Samantha at Saratoga by Marietta Holley (e book reader pc .TXT) š
- Author: Marietta Holley
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But sez I, āArdelia, it is a hot day, and I wouldnāt write any more if I wuz in your place. If you should heat your bra-, the upper part of your head, you might not get over it for some time.ā
āBut,ā sez she, āyou have told me sometimes to stop on account of cold weather.ā
āWall,ā sez I, āmost any kind of weather is hard on some kinds of poetry.ā Sez I, āPoetry is sunthinā that takes particular kinds of folks and weather to be successful.ā Sez I, āIt is sunthinā that canāt be tampered with with impunity by Christians or worldās people. It is a kind of a resky thing to do, and I wouldnāt write any more to-day, Ardelia.ā
And she heard to me and after a settinā a while with us, she went back to Mr. Pixleyās.
JOSIAH AND SAMANTHA TAKE A LONG WALK.
Wall, we hadnāt been to Saratoga long before Aunt Polly Pixley came over to see us, for Aunt Polly had been as good as her word and had come to Saratoga, to her 2d cousins, the Mr. Pixleyāses, where Ardelia wuz a stopping. Ardelia herself is a distant relation to Aunt Polly, quite distant, about 40 or 50 miles distant when they are both to home.
Wall, the change in Aunt Polly is wonderful, perfectly wonderful. She donāt look like the same woman.
She took her knittinā work and come in the forenoon, for a all dayās visit, jest as she wuz used to in the country, good old soul - and I took her right to my room and done well by her, and we talked considerable about other wimmen, not runninā talk, but good plain talk.
She thinks a sight of the Saratoga water, and well she may, if that is what has brung her up, for she wuz always sick in Jonesville, kinder bedrid. And when she sot out for Saratoga she had to have a piller to put on the seat behind her to sort a prop her up (henās feather).
And now, she told me she got up early every morninā and walked down to the spring for a drink of the water - walked afoot. And she sez, āIt is astonishinā how much good that water is a doinā me; for,ā sez she, āwhen I am to home I donāt stir out of the house from one dayās end to the other; and here,ā sez she, āI set out doors all day aāmost, a listeninā to the music in the park morninā and eveninā I hear every strain onāt.ā
Aunt Polly is the greatest one for music I ever see, or hearn on. And I sez to her, āDonāt you believe that one great thing that is helpinā you, is beinā where you are kepā gay and cheerful, - by music and good company; and beinā out so much in the sunshine and pure air.ā (Better air than Saratoga has got never wuz made; that is my opinion and Josiahās too.) And sez I, āI lay a good deal to that air.ā
āNo,ā she said, āit wuz the water.ā
Sez I, āThe water is good, I donāt make no doubts onāt.ā But I continued calmly - for though I never dispute, I do most always maintain my opinion - and I sez again calmly, āThere has been a great change in you for the better, sense you come here, Miss Pixley. But some onāt I lay to your beinā where things are so much more cheerful and happyfyinā. You say you haint heerd a strain of music except a base viol for over 14 years before you come here. And though base viols if played right may be melodious, yet Sam Pixleyās base viol wuz a old one, and sort a cracked and grumbly in tone, and he wuznāt much of a player anyway, and to me, base viols always sounded kinder base anyway.ā
And sez I, āDonāt you believe a gettinā out of your little low dark rooms, shaded by Pollard willers and grave stuns, and gettinā out onto a place where you can heer sweet music from morninā till night, a liftinā you up and makinā you happier - donāt you believe that has sunthinā to do with your feelinā so much better - that and the pure sweet air of the mountains cominā down and beinā softened and enriched by the breath of the valley, and the minerals, makinā a balmy atmosphere most full of balm - I lay a good deal to that.ā
āOh no,ā sez she, āit is the water.ā
āYes,ā sez I, in a very polite way, - I will be polite, āthe water is good, first rate.ā
But at that very minute, word come to her that she had company, and she sot sail homewards immegetly, and to once.
And now I donāt care anything for the last word, some wimmen do, but I donāt. But I sez to her, as I watched her a goinā down the stairway, steppinā out like a girl almost, sez I, āHow well you do seem, Aunt Polly; and I lay a good deal onāt to that air.ā
Now who would have thought she would speak out from the bottom of the stairway and say, āNo, it is the water?ā
Wall, the water is good, there haint no doubt, and anyway, through the water and the air, and beinā took out of her home cares, and old surroundinās onto a brght happy place, the change in Polly Pixley is sunthinā to be wondered at.
Yes, the water is good. And it is dretful smart, knowinā water too. Why, wouldnāt anybody think that when it all comes from the same place, or pretty nigh the same place anyway, that they would get kinder flustrated and mixed up once in a while?
But they donāt. These hundreds and thousands of years, and I donāt know how much longer, they have kepā themselves separate from each other, livinā nigh neighbors there down under the ground, but never neighborinā with each other, or intermarryinā in each otherās families. No, they have kepā themselves apart, livinā exclosive down below and bubblinā up exclosive.
They know how to make each other keep their proper distance, and I sāpose through all the centuries to come they will bubble up, right side by side, entirely different from each other.
Curius, haināt it? Dretful smart, knowinā waters they be, fairly sparklinā and flashinā with light and brightness, and intelligence. They are for the healinā and refreshinā of ,the nations, and the nations are all here this summer, a beinā healed by āem. But still I lay a good deal to that air.
Amongst the things that Aunt Polly told me about wimmen that day, wuz this, that Ardelia Tutt had got a new Bo, Bial Flamburg, by name.
She said Mr. Flamburg had asked Ardeliaās 3d cousin to introduce him to her, and from that time his attentions to her had been unremittent, voyalent, and close. She said that to all human appearance he wuz in love with her from his hat band down to his boots and she didnāt know what the result would be, though she felt that the situation wuz dangerus, and moreān probable Abram Gee had more trouble ahead on him. (Aunt Polly jest worships Abram Gee, jest as everybody duz that gets to know him well.) And I too, felt that the situation wuz dubersome. For Ardelia I knew wuz one of the soft little wimmen that has got to have men a trailinā round after āem; and her beinā so uncommon tender hearted, and Mr. Flamburg so deep in love, I feared the result.
Wall, I wuz jest a thinkinā of this that day after dinner when Josiah proposed a walk, so we sot out. He proposed we should walk through the park, so we did. The air wuz heavenly sweet and that park is one of the most restful and beautiful places this side of Heaven, or so it seemed to us that pleasant afternoon. The music was very soft and sweet that day, sweet with a undertone of sadness, some like a great sorrowful soul in a beautiful body.
The balmy south wind whispered through the branches of the bendinā trees on the hill where we sot. The light was a shininā and a siftinā down through the green leaves, in a soft golden haze, and the music seemed to go right up into them shadowy, shininā pathways of golden misty light, a climbinā up on them shadowy steps of mist and gold, and amber, up, up into the soft depths of the blue overhead - up to the abode of melody and love.
Down the hill in the beautiful little valley, all amongst the fountains and windinā walks and white statutes, and green, green, grass, little children wuz a playinā. Sweet little toddlers, jest able to walk about, and bolder spirits, though small, a trudginā about with little canes, and jumpinā round, and havinā a good time.
Little boys and little girls (beautiful creeters, the hull on āem), for if their faces, every one on āem, wuznāt jest perfect! They all had the beauty of childhood and happiness. And crowds of older folks wuz there. And some happy young couples, youths and maidens, wuz a settinā round, and a wanderinā off by themselves, and amongst them we see the form of Ardelia, and a young man by her side.
She wuz a leaninā on the stun railinā that fences in the trout pond. She wuz evidently a lookinā down pensively at the shininā dartinā figures of the trout, a movinā round down in the cool waters.
I wuznāt nigh enough to āem to see really how her companion looked, but even at that distance I recognized a certain air and atmosphere a surroundinā Ardelia that I knew meant poetry.
And Josiah recognized it too, and he sez to me, āWe may as well go round the hill and out to the road that way,ā sez he, (a pointinā to the way furthest from Ardelia) āand we may as well be a goinā.ā
That man abhors poetry.
Wall, we wandered down into the high way and havinā most the hull afternoon before us, we kinder sauntered round amongst the stores that wuz pretty nigh to where we wuz. There is some likely good lookinā stores kepā by the natives, as they call the stiddy dwellers in Saratoga. Good lookinā respectable stores full of comfort and consolation, for the outer or inner man or woman. (I speak it in a mortal sense).
But with the hundred thousand summer dwellers, who flock here with the summer birds, and go out before the swallers go south, there comes lots of summer stores, and summer shops, and picture studios, etc., etc. Like big summer birdās-nests, all full and a runninā over with summer wealth, to be blowed down by the autumn winds. These shops are full of everything elegant and beautiful and useful. The most gorgeous vases and plaks and chiner ware of every description and color, and books, and jewelry, and rugs, and fans, and parasols, and embroideries, and laces, and etc., etc., etc.
And one shop seemed to be jest full of drops of light, light and sunshine, crystalized in golden, clear, tinted amber. There wuz a young female statute a standinā up in the winder of that store with her hands outstretched and jest a drippinā with the great glowinā amber drops. Some wuz a hanginā over her wings for she was a young flyinā female. And I thought to myself it must be she would fly better with all that golden light a drippinā about her.
Josiah liked her looks first rate. And he liked the looks of some of the pictures extremely. There wuz lots of places all full of pictures. A big collection of water colors, though as Josiah said and well said, How they could get so many colors out of water wuz a mystery to him.
But my choice out of all the pictures I see, wuz a little one called āThe Sands of Dee.ā It wuz āMary a callinā the cattle home.ā The cruel treacherus water wuz a risinā about her round bare ankles as she stood there amongst the rushes with her little milk-bucket on her arm.
Her pretty innocent face wuz a lookinā off into the shadows, and the last ray of sunset was a fallinā on her. Maybe it wuz the pity onāt that struck so hard as I looked at it, to know that the ācruel, crawliān foamā wuz so soon to creep over the sweet young face and round limbs. And there seemed to be a shadow of the
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