Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife by Marietta Holley (life changing books TXT) đ
- Author: Marietta Holley
Book online «Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife by Marietta Holley (life changing books TXT) đ». Author Marietta Holley
âSamantha! stop the ship! wait for me! I am cominâ!â
Could it be? Yes it wuz my own beloved pardner, madly racinâ down the wharf, swinginâ his familiar old carpet satchel in his hand, also hugginâ in his arms a big bundle done up in newspaper, which busted as he reached the waterâs edge, dribblinâ out neckties, bandanna handkerchiefs, suspenders, cookies, and the dressinâ gown with tossels.
78He scrambled after âem as well as he could in his fearful hurry, and his arms beinâ full, he threw the dressinâ gown round his shoulders and madly raced over the gang plank, still emitting that agonizing cry: âSamantha, wait for me! stop the ship!â which he kepâ up after I had advanced onward and he held both my hands in hisen.
Oh, the bliss of that moment! No angel hand, no reporter even for the New York papers could exaggerate the blessedness of that time, much as they knew about exaggeration. Tears of pure joy ran down both our faces, and all the sorrows of the past seperation seemed to dissolve in a golden mist that settled down on everything round us and before us. The land looked good, the water looked good, the sky showered down joy as well as sunshine; we wuz together once more. We had no need of speech to voice our joy; but anon Josiah did say in tremblinâ axents as he pressed both my hands warmly in hisen: âSamantha, Iâve come!â And I, too, sez in a voice tremblinâ with emotion:
âDear Josiah, I see you have.â And then I sez tenderly as I helped him off with the dressinâ gown: âI thought you said you couldnât leave the farm, Josiah.â
âWell, I wuz leavinâ it; I wuz dyinâ; I thought I might as well leave it one way as tâother. I couldnât live without you, and finally I ketched up what clothes I could in my hurry and sot out, thinkinâ mebby I could ketch you in Chicago. You see I have got my dressinâ gown and plenty of neckties.â
âWell,â sez I in my boundless joy and content, âthere are things more necessary on a long sea voyage than neckties, but Iâve got some socks most knit, and I can buy some underclothes, and we will git along first rate.â âYes, Arvilly said so.â Sez he, âArvilly told me youâd manage.â
âArvilly?â sez I, in surprised axents.
âYes, Arvilly concluded to come too. She said that if you hadnât started so quick she should have come with you. But when she found out I was cominâ she jest set right off 79 with me. Sheâs brung along that book sheâs agent for, âThe Twin Crimes of America: Intemperance and Greed.â She thinks she can most pay her way sellinâ it. She jest stopped on the wharf to try to sell a copy to a minister. But here she is.â And, sure enough, she that wuz Arvilly Lanfear advanced, puttinâ some money in her pocket, she had sold her book. Well, I wuz surprised, but glad, for I pitied Arvilly dretfully for what she had went through, and liked her. Two passengers had gin up goinâ at the last minute or they couldnât have got tickets.
I advanced towards her and sez: âArvilly Lanfear! or she that wuz, is it you?â
âYes, Iâve come, and if ever a human creeter come through sufferinâ I have. Why, Iâve been agent for âThe Wild Deeds of Menâ for years and years, but I never knew anything about âem till I come on this tower. I thought that I should never git that man here alive. He has wepâ and wailed the hull durinâ time for fear we shouldnât ketch you.â
âOh, no, Arvilly!â sez the joyous-lookinâ Josiah.
âI can prove it!â sez she, catchinâ out his red and yeller bandanna handkerchief from his hat, where he always carries it: âLook at that, wet as sop!â sez she, as she held it up. It wuz proof, Josiah said no more.
âI knew we should ketch you, for I knew you would stop on the way. I thought I would meet you at the deepo to surprise you. But I had to bank my house; I wuznât goinâ to leave it to no underlinâ and have my stuff freeze. But when I hern that Josiah wuz cominâ I jest dropped my spadeââI had jest got doneââketched up my book and threw my things into my grip, my trunk wuz all packed, and here I am, safe and sound, though the cars broke down once and we wuz belated. We have just traipsed along a day or two behind you all the way from Chicago, I not knowinâ whether I could keep him alive or not.â
Sez I fondly, âWhat devoted love!â
80âWhat a natural fool!â sez Arvilly. âDid it make it any better for him to cry and take on? That day we broke down and had to stop at a tarven I wuz jest mad enough, and writ myself another chapter on âThe Wild Deeds of Men,â and am in hopes that the publisher will print it. It will help the book enormously I know. How youâve stood it with that man all these years, I donât see; rampinâ round, tearinâ and groaninâ and actinâ. He didnât act no more like a perfessor thanââthan Captain Kidd would if he had been travelinâ with a neighborinâ female, pursuinâ his wife, and that female doinâ the best she could for him. I kepâ tellinâ him that he would overtake you, but I might as well have talked to the windââa equinoctial gale,â sez she. Josiah wuz so happy her words slipped offen him without his sensinâ âem and I wuz too happy to dispute or lay anything up, when she went on and sez:
âI spoze that folks thought from our jawinâ so much that we wuz man and wife; and he a yellinâ out acrost the sleeper and kinder cryinâ, and I a hollerinâ back to him to âshet up and go to sleep!â It is the last time I will ever try to carry a man to his wife; but I spozed when I started with him, he beinâ a perfessor, he would act different!â
âWell,â sez I, in a kind of a soothinâ tone, âIâm real glad youâve come, Arvilly; it will make the ship seem more like Jonesville, and I know what you have went through.â
âWell,â sez she, âno other livinâ woman duz unless it is you.â She kepâ on thinkinâ of Josiah, but I waved off that idee; I meant her tribulations in the army. And I sez, âYou may as well spend your money travelinâ as in any other way.â
âYes, I love to travel when I can travel with human creeters, and I might as well spend my money for myself as to leave it for my cousins to fight over, and I can pay my way mostly sellinâ my book; and Iâve left my stuff so it wonât spile.â
âWhere is Waitstill Webb?â sez I.
81âOh, Waitstill has gone back to be a nurseââsheâs gone to the Philippines.â
Sez I gladly, âThen we shall see her, Arvilly.â
âYes,â sez she, âand that wuz one reason that I wanted to go, though sheâs acted like a fool, startinâ off agin to help the govermunt. Iâve done my last work for it, and I told her so; I sez, if see the govermunt sinkinâ in a mud hole I wouldnât lift a finger to help it out. I always wanted to see China and Japan, but never spozed I should.â
âIt is a strange Providence, indeed, Arvilly, that has started us both from Jonesville to China. But,â sez I, âlet me make you acquainted with the rest of our party,â and I introduced âem. Josiah wuz embracinâ Tommy and beinâ embraced, and he had seen âem all but Robert Strong.
In a few minutes the great ship begun to breathe hard, as if tryinâ to git up strength for the move, and kinder shook itself, and gin a few hoarse yells, and sot off, seeminâ to kinder tremble all over with eagerness to be gone. And so we sot sail, but ship and shore and boundless water all looked beautiful and gay to me. What a change, what a change from the feelinâs I had felt; then the cold spectral moonlight of loneliness rested on shore and Golden Gate, now the bright sun of love and happiness gilded âem with their glorious rays, and I felt well. Well might Mr. Drummond say, âLove is the greatest thing in the world.â And as I looked on my precious pardner I bethought fondly, no matter how little a man may weigh by the steelyards, or how much a Arvilly may make light on him, if Love is enthroned in his person he towers up bigger than the hull universe. And so, filled with joy radiatinâ from the presence of the best beloved, and under the cloudless sunshine of that glorious day, I set out on my Trip Abroad. Yes, I wuz once more embarked on that great watery world that lays all round us and the continents, and we canât help ourselves.
And the days follered one another along in Injin file, trampinâ silently and stiddily on, no matter where we be or what we do. So we sailed on and on, the ship dashinâ along at I donât know how many knots an hour. Probably the knots would be enough if straightened out to make a hull hank of yarn, and mebby more. Part of the time the waves dashinâ high. Mebby the Pacific waves are a little less tumultous and high sweepinâ than the Atlantic, a little more pacific as it were, but they sway out dretful long, and dash up dretful 83 high, bearinâ us along with âem every time, up and down, down and up, and part of the time our furniture and our stomachs would foller âem and sway, too, and act. The wind would soar along, chasinâ after us, but never quite ketchinâ us; sometimes abaft, sometimes in the foâcastle, whatever that may be.
And under uz wuz the great silent graveyard, the solemn, green aisles, still and quiet, and no knowinâ how soon we should be there, too, surrounded by the riches of that lost world of them that go down in ships, but not doinâ us any good. Only a board or two and some paint between us and destruction (but then I donât know as we are seperated any time very fur from danger, earthquakes, tornados and such). And good land! I would tell myself and Josiah, for that matter Iâve known wimmen to fall right out of their chairs and break themselves all up more or less, and fall often back steps and suller stairs and such. But âtennyrate I felt real riz up as I looked off on the heavinâ billers, and Faith sez to me, âWhy should I fear since I sailed with God.â The seas, I am journeying, I told myself with Duty on one side of me and on the other side Josiah, and the sun of Love over all. I got along without any seasickness to speak of, but my pardner suffered ontold agoniesââor no, they wuznât ontold, he told âem all to meââyes, indeed!
Tommy âwonneredâ what made the big vessel sail on so fast, and what made so much water, where it all come from, and where it wuz all goinâ to. And at night he would lay on his little shelf and âwonnerâ what the wind wuz sayinâ; one night he spoke out kinder in rhyme, sez he: âGrandma, do you know what the wind is sayin?â And I sez:
âNo, dear lamb; what is it sayinâ?â It has sounded dretful, kinder wild and skairful to me, and so it had to Josiah, I knew by the sithes he had gin. Sez Tommy, it sez:
âDonât be afraid my little child,
God will take care of you all the while.â
84And I sez, âThank you, Tommy, youâve done me good.â And I noticed that Josiah seemed more contented and dropped off to sleep real sweet, though he snored some. Sometimes Tommy would âwonnerâ what seasickness wuz like, if it wuz any like measles, but didnât find out, for he wuznât sick a day, but wandered about the great ship, happy as a king, making friends everywhere, though Robert Strong remained his chief friend and helper. Dorothy wuz more beautiful than ever it seemed to me, a shadow of paleness over her sweet face peeping out from the white fur of her cunning little pink hood, makinâ her look sweeter than ever. There wuz two or three handsome young men on board who appreciated her beauty, and I spoze the gold setting of her charming youth. But Miss Meechim called on Robert Strong to help protect her, which he
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