Samantha at Saratoga by Marietta Holley (e book reader pc .TXT) đ
- Author: Marietta Holley
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âOh!â says he, with a relieved look. âThatâs a different thing. I am willinâ to do that. I donât know about givinâ âem any money towards gettinâ âem a home, but Iâll carry âem a pound of crackers or a pound of flour, and help it along all I can.â
Josiah is a clever creeter (though close), and he never made no more objections towards havinâ it.
Wall, the next day I put on my shawl and hood (a new brown hood knit out of zephyr worsted, very nice, a present from our daughter Maggie, our son Thomas Jeffersonâs wife), and sallied out to see what the neighborâs thought about it.
The first woman I called on wuz Miss Beazley, a new neighbor who had just moved into the neighborhood. They are rich as they can be, and I expected at least to get a pound of tea out of her.
She said it wuz a worthy object, and she would love to help it along, but they had so many expenses of their own to grapple with, that she didnât see her way clear to promise to do anything. She said the girls had got to have some new velvet suits, and some sealskin sacques this winter, and they had got to new furnish the parlors, and send their oldest boy to college, and the girls wanted to have some diamond lockets, and ought to have âem but she didnât know whether they could manage to get them or not, if they did, they had got to scrimp along every way they could. And then they wuz goinâ to have company from a distance, and had got to get another girl to wait on âem. And though she wished the poor well, she felt that she could not dare to promise a cent to âem. She wished the Smedley family wellâdretful wellâand hoped I would get lots of things for âem. But she didnât really feel as if it would be safe for her to promiseâem a pound of anything, though mebby she might, by a great effort, raise a pound of flour for âem, or meal.
Says I dryly (dry as meal ever wuz in its dryest times), âI wouldnât give too much. Though,â says I, âA pound of flour would go a good ways if it is used right.â And I thought to myself that she had better keep it to make a paste to smooth over things.
Wall, I went from that to Miss Jacob Hessâes, and Miss Jacob Hess wouldnât give anything because the old lady wuz disagreeable, old Grandma Smedley, and I said to Miss Jacob Hess that if the Lord didnât send His rain and dew onto anybody only the perfectly agreeable, I guessed there would be pretty dry times. It wuz my opinion there would be considerable of a drouth.
There wuz a woman there a visitinâ Miss Hessâshe wuz a stranger to me and I didnât ask her for anything, but she spoke up of her own accord and said she would give, and give liberal, only she wuz hampered. She didnât say why, or who, or when, but she only sez this that âshe wuz hampered,â and I donât know to this day what her hamper wuz, or who hampered her.
And then I went to Ebin Garvenâses, and Miss Ebin Garven wouldnât help any because she said âJoe Smedley had been right down lazy, and she couldnât call him anything else.â
âBut,â says I, âJoe is dead, and why should his children starve because their pa wasnât over and above smart when he wuz alive?â But she wouldnât give.
Wall, Miss Whymper said she didnât approve of the manner of giving. Her face wuz all drawed down into a curious sort of a long expression that she called religus and I called somethinâ that begins with âh-y-p-oââand I donât mean hypoey, either.
No, she couldnât give, she said, because she always made a practise of not lettinâ her right hand know what her left hand give.
And I said, for I wuz kinder took aback, and didnât think, I said to her, a glancinâ at her hands which wuz crossed in front of her, that I didnât see how she managed it, unless she give when her right hand was asleep.
And she said she always gave secret.
And I said, âSo I have always sâposedâvery secret.â
I sâpose my tone was some sarcastic, for she says, âDonât the Scripter command us to do so?â
Says I firmly, âI donât believe the Scripter means to have us stand round talkinâ Bible, and let the Smedleys starve,â says I. âI sâpose it means not to boast of our good deeds.â
Says she, âI believe in takinâ the Scripter literal, and if I canât git my stuff there entirely unbeknown to my right hand I shaânât give.â
âWall,â says I, gettinâ up and movinâ towards the door, âyou must do as youâre a mind to with fear and tremblinâ.â
I said it pretty impressive, for I thought I would let her see I could quote Scripter as well as she could, if I sot out.
But good land! I knew it wuz a excuse. I knew she wouldnât give nothinâ not if her right hand had the num palsy, and you could stick a pin into itâno, she wouldnât give, not if her right hand was cut off and throwed away.
Wall, Miss Bombus, old Dr. Bombusâes widow, wouldnât giveâand for all the worldâI went right there from Miss Whymperâses. Miss Bombus wouldnât give because I didnât put the names in the Jonesville Augur or Gimlet, for she said, âLet your good deeds so shine.â
âWhy,â says I, âMiss Whymper wouldnât give because she wanted to give secreter, and you wonât give because you want to give publicker, and you both quote Scripter, but it donât seem to help the Smedleys much.â
She said that probably Miss Whymper was wrestinâ the Scripter to her own destruction.â
âWall,â says I, âwhile you and Miss Whymper are a wrestinâ the Scripter, what will become of the Smedleys? It donât seem right to let them âfreeze to death, and starve to death, while we are a debatinâ on the ways of Providence.â
But she didnât tell, and she wouldnât give.
A woman wuz there a visitinâ, Miss Bombusâes aunt, I think, and she spoke up and said that she fully approved of her niece Bombusâes decision. And she said, âAs for herself, she never give to any subject that she hadnât thoroughly canvassed.â
Says I, âThere they all are in that little hut, you can canvass them at any time. Though,â says I, thoughtfully, âMarvilla might give you some trouble.â And she asked why.
And I told her she had the rickets so she couldnât stand still to be canvassed, but she could probably follow her up and canvass her, if she tried hard enough. And says I, âThere is old Grandma Smedley, over eighty, and five children under eight, you can canvass them easy.â
Says she, âThe Bible says, âSearch the Sperits.ââ
And I was so wore out a seeinâ how place after place, for three times a runnin the Bible was lifted up and held as a shield before stingy creeters, to ward off the criticism of the world and their own souls, that I says to myselfâloud enough so they could hear me, mebbe, âWhy is it that when anybody wants to do a mean, ungenerous act, they will try to quote a verse of Scripter to uphold âem, jest as a wolf will pull a lock of pure white wool over his wolfish foretop, and try to look innocent and sheepish.â
I donât care if they did hear me, I wuz on the step mostly when I thought it, pretty loud.
Wall, from Miss Bombusâes I went to Miss Petingillâs.
Miss Petingill is a awful high-headed creeter. She come to the door herself and she said, I must excuse her for answerinâ the door herself. (I never heard the door say anything and donât believe she did, it was jest one of her ways.) But she said I must excuse her as her girl wuz busy at the time.
She never mistrusted that I knew her hired girl had left, and she wuz doinâ her work herself. She had ketched off her apron I knew, as she come through the hall, for I see it a layinâ behind the door, all covered with flour. And after she had took me into the parlor, and we had set down, she discovered some spots of flour on her dress, and she said she âhad been pastinâ some flowers into a scrap book to pass away the time.â But I knew she had been bakinâ for she looked tired, tired to death almost, and it wuz her bakinâ day. But she would sooner have had her head took right off than to own up that she had been doinâ houseworkâwhy, they say that once when she wuz doinâ her work herself, and was ketched lookinâ awful, by a strange minister, that she passed herself offâ for a hired girl and said, âMiss Petingill wasnât to home, and when pressed hard she said she hadnât âthe least idee where Miss Petingill wuz.â
Jest think on ât onceâand there she wuz herself. The idee!
Wall, the minute I sot down before I begun my business or anything, Miss Petingill took me to do about puttinâ in Miss Bibbins President of our Missionary Society for the Relief of Indignent Heathens.
The Bibbinsâes are good, very good, but poor.
Says Miss Petingill: âIt seems to me as if there might be some other woman put in, that would have had more influence on the Church.â
Says I, âHaint Miss Bibbins a good Christian sister, and a great worker?â
âWhy yes, she wuz good, good in her place. But,â she said, âthe Petingills hadnât never associated with the Bibbinsâes.â
And I asked her if she sâposed that would make any difference with the heathen; if the heathen would be apt to think less of Miss Bibbins because she hadnât associated with the Petingills?
And she said, she didnât sâpose âthe heathens would ever know it; it might make some difference to âem if they did,â she thought, âfor it couldnât be denied,â she said, âthat Miss Bibbins did not move in the first circles of Jonesville.â
It had been my doinâs a puttinâ Miss Bibbins in and I took it right to home, she meant to have me, and I asked her if she thought the Lord would condemn Miss Bibbins on the last day, because she hadnât moved in the first circles of Jonesville?
And Miss Petingill tosted her head a little, but had to own up, that she thought âHe wouldnât.â
âWall, then,â sez I, âdo you sâpose the Lord has any objections to her working for Him now?â
âWhy no, I donât know as the Lord would object.â
âWall,â sez I, âwe call this work the Lordâs work, and if He is satisfied with Miss Bibbins, we ort to be.â
But she kinder nestled round, and I see she wuznât satisfied, but I couldnât stop to argue, and I tackled her then and there about the Smedleys. I asked her to give a pound, or pounds, as she felt disposed.
But she answered me firmly that she couldât give one cent to the Smedleys, she wuz principled against it.
And I asked her, âWhy?â
And she said, because the old lady wuz proud and wanted a home, and she thought that pride wuz so wicked, that it ort to be put down.
Wall, Miss Huff, Miss Cephas Huff, wouldnât give anything because one of the little Smedleys had lied to her. She wouldnât encourage lyinâ.
And I told her I didnât believe she would be half so apt to reform him on an empty stomach, as after he wuz fed up. But she wouldnât yield.
Wall, Miss Daggett said she would give, and give abundant, only she didnât consider it a worthy object.
But it wuznât nothinâ only a excuse, for the object has never been found yet that she thought wuz a worthy one. Why, she wouldnât give a cent towards painting the Methodist steeple, and if that haint a high and worthy object, I donât know what is. Why, our steeple is over seventy feet from the ground. But she wouldnât help us a miteânot a single cent.
Take such folks as them and the object never suits âem. They wonât come right out and tell the truth that they are too stingy and mean to give away a cent, but they will always put the excuse onto the objectâthe object donât suit âem.
Why, I do believe it is the livinâ truth that if the angel Gabriel wuz the object, if he wuz in need and we wuz gittinâ up a
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