Well, Tamer and I had it all planned to go to Uncle Submit’s whilst
Celestine wuz there with her little girl, but at the last minute a
letter come from Tamer askin’ me if I wouldn’t come there and visit
with Celestine, as she had concluded to invite her there instead of
our goin’ to see her. There wuz some views, Tamer said, about their
house that Celestine wanted to paint, and had jest as good as told
her it would be more agreeable for us all to visit there than at
Uncle Submit’s. “Pretty cool in Celestina,” sez Tamer.
She always put on the “teeny,” but, good land! I didn’t. I knew she
wuz named Celestine after old Aunt Celestine Butterick. I wuzn’t
goin’ to add or diminish from that good old creeter’s name, so I
always called her Celestine.
Well, Tamer went on to say that, though it wuz pretty cool in
Celestina, but jest like her for all the world, mebby it would
be better for us to meet there, as Uncle Submit and Aunt Eunice
wuz kinder childish and mebby so many visitors would upset ’em,
and Celestina is all took up with her painting, and hain’t any
housekeeper, and the hired girl is a real shiftless one. And sez
Tamer, “Be sure you come prepared to stay a week, the children are
jest cryin’ to have you come. Anna sez, ‘Tell Aunt Samantha she
must stay a week anyway,’ and Jack has wrote you a letter which
I enclose in this. Cicero would send a message, but he is dretful
carried away with a new book he has borrowed, a splendid book, ‘The
Serpent Enchantress; or, The Doomed Fly-Away,’ it is perfectly
fascinating. I set up last night until four o’clock finishin’ it.”
I gin a deep sithe as I read this sentence. The letter closed with
another urgent request for to come when she give me warnin’, she
would write the day Celestina come, she said, and it ended
“Yours with devoted love,
“TAMER SMITH.”
I laid down her epistle and took up Jack’s, it wuz printed in
big letters, and the page wuz as full of love and longin’ to see
me as it wuz with smears and ink blots, and that is goin’ to the
very extent of describin’ the love it contained. Bless his dear
little warm heart! Well, I spozed I should have to go but thought
I wouldn’t talk it over with Josiah till the day drawed near, not
wantin’ to precipitate trouble onto him till it wuz necessary, and
I knew well how wedded he wuz to my presence.
And the next day I begun quietly and prudently to prepare for the
great Charity Bazar of Miss Greene Smythe’s. I bound over my best
woosted petticoat that wuz some frayed out round the bottom, and
mended a few broken places in the tattin’ that trimmed my white
one. I took the lace out of the neck and sleeves of my gray woosted
dress, which I laid out to wear instead of my black alpacky,
thinkin’ it looked more gay and cheerful and more adapted to the
requirements of a fashionable party in high life, I washed the lace
carefully and did it up and put it back, crimpin’ it on the edge
as I did so. I pondered on the enigma some time whether I should
look too gay, and go beyend the other church members present, if I
pinned on in front a satin bow of kinder pink ribbon that Maggie
had gin me, I held it up to the dress and see in the lookin’-glass
it looked well, but mebby a little too flantin’ and frivolous, so I
laid it back agin in the draw and made up my mind I would wear my
good old cameo pin, knowin’ that wuz safe for a Methodist member to
wear anyway, and I didn’t want to cause comments or roust up the
envy and jealousy of the other females present.
Anon and pretty soon the night come for the great Bazar for that
Heathen, and Josiah and I started in good season, for we didn’t
want the mair and colt to be hurried, nor be hurried ourselves. We
started about half-past four P. M. I got a early breakfast that
mornin’ a-purpose to git a early dinner so’s to git a early supper.
We eat supper a quarter past four P. M. with our things all on, and
I packed up the dishes in the sink, which I seldom do, but felt
that this wuz a extra occasion, and I didn’t want to wash dishes
with my mantilly on, the tabs dribblin’ down into the water.
Well, to go by the crossroad leading to Zoar and turnin’ off by the
Cobble Stun schoolhouse, it is only five milds to Edgewater, where
Miss Greene Smythe boards for the summer. The big summer hotel
there has as much as twenty acres of land round it, all full of
trees and windin’ walks and summerhousen, and hammocks and swings
and posy beds, and croquet grounds and baseball grounds, where they
kick each other about and lame themselves and break bones, and be
jest as fashionable as they can be, and have everything else for
their comfort. And in front of all is the clear, blue waters of
the lake, with boathousen and little boats floatin’ on the surface
jest like a flock of white geese down to our pond.
As we driv onto the grounds on a broad gravel walk with brilliant
posy beds on each side on’t, I see closter to the house a hull lot
of men fixin’ a big tent with flags on’t and puttin’ out rows of
little lanterns on strings leadin’ from one tree to another and
standin’ out a hull lot of evergreen trees round the big tent and a
lot of smaller ones.
The mair sort o’ pricked up its ears at the sight of so many
strange things, but kep’ right along on the path like the well
principled mair she is. But the colt bein’ younger and not so
way-wised, and I don’t believe havin’ the good principle her Ma
has, or ever will have, though Josiah sez she is likelier fur than
her Ma wuz at her age. But, ’tennyrate she made a dash into the
thickest of the crowd, and it wuzn’t till three waiters had been
upsot, by bein’ taken in their back onexpected, that my pardner
succeeded in catchin’ it. By this time the colt bein’ tangled
in the line of lanterns and one foot ketched in the rope of
evergreens, she stood still whinnerin’. And the waiters cussin’ and
swearin’ fearful, and my pardner goin’ as fur that way as he dast
with his professions and religion. He did say “dum” repeatedly,
and “gracious Heavens!” and “gracious Peter!” and all these milder
terms a deacon can use and not call it swearin’. And I, holdin’ the
mair, some excited but keepin’ my conscientiousness pretty well,
when a man come runnin’ out from the hotel that seemed to be in
authority and he quickly loosed the bands of that colt, and sent
the cussin’ waiters about their bizness and advanced onto me, it
wuz the landlord, Mr. Grabhull, I knowed him and he knowed me, and
he wuz real polite, though he looked cross as a bear, I must say.
And he asked me if I wouldn’t alight, and if he couldn’t help me.
And, thinkin’ I might as well, seein’ I had got there, I did alight
and git down, but refused his help, backin’ out and gittin’ down
myself with some trouble, for the steps of the democrat are high,
and I always use a chair to home to step down on, but wouldn’t ask
him for one if I had fell out, thinkin’ we had made him enough
trouble already. But the height wuz precipitous and I felt giddy,
and, when at last my feet struck solid ground I sez, instinctively,
and onbeknown to myself:
“Thank Heaven, as the man said, that my feet are once more on visey
versey.” And then, to let him know at once why we wuz there, I took
my card of invitation out of my pocket, and sez:
“We have come to Miss Greene Smythe’s Bazar for that Heathen.”
“Oh, yes,” sez he, “and you would like to see her, wouldn’t you!”
And I sez, “Yes.” And he turned towards a more secluded corner nigh
to the lake, and I ketched sight of Miss Greene Smythe settin’ in a
hammock with three young men hoverin’ round her like small planets
round the sun. Them Danglers I had hearn on, I felt sure from
their looks, they looked sort o’ danglin’ somehow. Two of ’em wore
white flannel and the other dark-blue woolen, with light-yellowish
colored shues on all on ’em, kinder slips like, one on ’em had a
banjo in his hand and one on ’em seemed to be singin’.
She wuz dressed in white, with a great broad hat all covered with
white feathers and streamers and things, and her dress wuz white,
too, and she wuz layin’ back in the hammock on some gay-colored
cushions as easy as you please, and one of them Danglers had a big
fan and wuz fannin’ her. But even as I looked that colt broke away
from the landlord, and, bein’ skairt most to death, jest bounded
into that peaceful group and scattered it like chaff before a
whirlwind. She upset the feller with the banjo, steppin’ right into
the fiddle as she jumped clean over the hammock, one heel kickin’
off and goin’ through that great white hat, and stepped into the
stomach of the dangler who held the fan and broke off the feller’s
song right in the most effective place, for he wuz jest singin’ in
a deep beartone:
“Come where my love lies dreaming.”
And, as if in answer, the colt come, one foot come square down
into them dreams, if she wuz dreamin’, and tore off more than five
yards of lace and ribbons, whilst the other one took off the big
hat, as I said, amidst her loud screams. My first thought wuz she
would have a coniption fit, and even in that minute, so practical
is my mind, I wondered what I should do without catnip or burnt
feathers. But even as I thought this she turned towards me and
see who I wuz and what had caused the fracas, for Josiah and the
landlord wuz follerin’ on in hot pursuit, whilst the old mair stood
in the background whinnerin’ to her colt, either in encouragement
or remonstrance, I couldn’t tell which.
Miss Greene Smythe looked cross enough to eat a file at that first
look, but immegiately the young men sprung up, one gathered up her
laces and ribbons and placed ’em in her hands, another her fan and
book, and, though I am ready to testify that that first look she
gin me wuz mad as a-settin’ hen with a brindle dog round, before I
could hardly git the run of that look and set it down in my mind
memorandum, she put on a dretful warm smile, yet as queer lookin’
as any I ever see, and I have seen queer lookin’ smiles in my day
and gin ’em, too, yes, indeed! and she come forward, holdin’ out
her hand with the lace and ribbin danglin’ from it, and sez she,
“How good of you to come, you will spend the day with me, won’t
you?”
“Spend the day!” sez I, agast at the idee; “why, we have come to
your reception and Bazar for that Heathen, but if I had knowed
how that colt wuz goin’ to act we would tied it to the fills, we
couldn’t leave it to home, for it hain’t weaned. I feel mortified
and sorry to think it pitched into you so, and upset them
Danglers,” I wuz jest a-goin’ to say, but bethought myself and sez,
“them young chaps, I feel dretful sorry, and am willin’ to repair
damages jest so fur as I can. I’ll give you one of my hats; and
that fiddle,” sez I, “if it needs new strings I stand ready to git
’em, we have got more cats than we need round the barn, and I can
furnish a dozen strings as well as not, and I’ll tell the young man
so.” And I advanced towards ’em.
But she hurriedly drawed me off the other way, and sez she real
warm, “How good of you, how extremely good of you to stay to the
reception!” And then she sez, lookin’ round sort o’ helplessly and
mournfully towards the Danglers, and then at me agin:
“You--oh!--let me see--yes--you come right up into my room, and
dear Mr. Allen must come into the reading room. They have caught
the colt, I see; I will rejoin you in a minute.”
And she slipped back to say a few words to them deserted Danglers,
who looked as helpless and queer as planets might look when through
some upheaval the sun wuz suddenly removed, and they wuz left
hangin’ round in space with nothin’ to revolve round. I thought I
hearn her say sunthin’ about havin’ to git a little rest, anyway;
the idee I thought of anybody goin’ to bed at that time of day,
and sunthin’ about seein’ ’em all to-night, and then she said she
wouldn’t say good-by, but awe revoir, and they all said it to
her, shakin’ hands with her and hangin’ over her hand as if they
wuz goin’ to the fur Injys as missionaries liable to be eat up by
savages, never to see her agin.
I spoze they referred to the “awe” they felt in seein’ a young colt
like that so uncommon active, what the “revoir” meant I don’t
know, unless it wuz some man by that name who owned a colt not
nigh so smart as ourn. Yes, indeed, that colt well merits Josiah’s
enconiums so fur as smartness is concerned. He had led Mr. Grabhull
and Josiah a tegus chase, but at last, as I could see, glancin’
towards the lake, Josiah Allen had got a firm grip onto his mane
and wuz leadin’ him back, still wearin’ the hat on his foreleg
instead of his foretop. The hat wuz spilte.
The smartest creeters have their limitations. That colt could make
light of Danglers and fashionable wimmen, step through their hats,
tromple on ’em and leap over ’em, scatter ’em like leaves in a high
gale, but when he come bunt up aginst the lake and whinnered at
it, and it still lay calm and smooth before him and wuzn’t danted,
he gin up that the lake wuz too big a job for him to tackle and
subdue, so he stood quite meek and wuz ketched. Presently the
cavalcade drawed nigh to us, and Miss Greene Smythe repeated her
invitation that dear Mr. Allen must come right into the reading
room, where he would find all the last papers.
“Is the World there?” sez Josiah, prickin’ up his ears at the idee,
he wuz all tuckered out and wanted to set down and rest. “Oh, yes,”
sez she, “the Weekly, the Daily, and the Sunday World. I will have
a couple of waiters bring those papers to you,” sez she.
“Yes,” sez I, “they are hefty.”
Well, I see that Josiah wuz full of happiness in a quiet corner
of that big readin’ room overlookin’ the lake, for there wuzn’t
hardly a soul in it at that time, and his beloved papers stacked
up in front of him some like a small haystack, he wuz fairly
overrunnin’ with contentment. Mr. Grabhull had led the colt towards
the stables, havin’ persuaded it to lay off its hat, and one of the
waiters wuz leadin’ the old mair.
Then I turned and silently follered Miss Greene Smythe up to her
room. Lots of men wuz to work hangin’ draperies and puttin’ flowers
up on the walls, and strings of evergreens and ribbins and makin’
it dretful pretty. But Miss Greene Smythe led the way through
’em all into what she called her boodore, and there she gin me a
rockin’ chair and I sot down, she asked me to lay off my things,
but I told her I guessed I wouldn’t take off my bunnet, bein’ as I
would have to put it on so quick, but I loosened the strings and
took off my mantilly, carefully foldin’ the tabs as I did so and
holdin’ it in my lap. She called a fashionably dressed girl with a
cap on, who wuz to work on a pile of satin drapery when we went in,
to come and take my mantilly. But I told her I jest as lives hold
it in my lap, as I should want to put it on so soon.
She looked sort o’ wonderin’ and went back to her work. I see, on
lookin’ closter, that it wuz a dress of pale-blue satin with a deep
velvet train, and she wuz puttin’ on the waist strings of gems of
all colors, and that skirt! I am tellin’ you the livin’ truth, that
velvet train wuz as long as from our bedroom to the parlor door,
and I d’no but it wuz as long as from our bedroom acrost the hall
into the spare room, ’tennyrate it wuz the longest skirt I ever see
or expect to see, all lined with pale-pink satin.
Miss Greene Smythe sez, “I am to be Queen Elizabeth in full court
dress. Here is my collar,” sez she, “and my crown,” and she
showed a immense collar of white lace and a crown all covered
with precious stuns in flowers and figgers, it fairly glittered
and shone like the posy bed in the early mornin’ when the dew is
shinin’ on it.
“I have combined,” sez she, “a Bazar, a reception, and a fancy
dress ball, for there will be dancing after supper is served.”
“What time is supper?” sez I, for I scented trouble ahead.
“Oh, about one,” sez she.
Sez I aghast, “Do you mean one o-clock at night?”
“Yes,” sez she.
“What time do you begin the doin’s?” sez I.
“Oh, the Bazar will be opened at ten, the reception at twelve, the
dancing beginning after supper, about two o-clock.”
“For the land’s sake!” sez I; “for the land’s sake!” and I leaned
back in my chair perfectly overcome by the programmy. And sez I,
“What time do you end up?”
“Oh, we may be through about sunrise, but if it is later it is no
matter, for the rooms will be darkened and we can dance until nine
o’clock, if we choose.”
I wuz speechless with my emotions; I couldn’t quell ’em and didn’t
want to, but Miss Greene Smythe didn’t notice ’em, for she seemed
all took up tellin’ her maid where to put the gorgeousest of the
gems she wuz sewin’ onto the satin, and then she sez sunthin’ about
seein’ Medora a minute and handed me a hull lapfull of books and
magazines, and sayin’ sunthin’ to the girl about refreshments, she
left the room. I wuz settin’ tryin’ to read them magazines she had
piled in my lap, but I didn’t git much interested in ’em, for they
wuz all about fashions and boleros, which I had always thought
wuz some kind of a Mexican steer, but found out it wuz sunthin’
to wear, and reveres, which sounded well, but meant fashionable
clothing, and so on lots of other strange names and descriptions,
but I didn’t care much for ’em.
Well, I had turned ’em over and had jest lit on sunthin’ so
important that they put it even into a fashionable magazine, a
long description of a football race and a college athletic contest
in which two young men had got maimed for life and one killed
outright, and more’n two hundred drunk as fools, and I wuz readin’
it with horrow when my companion come up crazy with a new idee, he
had heard there wuz goin’ to be a fancy ball, and he wanted to join
it in costoom and attend the ball.
Sez I, “Josiah Allen, I shall not stay here till twelve P. M., but,
if I wuz goin’, I should go as myself, and not as anybody else.”
“Why,” sez he, “the fancy dress is goin’ to be first. We can jine
in that and then go home, for I don’t want to dance,” sez he.
“I should think as much,” sez I coldly; “a deacon, and most dead
with rheumatiz, to say nothin’ of the grandchildren, why,” sez I,
“one pigeon wing, or one goin’ down through the middle, or all
hands round, would crumple you right up and be the death of you.”
“Well, I told you explicitly that I didn’t lay out to dance, nor
didn’t ask you to.”
Sez I coldly, “If you did it would be a outlay of politeness that
would be throwed away. Dance!” sez I, “when I can’t git up or set
down without groanin’, and my principles like iron.”
“Well, well, who said they wuzn’t? I told you we wouldn’t dance
this evenin’, but,” sez he impressively, “we can dress up fancy, or
I can, and swing out for once and be fashionable and gay.”
“I would like to know where you can git your things to swing out
in, and what character you would represent and what dress you would
go in.”
“Well,” sez he, crossin’ his legs and lookin’ real contented and
happy, “I thought I would go as a child.”
“As a child!” sez I, astounded at his idee.
“Yes,” sez he, “as a babe. I have planned it all out; I could
slip over to the store, this summer store they have got here to
accommodate the boarders, and buy twenty yards or so of sheetin’,
you could use it afterwards for sheets, you know, and you could
pin it onto me and tie it round the waist with a pale-blue sash. I
could buy a couple of yards of blue cambric and you could tear it
into, and tie it round my waist with a big bow, and there I would
be a babe.”
“What would you do with your whiskers?” sez I coldly. “And your
wrinkles and your gray bald head?”
“By Jimminy!” sez he, “I forgot them.”
He see himself, as quick as his attention wuz drawed to it, that a
babe in long white dresses ortn’t to have gray whiskers and a bald
head.
“Well,” sez he, “what do you say to a Pirate or a Bandit chief? I
could buy a piece of red and yeller creeton, figgered, and a piece
of striped for a sash. They’re always depictered in dime novels
as bein’ very dressy with feathers, and I could kinder jam in the
top of my hat and put some feathers in it, I could buy a couple of
turkey wings of Nate Enders, he deals in turkeys, and I have to go
most to his house to go to the store--what do you say, Samantha?
Or, would you go as a Shepherd Boy, or how would you go?”
I wuz wore out, and I sez, “I would go as a natteral fool, Josiah,
and you wouldn’t have to buy anything or change a mite to do it.”
“Yes, there it is; keep right on, I never knew it to fail in my
life; I never yet got a chance to enter fashionable life and show
off a little but you tried to break it up.” Sez he still more
pitiful, “I always wanted to look fancy, Samantha, and you’ve never
seemed willin’. I don’t say that you are jealous of my looks, for
I don’t think you are any such a woman, but I will say it looks
queer, but now there is a chance for me to look gay, and I am goin’
to embrace it.”
Jest that minute the girl with the cap on come into the room agin,
and I nudged him to keep still, but he wouldn’t. I enticed him over
to the winder and argued with him there. My voice wuz real low,
but he wuz so excited and spoke so loud the girl must have got a
inklin’ of what he wuz sayin’, and, seein’ the dilemma I wuz in,
she spoke right up and sez with her queer little axent:
“They wuz not all to appear in Fancy Dress, it wuz for the young
mostly, the aged were not expected to appear in costume.”
And that madded Josiah more than ever; he duz want to appear young;
he don’t grow old as graceful as I could wish, and he hollered out:
“Where are your aged folks? I don’t see any. I am in the prime of
life myself, and, as for Samantha, she don’t have to wear a cap,
anyway.”
“No, Moseer,” sez she, real polite, but she contended firm as iron,
bein’ my friend, as I could see, that “Madam and Moseer would not
be expected to appear in costoom.”
“Well, Modom can do as she is a mind to,” sez he, mocking the
girl’s way of pronouncin’ Madame, and it did sound some like
swearin’, but I didn’t mind, “Modom can do as she is a mind to, but
I am goin’ in costoom.”
But I whispered to him and sez, “When perfect strangers warn you
for your good, Josiah Allen, mebby you’ll listen to ’em if you
won’t to me.” I won’t put down the words he replied to me in a
savage whisper, nor his answer to my arguments, no it hain’t
best, he is my pardner, and I took him for better or worse, and
why should I flinch when the worst appears? No, I will pass over
the time till I got him subsided in a big armchair by my side (no
wonder he wuz tired) readin’ a portion of his World that he had
brung up in his hand.
The girl looked feelin’ly at me as he sot there, still mutterin’
occasionally, and she went out, and a little while after a waiter
appeared with a tray full of good vittles, splendid. Whether that
girl is married or single, she knows men’s naters and what is the
soothinest emolyent to apply to ’em. As he helped himself to
the third helpin’ of nice, tender chicken with accompaniments of
creamed potatoes and toast and coffee, good as I can make a most,
his mean relaxed and he put on a less madder look, and as he took
the fourth slice of some good cake and jelly, his axent wuz almost
tender as he sez, “Well, Samantha, my dear, when had we better go
down and jine the party?”
“There hain’t any party to jine now, but if you feel like it we
will go down pretty soon and walk round the grounds and along the
lake till the company comes, and,” sez I, “if I had mistrusted
before I left home that this thing didn’t begin till after bedtime,
I wouldn’t have stirred a step, and wouldn’t, anyway, if it hadn’t
been for that Heathen, but sence we are here we might as well stay
and see some of it, and then go home.”
“Yes,” sez he, “it won’t be no worse than watch meetin’, anyway.”
So this programmy wuz carried out by us. We walked round the
grounds, by this time all alive with men and wimmen and waiters
runnin’ every which way, puttin’ up lamps and lanterns and awnin’s,
and fixin’ booths and seats, etc., etc., and I thought to myself
how much that Heathen is havin’ done for him, and I wondered if he
realized it and appreciated it as he ort to.
We walked round till we got tired and then sot down on a bench by
the lake shore, and, bein’ tired, I d’no but we fell into a drowse,
’tennyrate we rested real good. The gentle swash of the waves on
the pebbly beach sounded sort o’ soothin’ and refreshin’, jinin’
in as it did with the soft night wind that wuz blowin’ in from the
west. Pretty soon the sun went down into the lake that looked as
if we might walk away on it clear into Glory if we tried to, and
then the stars come out and glistened in the clear sky overhead,
and the crescent moon hung in the east like a great silver hammock
for angels to lay down in and rest their wings some. And almost
simeltaneous with the stars overhead come the lightin’ of a
thousand lights around us, behind us, and before us, sparkling,
glittering, shining lights of all shapes and colors glancin’
through the evergreen boughs and soft foliage, and hung in long
lines of brilliant color from tree to tree. The hotel looked as if
it wuz a sea of light inside, and the big tent looked as brilliant
as Aladin’s palace, and the long line of little booths on each side
looked, too, as if they had been brought from Arabia and sot down
there, so strange and brilliant they looked with gorgeous curtains
and tables all heaped up with beautiful objects to sell and lights
sparklin’ everywhere.
Well, by the time we got rousted up and walkin’ round and viewin’
the seen the music had struck up in a tent by itself, enchantin’
music that seemed to roust up our souls and bodies, too. Pretty
girls and handsome wimmen wuz standin’ behind the tables in them
little booths sellin’ their wares for the benefit of that Heathen
to the brilliant crowd that wuz beginnin’ to fill the walks and
tents, a brilliant crowd indeed, for every costoom of every age wuz
represented.
And they wuz so beautiful, and the music wuz so soft and
enchantin’, that I did wish that Heathen could have looked on
that seen that wuz bein’ done for him. I believe it would have
shamed him if he had any shame, and he wouldn’t eat up any more
missionaries, not for some time, anyway, but then, as I told
Josiah, he probable wouldn’t feel to home here and probable wuzn’t
dressed decent for the occasion.
And he sez, pintin’ to a woman who wuz walkin’ round locked arms
with a man and holdin’ a gold eyeglass to her eye, “I d’no but he
would feel to home with her.”
And, as I looked on her, I see my pardner wuz right, her waist wuz
jest a mockery of a waist, a belt and a string over her shoulder
wuz about all, and her arms bare to her shoulders, only some gloves
drawed on part way. I drawed him away at a good jog and walked him
into what I thought wuz a place of safety, but, good land! I see
I had got him into a worse place by far, for whereas there had
been only one female heathen, as you may say, here wuz more than a
dozen. I was so took up with the seen that I didn’t realize what
wuz about us till I hearn Josiah gin a low chuckle, and I sez:
“What is the matter, Josiah Allen?”
And he sez, “Oh, nothin’.” But as I looked round I see plain what
he wuz chucklin’ over, and I hurried him away. As we went, he sez:
“You no need to worried, Samantha, about that naked Heathen not
feelin’ to home.”
“Well,” sez I, “they have got clothes enough on from their waist
down.” I will stand up for my sect, anyway.
“Yes,” sez Josiah, “if these wimmen and girls would take some of
the silk and gauzes that are straingin’ down on the ground to cover
up their nakedness they would look better, enough sight.”
Sez I, “You hain’t obleeged to look on ’em.”
“Well,” sez he, real impatient, “put girl blinders on me if you
want to, but I have got to look round some till you do.”
[Illustration: I DRAWED HIM AWAY AT A GOOD JOG, AND WALKED HIM INTO
WHAT I THOUGHT WUZ A PLACE OF SAFETY.
_Page 254._]
And I sez, “We will go into the booths and trade a little.” Here
he groaned pitiful, but I reminded him that the Heathen had got to
be helped some by us, and he sez, “That Heathen has more done for
him than I have, enough sight.”