how he had stood
by me till he had led me forth empty-handed towards the tarven. Ah
well, I tried to shake off my gloom, and Tommy waked up soon after our
return (Aronette, good little creeter! had stayed right by him), and
we all had a good meal, and then embarked on the sleeping car. I laid
Tommy out carefully on the top shelf, and covered him up, and then
partially ondressed and stretched my own weary frame on my own shelf
and tried to woo the embrace of Morphine, but I could not, so I got up
and kinder sot, and took out my pad and writ a little more in my
letter to my help.
Sez I, "Philury, if Josiah takes cold, steep some lobely and catnip,
half and half; if he won't take it Ury must hold him and you pour it
down. Don't sell yourself short of eggs, Josiah loves 'em and they
cost high out of season. Don't let the neighbors put upon him because
I went off and left him. Give my love to Waitstill Webb and Elder
White, give it to 'em simeltaneous and together, tell 'em how much I
think on 'em both for the good they're doin'. Tell Arvilly I often
think of her and what she has went through and pity her. Give a hen to
the widder Gowdey for Christmas. Let Josiah carry it, or no, I guess
Ury had better, I am away and folks might talk. The ketch on the
outside suller door had better be fixed so it can't blow open.
Josiah's thickest socks are in the under draw, and the pieces to mend
his overhalls in a calico bag behind the clothespress door. Guard that
man like the apples in your eyes, Philury, and you'll be glad bime by.
So no more. To be continude."
Agin I laid down and tried to sleep; in vain, my thoughts, my heart
wuz in Jonesville, so I riz up agin as fur as I could and took my
handkerchief pin offen the curtain where I had pinned it and looked at
it long and sadly. I hadn't took any picture of Josiah with me, I
hadn't but one and wuz afraid I should lose it. He hain't been willin'
to be took sence he wuz bald, and I knew that his picture wuz engraved
on my heart in deeper lines than any camera or kodak could do it. But
I had a handkerchief pin that looked like him, I bought it to the
World's Fair, it wuz took of Columbus. You know Columbus wuz a
changeable lookin' critter in his pictures, if he looked like all on
'em he must have been fitty, and Miss Columbus must have had a hard
time to git along with him. This looked like Josiah, only with more
hair, but I held my thumb over the top, and I could almost hear Josiah
speak. I might have had a lock of his hair to wep' over, but my
devoted love kep' me from takin' it; I knew that he couldn't afford to
spare a hair with winter comin' on. But I felt that I must compose
myself, for my restless moves had waked Tommy up. The sullen roar of
the wheels underneath me kep' kinder hunchin' me up every little while
if I forgot myself for a minute, twittin' me that my pardner had let
me go away from him; I almost thought I heard once or twice the echo,
Grass Widder! soundin' out under the crunchin' roar and rattle of the
wheels, but then I turned right over on my shelf and sez in my agony
of sperit: Not that--not grass.
And Tommy called down, "What say, grandma?" And I reached up and took
holt of his soft, warm little hand and sez: "Go to sleep, Tommy,
grandma is here."
"You said sunthin' about grass, grandma."
And I sez, "How green the grass is in the spring, Tommy, under the
orchard trees and in the door-yard. How pretty the sun shines on it
and the moonlight, and grandpa is there, Tommy, and Peace and Rest and
Happiness, and my heart is there, too, Tommy," and I most sobbed the
last words.
And Tommy sez, "Hain't your heart here too, grandma? You act as if you
wuz 'fraid. You said when I prayed jest now that God would watch over
us."
"And he will, Tommy, he will take care of us and of all them I love."
And leanin' my weary and mournful sperit on that thought, and leanin'
hard, I finally dropped off into the arms of Morphine.