Buckingham Palace wuz a sight to see, beautiful and grand, and not fur
off is St. James's Park, one of the most attractive in the city though
it wuz once only a marshy field. As I looked on its charming and
diversified beauty I thought how little there is in heredity compared
to gumption and draining.
Josiah, as I said, wanted to see the Tower of London. It is the most
celebrated fortress in England. It is awful old, and good land! if I
wuz shet up there I shouldn't never expect to break out. Some of the
walls are fifteen feet thick. The White Tower, they say, wuz begun by
William the Conqueror, a man that I told the guide politely, "wuz
quite widely known, and I had hearn a sight of him though I had never
had the pleasure of his acquaintance." It wuz completed in one
thousand ninety-eight.
Josiah and I wandered round there for hours, and should most probable
got lost and mebby been gropin' round there to-day if it hadn't been
for the guide.
I wuz dretful interested in London Bridge. The present structure cost
seven million, so they say, and I wouldn't have built it for a cent
less. I thought as I stood there of what had took place on that spot
since Sir William Wallace's day and how his benign head (most every
bump on it good ones) wuz put up there a mark for the insultin' jeers
of the populace, and it made me feel bad and sorry for Helen, his last
wife, she that wuz Helen Mar. But Sir Thomas More's head wuz nailed up
in the same place, and the Bishop of Rochester's and lots of others.
It wuzn't right.
And then I thought of the gay seens that had took place there, the
tournaments and triumphal marches and grand processions and sad ones,
and the great multitude who have passed over it, prince and beggar,
velvet and rags, a countless throng constantly passing, constantly
changing, no more to be counted than the drops of water in the silent
stream below, all the time, all the time sweepin' on to the sea. I had
sights of emotions.
And all the while I wuz in London, in the gay streets and quiet ones,
in palace or park, the shade of Dickens walked by my side or a little
in advance, seemin' to pint out to me the places where he had walked
when he see visions and dreamed dreams. And I almost expected to meet
Little Nell leading her grandpa, or David Copperfield, or Peggoty
searching for Em'ly, or some of our Mutual Friends.
And so with Thackeray. As I looked up at the gloomy houses on some
quiet street I almost expected to see the funeral hatchment of old Sir
Pitt Crawley's wife and Becky Sharp's little pale face peering out, or
sweet Ethel Newcomb and her cousin Clive, and the dear old General and
Henry Esmond, and etc., etc. And so with Alfred Tennyson. In some
beautiful place of drooping foliage and placid water I almost felt
that I should see the mystic barge drawin' nigh and I too should float
off into some Lotus land. And so with all the other beloved poets and
authors who seem nigher to us than our next door neighbors in the
flesh.
Dorothy havin' never been there, felt that she must see Shakespeare's
home, which is a journey of only three hours by rail, so we made a
visit there one day, passing through some of England's most beautiful
seenery on our way, grand old parks with stately houses rising up in
their midst, gray stun churches in charming little villages,
thatched-roof cottages, picturesque water-mills; it wuz all a lovely
picture of rural England.
It being a little too long a journey for one day, we stayed all night
at Shakespeare's Inn, where the great poet went daily for his glass
of stimulant--so they say. But I am glad I don't believe everything
that I hear.
Arvilly mourned to think that she couldn't have sold him America's
twin crimes: "Intemperance and Greed"; but I kinder changed the
subject. As much store as I set by Arvilly's cast-iron principles,
somehow I couldn't bear the thought of having Shakespeare canvassed.
All the rooms are named after Shakespeare's plays, painted over the
doors in black letters. We slept in "All's Well That Ends Well"--a
good name--and we slept peaceful, thinkin' likely that it would turn
out so. Miss Meechim had the "Merry Wives of Windsor." She wanted to
change with Arvilly, who had "Love's Labor's Lost," but Arvilly
wouldn't budge.
Miss Meechim told me in confidence that if Shakespeare could have had
the benefit of her advice he would probable have called it "The
Unfortunate Wives of Windsor." "And then," sez she, "I could have
occupied it with more pleasure." But I didn't much think that he would
have changed his plans or poetry if she had been on the spot.
The next morning early we set out for Shakespeare's cottage, described
so often, saw the room in which the great poet was born, and wuz told
that nothing had been changed there since he lay in his cradle, which
we could believe as we looked about us on the low walls, the diamond
panes of the windows and the quaint old furniture. The cottage is now
used for Shakespeare's relics, some of which looked as if they might
be real, and some as if they wuz made day before yesterday. We visited
the church where he wuz baptized and saw on one of the pews the metal
plate on which is engraved the name of the poet's father.
And, thinkin' that a visit to Shakespeare's home wouldn't be complete
without seeing the place where his heart journeyed whilst his life wuz
young and full of hope and joy, we drove out to Shottery, to the
little farmhouse where his sweetheart, Ann Hathaway, lived.
It is a quaint little cottage, and after going through it we drank a
glass of water drawn up by a well sweep from the very same old well
from which Shakespeare drank so many times. As I stood there I saw in
fancy the rosy, dimpled Ann handing the crystal water to the boy,
Will, who mebby whispered to her as he took the glass sweet words, all
rhyming with youth and joy and love.
And the same blue sky bent above us; birds wheeled and sung over our
heads, descendants, mebby, of the birds that sung to them that day. I
had sights of emotions--sights of 'em--and so I did in the cottage as
I sot on the old, old settle in the corner of the fireplace, whose age
nobdy could dispute, as its stiff old joints are strengthened with
bands of iron, where young Will Shakespeare and his sweetheart often
sat, and where he might have read to her the new poem in honor of her
charms:
"To melt the sad, make blithe the gay,
And nature charm Ann hath a way.
She hath a will,
She hath a way--
To breathe delight, Ann Hathaway."
He or she didn't dream of his future greatness, and I dare say that
old Pa Hathaway, who mebby slept nigh by, might have complained to her
ma, "Wonderin' what that fool meant by talkin' in poetry at that time
of night." And, mebby, if he soared too high and loud in verse, old Pa
Hathaway might have called out:
"Ann! cover up the fire and go to bed! Billy wants to go home!"
I don't say this wuz so, but mebby. So holden are our eyes and so
difficult it is for the human vision to discern between an eagle and a
commoner bird, when the wings are featherin' out, before they are full
plumed for a flight amongst the stars.
Well, we went back to London, tired, but riz up in our minds, and
renewed our sightseeing there.
Miss Meechim and Dorothy bought lots of things that they said they
could git cheaper in England, and Arvilly wuz in great sperits; she
sold three books, sold herself out and went home with an empty box but
a full purse. Robert wuz busy up to the last minute, but managed to
spend time to take Tommy to see some famous waxworks he had promised.
About the middle of the forenoon Robert Strong proposed that we should
all go and take a last drive in the park, and we set off, all but
Arvilly. She thought of some one in another part of the city that she
wanted to canvass, and she started off alone in a handsome. Miss
Meechim and Dorothy wuz feelin' well. Tommy, who wuz in fine sperits,
wuz perched as usual on Robert Strong's knee.
The sheltered drives and smooth windin' roads wuz gay with passers-by,
and the seen wuz beautiful, but I wuz sad and deprested about one
thing. King Edward is a real good natered man, and a good pervider,
and seems to set store by America. And Queen Alexandra is a sweet,
good woman.
But still in these last hours I kep' thinkin' of Edwardses' Ma, who
was rainin' here durin' my last visit. I wuz kep' from visitin' her at
that time by P. Martyn Smythe and onfortunate domestic circumstances.
And I have always worried for fear she hearn I wuz in London that time
and never went nigh her; she not knowin' what hendered me.
I writ her a letter to make her mind easy, but must know she never got
it, for she never writ a word in reply. I posted the letter I spoke on
with my own hands. I directed it
WIDDER ALBERT,
London, England.
It runs as follers:
"Dear and revered Queen and Widder:
"I tried my best to git to see you whilst in London, but Josiah's
clothes wuzn't fit; he had frayed 'em out on a tower, and his
shirts wuz yeller as saffern, half washed by underlins. I wouldn't
demean him in your sight by bringin' him with me and he wuz
worrisome and I couldn't leave him. You've been married and you
know how it is.
"So I have to return home sad-hearted without settin' my eyes on
the face of a woman I honor and set store by, a good wife, a good
mother, a good ruler. The world hangs your example up and is
workin' up to the pattern and will in future generations. No doubt
there is a few stitches that might be sot evener in the sampler,
but the hull thing is a honor to our humanity and the world at
large. I bow to your memory as I would to you in deep honor and
esteem. And if we do not meet here below may we meet in them
heavenly fields you and your Albert, Josiah and I, young and
happy, all earthly distinctions washed off in the swellin's of
Jordan.
"And so God bless you clear down to the river banks whose waves
are a swashin' up so clost to our feet, and adoo.
"JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE."
I never hearn a word from her, and I am afraid she died thinkin' I had
slighted her.
The next morning bright and early we went aboard the ship that wuz to
take us home. It wuz a fair day; the fog dispersed and the sun shone
out with promise and the waves talked to me of Home, Sweet Home.
It wuz a cold lowerin' day when the good ship bore us into New York
harbor. The gray clouds hung low some as if they wuz a sombry canopy
ready to cover up sunthin', a crime or a grief, or a tomb, or mebby
all on 'em, and a few cold drops fell down from the sky ever and anon,
some like tears, only chill and icy as death.
These thoughts come into my mind onbid as I looked on the heavy pall
of dark clouds that hung low over our heads some like the dark drapery
hangin' over a bier.
But anon and bime bye these dark meditations died away, for what wuz
cloud or cold, or white icy shores? It wuz home that waited for us;
Jonesville and my dear ones dwelt on that shore approachin' us so
fast. Bitter, icy winds would make the warm glowin' hearth fire of
home seem brighter. Love would make its own sunshine. Happiness would
warm the chill of the cold November day.
Thomas J. and Maggie stood on the pier, both well and strong; Tommy
sprung into their arms. They looked onto his round rosy face through
tears of gratitude and thankfulness and embraced me with the same. And
wuzn't Thomas J. happy? Yes, indeed he wuz, when he held his boy in
his arms and had holt of his ma's hands, and his pa's too. And Maggie,
too, how warmly she embraced us with tears and smiles chasing each
other over her pretty face. Tirzah Ann and Whitfield wuz in the city,
but didn't come to the minute, bein' belated, as we learnt afterwards,
by Tirzah Ann a waverin' in a big department store between a pink and
a blue shiffon front for a new dress.
But they appeared in a few minutes, Tirzah Ann with her arms full of
bundles which dribbled onnoticed on the pier as she advanced and
throwed her arms round her pa's and ma's neck. Love is home, and with
our dear children's arms about us and their warm smiles of delight and
welcome and their loving words in our ear, we had got home.
The children wuz stayin' at a fashionable boardin' house, kept by Miss
Eliphalet Snow, a distant relation of Maggie's, who had lost her
pardner and her property, but kep' her pride and took boarders for
company, so she said. And we wuz all goin' to start for Jonesville
together the next day. But as the baggage of our party wuz kinder
mixed up, Josiah and I thought we would go with Miss Meechim's party
to the tarven and stay.
Robert Strong and our son, Thomas J., met like two ships of one line
with one flag wavin' over 'em, and bearing the same sealed orders from
their Captain above. How congenial they wuz, they had been friends
always, made so onbeknown to them, they only had to discover each
other, and then they wuz intimate to once, and dear.
Dorothy and Miss Meechim and the children greeted each other with
smiles and glad, gay words. Yes, all wuz a happy confusion of light
words, gay laughter, Saratoga trunks, smiles, joy, satchel bags--we
had got home.
As I stood there surrounded by all that I prized most on earth I had a
glimpse of a haggard lookin' form arrayed in tattered finery, a bent
figure, a young old face, old with drink and dissipation, that looked
some way familiar though I couldn't place her. She looked at our party
with a strange interest and seemed to say some murmured words of
prayer or blessing or appeal, and disappeared--soon forgot in our
boundless joy and the cares tendin' to our baggage.
Arvilly wuz glad to set her feet on shore, for she too loved her
native land with the love that a good principled, but stern
stepmother has for a interestin' but worrisome child that she's
bringin' up by hand. She thought she would go with the children to
their boarding-place, havin' knowed Miss Eliphalet Snow in their
young days, when Miss Snow wuz high-headed and looked down on her,
and wantin' to dant her, I spoze, with accounts of her foreign
travel. And we parted to meet agin in the mornin' to resoom our
voyage to Jonesville--blessed harbor where we could moor our two
barks, Josiah's and mine, and be at rest.
Miss Meechim and Dorothy and Robert laid out to start for California
the next day, as business wuz callin' Robert there loud and he had to
respond.
And I may as well tell it now as any time, for it has got to be told.
I knowed it wuz told to me in confidence, and it must be kep' for a
spell anyway, Robert and Dorothy wuz engaged, and they wuz goin' to be
married in a short time in her own beautiful home in San Francisco.
Now you needn't try to git me to tell who told me, for I am not as sot
as cast iron on that, I shall mention no names, only simply remarkin'
that Dorothy and Robert set store by me and I by them. Them that told
me said that they felt like death to not tell Miss Meechim of the
engagement, but knowin' her onconquerable repugnance to matrimony and
to Dorothy's marriage in particular, and not knowin' but what the news
would kill her stun dead, them that told me said they felt that they
had better git her back to her own native shores before bein' told,
which I felt wuz reasonable.
How I did hate to part with sweet Dorothy, I loved her and she me
visey versey. And Robert Strong, he sot up in my heart next to Thomas
J., and crowdin' up pretty clost to him too. Miss Meechim also had her
properties, and we had gone through wearisome travel, dangers and
fatigues, pleasant rest, delightful sight-seeing, poor vittles, joy
and grief together, and it wuz hard to break up old ties. But it had
to be. Our life here on this planet is made up of meetin's and
partin's. It is hail and farewell with us from the cradle to the
grave.
We all retired early, bein' tired out, and we slept well, little
thinkin' of the ghastly shape that would meet us on the thresholt of
the new day. But, oh, my erring but beloved country! why ortn't we to
expect it as long as you keep the mills a-goin' that turns out such
black, ghastly shadders by the thousands and thousands all the time,
all the time, to enwrap your children.
Dorothy never knowed it--what wuz the use of cloudin' her bright young
life with the awful shadder? But then, as I told Robert, that black,
dretful pall hangs over every home and every heart in our country and
is liable to fall anywhere and at any time, no palace ruff is too high
and no hovel ruff is too low to be agonized and darkened by its sombry
folds.
But he said it would make Dorothy too wretched, and he could not have
her told, and I agreed to it, but of course I told my pardner and his
heart wuz wrung and his bandanna wet as sop in consequence on't. And
he told Miss Meechim, too, that mornin', and her complaisant belief in
genteel drinkin' and her conservative belief in the Poor Man's Club,
wuz shook hard--how hard I didn't know until afterwards. Oh, how she,
too, loved Aronette! The children when they wuz told on't mourned
because we did, and on their own account too, for they sot store by
her what little they had seen of her--for nobody could see her without
loving her.
As for Arvilly, her ideas on intemperance couldn't be added to or
diminished by anything, but she wep' and cried for days.
* * * * *
Well, I spoze you all want to know the peticulars. Robert Strong wuz
the first one that left the tarven in the mornin'. He had to see a man
very early on business. He went out by the ladies' entrance. And there
crouched on the cold stun steps, waitin' we spozed to ketch another
glimpse of Dorothy, and mebby to ask for help, for she wuz almost
naked, and her plump little limbs almost skin and bone, dead and cold,
frozen and starved, so we spozed, lay Aronette. Pretty, happy little
girl, dearly beloved, thrown by Christian America to the wild beasts
just as sure as Nero ever did, only while he threw his human victims
to be torn and killed for fun, America throws her human victims, her
choicest, brightest youth, down to ruin and death, for greed. Which
looks the Worst in God's sight? I d'no nor Josiah don't.
Well, Robert called a ambulance, had the poor boney, ragged victim
took to a hospital, but all efforts wuz vain to resuscitate her. She
had gone to give in her evidence against America's license laws,
aginst Army Canteen, Church and State, aginst Licensed Saloon Keeper,
aginst highest official and lowest voter, aginst sinner and saint, who
by their encouragement or indifference make such crimes possible.
The evidence wuz carried in, the criminals must meet it, it is waitin'
for 'em, waitin'. Of course the New York parties who helped Robert,
policemen, doctors, and nurses, thought very little of it, it wuz so
common, all over the land, they said, such things was happening all
the time from the same cause. And we knew it well, we knew of the wide
open pit, veiled with tempting covering, wove by Selfishness and
Greed, scattered over with flimsy flowers of excuse, palliation,
expediency that tempts and engulfs our brightest youth, the noblest
manhood, old and young, rich and poor--it is very common.
But to us who loved the pretty, merry little maid, rememberin' her so
happy and so good, and saw her ruined and killed before our eyes by
the country that should have protected her, we kept it in our hearts,
we could not forgit it.
Robert Strong had her buried in a quiet corner of a cemetery and left
orders for a stun cross to be put up to mark her grave. He asked me to
write the epitaph which he had carved in the marble, and I did:
Aronette
Young, Happy, Beloved--Murdered!
Vengeance is mine saith the Lord.
Robert had it put on just as I writ it. He didn't tell Dorothy
anything about her death till they got home. She never see the
epitaph; it wuz true as truth itself, but it wuz hash, and might have
made her bed-sick, lovin' Aronette as she did. But after Dorothy
Strong wuz livin' with him, blessed and happy in their pretty, simple
home in his City of Justice, then he told her that Aronette wuz dead,
died in a hospital and wuz buried in a pleasant graveyard. And Dorothy
mourned for her as she would for a beloved sister.
Yes, Dorothy will mourn for her all her days. The young man who wuz to
marry her will live under the shadow of this sorrow all his life, for
he is one of the constant ones who cannot forgit. The old grandmother
in Normandie waited for letters from her darling which never came, and
will die waiting for her.
The young man who enticed the pretty little maid into the canteen,
licensed by America, and gave her stupefying drink, licensed by our
laws, took her, staggering and stupid, to another dretful house, made
as respectable as they can make it by our Christian civilization. He
lived long enough, I spoze, to add several more victims to the
countless list of such murders that lays on our country's doorsteps,
and then he too died, a bloated, loathsome wreck, makin' another
victim for the recordin' angel to mark down, if there is room in her
enormous books of debt and credit with this traffic for another name.
And I spoze there is, for them books tower up mountain high, and new
ones have to be opened anon or oftener, and will I spoze till God's
time of reckonin' comes and the books are opened and the debts paid.
It wuz a lovely day when we see the towers of Jonesville loom up above
the billows of environin' green.
(I mean the M. E. steeple showin' up beyend Grout Nickleson's pine
woods.)
As the cars drew into the station they tooted their delight agin and
agin at our safe return as the train stopped.
As we walked up the platform I see Josiah furtively on-button his
stiff linen cuffs as if preparin' to throw 'em off for life. His face
radiant, and hummin' _sotey vosey_ his favorite ballad:
"Hum agin, hum agin, from a furren shore."
Arvilly looked happy to agin touch the sile of home, and be able, as
she said, to "tend to her things." And wuz not I happy? I who loved my
country with the jealous love that makes a ma spank her boy for
cuttin' up. Is it love that makes a ma stand by, and see her boy turn
summer sets and warhoop in meetin'-houses? Nay, verily, every spank
that makes him behave is a touching evidence of her warm devotion.
I felt as I stood on the beloved sile of home (better sile and richer
than any other), beneath its bright sunshine (warmer and brighter than
any other sunshine) I felt that I loved my country with that
passionate, jealous love that could never be contented till she rises
up to the full glory she might and will have. When she sweeps her long
strong arms round and brushes off vile politicians and time-servers,
and uses a pure free ballot to elect good men and good wimmen to make
good laws, then will come the Golden Age that I look for, and that
will come, when Justice will take her bandages off, and look out with
both eyes over a prosperous and happy land. God speed the day!
We parted with the children here, they goin' to their own homes, after
promisin' to come and see me and their pa very soon. Tommy throwed his
arms round my neck and said he should stay with us half the time. We
want him to.
Well, Ury met us with the mair and warm smiles of welcome, and
Philury greeted us with joyous smiles and a good warm meat supper.
They set store by us, lots of store, and when we gin 'em the presents
we had brung for 'em from foreign shores, happiness seemed to
radiate from 'em like light and warmth from the sun. Josiah enjoyed
his supper--yes, indeed--his liniment shone with satisfaction as he
sot at the table in his stockin' feet and shirt sleeves, and eat
more than wuz good for him, fur more. He had begun to onbend, and I
knew that for days I couldn't keep clothes enough on him to be
hardly decent, but knew also that that would wear away in time.
Feelin' first-rate when we got home, it only took us a short time to
rest and recooperate from our tower, and receive calls from the
children and grandchildren and Jonesvillians. And the children helped
Philury and me to git the house all in order, and prepare for
Thanksgiving. I sent out invitations for a party; I laid out to invite
all my own dear ones, old and young, Elder Minkley and his wife,
Arvilly, and how I did want to invite Ernest White and Waitstill Webb,
but he wuz away on a long vacation, and Waitstill I hadn't hearn from
for weeks, she wuz in the Philippines the last I hearn.
I wanted to invite all the brethern and sistern in the meetin'-house,
but Philury thought she couldn't wait on 'em all, and we compromised
on the plan of havin' 'em all here to a evenin' social the week
after, when we'd pass round things and not have so many dishes to
wash.
I laid out to be dretful thankful Thanksgivin' day. I felt that my
heart would keep the holiday with drums beatin' and flags wavin', to
speak in metafor. For how much, how much I had to be thankful for! My
beloved pardner and I had reached our own home in safety. The Lord had
watched over us in perils by water, perils by land, perils by fatigue,
perils by Josiah's strange, strange plans.
Tommy wuz as well as ever a child wuz; the doctor said his lungs wuz
sound as a bell. All our dear ones at home had been kep' in safety and
our home seemed more like a blissful oasis in a desert world than it
ever did before.
I always like to be up to the mark in everything, and I felt that I
had so much to be thankful for Thanksgivin' day that I laid out to git
up early so's to begin to be thankful as soon as daylight anyway, and
keep it up all day till long after candle light. But as it turned out
I begun to keep the glorious holiday of Thanksgivin' three days ahead
and had to, for I couldn't help it.
I believe in makin' preparations ahead; I believe in takin' time by
the forelock and leadin' it along peaceable and stiddy by my side,
instead of time's drivin' me, rough shod and pantin' for breath over a
household path, rocky and rough with belated duties. And it wuz three
days before Thanksgivin' I sot in my clean, cheerful-lookin' kitchen
seedin' some raisins for the fruit cake, Josiah bein' out to the barn
killin' two fat pullets for the chicken pie. Ury wuz down in the swamp
gittin' some evergreens and holly berries to decorate with, and
Philury dressin' the turkey and ducks in the back kitchen, when I
heard a rap at the settin' room door and I wiped my hands on the
roller towel and smoothed back my hair and went to the door.
And who do you spoze stood there? His eyes shinin' brighter than the
sky did, though that wuz clear blue, lit by a warm sunshine. It wuz
Ernest White, and guess who wuz by his side; I'll tell you, for you
never could think who it wuz--it wuz Waitstill Webb. I had thought her
face wuz as sweet as it could be in sorrow, but I had never seen it in
gladness before. She looked like a sweet white rose just blowed out
under the warm sun of a perfect June day.
"Ernest White!" sez I, "how glad I am to see you! And Waitstill Webb!
can I believe my eyes?" sez I, "is it you?" And I took both their
hands in mine at one time.
"Waitstill Webb!" sez I agin, "is it you?"
"No," sez Ernest White, "it is Waitstill White."
You could have knocked me down with a hair-pin. I kissed 'em both
smilin' and weepin', laughin' and cryin', we all on us wuz like three
fools, or three wise ones, I d'no which. And that's how I begun to
keep Thanksgivin' more'n three days ahead.
They come right into the kitchen and made me keep on with my work,
which I did after a little, they takin' holt and helpin' me like two
happy children. They stayed most all the forenoon, but had promised to
go back to Arvilly's to dinner.
Well! Well! I hadn't been so tickled in matrimonial ways and riz up
and routed and dumb foundered since Thomas J. and Maggie Snow got
engaged. It seems that Ernest White had gone way out to the
Philippines after her, and they wuz married in a little American
chapel by a missionary of the M. E. meetin'-house.
They wuz goin' right to housekeeping in the widder Pooler's, where
he had boarded. The widder had gone to live with her daughter, Mahala,
in Michigan, and Ernest White has bought it. It stands in a pretty
place near a evergreen grove, just on the edge of Loontown near
his people that he loves, and has gin his life work to make better.
And, oh, what a sweet love-guarded home Waitstill White is goin' to
make for her pardner, and how happy Ernest White is goin' to be
with the woman he loves. For besides bein' so congenial and beloved,
Waitstill is as good a cook as I ever see, and no matter how much a
man's soul soars up to the heavens, whilst his body is on earth he
will always appreciate good vittles. Love never did nor never will
thrive on a empty stummick. Harmony of soul is delightful, and perfect
congeniality is sweet, and so is good yeast emtin' bread if it is
made right, kneaded three times, riz in a cool place and baked to a
turn. And tender broiled chops and chicken, and hot muffins and
fragrant coffee has some the effect on the manly breast of love's
young dream.
Waitstill is a real home lover and homemaker. And it seems that by her
advice Ernest White had had alterations in the house made that I
approved highly on when I see 'em, and they had ordered lots of things
to be sent from the city to make it pleasant, all put in first-rate
order by the man left in charge, and they invited Josiah and me to
take tea with 'em the very next evenin' and go to meetin' with 'em,
which we gladly accepted, seein' we had got our preparations so fur
along; Arvilly wuz goin' to be there they said. And, of course, I
invited 'em to my Thanksgivin' dinner, which they accepted with the
same pleasure that we had theirn.