The shore of Manila looked dretful low and flat as we come up to it
some as old Shelmadine's land lays along the lake shore. So you'd
think that if it rained hard and raised the water a inch it would
overflow it. And the houses looked dretful low and squatty, mebby it
wuz on account of earthquakes they built 'em so. Josiah thought it wuz
so they could shingle 'em standin' on the ground. I inclined to the
earthquakes.
Our boat wuz small enough to go over the surf and up the Pasig River.
The water didn't look very clean, and on it wuz floatin' what looked
like little cabbage heads. Josiah thought they wuz, and sez he real
excited:
"Thank fortin if they have cabbages to throw away here I shall be
likely to git a good biled dinner, and mebby a biled puddin' with
lemon sass."
But they wuzn't cabbages, they wuz some kind of a water plant that
growed right there in the water. As we sailed along some queer lookin'
boats, lookin' some like corn houses standin' on end, bulged out
towards us from the shore. They said they wuz cargo lighters to onload
ships, and mebby they wuz. And one peculiarity I see that I despised.
The natives all seemed to wear their shirts over their pantaloons,
hangin' loose, and some on 'em didn't have on any pantaloons, jest the
shirt, and some not even that, jest a sash or so tied round about
'em.
I despised the sight and sez to Josiah: "They might do as much as Adam
did anyway; they might wear some leaves round 'em, there is plenty of
fig trees here I spoze."
And he sez: "I have been thinkin' that it is a crackin' good idee to
wear the shirt over the pantaloons; it would be cool and look all
right after we got used to it; the bottom of the shirt could be
ruffled or trimmed with tattin or red braid, and they would look as
dressy agin as I've always wore 'em."
I looked daggers at him out of my eyes and sez: "What won't you take
it into your head to do next, Josiah Allen?"
But our attention wuz drawed off by Arvilly, who approached us. She
looked skornfully at the costoom of the natives, and I hearn her say
to herself: "Not much chance to canvass here." But even as she spoke
her eye fell hopefully on the opposite shore, like a good book agent
scanning the earth and heavens for a possible subscriber.
Miss Meechim, who had come on deck with Dorothy and Robert, looked
benignantly at the natives and sez: "The poor ye shall always have
with you," and she put her hand in the little bag that she always wore
at her side and said: "I wonder if I have got a copy of that blessed
tract with me, 'The Naked Sinner Clothed and in His Right Mind.'"
But Robert sez to her: "They wouldn't thank you for clothes, Aunt
Albina; you will have to wait until we reach New York; some of the
naked there would be gladly covered up from the snow and storms."
"Oh, don't compare our own blessed land with this heathen clime."
"But," sez Robert, "the warm breezes here bring only joy and comfort
to that sinner's naked limbs, and the sin of ignorance may be
forgiven. But the shivering sinners, crouching on the cold stone
doorsteps, hearing dimly through their benumbed senses prayers and
thanksgivings to the Most High for mercies they have no part in, why
that is quite a different matter."
Aronette wuz standing a little ways apart, talking with a young man.
He wuz payin' her compliments, I knew, for there wuz a pink flush on
her pretty face, and his eyes had admiration in them. I didn't like
his looks at all; he looked dissipated and kinder mean, and I thought
I would warn her aginst him when I got a good chance. Lucia Wessel,
too, wuz holding her young charge by the hand, but her attention wuz
all drawed off by another young chap that I'd seen with her a number
of times, and I didn't like his looks; he had the same sort of a
dissipated look that the other young man had, but I see by the
expression of Lucia's innocent eyes that she didn't share in my
opinion; she looked as if she wuz fairly wropped up in him. I wondered
what Elder Wessel would have said if he could have seen that look. But
he wuz in blissful ignorance. He thought her bosom wuz composed of a
equal mixture of snow and crystal, through which he could read every
thought and emotion as soon as they wuz engraved on it. He thought
there was no characters written there as yet by any manly hand save
his own writ in characters of fatherly and daughterly love. He wuz
holdin' forth to Arvilly, and she with her nose turned up as fur as
nater would let it go, wuz listenin' because he wouldn't let her git
away. I thought by her expression he wuz praisin' the license laws,
for on no other subject wuz he so eloquent, and on no other did
Arvilly's nose turn up to such a hite.
Dorothy and Tommy wondered what those strange trees were that grew on
the shore in front, and Robert Strong hastened to their side to help
them to such information as he had on the subject. And he had
knowledge on almost every subject under the heavens, so it seemed to
me.
Well, anon or a little after, we found ourselves on shore and I wuz
glad to feel terry firmy under my feet once more. Lots of times on
board ship the terry wuz so fur from the firmy that the solid land
felt good under the soles of our shoes. Yes, indeed! And though for
some time tables and chairs, and even beds and bureaus had a way of
advancin' up towards us and then retreatin' away from us over and
over, yet as I say terry wuz considerable more firmy than the deck had
been.
Well, it wuzn't long before we found ourselves at a comfortable hotel,
not too comfortable, but decently so; and in the fulness of time we
wuz seated at the table partaking of food which, though it didn't
taste like my good Jonesville vittles, still I could eat and be
thankful for. Josiah whispered to me:
"Onions and garlicks and peppers; I never could bear any on 'em, and
here I be filled up with 'em; there hain't a single dish on this table
but what's full of 'em. Oh, Samantha!" sez he pitifully, "if I could
only eat one of your good dinnerses or supperses agin' it seems as if
I would be willin' to die."
And I whispered back to him to be calm. Sez I, "Do be reasonable; it
ain't logic or religion to expect to be to home and travellin' abroad
at the same time."
He see it wuzn't and subsided with a low groan, and begun to nibble
agin' on his food, but his looks wuz mournful, and if I could I would
have put on a apron willin'ly and gone down into the kitchen and
cooked him a good square meal, but I knew it wouldn't be thought on,
so I kep' calm.
Well, our bed wuz kinder queer. It wuz quite noble lookin', four high
posts with lace curtains looped up and mosquito nettin' danglin' down,
and instead of springs a woven cane mattress stretched out lookin'
some like our cane seat chairs. How to git under that canopy and not
let in a swarm of mosquitoes wuz what we didn't know, but we did
finally creep under and lay down. It wuz like layin' on the barn
floor, the cane mattress didn't yield a mite, and Josiah's low groans
mingled with my sithes for quite a spell. Tommy wuz fast asleep in his
little bed and so didn't sense anything. Well, the tegus night passed
away, happily I spoze for the attentive mosquitoes who shared the
canopy with us, and mebby liked to sample foreign acquaintances, but
tegus for us, and we wuz glad when it wuz time to git up.
The first meal of the day wuz brought to our room; chocolate not over
good, some bread and some eggs, almost raw, wuz what it consisted of.
Josiah, who wanted some lamb chops, baked potatoes and coffee, wuz mad
as a hen. "Heavens and earth!" sez he, "why I never sucked eggs when a
boy; have I got to come to it in my old age? Raw eggs and chocklate
you could cut with a knife. A few years of such food will leave you a
widder, Samantha."
"Well," sez I, "do let's make the best of it; when you're in Rome do
as the Romans do."
"I shan't suck eggs, for no Romans or for no Phillippine."
"Eat 'em with your spoon," sez I, "as you'd ort to."
"Or with my knife," sez he. "Did you see them officers last night to
the table eatin' sass with a knife? I should thought they'd cut their
mouths open."
"Well, it is their way here, Josiah. Let's keep up and look forrerd to
goin' home; that's the best fruit of travellin' abroad anyway, unless
it is seein' Tommy so well and hearty."
Josiah looked at his rosy face and didn't complain another word. He
jest worships Thomas Josiah. Well, after we eat this meal we went out
walkin', Josiah and I and Tommy, and I spoze Carabi went along, too,
though we didn't see him. But then what two folks ever did see each
other? Why I never see Josiah, and Josiah never see me, not the real
us.
Well, it wuz a strange, strange seen that wuz spread out before us;
the place looked more'n half asleep, and as if it had been nappin' for
some time; the low odd lookin' houses looked too as if they wuz in a
sort of a dream or stupor. The American flag waved out here and there
with a kind of a lazy bewildered floppin', as if it wuz wonderin' how
under the sun it come to be there ten thousand milds from Washington,
D. C., and it wuz wonderin' what on earth it floated out there in the
first place for. But come to look at it clost you could see a kind of
a determined and sot look in the Stars and Stripes that seemed to say,
"Well, now I am here I hain't goin' to be driv out by no yeller
grounded flags whatsumever."
Some of the carriages that we met wuz queer lookin', rough wooden
two-wheeled carts, that looked as if they'd been made by hand that
mornin'. Josiah said that he could go out into the woods with Ury and
cut down a tree and make a better lookin' wagon in half an hour, but I
don't spoze he could. Some on 'em wuz drawed by a buffalo, which
filled Josiah with new idees about drivin' one of our cows in the
democrat.
Sez he: "Samantha, it would be real uneek to take you to meetin' with
old Line back or Brindle, and if the minister got dry in meetin', and
you know ministers do git awful dry sometimes, I could just go out and
milk a tumbler full and pass it round to him."
But I drawed his attention off; I couldn't brook the idee of ridin'
after a cow and havin' it bellerin' round the meetin' house. The
native wimmen we met wuz some on 'em dressed American style, and some
on 'em dressed in their own picturesque native costoom. It wuz
sometimes quite pretty, and one not calculated to pinch the waist in.
A thin waist, with immense flowing sleeves and embroidered chemise
showing through the waist, a large handkerchief folded about the neck
with ends crossed, a gay skirt with a train and a square of black
cloth drawn tight around the body from waist to knees. Stockings are
not worn very much, and the slippers are not much more than soles with
little strips of leather going over the foot, and no heels. Anon we
would meet some Chinamen, with eyes set in on a bias, and their hair
hanging in two long tails down their backs; lots of them we see, then
a priest would move slowly along, then a Spanish señora, then a
sailor, then perhaps a native dressed partly in European costoom
lookin' like a fright. The street cars are little things drawed by one
horse, and the streets are badly paved when they're paved at all.
There wuz some handsome houses in the residence portion of the city,
but aside from the Cathedral there are few public buildings worth
seeing. But one thing they have here always beautiful, and that is the
luxuriant tropical vegetation, beautiful blossoming trees and shrubs,
and the multitude of flowers, tall palms, bamboo, ebony, log-wood,
mangoes, oranges, lemons, bread fruit, custard apples, and forty or
fifty varieties of bananas, from little ones, not much more than a
mouthful, to them eighteen or twenty inches long. Josiah enjoyed his
walk, finding many things to emulate when he got back to Jonesville.
Among 'em wuz the Chinamen's hair; he thought it wuz a dressy way to
comb a man's hair, and he wondered dreamily how his would look if he
let it grow out and braid it. But he said if he did, he should wear
red ribbons on it, or baby blue. But I knew there wuz no danger of his
hair ever stringin' down his back, for I could, if danger pressed too
near, cut it off durin' his sleep, and would, too, even if it led to
words.
Wall, Arvilly's first work, after she had canvassed the hotel-keeper
for the "Twin Crimes," and as many of the guests as she could, wuz to
find out if Waitstill wuz there. And sure enough she found her. She
wuz in one of the hospitals and doin' a good work, jest as she would
anywhere she wuz put. She come to the hotel to see us as soon as she
could, and Arvilly seemed to renew her age, having Waitstill with her
agin. We writ to once to Cousin John Richard.
Robert Strong and Dorothy wuz dretful interested in Waitstill, I could
see, and they asked a great many questions about her work in the
hospital. And I see that Robert wuz only grounded in his convictions
when Waitstill told him of the sickness the doctors and nurses had to
contend with, and how largely it wuz caused by liquor drinking.
Hundreds of American saloons in Manila, so she said, and sez she, "How
can the hospitals hope to undo the evils that these do to men's souls
and bodies?" Sez she, "You know what a fearful disease and crime
breeder it is in a temperate climate, but it is tenfold worse here in
this tropical land."
She wuz anxious to hear all the news from Jonesville, and I willin'ly
told her what Phila Ann had told me about Elder White, and the noble
work he was doin' in East Loontown, and I sez, "Missionary work is
jest as necessary and jest as important and pleasin' to God if done in
Loontown as in the Antipithies."
And she said she knew it. And I sez: "Elder White is working himself
to death, and don't have the comforts of life, to say nothin' of the
happiness he ort to."
Waitstill didn't say nothin', but I fancied a faint pink flush stole
up into her white cheeks, some like the color that flashes up onto a
snowbank at sunset. Life wuz all snow and sunset to her, I could see,
but I knowed that she wuz the one woman in the world for Ernest White,
the ideal woman his soul had always worshipped, and found realized in
Waitstill--poor little creeter!
I didn't know whether the warm sun of his love could melt the snow and
frozen hail or not--the sun duz melt such things--and I knew love wuz
the greatest thing in the world. Well, I had to leave the event to
Providence, and wuz willin' to; but yet, after a woman duz leave
things to the Most High to do, she loves to put in her oar and help
things along; mebby that is the way of Providence--who knows? But
'tennyrate I gin another blind hint to her before we left the
conversation.
Sez I, "Ernest White is doin' the Lord's work if ever a man did, and I
can't think it is the Lord's will that whilst he's doin' it he ort to
eat such bread as he has to--milk emtin's and sour at that, to say
nothin' of fried stuff that a anaconda couldn't digest. He deserves a
sweet, love-guarded home, and to be tended to by a woman that he
loves--one who could inspire him and help him on in the heavenly way
he's treading alone and lonesome." Her cheeks did turn pink then, and
her eyes looked like deep blue pools in which stars wuz shinin', but
she didn't say anything, and Robert Strong resoomed his talk with her
about her hospital work. And before she left he gin her a big check to
use for her patients; I don't know exactly how big it wuz, but it went
up into the hundreds, anyway; and Dorothy gin her one, too, for I see
her write it; Miss Meechim gin her her blessin' and more'n a dozen
tracts, which mebby will set well on the patients, if administered
cautious. I myself gin her the receipt for the best mustard poultice
that ever drawed, and two pairs of clouded blue-and-white wool socks I
had knit on the way, and though it wuz a warm country she said they
would come handy when her patients had chills.
There wuz two young American girls at the hotel, and they happened to
come into the parlor while we wuz talkin' and they sent a big
present to the hospital. I guess they wuz real well off and good
dispositioned. They wuz travellin' alone and seemed to be havin' a
real good time. One on 'em wuz sunthin' of a invalid, but wuz
outdoors all day, I spoze tryin' to git well. They minded their
own bizness and didn't do any hurt so fur as I could see, but
Elder Wessel couldn't bear 'em. Sez he to me one day:
"I spoze they represent the new young woman?"
He said it real skornful, and Arvilly, who wuz present, took him up
real snappish. "Well, what of it? What have they done?" If that poor
man had said that black wuz black and white wuz white, Arvilly would
found fault with it.
"I don't object to what they have done," sez he, "so much as to what
they are. Young American women know too much." And Arvilly sez with a
meanin' glance at him, "That is sunthin' that everybody don't have to
stand."
She might just as well have called him a fool, her axent wuz such.
Arvilly is too hash. Sez he: "Now my Lucia is different. She knows
nothing about sin and wickedness, and I got this position for her, so
that as soon as she left the convent she was placed directly in the
care of this good woman and her little innocent child. What does she
know of sin or sorrow, or worldliness or vanity?"
"Or danger?" sez I meanin'ly. "If she always has some one at her side
to guard her, her perfect ignorance and innocence is a charm, but how
would it be in the hour of danger and temptation? Why should anybody
fear being burned if they had no knowledge of fire?"
"Oh," sez he, "her divine innocence is her safeguard. Evil would
retire abashed before the timid glance of her pure eyes."
"I hope so," sez I dryly. "I hope so. But I never knew the whiteness
of its wool to help a lamb if a wolfdog got after it. But mebby it
will in her case," sez I reasonably. "I don't want to break up your
happiness," sez I.
"You cannot," sez he dogmatically. "You cannot. I have brought up my
Lucia in the only right way for a young girl to be brought up. She has
been completely separated from young people of the opposite sex; she
knows nothing of fashionable flirting and folly. And when I see such
abnormal creatures as the New Girl, as they call her, I am horrified,
shocked beyond words at the spectacle of their brazen independence and
what they call their freedom, their comradeship with the opposite sex,
their fearlessness and boldness and frankness with gentlemen, talking
with them really as if they were of the same sex as themselves. As I
see this I thank God my Lucia is different."
Well, she wuz a pretty little thing, with eyes as innocent and timid
as a young fawn's that had never been outside its green covert in the
great wilderness. But I knew that under her baby looks and baby ways
wuz a woman's heart; a woman's emotions and impulses would roust up
when the time come and the sun of love shone down on her. Why, Nater
had layed down laws before Elder Wessel did; he couldn't keep her
from thinkin' about her future mate; she would let her mind dwell on
some one if it wuz only the man in the moon. And I knew the world wuz
full of bad men as well as good men. How would it be with her if
thrown with a wolf in sheep's clothing? If guarded and sheltered, all
right, but if onguarded and onwarned and thrown into temptation and
danger, I felt that trouble wuz ahead for Lucia Wessel. But I knew it
wuz no use for me to hist up a danger flag in front of her, for her
father wouldn't let me. But I felt dubersome about her, dretful
dubersome. She and Aronette had formed a real girl attachment for each
other, and some way I didn't like the idee on't, but don't know as I
could have told why.
Well, we didn't lay out to stay long in Manila, but we did stay long
enough so Dorothy and Miss Meechim and Robert Strong went round and
see the different islands. They went to Illollo and wuz gone for three
days, Aronette stayin' with me at the tarven, and Dorothy told me when
she got back how beautiful the journey wuz. The water wuz like glass,
the sunrise and sunset marvellous, thickly wooded shores on either
side filled with oncounted wealth. Great forests of sandal-wood,
enough to build houses of, and how we treasure little snips on't in
fan sticks. Mahogany trees enough to build barns and cow stables on,
and how we gloat over a old clock case or lamp stand made on't. She
said that Illollo wuz like most old Spanish towns, dretful old lookin'
and kinder run down. The natives dressed like others she had seen, but
spoke a different language. They went to the American general's
headquarters some two milds off. A hundred varieties of palm trees
grow along the road and every sort of tropical tree. The natives wuz
all dark complected, but some good lookin', most all bareheaded or
else with a gay turban and knives stuck in the sashes of their gay
tunics.
One day whilst the party wuz gone Tommy and I wuz takin' a little
walk; Josiah couldn't go, he had got hold of a New York paper of
three weeks before, and was readin' it through from title page to Lost
and Found column. We wandered into a little cross street lined on each
side with little shops with the shopkeepers squattin' in the door, and
outside the native wives and children. Everything under the sun almost
wuz to be found in these shops, and we had wandered along for quite a
good ways lookin' at the curious things, and still more curious
people, when we met Aronette and Lucia, accompanied by the two young
men I had seen with 'em on the boat; they wuz on the stoop of one of
the old business buildin's, gigglin' and laughin' like a bevy of
swallers round the eaves of a Jonesville barn.
But, as I said before, I didn't like the looks of the young men, and
on Aronette's return I told her so, feelin' I wuz in a measure
responsible for her safety whilst her mistress wuz away. Aronette wuz
combin' Tommy's hair and curlin' it over her finger as I talked to
her, which made me feel some mean to attact her whilst in my service,
but Duty's apron string fluttered down before me and I stiddied myself
on it as I spoke real good warnin' words to her.
Sez I, "My dear, I didn't like the looks of the young men I saw you
walkin' with to-night." Sez I, "I saw them two young men coming out of
a saloon not a half hour before, and" sez I, "they look to me
dissipated and mean. They drink; I know by their looks they do."
And she sez, "Oh, dear madam, I only went out to take the air a little
while. You know I care for nobody in this country. My heart is in old
Normandie," sez she, the tears welling up to the blue well of her
eyes. "My heart is with my Pierre, but," sez she, kinder tossin' her
head, not a high toss, only a little vain pretty motion of a pretty,
thoughtless girl, some like a bluebird in the spring of the year, "if
a young man insists on paying you a little attention what can a poor
little girl do? The days are long when one is young and her own Pierre
so far away, and, dear madam, Lucia was with me."
"Another innocent, ignorant young creature," sez I; "two little
butterflies fluttering about instead of one, not thinkin' or carin'
for the fouler's net," sez I, smilin' on her pleasant, for I couldn't
help it. For I knew the heart of youth, and the monotony of life, and
the need of young hearts for each other. But I didn't like the young
men's looks and told her so agin, and she laughed, and said she didn't
like their looks either. Sez she, "Their breath always smells of the
whiskey. Faugh!" sez she, "it makes me sick," and she shrugged her
shoulders in the true French way.
And I sez agin, lookin' solemn, "No young man whose breath smells of
whiskey is safe for any young girl to associate with. It is a pizen
atmosphere that blasts every sweet and pure thing that comes nigh it."
And I sithed.
And she said in her own sweet way that she knew I was telling the
truth, for I talked just as her own sweet mother did. And she bent
down with one of her pretty foreign ways and kissed my hand. Dear
little thing, I didn't spoze my talk had done her much good, but then
I considered it couldn't do her any hurt 'tennyrate. And so I left the
event to the overruling Power, just as we poor weak mortals have to.