Samantha at Saratoga by Marietta Holley (e book reader pc .TXT) đ
- Author: Marietta Holley
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I stood for some time, and I donât know but longer, a lookinâ at it, my Josiah a standinâ placidly behind me, a lookinâ over my shoulder and enjoyinâ of it too, till the price wuz mentioned. But at that fearful moment, my pardner seized me by the arm, and walked me so voyalently out of that store and down the walk that I did not find and recover myself till we stood at the entrance to Philey street.
And I wuz so out of breath, by his powerful speed, that she didnât look nateral to me, I hardly recognized Philey. But Josiah hurried me down Philey and wanted to get my mind offen Mary Dee I knew, for he says as we come under a sign hanginâ down over the road, âHorse Exchange,â sez he, âWhat do you say, Samantha, do you spose I could change off the old mair, for a camel or sunthinâ? How would you like a camel to ride?â
I looked at him in speechless witherinâ silence, and he went on hurridly, âIt would make a great show in Jonesville, wouldnât it, to see us cominâ to meetinâ on a camel, or to see us ridinâ in a cutter drawed by one. I guess Iâll see about it, some other time.â
And he went on hurridly, and almost incoherently as we see another sign, over the road - oh! how vollubly he did talk - âQuick, Livery.â
âI hate to see folks so dumb conceeted! Now I donât spose that man has got any hosses much faster than the old mair.â
ââWingâs!â Shaw! I donât believe no such thing - a livery on wings. I donât believe a word onât. And you wouldnât ketch me on one on âem, if they had!â
ââYet Sing!ââ sez he, a lookinâ accost the street into a laundry house. âWhat do I care if you do sing? âTaint of much account if you do any way. I sing sometimes, I yet sing,â says he.
âSing,â sez I in neerly witherinâ tone. âIâd love to hear you sing, I haint yet and Iâve lived with you agoinâ on 30 years.â
âWall, if you haint heerd me, it is because you are deef,â sez he.
But that is jest the way he kepâ on, a hurryinâ me along, and a talkinâ fast to try to get the price of that picture out of my head. Anon, and sometimes oftener, we would come to the word in big letters on signs, or on the fence, or the sides of barns, âPray.â And sometimes it would read, âPray for my wife!â And Josiah every time he came to the words would stop and reflect on âem.
ââPray!â What business is it of yourn, whether I pray or not? âPray for my wife!â That haint none of your business.â
Sez he, a shakinâ his fist at the fence, ââTaint likely I should have a wife without prayinâ for her. She needs it bad enough,â sez he once, as he stood lookinâ at it.
I gin him a strange look, and he sez, âYou wouldnât like it, would you, if I didnât pray for you?â
âNo,â sez I, âand truly as you say, the woman who is your wife needs prayer, she needs help, morn half the time she duz.â
He looked kinder dissatisfied at the way I turned it, but he sez, ââPlumbinâ done here!ââ
âIâd love to know where they are goinâ to plum. I donât see no sign of plum trees, nor no stick to knock âem off with.â And agin he sez, âYou would make a great âfuss, Samantha, if I should say what is painted up right there on that cross piece. You would say I wuz a swearinâ.â
Sez I coldly, (or as cold as I could with my blood heated by the voyalence and rapidity of the walk he had been a leadinâ me,) âThere is a Van in front of it. Van Dam haint swearinâ.â
âYou would say it wuz if I used it,â sez he reproachfully. âIf I should fall down on the ice, or stub my toe, and trip up on the meetinâ house steps, and I should happen to mention the name of that street about the same time, you would say I wuz a swearinâ.â
I did not reply to him; I wouldnât. And agâin he hurried me onâards by some good lookinâ bildinâs, and trees, and tavrens, and cottages, and etc., etc., and we come to Caroline street, and Jane, and Matilda, and lots of wimmenâs names.
And Josiah sez, âIâll bet the man that named them streets wuz love sick!â
But he wuznât no such thing. It was a father that owned the land, and laid out the streets, and named âem for his daughters. Good old creeter! I wuznât goinâ to have him run at this late day, and run down his own streets too.
But agâin Josiah hurried me onâards. And bimeby we found ourselves a standinâ in front of a kind of a lonesome lookinâ house, big and square, with tall pillows in front. It wuz a standinâ back as if it wuz a kinder a drawinâ back from company, in a square yard all dark and shady with tall trees. And it all looked kinder dusky, and solemn like. And a bystander a standinâ by told us that it wuz âhaânted.â
Josiah pawed at it, and shawed at the idee of a gost.
But I sez, âThere! that is the only thing Saratoga lacked to make her perfectly interestinâ, and that is a gost!â
But agin Josiah pawed at the idee, and sez, âThere never wuz such a thing as a gost! and never will be.â And sez he, âwhat an extraordenary idiot anybody must be to believe in any sech thing.â And agâin he looked very skernful and high-headed, and once agâin he shawed.
And I kepâ pretty middlinâ calm and serene and asked the bystander, when the gost haânted, and where?
And he said, it opened doors and blowed out lights mostly, and trampled up stairs.
âOpeninâ, and blowinâ, and tramplinâ,â sez I dreamily.
âYes,â sez the man, âthatâs what it duz.â
And agin Josiah shawed loud. And agin I kepâ calm, and sez I, âIâd give a cent to see it.â And sez I, âDo you suppose it would blow out and trample if we should go in?â
But Josiah grasped holt of my arm and sez, ââTaint safe! my dear Samantha! donât leâs go near the house.â
âWhy? â sez I coldly, âyou say there haint no sech thing as a gost, what are you afraid on?â
His teeth wuz fairly chatterinâ. âOh! there might be spiders there, or mice, it haint best to go.â
I turned silently round and started on, for my companionâs looks was pitiful in the extreme. But I merely observed this, as we wended onwards, âI have always noticed this, Josiah Allen, that them that shaw the most at sech things, are the ones whose teeth chatter when they come a nigh âem, showinâ plain that the shawers are really the ones that believe in âem.â
âMy teeth chattered,â sez he, âbecause my gooms ache.â
âWell,â sez I, âthe leest said the soonest mended.â And we went on fast agâin by big houses and little, and boardinâ houses, and boardinâ houses, and boardinâ houses, and tavrens, and tavrens, and he kept me a walkinâ till my feet wuz most blistered.
I see what his aim wuz; I had recognized it all the hull time.
But as we went up the stairway into our room, perfectly tuckered out, both on us, I sez to him, in weary axents, âThat picture wuz cheap enough, for the money, wuznât it?â
He groaned aloud. And sech is my love for that man, that the minute I heard that groan I immegetly added, âThough I hadnât no idee of buyinâ it, Josiah.â
Immegetly he smiled warmly, and wuz very affectionate in his demeener to me for as much as two hours and a half. Sech is the might of human love.
His hurryinâ me over them swelterinâ and blisterinâ streets, and showinâ me all the beauty and glory of the world, and his conversation had no effect, skercely on my mind. But what them hours of frenzied effert could not accomplish, that one still, small groan did. I love that man. I almost worship him, and he me, vise versey, and the same.
We found that Ardelia Tutt had been to see us in our absence. She had been into our room I see, for she had dropped one of her mits there. And the chambermaid said she had been in and waited for us quite a spell - the young man a waitinâ below on the piazza, so I sâposed.
I expect Ardelia wanted to show him off to us and I myself wuz quite anxus to see him, feelinâ worried and oncomfertable about Abram Gee and wantinâ to see if this young chap wuz anywhere nigh as good as Abram.
Well about a hour after we came back, Josiah missed his glasses he reads with. And we looked all over the house for âem, and under the bed, and on the ceilinâ, and through our trunks and bandboxes, and all our pockets, and in the Bible, and Josiahâs boots, and everywhere. And finely, after givinâ âem up as lost, the idee come to us that they might possibly have ketched on the fringe of Ardeliaâs shawl, and so rode home with her on it.
So we sent one of the office-boys home with her mit and asked her if she had seen Josiahâs glasses. And word come back by the boy that she hadnât seen âem, and she sent word to me to look on my pardnerâs head for âem, and sure enough there we found âem, right on his foretop, to both of our surprises.
She sent also by the boy a poem she had wrote that afternoon, and sent word how sorry she wuz I wuznât to home to see Mr. Flamburg. But I see him only a day or two after that, and I didnât like his looks a mite.
But he said, and stuck to it, that his father owned a large bank, that he wuz a banker, and a doinâ a heavy business.
Wall, that raised him dretfully in Ardeliaâs eyes; she owned up to me that it did. She owned to me that she lead always thought she would love to be a Bankerâs Bride. She thought it sounded rich. She said, âbanker sounded so different from baker.â
I sez to her coolly, that âit wuz only a difference of one letter, and I never wuz much of a one to put the letter N above any of the others, or to be haughty on havinâ it added to, or diminished from my name.â
But she kepâ on a goinâ with him. She told me it wuz real romanticle the way he got aquanted with her. He see her onbeknown to her one day, when she wuz a writinâ a poem on one of the benches in the park.
âA Poem on a Bench!â
She wuz a settinâ on the bench, and a writinâ about it, she was a writinâ on the bench in two different ways. Curius, haint it?
But to resoom. He immegetly fell in love with her. And he got a feller who wuz a boardinâ to his boardinâ place to interduce him to Ardeliaâs relative, Mr. Pixley, and Mr. Pixley interduced him to Ardelia. He told Ardeliaâs relatives the same story - That his father wuz a banker, that he owned a bank and wuz doinâ a heavy business.
Wall, I watched that young chap, and watched him close, and I see there wuz one thing about him that could be depended on, he wuz truthful.
He seemed almost morbid on the subject, and would dispute himself half a hour, to get a thing or a story he wuz tellinâ jest exactly right. But he drinked; that I know for I know the symptoms. Coffee canât blind the eyes of her that waz once Smith, nor peppermint cast a mist before âem. My nose could have took its oath, if noses wuz ever put onto a bar of Justice - my nose would have gin its firm testimony that Bial Flamburg drinked.
And there wuz that sort of a air about him, that I canât describe exactly - a sort of a half offish, half familier and wholly disagreeable mean, that can be onderstood but not described. No, you canât picture that liniment, but you can be affected by it. Wall, Bial had it.
And I kepâ on a not likinâ him, and kepâ stiddy onwards a likinâ Abram Gee. I
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