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
Well, this is what Arvilly has went through.
Day by day we sailed onwards, and if the days wuz beautiful, the nights wuz heavenly, lit by the glowinâ moon that seemed almost like another sun, only softer and mellerer lookinâ; and the lustrous stars of the tropics seemed to flash and glitter jest over our head almost as if we could reach up and gather âem in our hands into a sheaf of light.
The weather seemed to moderate and we had to put on our thinnest garments in the middle of the day. But my poor Josiah could not make much change; he had to wear his pepper-and-salt costoom in publick, which wuz pretty thick, but I fixed sunthinâ for him to wear in our state-room, where we passed considerable time. I took one of my outing jackets that was cut kinder bask fashion, trimmed with lace and bows of ribbon and pinned it over in the back, and it fitted him quite well and wuz cool. He liked it; he 104 thought it become him, it wuz so dressy, but I wouldnât let him appear in publick in it.
I dressed Tommy in his summer suit, and wore my figgered lawn and wuz none too cool. We only had one heavy storm, but that wuz fearful; everything dashed round and wuz broke that could be. I put Tommy in his little crib and fastened him in, and fastened my most precious treasure, Josiah, to the berth. I then tied myself up, and we bore it as well as we could, though every time the ship went down into the trough of the sea I felt that it wuz dubersome about its ever cominâ out agin, and every time it mounted up on one of them stupendous billers, higher than the Jonesville meetinâ house, I felt doubtful whether or no it would fall bottom side up or not. Tommy wuz cryinâ, and Josiah wuz kinder whimperinâ, though for my sake he wuz tryinâ to bear up. But Iâll hang a curtain up before that seen and not take it down agin till we wuz all ontied and the sun wuz shininâ down on smoother waters.
At last after seven daysâ stiddy sailinâ a little spec wuz seen in the distance one morninâ gradually growinâ in size, and other little specks wuz sighted, also growinâ gradual, and at last they turned to solid land rising up out of the blue water, clad in strange and beautiful verdure behind the white foaminâ billers of surf. And instinctively as we looked onât I broke out singinâ onbeknown to me, and Josiah jined in in deep base:
âSweet fields beyend the swellinâ flood
Stand dressed in livinâ green.â
We sung it to Balermy. Josiah hainât much of a singer, and my voice hainât what it once wuz, but I dâno as in any conference meetinâ that him ever sounded sweeter to me, or I sung it with more of the sperit.
How beautiful wuz the shore as we approached it, its scenery different from Jonesville scenery, but yet worth seeinâââyes, indeed! Mountain and valley, rock and green velvet verdure, tall palm trees shadinâ kinder low houses, but still beautiful and attractive. And what beautiful colors greeted our weary eyes as we drew nigher. I thought of that gate of Jerusalem the Golden, all enamelled with emerald, amethyst, chalcedony, and pearl sot in gold. The golden brown earth made from melted lava, the feathery foliage of the palms that riz up beyend the dazzlinâ white beach, the crystal blue waters with myriad-hued fishes playing down in its crystal depths. Oh, how fair the seen as we approached nearer and see plainer and plainer the pictured beauty of the shore. Shininâ green valley, emerald-topped mountain, amethyst sea; which wuz the most beautiful it wuz hard to say.
Evangeline Noble stood off by herself leaninâ on the rail of the deck as if she see through the beauty into the inner heart of things, and see in her mindâs eye all the work her own people, the missionaries, had done there. The thought that they had taken the natives like diamonds incrusted in dirt and cleansed them of the blackest of their habits. She see in the past natives burying their children alive, putting to death the mentally weak, worshipping horrible idols, killing and eating their enemies, etc., etc. But now, under the blessed light of the torch, that long procession of martyrs had held up, the former things wuz passinâ away, and she, too, wuz one of that blessed host of Godâs helpers. She looked riz up and radiant as if she see way beyend the islands 106 of the sea and all she hoped to do for her Master on earth, and as if he wuz talking to her now, teaching her his will.
Nigher to us Elder Wessel wuz standing, and he sez, lifting up his eyes to heaven:
âOh islands of the sea! where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.â
And Arvilly hearn him and snapped out, âI dâno as theyâre so very vile till traders and other civilized folks teach âem to drink and cheat and tear round.â His eyes lost in a minute that heavenly expression they had wore and sez he:
âOh, islands of the sea! where every prospect pleases and eat each other up and etcetery.â
âWell, I dâno,â sez she, âbut Iâd ruther be killed to once by a club and eat up and be done with than to die by inches as wimmen do under our civilized American license laws. The savages kill their enemies, but the American savage kills the one that loves him best, and has to see her children turned into brutes and ruffians, under what is called a Christian dispensation. There hainât no hypocrisy and Phariseeism in a good straight club death, and most likely whilst he wuz eatinâ me up he wouldnât pose before foreign nations as a reformer and civilizer of the world.â
âOh, Sister Arvilly,â sez he, âthink of the hideous idols they worship! You canât approve of that,â sez he.
But Arvilly, the ondanted, went on, âWell I never see or hearn of any savage idol to compare in hegiousness with the Whiskey Power that is built up and pampered and worshipped by Americans rich and poor, high and low, Church and State. Let any one make a move to tear that idol down from its altar, made of dead menâs bones, and see what a flutter there is in the camp, how new laws are made and old laws shoved aside, and new laws fixed over, and the highest and the lowest will lie and cringe and drag themselves on their knees in front of it to protect it and worship it. Donât talk to me about your wood idols; they hainât nothinâ to be compared to it. They stay where theyâre put, they donât 107 rare round and kill their worshippers as this Whiskey idol duz. Iâd think enough sight more of some men high in authority if they would buy a good clean basswood idol and put it up in the Capitol at Washington, D. C., and kneel down before it three times a day, than to do what they are doinâ; they wouldnât do half the hurt and God knows it, and He would advise âem that way if they ever got nigh enough to Him soâs He could speak to âem at all.â
âOh, Sister Arvilly!â sez Elder Wessel, and he looked as if he would faint away. And I too wuz shocked to my soul, specially as Josiah whispered kinder low to me:
âSamantha, we might git a small idol whilst weâre here. You know it would come handy in hayinâ time and when the roads are drifted full.â
I looked at him in a way that he will remember through his hull life, and sez he quick, âI shanât do nothinâ of the kind unless youâre willinâ.â
âWillinâ!â sez I, in heart-broken axents. âWhat will happen next to me?â And then indignation dried my tears before they fell and I sez, âI command you, Josiah Allen, to never speak to me on this subject agin; or think onât!â sez I fiercely.
He muttered sunthinâ about thinkinâ what he wuz a mindter. And I turned to Arvilly and sez, to git her mind off:
âSee that native, Arvilly, standinâ up on that board!â
For as our good ship bore us onward we see crowds of natives standinâ up on little tottlinâ boards, dartinâ through the water every which way, risinâ and fallinâ on the waves. I couldnât done it to save my life. No, Josiah nor me couldnât stood on boards like that on our creek, to say nothinâ of the Pacific Ocean. But we should never have appeared in public dressed in that wayââit wuznât decent, and I told Josiah I wouldnât look at âem if I wuz in his place; I mistrusted that some on âem might be wimmen. And then I thought of the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve first took the 108 place, and I didnât really know what to think. But I drawed Arvillyâs attention to one on âem that seemed extra dextrious in managinâ his board and sez, âHow under the sun duz he do it, Arvilly?â
âI dâno,â sez she, and she added dreamily, âI wonder if he would want a copy of the âTwin Crimes,â or the âWicked and Warlike.â If I do sell any here to the natives itâll put some new idees in their heads about idol worship wickeder and warliker than they ever had.â Miss Meechim and Dorothy wuz approachinâ and Robert Strong I see looked off with rapt eyes onto the glorious seen. And as no two can see the same things in any picture, but see the idees of their own mind, blended in and shadinâ the view, I spozed that Robert Strong see rared up on the foreground of that enchantinâ seen his ideal City of Justice, where gigantic trusts, crushinâ the peopleâs life out, never sot its feet, but love, equality and good common sense sot on their thrones in the middle onât, and the people they ruled wuz prosperous and happy. And anon he looked down into Dorothyâs sweet face as if no foreign shore or any inner vision ever looked so good to him.
Miss Meechim hated to have Dorothy see them natives, I see she did; actinâ so skittish towards the male sect always, it wuz dretful galdinâ to her to see âem in that state and specially to have Dorothy see âem. She looked awful apprehensive towards them swimmers and board riders and then at her niece. But when she catched sight of Robert by her side a look of warm relief swepâ over her anxious face, as if in her mindâs eye she see Dorothy by his help walkinâ through the future a prosperous and contented bacheldor maid.
Tommy wuz kinder talkinâ to himself or to his invisible playmate. He wonnered how he wuz goinâ to git on shore, wonnerinâ if he could stand up on one of them little boards and if his grandpa and grandma would each have one to stand up on, and kinder lookinâ forward to such an experience I could see, and Josiah wuz wonderinâ how soon he 109 could git a good meat dinner. And so as on shore or sea each one wuz seeinâ what their soulâs eye had to
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