Arvilly deserted from the army and gloried in it; she said, bein' a
woman born, she had never had a right, and now she took it. After her
husband wuz buried, and her hull life, too, she thought for a spell,
she deserted, but bein' ketched and court-martialed, she appeared
before the officers in her own skirt and bask waist and dared 'em to
touch her. Waitstill Webb, the young sweetheart of the man that shot
her husband, wuz with her. Good land! Arvilly didn't lay up nothin'
aginst her or him; he wuz drunk as a fool when he fired the shot. He
didn't know what he wuz doin'; he wuz made irresponsible by the law,
till he did the deed, and then made responsible by the same law and
shot. Waitstill wuz named from a Puritan great-great-aunt, whose
beauty and goodness had fell onto her, poor girl! She stood by
Arvilly. They wuz made friends on that dretful night when they had
stood by the men they loved, one killed and the other to be killed by
the govermunt. Poor things! they wuz bein' protected, I spoze our
govermunt would call it; it always talks a good deal about protectin'
wimmen; 'tennyrate the mantilly of the law hung over 'em both and
shaded 'em, one man layin' dead, shot through the heart, the other
condemned to be shot, both on 'em by legal enactments, both men not
knowin' or meanin' any more harm than my Josiah up in Jonesville if he
had been sot fire to by law and then hung by law because he smoked and
blistered. Good land! them that sets a fire knows that there has got
to be smoke and blisters, there must be.
The officers they wuz just dumb-foundered at the sight of a woman with
a bask waist on in that position--a bein' court-martialed for
desertion--and her speech dumb-foundered 'em still more, so I spoze; I
hearn it from one who wuz there.
Sez Arvilly to 'em, and they wuz drew up in battle array as you may
say, dressed up in uniform and quite a few on 'em, the Stars and
Stripes behind 'em, and the mantilly of the law drapin' 'em in heavy
folds. And I don't spoze that through her hull life Arvilly wuz ever
so eloquent as on that occasion. All her powers of mind and heart wuz
electrified by the dretful shock and agony she had underwent, and her
words fell like a hard storm of lightenin' and hail out of a sky when
it is just stored full of electrical power and has got to bust out.
Sez Arvilly: "You men represent the force and power of the govermunt
that falsely sez it is the voice of the people; we two represent the
people. As you are the force and power and will of the law, we are the
endurance, the suffering. You decide on a war. When did a woman ever
have any voice in saying that there should be a war? They bear the
sons in agony that you call out to be butchered; their hearts are torn
out of their bosoms when they let their husbands, sons and lovers go
into the hell of warfare, and you tax all her property to raise money
to help furnish the deadly weapons that kill and cut to pieces the
warm, living, loving forms that they would give their lives for.
"But you men decide on a war, as you have on this. You say it wuz from
motives of philanthropy and justice; you drag us, the people, out of
peaceful, happy homes to leave all we love, to face mutilation, agony
and death; you say your cause wuz just, I say it is a war of
revenge--a war of conquest."
Why it fairly made goose pimples run over me when I hearn on't.
Sassin' the govermunt, she wuz--nothin' more nor less. But she went on
worse than ever.
"You say that it wuz to give freedom to the people of Cuba. Look at
the millions of your own wimmen enslaved in legal fetters! You say it
wuz to protect the wimmen and children of Cuba from the cruelty and
brutality of unscrupulous rulers. Look at the wimmen and children of
your own country cowering and hiding from crazed drunken husbands,
sons and fathers. More misery, murder, suicides, abuse and suffering
of every kind is caused by the saloon every day of the year in the
United States than ever took place in Cuba in twice the same time, and
you not only stand by and see it, but you take pay from the butchers
for slaughtering the innocents! You miserable hypocrites, you!" Sez
Arvilly, "I would talk about pity and mercy, you that know no pity and
no mercy for your own wimmen and children.
"You pose before foreign nations as a reformer, a righter of wrongs,
when you have cherished and are cherishing now the most gigantic crime
and wrong that ever cursed a people; turning a deaf ear to the
burdened and dying about you; wives, mothers, daughters--for whose
safety and well-being you are responsible--have told you that the
saloon killed all the manhood and nobility of their husbands, sons,
and fathers; made the pure, good men, who loved and protected them,
into cold-hearted brutes and demons who would turn and rend
them--still you would not hear. You have seen the dretful procession
of one hundred thousand funerals pass before you every year, slain by
this foe that you pamper and protect.
"Lovers of good laws have told you that the saloon blocked up the way
to every reform and wuz the greatest curse of the day; still you threw
your mighty protection around the system and helped it on. The most
eminent doctors have told you that drunkenness ruined the bodies of
men; Christian clergymen told you that it ruined their souls, and that
the saloon was the greatest enemy the Church of Christ had to contend
with to-day; that when by its efforts and sacrifices it saved one soul
from ruin, the saloon ruined two to fill the place of that one who
wuz saved, and still you opholded it.
"Petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of the best people of the
land have been sent to you, but these petitions, weighted down with
the tears and prayers of these people, have been made a jest and a
mock of by you. And strangest, most awful of sights--incredible almost
to men and angels--this govermunt, that sot out as a reformer to
Christianize Cuba and the Philippines, have planted there this
heaviest artillery of Satan, the saloon, to bind the poor islanders in
worse bondage and misery than they ever dremp on. Hain't you ashamed
of yourself! You fool and villain!" (Oh! dear me! Oh, dear suz! To
think on't; Arvilly wuz talkin' to the govermunt, and callin' it a
fool and villain! The idee! Why, it wuz enough to skair anybody most
to death!) I spoze it made a great adoo. I spoze that the men who
represented the govermunt wuz too horrified to make a reply. Arvilly
always did go too fur when she got to goin'. But it can't be denied
that she had great reason for her feelin's, for the strongest argument
wuz still to come. I spoze she got almost carried away by her own talk
and feelin's, for all of a sudden they said she lifted her long bony
hand and arm--Arvilly always wuz kinder spare in flesh--she lifted up
her arm and her bony forefinger seemed to be follerin' the lines of
some words writ up there on the wall, sez she slowly, in a awful
voice:
"My country! thou are weighed in the balance and found wanting!"
It wuz indeed thrillin', but after a minute's silence she went on:
"Look at me!" sez she, pintin' that same forefinger first at herself
and then at the tall veiled figger of the young girl beside her--"Look
at us; we, the people, represent to you another of your favorite
reforms, the Canteen, that product of civilization and Christianity
you transplanted from our holy shores to the benighted tropics. How
many petitions have you had wet with the tears of wives and mothers,
weighted down with their prayers to close this gateway to hell. But
no, for a price, as Judas sold his Lord, you have trafficked in human
souls and will do so. And you are the power--you control; we are the
people--we suffer. We leave all we love, we go out and fight your
battles when you tell us to, we face mutilation and death for
you--isn't that enough? No; besides the foe in front you set us
aginst, you introduce a foe into our midst that is a million times as
fatal and remorseless. The foe in front only aims at our bodies; this
foe, before it kills our bodies, kills honor, manhood, all that is
noble and worthy to be loved--a devilish foe indeed, but by your
command it is let loose upon us; we are the people, we must endure it.
Look at me!"--agin she pinted that bony forefinger at herself--"I had
a husband I loved as well as the gracious lady in the White House
loves her husband. He wuz a good man. He thought he owed a duty to his
country. He went to fight her battles at her call. He might have
escaped Spanish bullets, but not this foe this Christian govermunt set
aginst him. In a low Canteen, a vile drinking den, rented by you for
the overthrow of men's souls and bodies, in a drunken brawl a bullet
aimed by a crazed brain for another poor ruined boy reached my
husband's faithful heart, faithful to the country that slew him, not
for patriotism or honor, but for a few pennies of money--not even the
thirty pieces of silver Judas earnt for betraying his Lord. This
bullet wuz sent from the hand of a young man, a college graduate, one
of the noblest, brightest and best of men until this foe our govermunt
set for him vanquished him. He got into a quarrel with another drunken
youth, another victim of the Canteen, and meant to shoot him, but the
unsteady hand sent it into the heart of my husband, who went into that
vile place thinkin' he could appease the quarrel. This young man was
shot for _your_ crime and here is his widow," and turning to
Waitstill, she said, "Lift up your vail; let them look upon us, the
people."
The young girl drew back her vail and a face of almost perfect beauty
wuz disclosed, but white as death. The big dark eyes wuz full of
sorrow and despair, sadder than tears. She simply said:
"I loved him--he was murdered--I have come to denounce his murderers."
Her voice wuz low, but the words fell like drops of blood, so vivid,
so full were they of the soul of her being.
"Yes," sez Arvilly, "and you are his murderer. Not the Spaniards, not
the foe of this govermunt that the poor young fellow tried with a
boy's warm-hearted patriotism to save. You murdered him." She turned
to let her companion speak agin, but the power to speak had gone from
her; her slender figure swayed and Arvilly caught her in her strong
arms. She had fainted almost away; she could say no more. But what
more could she say to this govermunt.
"He was murdered--I loved him--I have come to denounce his murderers."
Arvilly helped Waitstill down on a bench where she leaned back still
and white most as if she wuz dead. But before Arvilly went out with
Waitstill leanin' on her arm, she turned and faced them dumb-foundered
men once more:
"Who is accountable for the death of her lover?" pintin' to the frail,
droopin' figger. "Who is accountable for the death of my husband? Who
is accountable for the death and everlastin' ruin of my son, my
husband, my father and my lover? sez the millions of weepin' wimmen in
America that the Canteen and saloon have killed and ruined. These
questions unanswered by you are echoin' through the hull country
demandin' an answer. They sweep up aginst the hull framework of human
laws made professedly to protect the people, aginst every voter in the
land, aginst the rulers in Washington, D. C., aginst the Church of
Christ--failing to git an answer from them they sweep up to God's
throne. There they will git a reply. Woe! woe! to you rulers who
deviseth iniquity to overthrow the people committed to your care."
Arvilly then went out, leadin' Waitstill, and when she come back to
Jonesville she come with her, a patient mourner, good to everybody and
goin' out to day's works for seventy-five cents a day, for she had no
other way to live, for she wuzn't strong enough then to go on with her
nursing and she hadn't a relation on earth, and the man our govermunt
murdered in that Canteen represented all there wuz on this broad earth
for her to love. They worshipped each other, and Waitstill is waitin'
till the time comes for her to die and meet the man she loved and
lost, havin' to live in the meantime, because she couldn't stop
breathin' till her time come. So, as I say, she went out doin' plain
sewin', beloved by all both great and small, but a mourner if there
ever wuz one, lookin' at his picture day in and day out, which she
wears in her bosom in a locket--a handsome, manly face, took before
our govermunt made a crazy lunatick and a murderer of him.
Jest as different from Arvilly as day is from night, but the cold
hands of grief holds their hearts together and I spoze that she will
always make it her home with Arvilly as long as she lives, she wants
her to--that is, if the plan I have in my head and heart don't amount
to anything, but I hope for the land sake that it will, for as I've
said many a time and gin hints to her, there never wuz two folks more
made for each other than she and Elder White.
But she's gone now to the Philippines as a nurse in a hospital, which
shows how different she and Arvilly feels; Arvilly sez that she
wouldn't do anything to help the govermunt agin in any way, shape or
manner, not if they should chain her and drag her to the front; she
would die before she would help the great, remorseless power that
killed her husband for a little money. She's made in jest that way,
Arvilly is, jest as faithful to the remembrance of her wrongs as a dog
is to a bone, settin' and gnawin' at it all the time. And when they
come to collect her taxes last year she says:
"No taxes will you ever git out of me to help rare up Saloons and
Canteens to kill some other woman's husband."
"But," sez the tax man, a real good man he wuz and mild mannered, "you
should be willing to help maintain the laws of your country that
protects you."
And then I spose that man's hair (it wuz pretty thin, anyway) riz
right up on his head to hear her go on tellin' about the govermunt
killin' her husband. But seein' she wuz skarin' him she kinder quelled
herself down and sez:
"What has this country ever done for me. I have had no more voice in
makin' the laws than your dog there. Your dog is as well agin off, for
it don't have to obey the laws, that it has no part in makin'. If it
digs up a good bone it don't have to give it to some dog politician to
raise money to buy dog buttons to kill other dogs and mebby its own
pups. Not one cent of taxes duz this hell-ridden govermunt git out of
me agin--if I can help it."
The man ketched up his tax list and flewed from the house, but
returned with minions of the law who seized on and sold her shote she
wuz fattin' for winter's use; sold it to the saloon keeper over to
Zoar for about half what it wuz worth, only jest enough to pay her
tax. But then the saloon keeper controlled a lot of bum votes and the
collector wanted to keep in with him.
Yes, as I wuz sayin', Waitstill Webb is as different from Arvilly as a
soft moonlight night lit by stars is from a snappin' frosty noonday in
January. Droopin' like a droopin' dove, feelin' that the govermunt wuz
the worst enemy she and her poor dead boy ever had, as it turned out,
but still ready to say:
"Oh Lord, forgive my enemy, the Government of the United States, for
it knows what it does."
Which she felt wuz ten-fold worse than as if it did wickedly without
knowin' it, and she knew that they knowed all about it and couldn't
deny it, for besides all the good men and wimmen that had preached to
'em about it, they had had such sights of petitions sent in explainin'
it all out and beggin' 'em to stop it, onheeded by them and scorfed
at. But she stood ready to go agin and serve the govermunt as a nurse,
trying to heal the woonds caused by bullet and knife, and the ten-fold
worse woonds caused by our govermunt's pet wild beast it rents out
there to worry and kill its brave defenders. I looked forward with
warm anticipations to seein' her, for I sot store by her. She had
fixed over my gray alpacky as good as new, and made me a couple of
ginghams, and I thought more of havin' her with me than I did of her
work, and once when I wuz down with a crick in the back, and couldn't
stir, she come right there and stayed by me and did for me till the
creek dwindled down and disappeared. Her presence is some like the Bam
of Gilead, and her sweet face and gentle ways make her like an angel
in the sick room. Arvilly is more like a mustard plaster than Bam. But
everybody knows that mustard is splendid for drawin' attention to it;
if it draws as it ort to, mustard must and will attract and hold
attention. And I spoze there hain't no tellin' what good Arvilly has
done and mebby will do by her pungent and sharp tongue to draw
attention to wrongs and inspire efforts to ameliorate 'em. And the
same Lord made the Bam of Gilead and mustard, and they go well
together. When mustard has done its more painful work then the Bam
comes in and duz its work of healin' and consolin'. 'Tennyrate anybody
can see that they are both on 'em as earnest and sincere in wantin' to
do right as any human creeters can be, and are dretful well thought on
all over Jonesville and as fur out as Loontown and Zoar.
Some wimmen would have held a grudge aginst the man that murdered her
husband and not bore the sight of the one who loved and mourned him so
constant. But Arvilly had too much good horse sense for that; she
contends that neither of the men who wuz fightin' wuz much to blame.
She sez that if a sane, well man should go out and dig a deep pit to
catch men for so much a head, and cover it all over with green grass
and blossoms and put a band of music behind it to tempt men to walk
out on it, to say nothin' of a slidin' path leadin' down to it, all
soft with velvet and rosy with temptations, if a lot of hot-headed
youth and weak men and generous open-minded men who wuzn't lookin' for
anything wrong, should fall into it and be drownded for so much a
head, she sez the man who dug the pit and got so much apiece for the
men he led in and ruined would be more to blame than the victims, and
she sez the man who owned the ground and encouraged it to go on would
be more to blame than the man who dug the pit. And further back the
men who made the laws to allow such doin's, and men who voted to allow
it, and ministers and the Church of Christ, who stood by like Pilate,
consenting to it and encouraged by their indifference and neglect what
they might have stopped if they wanted to--they wuz most to blame of
all.
Well, this is what Arvilly has went through.
Day by day we sailed onwards, and if the days wuz beautiful, the
nights wuz heavenly, lit by the glowin' moon that seemed almost like
another sun, only softer and mellerer lookin'; and the lustrous stars
of the tropics seemed to flash and glitter jest over our head almost
as if we could reach up and gather 'em in our hands into a sheaf of
light.
The weather seemed to moderate and we had to put on our thinnest
garments in the middle of the day. But my poor Josiah could not make
much change; he had to wear his pepper-and-salt costoom in publick,
which wuz pretty thick, but I fixed sunthin' for him to wear in our
state-room, where we passed considerable time. I took one of my outing
jackets that was cut kinder bask fashion, trimmed with lace and bows
of ribbon and pinned it over in the back, and it fitted him quite well
and wuz cool. He liked it; he thought it become him, it wuz so
dressy, but I wouldn't let him appear in publick in it.
I dressed Tommy in his summer suit, and wore my figgered lawn and wuz
none too cool. We only had one heavy storm, but that wuz fearful;
everything dashed round and wuz broke that could be. I put Tommy in
his little crib and fastened him in, and fastened my most precious
treasure, Josiah, to the berth. I then tied myself up, and we bore it
as well as we could, though every time the ship went down into the
trough of the sea I felt that it wuz dubersome about its ever comin'
out agin, and every time it mounted up on one of them stupendous
billers, higher than the Jonesville meetin' house, I felt doubtful
whether or no it would fall bottom side up or not. Tommy wuz cryin',
and Josiah wuz kinder whimperin', though for my sake he wuz tryin' to
bear up. But I'll hang a curtain up before that seen and not take it
down agin till we wuz all ontied and the sun wuz shinin' down on
smoother waters.
At last after seven days' stiddy sailin' a little spec wuz seen in the
distance one mornin' gradually growin' in size, and other little
specks wuz sighted, also growin' gradual, and at last they turned to
solid land rising up out of the blue water, clad in strange and
beautiful verdure behind the white foamin' billers of surf. And
instinctively as we looked on't I broke out singin' onbeknown to me,
and Josiah jined in in deep base:
"Sweet fields beyend the swellin' flood
Stand dressed in livin' green."
We sung it to Balermy. Josiah hain't much of a singer, and my voice
hain't what it once wuz, but I d'no as in any conference meetin' that
him ever sounded sweeter to me, or I sung it with more of the sperit.