The engagement my pardner had spoke on wuz to meet a Chinaman that wuz
comin' to see Robert Strong that evenin'. Robert had met him in
California, and Josiah seemed dretful anxious to git home so as to
dress up for his reception. And I sez, "There is time enough; I
shouldn't think it would take you more than two hours to wash your
hands and change your neck-tie."
"Well," sez he, in a evasive way, "I--I don't want to be scrimped for
time."
So, as Tommy and I wanted to stop along on the way, he left us and
went home. Robert had told us a good deal about this man, Mr.
Hi-wal-hum; about his wealth and high official standing, and Josiah
had been talkin' more or less about him all day; he looked forrered to
it. He had said to me: "Samantha, this man is a Potentate, and it
stands us in hand to be polite always to Potentates."
Well, I couldn't dispute him nor didn't want to. When we arriv home I
thought I would have jest about time to go to my room and wash my face
and hands and put on a clean collar and cuffs and change Tommy's
clothes. Tommy went on a little ahead of me, and I see him bend down
and stretch his little neck forrered and look through the door as if
he wuz agast at some sight. And as I come up he put his little fingers
on his lips, as I spoze he'd seen me do, and whispered: "Keep still,
Grandma; I don't know what Grandpa is doin'."
I looked over his shoulder and thought to myself I should think as
much, I should think he wouldn't know. There stood Josiah Allen before
the glass and of all the sights I ever see his dress went ahead. He
had got on a red woolen underskirt and his dressin' gown over it
kinder floated back from it, and he had took out of my trunk a switch
of hair that Tirzah Ann had put in, thinkin' mebby I would want to
dress my head different in foreign countries; I hadn't wore it at all,
and it wuz clear in the bottom of my trunk, but he had got at it
somehow and had fastened it onto his head, and it hung down his back
and ended with a big broad, red ribbin bow; it was one of Tommy's
neck-ties. And he'd got all my jewelry--every mite on't--and had
fastened it onto him on different places, and all of Tommy's ribbins
to tie his collar with, wuz made into bows and pinned onto him, and my
C. E. badge and W. C. T. U. bow of white ribbin, and he had got my big
palm leaf fan and had tied a big, red bow on't, and he wuz standin'
before the glass fannin' himself and cranin' his neck one way and
tother to see how he looked and admire himself, I spoze. And anon he
tried to put the fan over his right ear. The idee! a palm leaf fan
that wouldn't shet. And he spoke out to himself:
"No, I can't do that, but I can be fannin' myself, all the time
fannin' and bowin'." And then he stepped forrerd towards the glass and
made a bow so low that his switch flopped over and ketched on the
rocker of a chair and he couldn't move either way without jerkin' his
braid off.
"Goodness gracious!" I hearn him say, "I never yet tried to be genteel
without its being broke up some way," and he gin a jerk and left his
switch on the floor. He took it up tenderly and smoothed it out and
wuz tryin' to attach it to his head agin. It wuz fastened on by a red
ribbin comin' up over his head and tied on top. But at that minute he
ketched sight of me and he looked some meachin', but he begun
immegiately pourin' our profuse reasons for his costoom and manners.
Sez he, "You know, Robert wants us to meet that high official, and I
felt that it would help our relations with China if I should dress up
China fashion."
Sez I, "It will help one of your relations if you'll take off that
red petticoat of hern, and ribbins and cameos and badges and things."
Sez he, "I am doin' this for political reasons, Samantha, and can't be
hampered by domestic reasons and ignorance." And he kep' on tyin' the
bow on his foretop.
Sez I, "For the sake of your children and grandchildren won't you
desist and not put 'em to shame and make a laughin' stock of yourself
before Miss Meechim and Arvilly and all the rest?"
"I shall do my duty, Samantha," sez he, and he pulled out the ribbin
of the bow, so that it sot out some like a turban over his forward.
"Of course I look very dressy and pretty in this costoom, but that is
not my reason for wearin' it; you and Arvilly are always talking about
political men who don't come up to the mark and do their duty by their
constituents. I am a very influential man, Samantha, and there is no
tellin' how much good I shall do my country this day, and the sneers
of the multitude shall not deter me."
Sez I, almost fearfully, "Think of the meetin' house, Josiah, where
you're a deacon and looked up to; what will they say to hear of this,
passin' yourself off for a Chinaman; dressin' up in petticoats and red
ribbins!"
Sez he, cranin' his neck round to see the bow hangin' down his back,
"Our old forefathers went through worse trials than this when they eat
their cartridge boxes and friz themselves at Valley Forge," and he
fingered some of them bows and ornaments on his breast agin with a
vain, conceited smirk of satisfaction. I wuz at my wits' end; I
glanced at the door; there wuz no lock on it; what should I do?
Religion and common sense wouldn't move him, and as for my sharpest
weepon--good vittles--here I wuz hampered, I couldn't cook 'em for
him, what could I do?
Sez he agin, "I only do this for patriotism; I sacrifice myself on the
altar of my country," and he fanned himself gracefully, lookin'
sarahuptishly into the glass.
"Well," sez I, growin' calm as I thought of a forlorn hope, "mebby it
is best, Josiah, and I hain't a-goin' to be outdone by you in
patriotism. I too will sacrifice myself." And I proceeded to comb my
hair with a firm look on my face. He looked alarmed.
"What do you mean, Samantha?" sez he.
"I won't let you go ahead of me in sacrificing yourself, Josiah. No, I
will go fur ahead of what you or anybody else would do; it will most
probable kill me, but I shall not falter."
"What is it, Samantha?" sez he, droppin' the fan and approachin' me
with agitated mean. "What are you goin' to do? If it is to throw
yourself in front of any idol and perish, I will save you if I shed
the last drop of blood in my system!"
"Yes," sez I, "you could do great bizness in savin' me, togged out as
you are, made helpless by your own folly; but," sez I, in a holler,
awful axent, "it hain't that, Josiah; it is fur worse than losin' my
life; that wouldn't be nothin' in comparison."
He looked white as a piller case. Sez he: "Tell me to once what you
lay out to do."
"Well," sez I, "if you must know, I spoze that it might help our
relations with China if I should part with you and wed a China
potentate. It would kill me and be bad for the potentate, but if your
country's welfare is at stake, if it would help our relations I----"
"Let the relations go to Jericho, Samantha! every one on 'em, and the
Potentates! every one on 'em!" and he kicked off them robes quicker
than I can tell the tale.
Sez I, "Josiah, you needn't tear every rag you've got on; take 'em off
quietly." He'd put 'em on over his own clothes. He obeyed me
implicitly, and sez he anxiously, as he laid 'em all on the bed:
"You've gin up the idee, hain't you, Samantha?"
Sez I, "I have for the present, Josiah, I wuz only doin' it to
emulate your sacrifice; if you don't sacrifice yourself any further, I
shan't."
He hadn't been so good to me for sometime as he wuz for the rest of
that day. I only done it to stop his display, and my conscience hain't
been quite at rest ever sence about it, but then a woman has to work
headwork to keep her pardner within bounds. I wuzn't goin' to have him
make a fool of himself before Arvilly and Miss Meechim. Arvilly would
never let him hearn the end on't nor me nuther.
Well, we met the potentate in our own clothes and he met us in his own
clothes, jest as he and we had a right to. He wuz a real sensible man,
so Robert Strong said, and he understood a good deal of his talk and
ort to know.
Well, from Shanghai we sailed for Hongkong and then embarked for Point
de Galle on the island of Ceylon, expectin' to stop on the way at
Saigon in Cochin-China and Singapore.
It wuz dretful windy and onpleasant at first. It is much pleasanter to
read about a monsoon in Jonesville with your feet on a base burner
than to experience one on a steamer. Everything swayed and tipped and
swung, that could, even to our stomachs. We only made a short stop at
Saigon--a hotter place I wuz never in. I thought of the oven in our
kitchen range and felt that if Philury wuz bakin' bread and meat and
beans and got into the oven to turn 'em, she knew a little about the
climate we wuz enjoying.
As we ascended the river our ship got a little too near the shore and
kinder run its prow into a jungle where the monkeys hung from the
tree-tops and made fun of us, I spoze, mad at our invadin' their
domain and wanted us to pay, 'tennyrate the muskeeters sent in their
bills, sharp ones. Saigon is a pretty place set in its tropical
scenery; it has eighty or ninety thousand inhabitants and belongs to
France. The natives are small and slower than time in the primer.
Singapore is an island in the straits of Malacca and is twenty-four
milds long and fourteen wide; it is a British province ruled by
native princes under the Queen. Here the days and nights are of equal
length and it rains about every day; it has a mixed population,
Chinamen, Malays, Europeans and a few Americans, mebby a hundred
thousand in all.
We didn't stay long here, but rode out in what they called a Jherry
lookin' like a dry goods box drawed by a couple of ponies.
Josiah sez to me, "I am glad that the Malay coolers wear a little more
than the Japans." And the coolies here did wear besides their red loin
cloth a narrer strip of white cotton cloth hangin' over their left
shoulders. Our hotel wuz a very comfortable one; it consisted of
several buildin's two stories high connected by covered halls; it wuz
surrounded by handsome trees and beautiful ornamental shrubbery and
flowers.
The wide verandas wuz very pleasant, with their bamboo chairs and
couches and little tables where you could have tea served. Birds of
the most beautiful plumage soared and sung in the trees, and
butterflies that looked like flowers on wings fluttered about. You
can't tell men from wimmen by their clothes. They all wear earrings
and bracelets and nose-rings. Josiah sez to me:
"I have always said, Samantha, that men didn't dress gay enough; a few
bracelets and breastpins and earrings would add to a man's looks
dretfully, and I mean to set the fashion in Jonesville. It would take
ten years offen my age. Jest see how proud the men walk; they feel
that they're dressed up; it gives 'em a lofty look."
The men did seem to have a different gait from the females; the wimmen
looked more meek and meachin. We didn't stay long in Saigon, but we
visited the Whampoo garders and found that they were perfectly
beautiful, made by Mr. Whampoo, a rich Chinaman. There wuz fifty acres
under most perfect cultivation. Here the Chinese fad of dwarfing and
training trees wuz carried to perfection; there wuz trees trained
into all sorts of shapes. One wuz a covered carriage about three feet
high, with a horse, all tree, but natural as life; and then there wuz
pagodas and men and wimmen and animals and birds all growin' and
havin' to be trimmed by the patient Chinese gardener. The tree they
can use best is a evergreen with a little leaf and a white flower not
much bigger than the head of a pin. But there wuz not only every
tropical tree you could think on, palm, cocoanut, nutmeg, cinnamon,
tea, coffee, and clove bush, but trees and plants from every part of
the world, some from America.
Here wuz a Victoria lily in its full beauty, the dark green leaves
edged with brown and red, as big round as our washtub, and turned up
on the edges about two inches. Each plant has one leaf and one flower.
And we see the most lovely orchids here; Dorothy thought them the most
beautiful of all. Well, in a day or two we sot out for Ceylon's isle.
As we drew nigh to Ceylon I sez to Josiah: "Did you ever expect,
Josiah Allen, to feel
"'The balmy breezes
That blow from Ceylon's Isle
Where every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile?'"
And he sez, holdin' on his hat, "I shouldn't call these breezes very
bammy, and you no need to lay such a powerful stress on _man_,
Samantha, that term, man, means wimmen too in this case."
"Yes," sez Arvilly, who wuz standin' nigh, "that term, man, always
includes wimmen when there is any blame or penalty attached, but when
it sez 'Man is born free and equal,' it means men alone."
"Yes," sez Josiah, smilin' real pleasant, "you've happened to hit it
jest right, Arvilly."
"Well," sez I, "do look and enjoy the beauty that is spread out right
before you." Our good ship made its way into the harbor of Colombo,
through a multitude of boats with men of every color and size at their
oars and all gesticulating and jabbering in axents as strange to us as
Jupiter talk would be. Some of the boats wuz queer lookin'; they are
called dugouts, and have outriggers for the crew to set on. They carry
fruit and provision to the steamers in the bay, and take passengers to
and fro.
Bein' took by one to terry firmy, we soon made our way through the
chatterin' strange lookin' crowd of every color and costoom to a
tarven where we obtained food and needed rest, and the next mornin' we
sallied out some as we would if we had jest landed on the shores of
another planet to explore a new world.
We walked through the streets by big gardens that seemed jest ablaze
with color and swoonin' with perfume. The low white houses wuz banked
up with drifts of blossom and verdure as the Jonesville houses wuz
with snow drifts on a winter day. Sweet voiced birds in gayest plumage
swung and soared aloft instead of the ice-suckles that hung from the
eaves of Jonesville houses. And instead of Ury clad in a buffalo coat
and striped wool mittens walking with icy whiskers and frost-bitten
ears to break the ice in the creek, wuz the gay crowd of men, wimmen
and children dressed in all the rich colors of the rainbow, if they
wuz dressed at all. Solid purple, yellow, green, burnin' colors
palpitating with light and cheer under the warm breezes and glowin'
sunshine.
Sometimes the children wuz in jest the state that Adam and Eve wuz
when they wuz finished off and pronounced good. Sometimes a string and
a red rag comprised their toilette, but they all seemed a part of the
strange picture, the queer, mysterious, onknown Orient. The gorgeous
colorin' of the men's apparel struck Josiah to the heart agin; he
vowed that he would show Jonesville the way for men to dress if he
ever got home agin. Sez he, "I will show Deacon Henzy and Uncle Sime
Bentley that a man can wear sunthin' besides that everlastin' black or
gray." Sez he:
"I can dress gay with small expense; I can take one of your white
woolen sheets and color it with diamond dye a bright red or a green or
yeller at a outlay of ten cents per sheet, and one of my bandannas
will make a crackin' good turban. Let me walk into the Jonesville
meetin' house with that gorgeous drapery wropped round me, why I
should be the lion of the day."
"Yes," sez I, "you would break up the congregation as quick as a real
lion would."
"Well, I'll tell you, Samantha, there is beauty in such a costoom that
our sombry coats and pantaloons and vests can't come nigh to."
I spoze Ceylon is the most beautiful place in the world, such glow and
richness of color, such aboundin' life in the verdure, in the animal
and vegetable kingdom. No wonder so many think it wuz the original
Garden of Eden; no shovelin' snow for Adam or bankin' up fruits and
vegetables for winter's use. No, he could step out barefoot in the
warm velvety grass in December, and pick oranges and gather sweet
potatoes and cucumbers, and strawberries if Eve took it into her head
she wanted a shortcake pie. And little Cain could cut up cane
literally, and every way, in January, and Abel pile flowers and fruit
on his altar all the year round. But I wonder which of their
descendants built these immense magnificent cities layin' fur below
forests and billows of turf and flowers.
I wonder how they looked and what language they spoke and what their
politics wuz. Arvilly thought they must have been temperance folks.
Sez she, "Any city that has reservoirs twenty milds long believed in
drinkin' water." We had took a tower to see one of them dug up cities,
and sure enough the water reservoir wuz twenty milds long; jest think
from that what the size of the hull city must have been, when their
waterin' trough, as you may say, wuz as long as America's biggest
city. Stately stairways, up which twenty carriages big as our democrat
could pass side by side if horses could climb stairs.
A row of tall pillers, ten milds in length, line the roads to some of
them cities, and I sez:
"Oh, good land! How I wish I could be a mouse in the wall and see who
and what passed over them roads, and why, and when, and where."
And Josiah sez, "Why don't you say you wish you wuz a elephant and
could look on? your simely would seem sounder."
And I sez, "Mebby so, for hull rows of carved marble elephants stand
along them broad roads; I guess they worshipped 'em."
And he sez, "I wuz alludin' to size."
Robert Strong looked ruther sad as we looked on them ruins buried so
deep by the shovel of time. But I sez to him in a low voice:
"There is no danger of the city you're a-rarin' up ever bein' engulfed
and lost, for justice and mercy and love shine jest as bright to-day
as when the earth was called out of chaos. Love is eternal, immortal,
and though worlds reel and skies fall, what is immortal cannot
perish."
He looked real grateful at me; he sets store by me.
Everywhere, as you walk through the streets, you are importuned to buy
sunthin'; some of the finest jewels in the world are bought here. The
merchants are dretful polite, bowin' and smilin', their hair combed
back slick and fastened up with shell combs. They wear white, short
pantaloons and long frocks of colored silk, open in front over a red
waistcoat; sometimes they are bare-footed with rings on their toes;
they wear rings in their nose and sometimes two on each ear, at the
top and bottom.
Josiah studied their costoom with happy interest, but a deep shade of
anxiety darkened his mean as they would spread out their wares before
me, and he sez with a axent of tender interest:
"If you knew, Samantha, how much more beautiful you looked to me in
your cameo pin you would never think of appearin' in diamonds and
rubies."
I sez, "I guess I won't buy any nose-rings, Josiah, my nose is pretty
big anyway."
"Yes," he interrupted me eagerly, "they wouldn't be becomin',
Samantha, and be in the way eatin' sweet corn on the ear and such."
There are lots of men carryin' round serpents, and I sez to Josiah,
"Who under the sun would want to buy a snake unless they wuz crazy?"
"Yes," said Josiah, "Eve made a big mistake listenin' to that serpent;
there probable wuzn't but one then, and that's the way they have jest
overrun the garden, her payin' attention and listenin' to it. Females
can't seem to look ahead."
And I sez, "Why didn't Adam do as you always do, Josiah, ketch up a
stick and put an end to it?" I always holler to Josiah if I see a
snake and he makes way with it.
But such talk is onprofitable. But Josiah hadn't a doubt but this was
the Garden of Eden and talked fluent about it.
One odd thing here in Ceylon is that foxes have wings and can fly.
Josiah wanted to get one the worse way; he said that he would
willin'ly carry it home in his arms for the sake of havin' it fly
round over Jonesville, and sez he, "They are so smart, Samantha, they
will git drunk jest as naterally as men do, they would feel to home in
America." And they say they do steal palm wine out of bowls set to
ketch it by the natives and are found under the trees too drunk to git
home, not havin' wives or children willin' to lead 'em home, I spoze,
or accomidatin' policemen.
But I sez, "Don't you try to git the animals in America to drinkin',
Josiah Allen." Sez I, "I should be mortified to death to see the old
mair or Snip staggerin' round as men do, lookin' maudlin and silly; I
should despise the idee of lowerin' the animals down to that state."
"Well, well, I don't spoze I can git one of these foxes anyway, though
I might," sez he dreamily, "git one real drunk and carry it." But I
guess he'll gin it up.
The jungles all round us wuz, I spoze, filled with wild animals.
Elephants, tigers and serpents, big and little, besides monkeys and
more harmless ones. The snake charmers did dretful strange things with
'em, but I didn't look on. I always said that if snakes would let me
alone, I would let them alone. But they brought all sorts of things to
sell: embroideries of all kinds, carved ivory, tortoise shell and all
kinds of jewels. Paris and London gits some of their finest jewels
here.
Men and wimmen are all bejewelled from head to foot, children up to
ten years of age are almost always naked, but wearin' bracelets,
anklets and silver belts round their little brown bodies, sometimes
with bells attached. Some of the poorer natives chew beetle nuts which
make their teeth look some like an old tobacco chewer's. They eat in
common out of a large bowl and I spoze they don't use napkins or
finger bowls. But unlike the poor in our frozen winter cities, as
Arvilly said, there is little danger of their starving; warm they will
be from year's end to year's end, and the bread tree and cocoanut palm
supply food, and the traveller's palm supplies a cool, delicious
drink. There is one palm tree here--the talipot--that blooms when
about forty years old with a loud noise and immegiately dies. Arvilly
said that they made her think of some political candidates.
Dorothy and Robert Strong and Miss Meechim wanted to go to Kandy, the
capital of Ceylon, only seventy milds away, to see the tooth of
Boodha. Miss Meechim said she wanted to weep over it. She is kinder
romantic in spots, and Josiah hearn her and said, soty vosey, to me,
"You won't ketch me weepin' over any tooth unless it is achin' like
the Old Harry."
But I kinder wanted to see the tooth. I had hearn Thomas J. read a
good deal about Prince Siddartha, Lord Buddha, and how he wuz "right
gentle, though so wise, princely of mean, yet softly mannered, modest,
deferent and tender hearted, though of fearless blood," and how he
renounced throne and wealth and love for his people, to "seek
deliverance and the unknown light."
I had always pictured him as looking more beautiful than any other
mortal man, but of this more anon.
Josiah and Arvilly concluded to go too; it wuz only a four hours'
ride. We passed coffee plantations, immense gardens and forests full
of ebony trees, the strange banion tree that seems to walk off all
round itself and plant its great feet solidly in the earth, and then
step off agin, makin' a hull forest of itself, and satin wood trees,
and India rubber, bamboo, balsam, bread fruit, pepper and cinchony or
quinine bushes, tea and rice plantations. Our road led up the mountain
side and anon the city of Kandy could be seen sot down in a sort of a
valley on the mountain. We had our dinner at the Queen's Hotel, and
from there sallied out to see the sights. Not fur from the hotel wuz a
artificial lake three milds round, built by some king. His very name
is forgotten, whilst the water of this little lake he dug out splashes
up on the shore jest as fresh as ever. All round the lake is a
beautiful driveway, where all sorts of vehicles wuz seen. Big
barouches full of English people, down to a little two-wheeled cart
drawed by one ox. Crowds of people, jewels, bright color, anon a poor
woman carrying her baby astride her hip, men, wimmen, children, a
brilliant, movin' panorama.
The tooth of Buddha is kep' in a temple called Maligawa, or Temple of
the Tooth, and I laid out to have a considerable number of emotions as
I stood before it. But imagine a tooth bigger than a hull tooth brush!
What kind of a mouth must Lord Buddha have had if that wuz a sample of
his teeth? Why, his mouth, at the least calculation, must have been as
big as a ten-quart pan! Where wuz the beauty and charm of that
countenance--that mouth that had spoke such wise words?
I don't believe it wuz his tooth. I hain't no idee it wuz. No human
bein' ever had a mouth big enough to hold thirty odd monsters like
that, let alone this noble prince, "with godlike face and eyes
enwrapped, lost in care for them he knew not, save as fellow lives."
There is a mistake somewhere. There wuz lots of natives round
worshippin' it. But I felt that if Prince Siddartha could speak out of
Nirvana he would say:
"Don't worship that tooth, Josiah Allen's wife; it hain't mine
nor never wuz; but worship the principles of love and compassion
and self-sacrifice I tried to teach to my people." And almost
instinctively I sez, "I will, Prince Siddartha, I will."
And Josiah sez: "What say, Samantha?" And I sez:
"Let's go out, Josiah, and see the sacred tree, Bo, that they
worship."
"I'll go," sez Josiah, "but you won't git me to worship no tree, I can
tell you that. I've cleared off too many acres and chopped and sawed
too much cord wood to worship a tree."
"Did I ask you to, Josiah?" sez I. "It would break my heart to see you
bend your knee to any idol. But this is the oldest tree in the world;
it is over two thousand years old."
"Wall, it ort to be cut down, Samantha, if it is that age; it is
seasoned and would make crackin' good lumber."
Oh, how oncongenial Josiah Allen is by spells; he seemed to be quite a
distance off from me as he made them remarks. But Robert Strong and
Dorothy shared my feelin's of reverence for a tree whose mighty
branches might have shaded the head of our Lord and whose leaves might
have rustled with the wind that swept the brow of Napoleon and Cæsar
and Pharo for all I knew. There wuz some natives burnin' camphor
flowers before it and some on 'em had hung up little lamps in its
branches. They say that one hundred thousand pilgrims visit it each
year. Well, we driv round some, seein' all the strange, picturesque
sights; past tea plantations and a tea factory, the botanical gardens
where we driv milds through its beautiful tree shaded avenoos; there
are twenty-five thousand kinds of plants here in this garden; some say
it is the finest collection in the world. And we driv past some of the
native dwellings, and some beautiful villas where Europeans live
durin' the warm season, past the library, a beautiful building
standing on pillars on the shores of the lake, and by the Governor's
palace, handsome enough for any king and queen, and we got back to
Colombo middlin' late and tired out. But as tired as Josiah wuz he
talked considerable to me about "Bud," as familiar as if he wuz well
acquainted with him, but I sez, "You mean B-u-d-d-h, Josiah." But I
thought to myself as the Chinese have five thousand different names
for him one more wouldn't neither make nor break him.
Well, the next day we embarked for Calcutta. Our steamer stopped two
milds off from Madras. The wind was so high we couldn't get any
nearer. None of our party went ashore but Robert Strong. He wuz tied
into an arm-chair and swung off by ropes down into a little boat that
wuz dashin' up and down fur below.
I wouldn't done it fur a dollar bill. The surf boats are deep, made of
bark and bamboo, shaped some like our Indian canoes. But no matter how
much the winds blew or the boats rocked, lots of native peddlers come
aboard to sell jewelry, fans, dress stuffs; and snake charmers come,
and fakirs, doin' their strange tricks, that I d'no how they do, nor
Josiah don't.
Madras has more than half a million inhabitants, and it looked well
from the steamer: handsome villas, beautiful tropical trees, and hull
forests of cactus ablaze with their gorgeous blossoms. It bein' Sunday
whilst on our way from Madras to Calcutta the captain read service,
and afterwards made his Sunday inspection of the crew. The sailors
and cooks wuz Hindus, the stewards English and Scotch. The crew had on
short white trousers, long white jackets and white caps, all on 'em
wuz barefooted.
We sailed acrost the Bay of Bengal, where I spoze Bengal tigers wuz
hidin' in the adjacent jungles, though we didn't meet any and didn't
want to. And so on to the Hoogly River; one of the mouths of the
Ganges, and on to Calcutta.
Calcutta is over four thousand milds from Hongkong. And oh, my heart!
how fur! how fur from Jonesville. Most fourteen thousand milds from
our own vine and apple trees and the children. It made my head turn
round so that I tried to furgit it.