NRLF ( Ularietta HoUey) Kfustrated C DeGrimm * Printed in the United States ^^ * (fi m Company COPYRIGHT, 1895, RY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY "./RegisteneJ at Stuuohei* Hall London, England 4 . TO THE WEARY TRAVELLER WHO YEARNS TO SEE UNDER STRANGE SKIES THE LIGHT OF THE OLD HOME FIRE, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY SAM ANT HA AND JOSIAH. M69939 PREFACE. SEZ Josiah, as he see me writin this preface : " Seems to me, Samantha, you ve writ enough prefaces." (He wanted me to start the supper ; but, good land ! it wuzn t only half past five, and I had a spring chicken all ready to fry, and my cream biscuit wuz all ready for the oven, on the kitchen table.) Sez he, " It seems to me you ve writ enough on em." And I sez, "Wall, Josiah, I d hate to sadden the world by sayin I wouldn t write any more." And he sez, " How do you know it would sad den the world how do you know it would ?" And he continued: "Samantha, I hain t wanted to dampen you, but I have always considered your writin s weak ; naterally they would be, bein writ by a woman ; and," sez he, as he looked longin ly towards the buttery door and the plump chicken, " a woman s spear lays in a different direction." And I sez, " I thought I d write some of our ad ventures in our trip abroad that happy time," sez I, lookin inquirin ly at him. viii PREFACE. " Happy time !" sez he, a-kinder nashin his teeth " happy! gracious Heavens! Do you want to bring up my sufferin s agin, when I jest lived through em ?" " Wall," sez I, a-gittin up and approachin the buttery, and takin down the tea-kettle and fryin - pan and coffee-pot, " I have writ other things in the book that I am more interested in myself." He sot kinder still and demute as I put the chicken on to fry in butter, and put the cream bis cuit in the oven, and poured the bilein water on the fragrant coffee ; his mean seemed to grow softer, and he sez : " Mebby I wuz too hash a-sayin what I did about your writin s, Samantha ; I guess you write as well as* you know how to ; I guess you mean well ;" and as he see me a-spreadin the snowy table cloth on the little round table, and a-puttin on some cream cheese and some peach sass, he sez further : " Nobody is to blame for what they don t know, Samantha." I looked down affectionately and pityin ly on his old bald head and then further off way off into mysterious spaces no mortal feet has ever trod, and I sez : "That is so, Josiah." TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi I. TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION i II. A HEATHEN MISSIONARY 32 III. OFF INTO SIDE PATHS 57 IV. SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE 85 V. A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY... 105 VI. A LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE 119 VII. THE EMBARKATION..... 135 VIII. LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE 153 IX. A VISIT TO BLARNEY CASTLE 173 X. KlLLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE 183 XI. JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE 197 XII. ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY.... 223 XIII. EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.. 241 XIV. MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT 262 XV. OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL 281 XVI. EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 300 XVII. JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 322 XVIII. SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE 354 XIX. THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS 374 XX. THE ARRIVAL IN LONDON 389 XXI. WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES... 400 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGK XXII. SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR 4 l8 XXIII. ST. PAUL S AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON 433 XXIV. * * THE WIDDER ALBERT" 445 XXV. A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM 464 XXVI. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES 4 86 XXVII. NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. 510 XXVIII. GERMANY AND BELGIUM 525 XXIX. SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHI 548 XXX. MILAN, GENOA, VENICE 574 XXXI. COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS 602 XXXII. FASHIONABLE WATERING-PLACES 616 XXXIII. CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN 627 XXXIV. JOSIAH S DEVOTION 640 XXXV. THE QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. 651 XXXVI. A SPANISH FUNERAL AND A JONESVILLE ONE 664 XXXVII. AL FAIZI SAYS GOOD-BYE 674 XXXVIII. HOME AGAIN, FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. ... 683 XXXIX. MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON 693 XL. GOOD-NIGHT, LITTLE PARDNER 707 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. " He riz right up and shook his fist at the man with the nightcap" Frontispiece Twilight on the broad ocean i Asleep in his narrer bunk 4 Two prettier, winnin er creeters never lived than them two 9 " Aunt Samantha, where is Heaven ? Is it up in the sky ?" 12 He sassed him and yelled out, " You dum fool, you, throw me a board !" 16 " It depends on whose lives they be" 18 Josiah and me put on our strongest specks 27 It wuz very dressy when it wuz done 31 A dark figger that riz up like a strange picter aginst the sunset 34 " I don t love to hear that ; that sounds bad" 39 " That man is a Christian. How do you know? * Because he is drunk ". , 45 " Uncle Sam a-wadin in sin up to his old knee jints". . 49 The game of Bulls and Bears 52 Al Faizi made a deep bow, almost to the floor 55 Sez I, a-risin up in the democrat, " I ll git out" 61 She met me with a sweet smile 68 Finally, he got to be quarrelsome 75 Ellick lay drunk in the office 80 It wuz Ellick Gurley 87 " Yes, it wuz sunthin else ; it wuz you" 97 " Save the Sam, it may come in handy in the futer". . . 102 With one of his low, reverential bows 112 x ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE As the elder took it he turned pale 125 I took down my old Atlas 1 3 x In time to kiss us and clasp our hands in partin 139 Her big blue eyes wuz full of tears 142 Then took his umbrell and started for the door 147 We tottered up on deck, two pale, thin figgers 151 The lord with a pink paper suit on 157 With a stern look, calculated to wither him 166 We went in what they call a " jauntin car" 171 Three beautiful lakes 184 Drinkin and tobacco-smokin in the little hovel drove em out. 1 89 Drippin wet when he come back 201 Alice stood there, white and tremblin 206 A dark figger a standin up on a little rock 209 I laid out to talk to Victoria on the subject 217 Samantha and Ellen Douglas 219 This immortal pair of lovers 230 The same furies that pursued the drunken Tarn 238 Edinburgh Castle 250 The National Covenant signed by the Earl of Suther land 254 When Prince Charlie and Flora Macdonald parted. . . . 259 " I could sing to you," sez he 263 "When they got dirty, jest wet a towel and clean em off" 268 " I never should think of usin it" 274 Josiah wuz dretful took with it 281 " What a sensation it would create in Jonesville !".... 285 That sentinul twelve or fourteen hundred years ago. . . 289 " With the en4s of the fingers a-hangin down" 294 Robin Hood 299 " It don t pay to tussel with em" 301 Martin sent his card in 307 Josiah s home-made waterfall 313 Her common-sense shoe 319 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii PAGE A quaint, old-fashioned tarvern 322 Says he, " I m a-goin back it is my duty" 328 Shakespeare s ghost reading the effusions on the walls of his house 337 A great many portraits of Shakespeare 344 The font in which Shakespeare was baptized 350 The supper that man eat wuz enormous 353 " You couldn t eat that full of porridge" 359 " The more I see of moats, the more determined I be to have one round our house" 362 " I am going to work for the poor" 370 My tone chilled him to the veins 379 Martin with his patronizin ways , , 384 A livin poem bound up in a girl s sweet body 386 Them letters wuz a stroke of genius 391 A hull soap-box full 395 We stood long and silently by the graves of the great dead 401 An immense chair, the four legs bein four animals.. . . 407 " When I m elected to Congress I m goin to wear my hat the hull time" 415 That little dude doctor, with his cane and his eyeglass. 421 " I have had some trouble with my back lately, and I want you to look at it" 424 Samantha s faith cure 427 "Yes," sez Josiah, "old Domono probble had his hands full with her" 442 " Almost in the shadow of the Bank of England, I found the greatest want and wretchedness" 455 Right in front of the tarvern, I have seen with my own eyes as many as five teams and two open buggies. 459 " Be you any kin of Bildad Henzy, of Jonesville ?".... 468 Napoleon s tooth 472 Josiah at the London " Zoo" 477 " Calf-o-lay! I hain t a calf or a ox !" he shouted 486 " How stylish I would look" , 489 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE " I don t spoze I could ever git to be nigh so graceful as she is" 49 2 Josiah, " cultered and travelled," schemes for Jones- villian out-door dinner parties, a la Paris, and how Samantha foresees the result 500 There wuz the clothes he wore that he ust to button over that restless, ambitious heart 505 With his arms folded, and that old hat of hisen on, and his inscrutable eyes fixed on the heights 512 A-wipin my face on sech genteel towels 518 " I believe he d sell the steelyards that Jestice weighs things in, if he could git a few cents for em" 523 " No attention paid to rumatiz, or meal times, or corns" 526 " A woman jest dressin herself she seems all broke U P" 537 I thought more n likely I should be melted into tears.. 540 A-leadin Adrian and a-plannin sunthin with him re- latin to a whistle 543 A hogsit as big as the Jonesville tarvern 553 We did indeed go slow, but sure ; for in two hours time we arrove on the summit 556 " They have emulative Mas, who are bound that they shan t be out-travelled" 561 Ye-o-lo-leo-leo-leo the melogious cry of the Alpine shepherds 563 Listening to the organ s grand, melancholy voice 566 I thought considerable about William Tell and his ex ploits with Gessler, apples, etc 568 Divine realms of melody wuz brung to view by his heavenly vision 579 " If this smell keeps on, and the dum muskeeters keeps on a-bitin , one man will see Venice and die "... 581 " Next thing I d know you d have a inquisition a-goin on" 588 The Tower of Pisa 599 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV PAGE The Colosseum 602 " The guides went ahead with flarin lights" 607 Mr. Goldwind, one of Martin s business rivals, ....... 616 " I have faith that it aches like the old Harry" 623 I see one of the officials take up my sheep s-head night cap 628 A smile of admiration swep over his dark visage 628 Heavey, rough carts, drawed by an ox and a cow lashed together by ropes wound round their horns 631 At my request he hooked up my dress skirt in the back 647 She knowed me to once a happy smile curved her pretty lips 653 The Matador 661 His victim 661 How cold his feet must have been cold mornin s 666 " I go back to my own country I have many things to teach my people to avoid" 675 They had sent Philury out, like a dove, on the front doorstep to meet us 684 His looks wuz so onbecomin to a deacon and a path- master 687 Sez Martin agin, " I am sick to death of these ever lasting complaints" 698 He fell down jest like a log at my feet 701 A faithful creeter with a strong breath, caused by stimulants, I believe 704 He busted out into tears and buried his face in his hands 709 Finis ! SAMANTHA IN EUROPE CHAPTER L* ; , : ;- TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. WILIGHT on the broad ocean ! Smooth, wild waste of blue-gray wa ters stretchin out as fur as the eye could reach on every side. In the east a silvery moon hangin low and a shinin path leadin up to it. In the west Mars a-dazzlin bright over a pale pink sky, with streaks of yeller and crimson a-layin 2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. stretched acrost it, like bars put up by angel hands a-fencin in their world from ourn. Now in a sunset in Jonesville it might seem as if you could put on your sun-bunnet and stride off over hills and valleys and at las reach the Sunset Land, and peek over the bars and ketch a glimpse of what wuz bey end. It would seem amongst the possibles. But here oh ! how fur-off, illimitable, uaaproach- able, duz that fur-off glory look ! And Mars seemed to wink that red eye of hisen at me mockin ly as I strained my eyes over the long watery plain, as if to say " The time has been when you wuz free to roam round, a-walkin off afoot ; you may have gloated over me in your free thoughts and said " You are fixed and sot up there, while I am free to soar and sail. Now, haughty female mortal, your wings are clipped the time has come when your walkin afoot and roamin round is stopped." To think that I myself, Josiah Allen s Wife, should find myself on the Atlantic a-hangin onto the gunwale of the ship with one hand, and a- lookin off over the endless waters below and all round me, and a-thinkin if I should trust myself to step out onto its heavey, treacherous surface where should I go to, and when, and why ! I, Samantha, TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 3 who had ever been ust to slippin on my sun- bunnet andTunnin into Miss Bobbettses, or out into the garden, or out to the hen-house for eggs, or down into the orchard, or the wood paster for recreation or cowslips. To think that I wuz thus caged up as it were, my restless wings (speakin in metafor) folded in such clost quarters, with no chance (to foller up the metafor) of floppin em to any extent. Oh ! where wuz I ? The thought wuz full of or. Why wuz I ? This thought brung on trains of retrospection. As I sot in my contracted corner of the aft fore castle deck, and Night wuz lettin down, gradual, her starry mantilly over me and the seen, as erst it did over me as I sot in the sweet, restful door-yard at Jonesville. (Dear seen, shall I ever see thee agin ?) I will rehearse the facts that led to my takin this onpresidented step. My pardner is asleep in his narrer bunk, or ruther on one of the shelves in our cell, that are cushioned, and on which our two forms nightly repose. He is at rest. The waves are asleep, or pretty nigh asleep, the night winds are hushed, and all Nater seems to draw in her breath and wait for me as I tell the tale. SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. ASLEEP IN HIS NARRER BUNK. I will begin, as most fashionable novelists do, with a verse of poetry " Backward, turn backward (as fur as Jonesville), Oh Time, in thy flight Make me (a trusty, short-winded, female historian) jest for to-night." It wuz now goin on three years sence Uncle Philander Smith s son, Philander Martin, named after his Pa and his Uncle Martin, writ a line to me announcin his advent into Jonesville. And in speakin of Philander I shall have to go back, kinder sideways, some distance into the past to describe him. TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 5 Yes, I will have to lead the horse fur back to hitch it on properly to the wagon of my history, or mebby it would be more proper, under the circum stances, to say how fur I must row my little per sonal life-boat back to hitch it onto the great steamer of my statement, in order that there shall be direct smooth sailin and no meanderin . Wall, with the first paddle of my verbal row-boat, I would state (And into how many little still side coves and seemin ly wind-locked ways my little life-boat must sail on her way back to be jined to the great steamer, and how I must stay in em for sometime ! It can t be helped.) Yes, it must have been pretty nigh three years ago that we had our first letter from P. Martyn Smythe. He is my second cousin on my own side. And he sot out from Spoonville (a neighborin hamlet) years ago with lots of ambition and pluck and energy, and about one dollar and seventy-five cents in money. Uncle Philander, his father, had a big family, and died leavin him nothin but his good example and some old spectacles and a cane. He wuz brung up by his Uncle Martin, a good- natered creeter, but onfaculized and shiftless. 6 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Young Martin never loved to be hampered, and after he got old enough to help his uncle, he didn t want to be hampered with him, so he paeked up his little knapsack and sot out to seek his fortune, and he prospered beyend any tellin , bought some mines, and railroads, and things, and at last come back East and settled down in a neighborin city, and then got rid of several things that he found hamperin to him. Amongst em wuz his old name- now he calls it "Smythe." Yes, he got rid of the good, reliable old Smith name, that has stood by so many human bein s even unto the end. And he got rid, too, of his con science, the biggest heft of it, and his poor rela tions. For why, indeed, should a Bill or a Tom Smith claim relationship with a P. Martyn Smythe ? Why, indeed ! He got rid of em all in a heap, as it were, a-ignorin " the hull kit and bilein of em," as Aunt Debby said. "Never seen hide nor hair of any of em, from one year s end to the other," sez Aunt Debby. As to his conscience, he got rid of that, I spoze, kinder gradual, a little at a time, till to all human appearance he hadn t a speck left, of which more anon. But there wuz a little of it left, enough to leven TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 7 his hull nater and raise it up, some like hop yeast, only stronger and more spiritual (as will also be seen anon). Wall, he never seemed to know where his cousin, she that wuz Samantha Smith, lived, and his neck seemed to be made in that way kinder held up by his stiff white collar mebby that it held his head up firm and immovable, so s he didn t see me nor my Josiah when he d meet him once in a great while at some quarterly meetin or conferences and sech. I guess that neck of hisen carried him so straight that he couldn t seem to turn it towards the old. Smith pew at all. And then he wuz dretful near-sighted, too ; his eyes wuz affected dretful curous. Uncle Mart Smith, the one P. Martin wuz named after, atted him about it, for he wuz his own uncle, and dretful shiftless and poor, but a Christian as fur as he could be with his nateral lazi ness on him. As I say, he partly brung Martin up. A good- natered creeter he wuz. And one day he walked right up and atted P. Martyn Smythe as to why he never could see him. And P. Martyn sed that it wuz his eyesight ; sez he, " I m dretful near-sighted." It made it all right with Uncle Martin, but his 8 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. wife, Aunt Debby, she sed, " Why can he see bish ops and elders so plain ?" "Wall," sez Uncle Mart, "it is a curous com plaint." And she sez "Tain t curous a mite ; it s as nateral as ingrati tude, and as old as Pharo." And she and Uncle Mart had some words about it. Wall, his eyesight seemed to grow worse and worse so fur as old friends and relations wuz con cerned, till all of a sudden it wuz after my third book had shook the world, or I spoze it did ; it kinder jarred it anyway, I guess wall, what should that man, P. Martyn, do, but write to me and invite me to the big city where he lived. Sez he, " Relations ort to cling closter to each other ;" sez he, " Come and stay a week." I answered his note, cool but friendly. And then he writ agin, and asked me to come and stay a month. Agin my answer wuz Chris tian, but about as cool as well water. And then he writ agin and asked me to come and stay a year with em. And he would be glad, he said, he and his two motherless children, if I would come and live with em always. This allusion to the motherless melted me down some, and my reply wuz, I spoze, about the tem- perture of milk jest from the cow. TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. TWO PRETTIER, WINNIN*ER CREETERS NEVER LIVED THAN THEM TWO. But I said that Duty and Josiah binded me to my home and Jonesville. Wall, the next summer what should P. Martyn do but to write to me that he and Alice and Adrian, his two children, wuz a-comin to Jones- 10 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. ville, and would we take em in for a week ? He thought his children needed fresh air and a little cossetin . Wall, to me, Josiah Allen s wife, who has brung up almost numberless lambs and chickens by hand as cossets, this allusion to "cossetin " melted me so and warmed up my nater, that my reply wuz about the temperture of skim milk het for the calves. So they come. And indeed I said then what I say now, and I ll defy anybody to dispute me, that two prettier, win- nin er creeters never lived than them two children. Alice wuz about sixteen then, and Adrian wuz about five, and wuzn t they happy ! My hull heart went out to em, and mebby it wuz that love atmosphere that wropped em completely round that made em grow so bright and cheerful and healthy. There hain t no atmosphere that is at the same time so inspirin and so restful as the heart atmos phere of love. You can always tell em that breathe its rare, fine atmosphere by the radiance in their faces and the lightness of their step. I loved them two children dearly. They wuz both as handsome as picters, Alice fair and slender and sweet as a white day lily, with big, happy blue TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. II eyes, and hair of the same gold color that her mother had -had. Adrian had long curls of that same wonderful golden hair, and his eyes wuz big, inspiring blue gray, and his lips always seemed to hold a happy secret. He had that look some way. Though what it could be we couldn t tell, for he talked pretty much all the time. And the questions he asked would more n fill our old family Bible, I m sure, and I thought some of the time that the overflow would fill Foxe s " Book of Martyrs." Why, one day we got old Uncle Smedley to mow our lawn while Adrian wuz there, and I felt sorry that I didn t put down the questions that Adrian asked that perfectly deaf man as he trotted along in his little velvet suit by the side of the lawn mower. But then I d no as I m sorry, after all, for paper is sometimes skurce, and I don t believe in ex travagance. And how he did love poseys, most of all the Eng lish violets ! We had a big bed of em, and he always had a bunch of em in his little buttonhole, and be a-pinnin em to my waist and Alice s. And he would have a big bunch in his hand, and jest bury his face in em, as if he wuz tryin to take in their deep, 12 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. sweet perfume through his pores as it wuz. And always a little, low vase that stood before his plate on the table would be full of em. I wondered at it some, but found out that before he wuz born his sweet Ma had jest sech a passion for em, and always had her room full of em. And " AUNT SAMANTHA, WHERE is HEAVEN? Is IT UP IN THE SKY?" I kinder wondered if, in some occult way, she wuz a-keepin up the acquaintance with her boy by means of that sweet and delicate language that we can t spell yet, let alone talkin . I d no, nor Josiah don t, but anyway Adrian jest seemed to live on em in a certain way, as if they TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 13 satisfied some deep hunger and need in his inmost nater. And he would sometimes make the old-fashion- edest "remarks I ever hearn, and praise himself up jest as though he wuz somebody else. Not con ceited at all, but jest sincere and honest. One day after family prayers, Josiah had been readin about the New Jerusalem, and I spoze Adrian s curosity wuz rousted up, and sez he, "Aunt Samantha, where is Heaven ? Is it up in the sky, or where is it ?" And I sez, " Sometimes I have thought, Adrian, it wuz right here all round us, if we could only see it." "I wonder if I could find it?" sez he, and he peered all round him in the old-fashionedest way I ever see. Sez he, " I spoze my pretty Mamma is there ; I guess she wants me dreadfully sometimes ; I am a very bright little boy I am very agreeable." " But," I sez, "that hain t pretty for you to talk so." " Why, Papa sez I am, and he sez I am his wise little partner, and my Papa knows everything that wuz ever known he knows more than any other man in the world." And I sez to myself, " No, he don t. He don t 14 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. know enough to be jest, from all I ve hearn of his doin s." But I didn t wonder that Adrian thought as he did, or Alice either, for if there wuz ever a indul gent and lovin father on earth, it wuz Martin Smith. Nothin wuz too good for his children. He adored em, and tried to be father and mother both to his motherless boy and girl. And money, so fur as they wuz concerned, flowed as free as water. P. Martyn didn t stay but a few days this time, but left the children two weeks and come back for em. He stayed right to our house, and his eyesight, so fur as the other relations wuz concerned, wuz jest the same. He rode round considerable with his children, and writ about five thousand letters, and sent off and received about the same number of letters and telegrams, and said and assured us at the end of the three days he wuz there, that " it wuz so sweet for him to have sech a perfect rest." He didn t tell us much about what wuz in the letters, though the last day that he wuz there he got sech a enormous batch of em that he daned to ex plain the meanin of em to Josiah and me, for we both had helped him to carry em in. Sez he, " There is no such thing as satisfying the masses. TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 15 " Now," sez he, " I ve built a line of trolley cars, that are the means of saving no end of time, for my drivers, if they don t come up to the swift schedule time I" have marked down for them, I discharge them at once. " They are economical, much cleaner and swifter than horses, an invaluable saving of time. They are convenient, rapid, and cheap. Now you would think that would satisfy them, but no ; because they run through the most populous streets of the city, and because once in awhile an accident takes place, what do they want ? They want me to add further to the enormous expense I have already been sub jected to, and buy some fenders to prevent accidents." " Wall, hain t you goin to ?" sez I. " No," sez he, " I am not. If I do, they will probably want some sashay bags to hang up in the cars, and some automatic fans to fan them with as they ride." But I had been a-readin a sight about the deaths them swift monsters had caused, and I sez "Martin, life is dear, and it seems as if every safeguard possible ort to be throwed round the great public, between em and death." " But," sez he, " it is impudent in them to demand anything further than what I ve already done. Horses were always causing accidents." TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. I/ " Wall," sez I, " when folks are in danger of death, it makes em impudent. Why, Deacon Gar- vin sassed the minister when he fell into the pond at a Sunday School picnic, and the minister told him to call on the Lord in his extremity. He sassed him and yelled out to him, " You dum fool, you, throw me a board !" Sez I, " Dretful danger makes folks sassy." "Well, I won t be to the expense of getting them," sez he. Sez I mildly, "You told Josiah Allen and me yesterday that you d laid up two millions of dollars sence you had gone into this enterprise. Now, as a matter of justice, don t you think that the public who have paid you two millions of their money have a right to demand these safeguards to life and limb ?" He waived off the question. "Why," sez he, "in all the last year there have not been more than fifty lives lost in our city from these cars, and considering the hosts that have been carried, considering the convenience, the swiftness, the rapidity, and etcetera what is fifty lives ?" "Wall," sez I, "it depends on whose lives they be. Now I know," sez I, a-glancin at my pard- ner s shinin bald head a-risin up like a full harvest moon from behind the pages of The World i8 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " I know one life that if it went down in dark ness under them wheels, it would make the hull world black and empty. It would take all the happiness and hope and meanin out of this world, and change it into a funeral gloom." " IT DEPENDS ON WHOSE LIVES THEY BE." Sez I, "It would darken the world for all who love him." And sez I, " Every one of them fifty that have gone down under them death chariots have left em who loved em. Hearts have ached and broken as they have looked at the mangled bodies and the emptiness of life faced em." Sez I, "Them rollin billows of blackness have swept TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 19 over the livin and the lovin every time them cruel wheels have ground a bright human life to death. "They have mostly been children," sez I, "and think of the anguish mother hearts have endured, and father love and pride how it has been crushed down under the rollin wheels of death. " Sometimes a father, who wuz the only prop of a family, has gone down. How cold the world is to em when the love that wropped em round has been tore from em ! Sometimes a mother what can take the place of mother love to the little ones left to suffer from hunger, and naked ness, and ignorance ?" " You re imaginative, Cousin Samantha," said he ; but I kep right on onbeknown to me. " Who will care for the destitute children left alone in the cold world with no one to care for em and help em ?" " I ll give em some money," said little Adrian, who d been leanin up aginst my knee and listen- in to our talk, with his big, earnest eyes fixed on our faces. " I ll give em the gold piece that papa gave me yesterday." He had gin him a twenty dollar gold piece, for I see it. " I ll give em all I ve got I ll work for that 20 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. poor woman who lost her little boy I ll work for her and help her." "Who ll work for me?" sez Martin. "You re to be my partner, my boy ; remember that. You re my little partner now half of all I own belongs to you." "And I will give it all to them," sez Adrian. But Martin went right on " You are to be president of this company when I am an old man ; you re to work for me." " But I ll work for those poor people, papa," sez Adrian, and as he said this he looked way off through his father s face, as he sot by the open window, to some distance beyend him. And his eyes, jest the color of that June sky, looked big and luminous. " I ll work for them, papa," and as he spoke a sudden thrill, some like electricity, only more riz up like, shot through my soul, a sudden and deep conviction that he would work for em that he would in some way redeem the old Smith name from the ojium attachin to it now as a owner of them Herod s Chariots and a Massacreer of Inno cents. But to resoom. All the next day Adrian kep talkin about it, how he wuz goin to be his papa s pardner, and how he wuz a-goin to work for poor folks who had TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 21 lost their little children, and wanted so many things. And the questions he asked me about em, and about poor folks, though wearisome to the flesh, wuz agreeable to the sperit. Wall, Martin called him so much from day to day " My little partner," that we all got into the habit on t, and called him so through the day. And every evenin he would come to me and say " Good-night, Aunt Samantha, good-bye till mornin ." And I would kiss him earnest and sweet, and say back to him, " Good-night, little pardner, till morn in." And after he went home, Josiah and I would talk about him a sight, and wonder .what the little pardner wuz doin , and how he wuz lookin from day to day. And I would often go into the parlor, where his picter stood on the top shelf of the what-not, and stand and look dreamily at it. There he wuz in his little black velvet suit and a big bunch of English violets pinned on one side. The earnest eyes would look back at me dretful tender like and good. The mouth that held that wonderful sweet and sort o curous expression, as if he wuz thinkin of sunthin beautiful that we 22 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. didn t know anything about, would sort o smile back at me. And he seemed to be a-sayin to me, as he said that day a-lookin out into the clear sky "I ll work for them poor people!" And I answered back to him out loud once or twice onbeknown to me, and sez I, " I believe you will, little pardner." And Josiah asked me who I wuz a-talkin to. He hollered out from the kitchen. And I sez, " Ahem ahem," and kinder coughed. I couldn t explain to my pardner jest how 1 felt, for I didn t know myself hardly. Wall, it run along for some time Martin a-writ- in to me quite often, always a-talkin about his little pardner and Alice, and how they wuz a-gittin along, and a-invitin us to visit em. And at last there came sech a pressin invitation from Alice to come and see em that I had to succumb. But little, little did I ever think in my early youth, when I ust to read about Solomon s Temple and Sheba s Splendor, and sing about Pleasures and Palaces, that I should ever enter in and partake of em. Why, the house that Martin lived in wuz a sight, a sight big as the meetin -housen at Jonesville and Loontown both put together, and ornamented TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 23 with jest so many cubits of glory one way, and jest so many cubits of grandeur another. Wall, it wuz sunthin I never expected to see on earth, and in another sphere I never sot my mind on seein car pets that your feet sunk down into as they would in a bed of moss in a cedar swamp, and lofty rooms with stained-glass winders and sech gildin s and or naments overhead, and furniture sech as I never see, and statutes a-lookin pale with joy, to see the lovely picters that wuz acrost the room from em ; and more n twenty servants of different sorts and grades. Why, actually, Josiah and I seemed as much out of place in that seen of grandeur as two hemlock logs with the bark on em at a fashionable church weddin . And nothin but the pure love I felt for them children, and their pure love for me, made me willin to stay there a minute. Martin wuz good to us, and dretful glad to have us there to all human appearance ; but Alice and Adrian loved us. And I hadn t been there more n a few days before I see one reason why Alice had writ me so earnest to come she wuz in deep trouble, she wuz in love, deep in love with a young lawyer, one who writ for the newspapers, too 24 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. A man who had the courage of his convictions, and had writ several articles about the sufferin s of the poor and the onjustice of rich men. And amongst the rest he had writ some cuttin but jest articles about the massacreein of children by them trolley cars, and so had got Martin s everlastin dis pleasure and hatred. The young man, I found out, wuz as good as they make anywhere ; a noble-lookin young feller, too, so I hearn. Even Martin couldn t say a word aginst him, for, in the cause of Duty and Alice, I tackled him on the subject. Sez I, " Hain t he honest and manly and upright ?" And he had to admit that he wuz, that he hadn t a vice or bad habit, and wuz smart and enterprisin . I held him right there with my eye till I got an answer. " But he is a fool," sez he. Sez I, " Fools don t generally write sech good sense, Martin." Sez he wrathfully, " I knew your opinions I ex pected you d uphold him in his ungrateful folly. "But he has lost Alice by it," sez he; "for I never will give my consent to have him marry her." Sez I, "Then you had never ort to let him come here and have the chance to win her heart, and now TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 25 break it, for," sez I, "you encouraged him at first, Martin." " I know I did," sez he " I thought I had found one honest man, and I had decided on giving all my business into his hands. It would have been the making of him," sez he; "but he has only himself to blame, for if he had kept still he would have married Alice, but now he shall not." Sez I, "Alice thinks jest as he duz." " What do women know about business ?" he snapped out, enough to take my head off. " If wimmen don t know anything about biz- ness, Martin, I should think you d be glad to know, in case you left Alice, that she and her im mense fortune wuz in the hands of an honest man. " And I want you to consent to this marriage," sez I, " in a suitable time when Alice gits old enough." " I won t consent to it !" sez he " the writer of them confounded papers never shall marry my daughter." "Why," sez I, " there s nothin harsh in the ar ticles." Sez I, " They re only a strong appeal to the pity and justice of em who are responsible for all this danger and horro\v !" " Well," sez he, " I ve made up mind, and I never change it." 26 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Sez I, " I d no whether you will or not." Sez I, "This is a strange world, Martin, and folks are made to change their minds sometimes onbe- known to em." Wall, I didn t stay more n several days after this, when I returned to the peaceful precincts of Jonesville and my (sometimes) devoted pardner, and things resoomed their usual course. But every few days I got communications from Martin s folks. Alice writ to me sweet letters of affection, wherein I could read between the lines a sad background of Hope deferred and a achin heart. And Adrian writ long letters to me, where the spellin left much to be desired, but the good feelin and love and confidence in em wuz all the most exactin could ask for. And occasionally Martin would write a short line of a sort of hurried, patronizin affection, and the writin looked so much like ducks tracts that it seemed as if our old drake would have owned up to em in a law suit. But Josiah and me would put on our strongest specks, and take the letter between us, and hold it in every light, and make out the heft on it. Till at last, one notable day, long to be remem bered, there come a letter in Martin s awful chirog- TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 2/ raphy. And when we had studied out its contents, we looked "at each other in a astounded astonish ment and a sort of or. "Would I go to Europe with him and his children as his guest?" He thought Alice seemed to be a little delicate, and mebby the trip would do her JOSIAH AND ME PUT ON OUR STRONGEST SPECKS. good, and he also thought she needed the company of some good, practical woman to see to her, and mother her a little. That last sentence tugged at my heart strings. But my answer went back by next mail " I wuz afraid of the ocean, and couldn t leave Josiah." The answer come back by telegraph 28 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "The ocean wuz safer than land, and take Josiah along, too. He expected he would go." Then I writ back " I never had been drownded on dry land, and didn t believe I should be, and Josiah didn t feel as though he could leave the farm." Then Martin telegrafted to Thomas J. " Arrange matters for father and mother to take trip. Send bill to me. Alice needs their care. Her health and happiness depend on it." So he got Thomas Jefferson on his side. Thomas J. and Maggie loved Alice like a sister. But there wuzn t any bill to send to Martin, for Thomas J. pinted out the facts that Ury could move right into the house and take care of everything. And sez he, " The trip and the rest will do you both good." u But the danger," sez I. And he said, jest like Martin " Less danger than the land, better rates of insurance given," etc., etc., etc. And Maggie put in too, and Josiah begun to kinder want to go. And we wavered back and forth, until a long let ter from Alice, beggin me and her Uncle Josiah to go with her to take care of her, tottled the balance over on the side of Europe. TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. 29 And Josiah and I began to make preperations for a trip abroad- Oh my heart ! think on t ! I announced our decision to Martin in a letter of 9 pages of foolscap Josiah writ half of it describ- in our doubts and delays and our final reasons for decision. And he telegrafted back "All right start i4th. Send bill of expense to me." But there wuzn t no bill sent, as I said no, in deed ! I guess we didn t want nobody to buy clothes for us no, indeed ! As for the travellin expenses of the trip, seem they thought we wuz necessaries to their com fort, and seein he d invited us, and seein his income wuz about ten thousand dollars an hour, why we laid out to let him have his way in that. It wuzn t nothin that we d ever thought on, and then, as I told Josiah, we could even it up some by invitin the children to stay all summer with us next year. So the die wuz cast down, and the cloth wuz soon bought for Josiah s new European shirts, and my own foreign nightcap and nightgown. 30 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. As for my clothes, by Maggie s advice and assist ance, aided by our two practical common senses, the work wuz soon completed. Maggie said that I must dress better than I usu ally did on my towers, for the sake of pleasin Mar tin and Alice. And she and Thomas J. made me a present of a good black silk dress, and she see to makin it, with one plain waist for common wear, and one dressy waist, very handsome, with black jet trimmin on it for my best. A good gray alpacky travellin dress, some the color of dust, with a bunnet of the same color, and a good brown lawn for hot days wuz enough, and didn t take up much room. Plenty of good under clothes and a wool wrapper for the steamer com pleted my trossow. Thomas J. see to it that his Pa had a good-look- in suit of black clothes for his best, and a suit of pepper and salt for every day. I also made him 2 new flannel nightcaps. And I myself had two new nightcaps made. In makin em, I departed from my usual fashion of sheep s- head nightcaps, thinkin in case of a panick at sea, and the glare of publicity a-bein throwed onto em, a modified sheep s head would appear better than clear sheep. They wuz gathered slightly in the crown, and had TRAINS OF RETROSPECTION. some very nice egm on em 2 cents per yard at hullsail 7 and ^ retail. It wuz good lace. They wuz very be- comin to my style. I also made Josiah a handsome dressin - gown out of a piece of rep goods I had in the house. I had laid out to cover a lounge with it, but I thought under these peculiar circumstances Josiah needed it more n the lounge did, and so I made it up for him. I made a cord with two tossels to tie it with. I twisted the cord out of good red and black woosted and made the tossels of the same. It wuz very dressy when it wuz done. And he would have worn it out visitin if I had encouraged him in it. He wuz highly delighted and tickled with it. But I tutored him that it wuz only to wear in his state-room, and in case of a panick on deck. IT WUZ VERY DRESSY WHEN IT WUZ DONE. CHAPTER II. A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. WALL, I wuz a-settin in my clean settin -room on a calm twilight, engaged in completin my prep- erations in fact, I wuz jest a-puttin the finishin touches on one of Josiah s nightcaps and mine. I put cat stitch round the front of hisen, a sort of a dark red cat. When all to once I hearn a knock at the west door. I had thought as I wuz a-settin a-sewin what a beautiful sunset it wuz. The west jest glowed with light that streamed over and lit up the hull sky. All wuz calm in the east, and a big moon wuz jest risin from the back of Balcom s Hill. It wuz shaped a good deal like a boat, and I laid down my sheep s-head nightcap and set still and watched it, as it seemed moored off behind the evergreens that stood tall and silent and dark, as if to guard Jonesville and the world aginst the gold boat that wuz a-sailin in from some onknown harbor. But it come on stiddy, and as if it had to come. I felt queer. A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 33 And jest at that minute I hearn the knock at the west door. * And I went and opened it, and as I did the west wuz flarnin so with light that it most blinded me at first ; but when I got my eyesight agin I see a-standin between me and that light a dark figger that riz up like a strange picter aginst the sunset. His back wuz to the light, and his face wuz in the shadder, but I could see that it wuz dark and eager, with glowin eyes that seemed to light up his dark features, some as the stars light up the sky. And he wuz dressed in a strange garb, sech as I never see before, only to the World s Fair. Yes, in that singular moment I see the value of travel. It give me sech a turn that if I hadn t had the ad vantage of seein jest such costooms at that place, I should most probble have swooned away right on my own door-step. He wuz dressed in a long, loose gown of some dark material, and had a white turban on his head. Who he wuz or where he come from was a mys tery to me. But I felt it wuz safe anyway to say, "Good- evenin ," whoever he wuz or wherever he came from ; he couldn t object to that. So consequently I said it not a-knowin but he 34 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. would address me back in Hindoo, or Sanskrit, or Greek, or sunthin else paganish and queer. But he didn t ; he spoke jest as well as my Thomas Jefferson could, and when I say that, I say enough, full enough for anybody, only his voice had a little bit of a for eign axent to it, that put me in mind some of the strange odor of Maggie s sandal - wood fan, sunthin that is inheri- ent and stays in it, though it is owned in America, and has Jonesville wind in it good, strong wind, as good as my turkey feather fan ever had. Sez he, " Good-evening, madam. Do I address Josiah Allen s wife ?" A DARK FIGGER THAT RIZ UP LIKE A STRANGE PICTER AGINST THE SUNSET. A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 35 Sez I, " You do." Sez he, " Pardon this intrusion. I come on par ticular business." Whereupon I asked him to come in, and sot a chair for him. I didn t know whether to ask him to lay off his things or not, not a-seein anything only the dress he had on, and not knowin what the state of his clothes wuz. And after a minute s reflection on it, I dassent venter. So I simply sot him a chair and asked him to set. He bowed dretful polite, and thanked me, and sot. Then there wuz a slight pause ensued and fol- lered on. I wuz some embarrassed, not knowin what subject to introduce. Deacon Bobbett had lost his best heifer that day, and most all Jonesville wuz a-lookin for it, but I didn t know whether it would interest him or not. And Sally Garvin had a young babe. A paper of catnip even then reposed on the kitchen table a-waitin until her husband come back to send it, but I didn t know whether that subject would be proper to branch out on to a man. So I sot demute for as much as half a minute. And before I could collect myself together and 36 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. break out in conversation, he sez in that deep, soft, musical voice of hisen " Madam, I have come on a strange errand." " Wall," sez I, in a encouragin voice, " I am used to strange errents yes, indeed, I am ! Why," sez I, " this very day a woman writ to me from Minnesota for money to fence in a door-yard, and," sez I, " Sime Bentley wuz over bright and early this mornin to borrer a settin hen. He had plenty of eggs, but no setters." Sez I in a encouragin axent, for I couldn t help likin the creeter, " I am used to em don t be afraid." I didn t know but he wuz after my nightgown pattern, and I looked clost at his garb ; but I see that it wuz fur fuller than mine and sot different. The long folds hung with a dignity and grace that my best mull nightgown never had, and if it wuz so, I wuz a-goin to tell him honorable that his pat tern went fur ahead of mine in grandeur. And then, thinks I, mebby he is a-goin to beg for money for a meetin -house steeple or sunthin in Hindoostan, and I wuz jest a-makin up my mind to tell him that we hadn t yet quite paid for the paint that ornamented ourn. -And I wuz a-layin out to bring in some Bible and say, " Charity begun on our own steeple." A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 37 But jest as I wuz a-thinkin this he spoke up in that melodious voice, that somehow put me in mind of palm trees a-risin up aginst a blue-black sky, and pagodas, and oasises, and things. Sez he, "Will you allow me to tell you a little of my history ?" I sez, " Yes, indeed ! I am jest through with my work." Sez I frankly, " I have been finishin some nightcaps for my pardner, and I sot the last stitch to em as you come in. I d love to set still and hear you tell it." So I sot down in the big arm-chair and folded my arms in a almost luxurious foldin , and listened. Sez he, " My name is Al Faizi, and I am come from a country far away." And he waved his hand towards the east. Instinctively I follered his gester, and his eyes, and I see that the gold boat of the moon had come round the pint, and wuz a-sailin up swift into the clear sky. But a big star shone there, it stood there motionless, as he went on. Sez he, "I have always been a learner, a seeker after truth. When a small boy I lived with my uncle, who was a learned man, and his wife, who was an Englishwoman. From her I learned your lan guage. I loved to study ; she had many books. She was the daughter of a missionary, who died and 38 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. left her alone in that strange land. My uncle was a convert to her faith. She married him and was happy. She had many books that belonged to her father ; he was a good man and very learned ; he did my people much good while he lived with them. " I learned from those books many things that our own wise men never taught me, and from them I got a great craving to see this land. I learned from these books and my aunt s teachings taught me when I was so young that truth permeated my being and filled my heart, that this land was the country favored by God this land so holy, that it sent missionaries to teach my people. Then I went to a school taught by English teachers, but always I searched for truth I search for God in mosque and in temple. These books said God is here in this land. So I come. Many of my people come to this great Fair, I come also with them. " But always I seek the great spirit of God I came here to find. I thought truth and justice would fill your temples, and your homes, and all your great cities. " I come, I watch for this Great Light I lis tened for the Great. Voice, I see strange things, but I say nothing, I only think, but I get more and more perplexed. I ask many people to show me A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 39 the temple where God is, to show me the great mosque wheje Truth and Right dwell, and the people are blessed by their white shining light, for I thought He would be in all the customs and ways of this wise people, so good that they instruct all the rest of the world. I come to learn, to wor- "I DON T LOVE TO HEAR THAT; THAT SOUNDS BAD." ship, but I see such strange things, such strange customs. I see cruelties practised, such as my own people would not think of doing. I keep silent, I only think think much. But more and more I wonder, and grow sad. " I ask many men, preachers, teachers, to show me the place where God is, the great palace 40 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. where truth dwells. They take me to many places, but I do not find the great spirit of Love I seek for. I find in your big temples altars built up to strange gods." Sez I mildly, " I don t love to hear that ; that sounds bad. I can take you to one meetin -house," sez I, " where we don t have no Dagon nor snub- nosed idols to worship," sez I. But even as I spoke my conscience reproved me ; for wuz there not settin in the highest place in that meetin -house a rich man who got all his money by sellin stuff that made brutes of his neighbors ? What wuz we all a-lookin up to, minister and people, but a gold beast ! What wuz that man s idol but Mammon ! And then didn t I remember how the hull meetin - house had turned aginst Irene Filkins, who went astray when she wuz nothin but a little girl, a motherless little girl, too ? Where wuz the great sperit of Love and Charity that said " Neither do I condemn thee ; go and sin no more" ? Wuz God there ? Didn t I remember that in this very meetin -house they got up a fair to help raise money for some charity connected with it, and one of the little girls kicked higher than any Bowery girl ? Wuz it a-startin that child on the broad road that takes A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 41 hold on death ? Wuz we worshippin a idol of Ex pediency doing evil that good might come ? There wuz poor ones in that very meetin -house, achin hearts sufferin for food and clothin almost, and rich, comfortable ones who went by on the other side and sot in their places and prayed for the poor, with their cold forms and hungry eyes watchin em vainly as they prayed, hopin for the help they did not get. Wuz we hyppocrites ? Did we bow at the altar of selfishness ? Truly no Eastern idol wuz any more snub-nosed and ugly than this one. I wuz overcome with borrow when I thought it all over, and sez I " I guess I won t take you there right away; we ll think on t a spell first." For I happened to think, too, that our good, plain old preacher, Elder Minkley, wuzn t a-goin to preach there Sunday, anyway, but a famous sensa tional preacher, that some of the rich members wanted to call. Yes, many hed turned away from the good gospel sermons of that man of God, Elder Minkley, and wanted a change. Wuz it a windy, sensational God set up in our pulpit ? I felt guilty as a dog, for I too had criti cised that good old Elder s plain speakin . Al Faizi had sot me to thinkin , and while I wuz a-meditatin his calm voice went on 42 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " I came to a city not far away ; there I saw some words you had written. I felt that you, too, desired the truth. I have come to ask you if you have found it if you have found in this land the place where Love and Justice reign, and to ask you where it is, that I, too, may worship there, and teach the truth to my people." T wuz overcome by his simple words, and I bust out onbeknown to me " I hain t found it." Sez I, and onconsciously I used the words of another " * We are all poor creeters, but we try to worship the true God we try to follow the teachin s of Him who loved us, and give His life to us." " The wise man who lived in Galilee and taught the people ?" sez he. "No," sez I, "not the wise man, but the Divine One the God who left His throne and dwelt with us awhile in the form of the human. We try to f oiler His teachings a good deal of the time we do," sez I, honestly and sadly. For more and more this strange creeter s words sunk into my heart, and made me feel queer queer as a dog. " I have read His words. I loved Him when a boy, I love Him still. I go into your great churches sacred to His name. I find in one grand A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 43 church they say He is there alone, and not in any other. I go into another, just as great, and they say He is there, and not in the one I first visited ; and then I go to another, and another, and yet another. "All have different ways and beliefs. All say God is here within the narrow walls of this church, and not in the others. Oh ! I get so confused, I know not what to do. How can I, a poor stranger, trace His footsteps through all these conflicting creeds ? I grow sad, and my heart fills with doubt and darkness. Well I remember His words that I had pondered in my heart when a boy That they who loved Him should bear the cross and follow Him, and love and care for His poor. In all these great, beautiful churches I hear sweet music. In some I see grand pictures, and note the incense floating up toward the Heavens ; in some I see high vaulted roofs, and the light in many glowing colors falls on the bowed forms of the worshippers. I hear holy words, the voice of prayer, but I see no crosses borne, and all are rich and grand. I go down in the low places. I see the poor toiling on unpitied and uncared for. I see these rich people worship in the churches one day, and pray Grant us mercy as we are merciful to others. " And then the next day they put burdens on the 44 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. poor, so hard that they can hardly bear them, the poor, starving, dying, herded together like animals, in wretched places unfit for dumb creatures. "And ever the rich despise the poor, and the poor curse the rich both bitter against each other, even unto death. " I find no God of Love in this. " I go into your great halls where laws are made I see the wise men making laws to bind the weak and tempted with iron chains laws to help bad men lead lives of impurity laws to make legal crimes that your Holy Book says renders one for ever unfit for Heaven. I find no God of Justice in this." " No," sez I, " He hain t nigh em, and never wuz !" "Well then," sez he, "why do they not find out the way of truth themselves before they try to teach other people ?" "The land knows !" sez I ; " I don t." " Some of your teachers do much good," sez he ; " they are good, and teach some of my people good doctrines. But why ever are they permitted by your government to bring ways and habits into our land that cover it with ruin ? " I was walking once with my own relation, Hadi- jah, unconverted, and we found one of our people THAT MAN is A CHRISTIAN. How DO YOU KNOW?; BECAUSE HE IS DRUNK. " 46 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. lying drunken by the wayside, with bottles of Amer ican whiskey lying by his side. * Boston was marked on them, a city, I find, that considers itself the centre of goodness and lofty thought. The bottles were empty. Hadijah says to me That man is a Christian. " I said No, I think not. " * Yes he is, said he. " How do you know it ? said I. " Because he is drunk. Hadijah, not being yet converted, and judging from appearances and from the evidences of his eyesight, associated the ideas and thought that in some way drunkenness was an evidence of Christianity. That belief is largely shared by all heathen people. " And then I open your Holy Book and find it written, * No drunkard shall inherit eternal life, and I say to myself, What does it mean that these holy people over the seas, who try so hard to con vert us, should send whiskey, and Bibles, and mis sionaries to us all packed in one great ship ?" Sez I " The nation don t mean to do it." Sez I, "It don t want to do any sech harm." " But I hear of the great power of this nation, could it not prevent it ? If it could not prevent it, it must be a weak government indeed. And if truly this great country is so weak and so wicked as A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 47 to set snares for the heathens trying to lead them into paths tbtat end in eternal ruin I think why not keep their missionaries in their own land ? They must need them even more than we do." Sez I " Don t talk so, poor creeter, don t talk so. Missionaries go out to your land fired with the deathless zeal to save souls to bring the knowl edge of the Christ to all the world." " But if they bring the knowledge in the way I speak of, so the heathen honestly believes drunken ness is the sign of Christianity, is it not making a mockery of what they profess to teach ?" I wuz dumbfoundered. I didn t know how to frame a reply, and so I sot onframed, as you may say. " I heard the missionaries say, and I read it in your Holy Book, that the liar shall have his por tion in the lake that burns forever. The same curses are on them that steal and on them that commit adultery. " I thought the country that sends these mis sionaries, rebuking these sins so sharply - - I thought their country must be pure and peaceable and holy in its ways. I come here, as I say, seeking the Great Light to guide me. I come here to hear the Great Voice, so I could go back and carry its teachings to our own people. For I thought there 48 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. must be some mistake, and that the lessons failed in some way to carry the idea of your great govern ment. So I come, I study ; and I find that not only was your great government willing to have my poor people enslaved by the drink habit, but it was a partaker in it. It sent over the accursed whiskey and brandy and took a portion of the pay a por tion of the money spent by my poor people for making themselves unfit for earth, and shutting them forever out of Heaven. " Again, this law that * Thou shalt not commit adultery, that stands out so plain in the Holy Book, that divorce is only permitted for this one cause, I find this great government, which by its laws breaks even the holy marriage bonds by the committing of this sin I find that this government makes this sin easy and convenient to commit. It grants licenses to make it lawful and right. " When I get here and study I see such strange things. Forevermore I wonder, and forevermore I say Why are not missionaries sent to this people, who do such things ? 11 And I, even I, so weak as I am and so ignorant, but fired as I am by the love of Christ Jesus I say to myself, I will tell this people of their sins. I will try to bring them to a knowledge of the pure and holy religion of Christ. " " UNCLE SAM A-WADIN IN SIN UP TO HIS OLD KNEE JINTS, 50 SAMANTHA IX EUROPE. " You come as a missionary, then ?" sez I, a-bustin out onbeknown to me. " Often and often I have wanted a heathen to come over and try to convert Uncle Sam poor old creeter, a-wadin in sin up to his old knee jints and over em," sez I. "Uncle Sam?" sez he; "I know him not. I meant your great people ; I do not speak of one alone." " I know," sez I ; " that is what we call our Government when we are on intimate terms with it." "And," sez I, "you little know what that old man has been through. He wants to do right he honestly duz ; but you know jest how it is how mistaken counsellors darken wisdom and confound jedgment." But the sweet, melodious voice went on " Your missionaries preach loud to my people against the sins of stealing and gambling. " But I find that in this country great places are fitted up for gambling and theft." Truly he spoke plain, but then I d no as I could blame him. " In these places of theft and gambling, called your stock exchanges, I find that you have people called brokers, and some wild animals called bulls and bears, though for what purpose they are kept A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 51 I know not, unless it is that they are trained for the Arena. Lknow not yet all your customs. "But this I know, that your brokers gamble and steal from the people sometimes millions in one day. Which money, taken from the common people all over this country, is divided by these brokers amongst a few rich men. Perhaps then the game of bulls and bears, fighting each other for their amusement, begins. I know not yet all your ways. " But I know that in one day five million bushels of wheat were bought and sold when there was no wheat in sight when even during that whole year the crop amounted to only two hundred and eighty millions. There were more than two million, two hundred thousand bushels of wheat bought and paid for that never grew that were not ever in the world. " As I saw this, oh ! how my heart burned to teach this poor sinful people the morality that our own people enjoy. " For never were there such sins committed in our country. " I find your rich men controlling the market- holding back the bread that the poor hungered and starved for, putting burdens on them more grievous than they could bear. These rich men, sitting THE GAME OF BULLS AND BEARS. A HEATHEN MISSIONARY. 53 with their soft, white hands, and forms that never ached with kbor, putting such high prices on grain and corn that the poor could not buy to eat these rich men prayed in the morning (for they often go through the forms of the holy religion) they prayed, Give us this day our daily bread, and then made it their first business to keep people from having that prayer answered to them. "They prayed, Lead us not into temptation, and then deliberately made circumstances that they knew would lead countless poor into temptation- temptation of theft temptation of selling Purity and Morality for bread to sustain life." Sez I, a-groanin out loud and a-sithin frequent " I can t bear to hear sech talk, it kills me al most ; and," sez I honestly, "there is so much truth in it that it cuts me like a knife." Sez he, a-goin on, not mindin my words " I felt that I must warn this people of its sins. I must tell them of what was done once in one of our own countries," sez he, a-wavin his hand in a impressive gester towards our east door " In one of our countries the authorities learned that stock exchanges were being formed at Osaka, Yokohama, and Koba. "The police, all wearing disguises, went at once 54 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. to the exchanges and mingled with the crowd. When all was ready a sign was given, the police took possession of the exchanges and all the books and papers, the doors were locked and the prisoners secured. Over seven hundred were put in prison, the offence being put down Speculation in mar gins. " I yearn to tell this great people of the way of our countries, so that they may follow them." "A heathen a-comin here as a missionary!" sez I, a-thinkin out loud, onbeknown to me. "Wall, it is all right." Sez I, " It s jest what the country needs." But before I could say anythin further, at that very minute my beloved pardner come in. He paused with a look of utter amazement. He stood motionless and held complete silence and two pails of milk. But I advanced onwards and relieved him of his embarrassment and one pail of milk, and intro duced Al Faizi. Al Faizi riz up to once and made a deep bow, almost to the floor ; but my poor Jo- siah, with a look of bewilderment pitiful to witness, and after standin for a brief time and not speakin a word, sez he " I guess, Samantha, I will go out to the sink and wash my hands." 56 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Truly, it vvuz enough to surprise any man, to leave a pardner with no companion but a sheep s- head nightcap, partly finished, and come back in a few minutes and see her a-keepin company with a heathen, clothed in a long robe and turban. Wall, Josiah asked me out into the kitchen for a explanation, which I gin to him with a few words and a clean towel, and then sez I " We must ask him to stay all night." And he sez, " I d no what we want of that strange-lookin creeter a-hangin round here." And I sez, " I believe he is sent by Heaven to instruct us heathens." And Josiah said that if he wuz sent from Heaven he would most probble have wings. He didn t want him to stay, I could see that, and he spoke as if he wuz on intimate terms with an gels, a perfect conoozer in em. But I sez, " Not all of Heaven s angels have wings, Josiah Allen, not yet ; but," sez I, " they are probble a-growin the snowy feathers on em onbeknown to em." CHAPTER III. OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. WALL, the upshot of the matter wuz Al Faizi stayed right there for weeks. He seemed to have plenty of money, and I d no what arrangement he and Josiah did make about his board, but I know that Josiah acted after that interview with him in the back yard real clever to him, and didn t say a word more aginst the idee of his not bein there. (Josiah is clost.) As for me, I would have scorned to have took a cent from him, feelin that I got more n my pay out of his noble but strange conversation. But Josiah is the head of the family (or he calls himself so). And mebby he is some of the time. But suffice it to say, Al Faizi jest stayed and made it his home with us, and peered round, and took journeys, and tried to find out things about our laws and customs. Thomas Jefferson loved to talk with him the best that ever wuz. And Al Faizi would make 58 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. excursions to different places round, a-walkin most ly, a-seein how the people lived, and a-watchin their manners and customs, and in writin down lots of things in some books he had with him, takin notes, I spozed, and learnin all he could. One book that he used to carry round with him and make notes in wuz as queer a lookin book as I ever see. With sunthin on the cover that looked some like a cross and some like a star. There wuz some precious stuns on it that flashed. If it wuz held up in some lights it looked like a cross, and then agin the light would fall on t and make it look like a star. And the gleamin stuns would sparkle and flash out sometimes like a sharp sword, and anon soft, like a lambient light. It wuz a queer-lookin book ; and he said, when I atted him about it, that he brought it from a country fur away. And agin he made that gester towards the East, that might mean Loontown, and might mean Ingy and Hindoosten and sech. After that first talk with me, in which he seemed to open his heart, and tell what wuz in his mind, as you may say, about our country, he didn t seem to talk so very much. He seemed to be one of the kind who do up OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 59 their talkin all to one time, as it were, and git through with it. Of course he asked questions a sight, for he seemed to want to find out all he could. And he would anon or oftener make a remark, but to talk diffuse and at length, he hardly ever did. But he took down lots of notes in that little book, for I see him. I enjoyed havin him there dretful well, and done well by him in cookin , etcetery and etcetery. But the excitement when he first walked into the Jonesville meetin -house with Josiah and me wuz nearly rampant. I felt queer and kinder sheepish, to be walkin out with a man with a long dress, and turban on, and sandals. And I kinder meached along, and wuz glad to git to our pew and set down as quick as I could. But Josiah looked round him with a dignified and almost supercilious mean. He felt hauty, and acted so, to think that we had a heathen with us and that the other members of the meetin -house didn t have one. But if I felt meachin over one heathen, or, that is, if I felt embarrassed a-showin " him off before the bretheren and sistern, what would I felt if Josiah had had his way about comin to meetin that day ? Little did them bretheren and sistern know what I d been through that mornin . 60 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Josiah wore his gay dressin -gown down to break fast, which I bore well, although it wuz strange- strange to have two men with dresses on a-settin on each side of me to the table I who had always been ust to plain vests and pantaloons and coats on the more opposite sex. But I bore up under it well, and didn t say nothin aginst it, and poured out the coffee and passed the buckwheat cakes and briled chicken and etc. with a calm face. But when church-time come, and Ury brought the mair and democrat up to the door, and I got up on to the back seat, when I turned and see Josiah Allen come out with that rep dressin -gown on, trimmed with bright red, and them bright tossels a-hangin down in front, and a plug hat on, you could have knocked me down with a pin feather. And sez I sternly, " What duz this mean, Josiah Allen ?" Sez he, " I am a-goin to wear this to meetin , Sa- mantha." "To meetin ?" sez I almost mekanically. " Yes," sez he ; "I am a-doin it out of compli ments to Fazer ; he would feel queer to be the only man there with a dress on, and so I thought I would keep him company ; and," sez he, a-fingerin the tos sels lovin ly, " this costoom is very dressy and be- OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 6l comin to me, and I d jest as leave as not let old Bobbett and Deacon Garvin see me appearin in it," sez he. " Do you go and take that off this minute, Josiah Allen ! Why, they d call you a idiot and as crazy as a loon !" Sez he, a-puttin his right foot forward and stand- in braced up on it, sez he, " I shall wear this dress to meetin to-day !" Sez I, " You won t wear it, Josiah Allen !" Sez he, " You know you are always lecturin me on bein polite. You know you told me a story about a woman who broke a china teacup a purpose because one of her visitors hap pened to break hern. You praised her up to me; and now I am actin out of almost pure politeness, and you want to break it up, but you can t," sez he, and he proceeded to git into the democrat. Ury wuz a-standin 1 With his hands On his SEZ I.A-RISIN UP IN THE DEMOCRAT, "I LL GIT OUT. 62 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. sides, convulsed with laughter, and even the mair seemed to recognize sunthin strange, for she whinnered loudly. Sez I in frigid axents, " Even the old mair is a whinnerin , she is so disgusted with your doin s, Josiah Allen." " The old mair is whinnerin for the colt ! " sez he, and agin he put his foot on the lowest step. " Wall," sez I, a-risin up in the democrat, with dignity, " I ll git out and stay to home. I will not go to church and see my pardner took up for wear- in female s clothin ." He paused with his foot on the step, and a shade of doubt swept over his liniment. " Do you spoze they would?" sez he. " Of course they would !" sez I ; " twilight would see you a-moulderin in a cell in Loontown." " I couldn t moulder much in half a day !" sez he. But I see that I wuz about to conquer. He paused a minute in deep thought, and then he turned away ; but as he went up the steps slowly, I hearn him say "Dum it all, I never try to show off in politeness or anything but what sunthin breaks it up !" But anon he come down clothed in his good honorable black kerseymeer suit, and Al Faizi soon follered him in his Oriental garb, and we proceeded to meetin . OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 63 As I say, the excitement wuz nearly rampant as we went in. * And I spoze nothin hendered the female wimmen and men from bein fairly pros trated and overcome by their feelin s, only this fact, that the winter before a Hindoo in full costoom had lectured before the Jonesville meetin -house, so that memory kinder broke the blow some. And then some on em had been to the World s Fair, and seen quantities of heathens and sech there. So no casuality wuz reported, though feather fans wuz waved wildly, and more caraway wuz con- soomed, I dare presoom to say, than would have been in a month of Sundays in ordinary times. But while the wonder and curosity waxed ram pant all round, Al Faizi sot silent and motionless as the dead, with his soft, brilliant eyes fixed on the minister s face, eager to ketch every word that fell from his lips a-tryin to hear the echo of the Great Voice speak to him through the minister s words, so I honestly believe. For I think that a honester, sincerer, well-meaii- in er creeter never lived and breathed than he wuz ; and as days went on I see nothin to break up my opinion of him. Politer he wuz than any female, or minister, I ever see fur or near. Afraid of makin trouble to a marked extent, eager and anxious to learn every- 64 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. thing he could about everything all our laws, and customs, and habits, and ways of thinkin and tellin his views in a simple way of honest frankness, that almost took my breath away anxious to learn, and anxious to teach what he knew of the truth. Though, as I said, after that first bust of talk with me he seemed inclined to not talk so much, but learn all he could. It wuz as if he had his say out in that first interview. Dretful interestin creeter to have round, he wuz sech a contrast to the in habitants of Jonesville, Deacon Garvin and the Dankses, etc. He didn t stay to our house all the time, as I said, but would take pilgrimages round and come back, and make it his home there. Wall, it wuz jest about this time that a contog- gler come to our house to contoggle a little for me. I wanted some skirts, and some underwaists, and some of Josiah s old clothes contoggled. You know, it stood to reason that we couldn t have all new things for our voyage, and so I had to have some of our old clothes fixed up. You see, things will git kinder run down once in awhile holes and rips in dresses, trimmin offen mantillys, tabs to new line, and pantaloons to hem over round the bottom, and vests to line new, and backs to put into em, and etcetery and etcetery. OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 65 And, then, you ll outgrow some of your things, and have to let em out ; or else they ll outgrow you, and you ll have to take em in, or sunthin . Sech cases as these don t call for a dressmaker or a tailoress. No, at sech times a contoggler is needed. And I ve made a stiddy practice for years of hirin a woman to come to the house every little while for a day or two at a time, and have my clothes and Josiah s all contoggled up good. This contoggler I had now wuz a old friend of mine, who had made it her home with me for some time in the past, and now bein a-keepin house happy not fur away, had sech a warm feelin for me in her heart, that she always come and contoggled for me when I needed a contoggler. She had a dretful interestin story. Mebby you d like to hear it ? I hate to have a woman meander off into side paths too much, but if the public are real sot and determined on hearin me rehearse her his tory, why I will do it. For it is ever my desire to please. It must be now about three years sence I had my first interview with my contoggler. And I see about the first minute that she wuz a likely creeter I could see it in her face. She wuz a perfect stranger to me, though she 66 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. had lived in Jonesville some five months prior and before I see her. And Maggie, my son s, Thomas Jefferson s, wife, hearn of her through her mother s second cousin s wife s sister, Miss Lemuel I key. And Miss I key said that she seemed to be one of the best wim- men she ever laid eyes on, and that it would be a real charity to give her work, as she wuz a stranger in the place, without much of anything to git along with, and seemed to be a deep mourner about sun- thin . Though what it wuz she didn t know, for ever sence she had come to Jonesville she had made a stiddy practice of mindin her own bizness and workin when she got work. She had come to Jonesville kinder sudden like, and she had hired her board to Miss Lemuel Ikey s son s widow, who kep a small a very small boardin - house, bein put to it for things herself though, likely. I told Maggie to ask her mother to ask her second cousin s wife to ask her sister, Miss Lemuel I key, to ask her son s wife what the young woman could do. And the word come back to me straight, or as straight as could be expected, comin through five wimmen who lived on different roads. " That she wuzn t a dressmaker, or a mantilly OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 67 maker, or a tailoress. But she stood ready to do what she coukl, and needed work dretfully, and would be awful thankful for it." Then feelin deeply sorry for her, and wantin to befriend her, I sent word back in the same way " To know if she could wash, or iron, or do fancy cookin . Or could she make hard or soft soap ? Or feather flowers ? Or knit striped mittens ? Or pick geese ? Or paint on plaks ? Or do paperin ?" And the answer come back, meanderin along through the five " That she wuzn t strong enough, or didn t know how to do any one of these, but she stood ready to do all she could do, and needed work the worst kind." Then I tackled the matter myself, as I might better have done in the first place, and went over to see her, bein willin to give her help in the best way any one can give it, by helpin folks to help them selves. I went over quite early in the mornin , bein on my way for a all-day s visit to Tirzah Ann s. But I found the woman up and dressed up slick, or as slick as she could be with sech old clothes on. And I liked her the minute I laid eyes on her. Her face, though not over than above hand some, wuz sweet-lookin , the sweetness a-shinin out through her big, sad eyes, like the light in the 68 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. western skies a-shinin out through a rift in heavy clouds. Very pale complected she wuz, though I couldn t tell whether the paleness wuz caused by trouble, or whether she wuz made so. And the same with her delicate little rigger. I didn t know whether that frajile appearance wuz nateral, or whether Grief SilE MET ME WITH A SWEET SMI I.E. had tackled her with his cold, heavy chisel, and had wasted the little rigger until it looked more like a child s than a woman s. And in her pretty brown hair, that kinder waved round her white forward, wuz a good many white threads. Of course I couldn t tell but what white hair run OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 69 through her family it duz in some. And I had hearn it said that white hair m the young wuz a sign of early piety, and of course I couldn t set up aginst that idee in my mind. But them white hairs over her pale young face looked to me as if they wuz made by Sorrow s frosty hand, that had rested down too heavy on her young head. She met me with a sweet smile, but a dretful sad one, too, when Miss Ikey introduced me. But when I told my errent she brightened up some. But after settin down with her for more n a quarter of a hour, a-questionin her in as delicate a way as I could and get at the truth, I found that every single thing that she could do wuz to con- toggle. So I hired her as a contoggler, and took her home with me that night on my \vay home from Tirzah Ann s as sech, and kep her there three weeks right along. I see plain that she could do that sort of work by the first look that I cast onto her dress, which wuz black, and old and rusty, but all contoggled up good, mended neat and smooth, and so I see, when she got ready to go with me, wuz her mantilly, and her bunnet ; both on em wuz old and worn, but both on em showed plain signs of contogglin . 7O SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. She wuz a pitiful-lookin little creeter under her black bunnet, and pitiful-lookin when the bunnet wuz hung up in our front bedroom, and she kep on bein so from day to day, as pale and delicate-lookin as a posey that has growed in the shade the deep shade. And though she kep to work good, and didn t complain, I see from day to day the mark that Suf- ferin writes on the forwards of them that pass through the valleys and dark places where She dwells. (I don t know whether Sufferin ort to be depictered as a male or a female, but kinder think that it is a She.) But to resoom. I didn t say nothin to make her think I pitied her, or anything, only kep a cheerful face and nourishin provisions before her from day to day, and not too much hard work. I thought I d love to see her little peeked face git a little mite of color in it, and her sad blue eyes a brighter, happier look. But I couldn t. She would work faithful con- toggle as I have never seen any livin woman con- toggle, much as I have witnessed contogglin . And I don t mean any disrespect to other contog- glers I have had when I say this no, they did the best they could. But Miss Clark (that wuz the name she gin Annie Clark), she had a nateral gift in this direction. OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 7 1 She worked as stiddy as a clock, and as patient, and patienter^for that will bust out and strike every now and then. But she sot resigned, and meek, and still over rents and jagged holes in garments, and rainy days and everything. Calm in thunder storms, and calm in sunshine, and sad, sad as death through em all, and most as still. And I sot demute and see it go on as long as I could, a-feelin that yearnin sort of pity for her that we can t help feelin for all dumb creeters when they are in pain, deeper than we feel for talkative agony yes, I always feel a deeper pity and a more pitiful one for sech, and can t help it. And so one day, when I wuz a-settin at my knit- tin in the settin -room, and she a-settin by me sad and still, a-contogglin on a summer coat of my Jo- siah s, I watched the patient, white face and the slim, patient, white fingers a-workin on patiently, and I stood it as long as I could ; and then I spoke out kinder sudden, being took, as it were, by the side of myself, and almost spoke my thoughts out loud, onbeknown to me, and sez I : " My dear!" (She wuzn t more n twenty-two at the outside.) " My dear ! I wish you would tell me what makes you so unhappy ; I d love to help you if I could." 72 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. She dropped her work, looked up in my face sort o wonderin , yet searchin . I guess that she see that I wuz sincere, and that I pitied her dretfully. Her lips begun to trem ble. She dropped her work down onto the floor, and come and knelt right down by me and put her head in my lap and busted out a-cryin . You know the deeper the water is, and the thicker the ice closes over it, the greater the upheaval and overflow when the ice breaks up. She sobbed and she sobbed ; and I smoothed back her hair, and kinder patted her head, and babied her, and let her cry all she wanted to. My gingham apron wuz new, but it wuz fast col or and would wash, and I felt that the tears would do her good. I myself didn t cry, though the tears run down my face some. But I thought I wouldn t give way and cry. And this, the follerin , is the story, told short by me, and terse, terser than she told it, fur. For her sobs and tears and her anguished looks all punc tuated it, and lengthened it out, and my little groans and sithes, which I groaned and sithed entirely on- -beknown to myself. But anyway it wuz a pitiful story. She had at a early age fell in love voyalent with OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 73 a young man, and he visey versey and the same* They wuz dretful in love with each other, as fur as I could make out, and both on em likely and well meanin , and well behaved with one exception. He drinked some. But she thought, as so many female wimmen do, that he would stop it when they wuz married. Oh ! that high rock that looms up in front of prospective brides, and on which they hit their heads and their hearts, and are so oft destroyed. They imagine that the marriage ceremony is a-goin in some strange way to strike in and make over all the faults and vices of their young pardners and turn em into virtues. Curous, curous, that they should think so, but they do, and I spoze they will keep on a-thinkin so. Mebby it is some of the visions that come in the first delerium of love, and they are kinder crazy like for a spell. But tenny rate they most always have this idee, specially if love, like the measles, breaks out in em hard, and they have it in the old- fashioned way. Wall, as I wuz a-sayin , and to resoom and pro ceed. Annie thought he would stop drinkin after they wuz married. He said he would. And he did for quite a spell. And they wuz as happy as if they ^4 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. had rented a part of the Garden of Eden, and wuz a-\vorkin it on shares. Then his brother-in-law moved into the place, and opened a cider-mill and a saloon manafac- tered and sold cider brandy, furnished all the saloons round him with it, took it off by the load on Saturdays, and kep his saloon wide open, so s all the boys and men in the vicinity could have the hull of Sunday to git crazy drunk in, while he wuz a-passin round the contribution-box in the meetin -house. For he wuz a strict church-goer, the brother-in- law wuz, and felt that he wuz a sample to foller. Wall, Ellick Gurley follered him follered him to his sorrer. The brother-in-law employed him in his soul slaughter-house for so I can t help callin the bizness of drunkard-makin . I can t help it, and I don t want to help it. And so, under his influence, Ellick Gurley wuz led down the soft, slippery pathway of cider drunk enness, with the holler images of Safety and old Custom a-standin up on the stairway a-lightin him down it. Ellick first neglected his work, while his face turned first a pink, and then a bloated, purplish red. Then he begun to be cross to his wife and abu- o sive to little Rob, the beautiful little angel that had FINALLY, HE GOT TO BE QUARRELSOME. 76 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. flown to them out of the sweet shadows of Eden, where they had dwelt the first married years of their life. Finally, he got to be quarrelsome. Annie wuz afraid of him. And all of his money and all of hern went to buy that cider brandy (it makes the ugliest, most dangerous kind of a drunk, they say, of any kind of liquor, and I believe it from what I have seen myself, and from what Annie told me of her husband s treatment of her and little Rob). And at last she begun to suffer for food and clothin for herself and the child.. And as the drink demon riz up in Ellick s crazy brain, and grew more clamorous in its demands, and he weaker to contend aginst it, Ellick sold all of the household stuff he could git holt of to appease this dretful power that had got holt of him, body and soul. Annie took in all the work she could do, did washin for the neighbors, who ust to envy her her happiness and prosperity rubbed and hung out the heavy garments with tremblin fingers- sewed with her achin head a-bendin over the long seams, and her tear-filled eyes dimmed with the pain of unavailin agony. But heartaches and abuse made her weak form OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 77 weaker and weaker, and then there wuz but little work to do, if she had been as strong as Samp son ; so, bein fairly drove to it by Agony, and Fear, and Starvation, them three furies a-drivin her, as you may say, harnessed up three abreast behind her, a-goadin her weak, cowerin form with their fire-tipped lashes, she appealed to the broth er-in-law. She told him, what he knew before, that she and little Robbie were starvin , and she wuz afraid of her life, and she urged him to not sell Ellick any more of the poison that wuz a-destroyin him. He wuz to meetin when she went. He wuz dretful particular about his religious observ ances. No Hindoos wuz ever stricter about burnin their widders on the funeral pyre of the departed than he wuz a-follerin up what he called his re ligion. (Religion, sweet, pure sperit, how could she stand it, to have him a-burnin his incense in front of her ? But, then, she has had to stand a good deal in this old world, and has to yet.) But, as I wuz a-sayin , there never wuz a Pharisee in old or modern times that went ahead of him in cleanin the outside of his platters and religious deep dishes, and makin broad the border of his 78 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. phylakricy. Why, his phylakricy wuz broader and deeper than you have any idee on. But inside of his platters and deep dishes wuz dead men s bones ! More n one quarrel, riz up out of his accursed brandy, had led to bloodshed, besides achin and broken hearts without number, and ruined souls and lives. And his phylakricy ort to be broad, for it had to be used as a pall time and agin, and it covered, so he thought, a multitude of sins. Yes, indeed ! Wall, as I say, he wuz to a church meetin . There wuz a-goin to be a Association of Religious Bodies for the Amelioration of Human Woe. And he wuz anxious to be sent as a delegate, so he hung on to the last, and wuz appinted. But finally he got home, and Annie tackled him on the subject nearest her heart, talked to him with tears in her eyes and a voice tremblin with the anguished beatin s of her poor, achin heart. She begged him to not sell her husband any more drink, begged him for her sake and for the sake of little Rob. For she knew that if the man had a tender place in his heart it wuz for his little nephew. He did love him deeply, or as deep as a OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 79 man like thistould love anything above his money and his reputation as a religious leader. But he wouldn t promise, and he acted dretful high-headed and hateful to her to cover up his meanness, for he felt that if he should refuse to sell his stuff, it would not only stop his money-makin , but it would be like ownin up that he had been in the wrong. And he plumed himself, and carried the idee that cider wuz a healthful beverage, and very strength- enin in janders and sech. Why, he carried the idee to the world, and mebby in the first place he did to his own soul, so blindin is the spectacles of selfishness that he wore, that he wuz a-doin a charitable work a-keepin that old cider-mill and saloon a-goin . So he wouldn t pay no attention to her pleadin s, only acted hateful and cross to her, his guilty con science makin him so, I spoze. And then, too, he wuz in a hurry, for his church duties wuz a-waitin for him, and his barrels of cider wanted doctorin with alcohol and sech. So he turned onto his heel and left her. And Annie went home more broken-hearted than ever, for his cold, cruel sneers and scorn hurt her on the poor heart made sore by her husband s brutality. And Ellick went on worse than ever. And it 8o SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. wuz on that very day that his brother-in-law (and to make it shorter we will call him B. I. L.) it wuz on the very day that the B. I. L. went to New York on his great Amelioratin Human Misery errent, that Ellick, crazy drunk with cider shampain, struck little Rob sech a blow that it knocked the child down, and he laid stunted for more n a hour. And he threatened Annie that he would take her life, because she interfered between him and the boy. He raved round, like the maniac that he wuz. He said that he would throw her out doors if she didn t git a good dinner, when there wuzn t a mite of food in the house to cook. He raved about the house bein so freezin cold, \vhen there wuzn t a stick of wood nor a lump of coal. And finally he reeled off to his usual place of resort. And while the B. I. L. \v r uz a-raisin up in the great meetin -house, and a-smoothin out his phylakricy, and a-layin the border of it careful, so s it would show off well, and then bustin out into sech a speech, on the duties of church-members to the sinful and the sorrowin round em a speech that riz him up powerful in religious circles Ellick lay drunk in the office of his cider-mill. Little Rob lay like a dead child in a cold, bare room, and a white-faced, half-starved mother bent over him with big, despairin , anxious eyes LLICK LAY DRUNK IN THE OFFICE. OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 8 1 bent over him till life come back to his poor, bruised body ; and then as darkness crept over the earth she stole away, a-carryin him in her arms. She got a ride with a passin teamster, got carried fur off, then got another ride, wuz fed and warmed by pityin hearts on the way ; so she come to a place nigh Jonesville, onbeknown to anybody. When Ellick rousted up out of his drunken sleep he went back to a desolate, empty house. His surprise, his grief, sobered him. He flew to the B. I. L., woke him out of a sound sleep filled with visions of his triumphs. The B. I. L. wuz in a tryin place. He wuz about to be riz up to a high position in the meetin - house. If this story got out, it might and probble would hurt him. Annie must be found and brought back. They jined forces to try to find her. They sot out that very day, but the quest wuz a long one. Annie stayed a spell with the family who took her in first out of the cold and the darkness. The man of the house, and the woman, too, wuz relations on the soul side to the good old Samaritan mentioned in Skripter. They did well by her. But little Rob never got over the effects of the cruel blow, and the fall on the hard floor, and the awful journey through the coldness of the midnight 82 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. escape. They all sort o underminded his little con stitution, and he wuz took sick a bed. And bein too tired out and hardly dealt with here on earth, he wuz promoted up to that higher home, where we may be sure that his True Father, the Helper of all the oppressed and burdened, ac cepted him right into His great heart of Love, and wuz good to the little, patient soul. Wall, Annie couldn t tell me much about that time, when she had to let the child, a part of her own life, go out of her arms, and she wuz left alone alone amongst strangers, helpless, despairin , and poor. No, she couldn t talk much about it, not in words, but I understood the language of her tremblin lips and her fallin tears. Wall, when little Rob wuz laid away under the dead grasses and the bare shade trees of that .little country church-yard, Annie couldn t stay long in the house where he had been and now wuz not. His little figger hanted every room, and her ago nized Remembrance wuz a-walkin up and down with her. So she heard of a place in Jonesville where mebby she could git work, and she come there. But lately news had come to her that her hus band and B. I. L. wuz huntin for her. OFF INTO SIDE PATHS. 83 Ellick really and truly loved his wife and child, so it wuz spozed, and hunted for Love s and Anx iety s sakes. The B. I. L. hunted em so s to hush up the story ; it wuz a-hurtin him dretfully in the eyes of the meetin -house. And Anger and Selfishness and Hypocrocy wuz a-holdin up their blue-flamed torches to light him on his hunt. Wall, Annie wuz in deathly fear that they would find her. She had took another name her mother s maiden name but she wuz afraid they would find it out. She said that she could not live to go through agin what she had gone through with. And yet when I pinned her right down on the subject (a calm, religious pinnin ) she owned up that she did love her husband yet. She cried when she said it. And I thought to myself that I would cry if I wuz in her place, if I loved such a thing as that. But she said, and mebby it wuz so, that he would have been all right if it hadn t been for the influence of the B. I. L. and his bein gradual led back into drinkin agin by sunthin that he thought wouldn t hurt him. She said that he never would have touched whiskey agin, havin promised and broke off. But he thought, somehow, that the liquid sech a 84 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. highly religious man \vuz a-sellin under the name of cider must be sort o soothin to his insides ; but in stead of that it set fire to em, and his morals and all, and burnt em right up. Annie showed me Ellick s picter, and it wuz a good-lookin face, or kinder good ; it would have been handsome if it hadn t been for a sort of a weak look onto it. But weak or strong, she loved him. And so I didn t really know how she wuz a-comin cut so fur as her own happiness wuz concerned. Wimmen are so queer. But I chirked her up all I could, told her to keep jest as calm as she could conveniently, and I would take care of her for the present. CHAPTER IV. SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE. WALL, if you ll believe it, it wuz the very- next day I had a occasion to go to Jonesville for some necessaries ; and Josiah wuz busy a-mak- in a new stanchil in the barn, so I sot off alone after breakfast with a large pail of good butter, and a cross-cut saw that Josiah had sent down to be filed, and the mair. Wall, jest about a mild from our house is a old tarvern that has been fixed up and is used now as a sort of a half-way house between Jones ville and Loontown. Teamsters and sech stop there a sight to git " Refreshments for man and beast," as the sign reads. Wall, I had got most there when I see a man approachin me a-walkin afoot. And I knew him the first minute I sot my eyes on him. It wuz Ellick Gurley. And the very minute I sot my eyes onto his face Duty and Principle both hunched me up hard to tackle him in this matter. Wall, most probble he had been hangin round 86 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. for some time, for he knew me the first thing, and he come up to the side of the democrat wagon I wuz a-ridin in, bold as brass, and he sez : " Is this Josiah Allen s wife ?" sez he. " Yes, sir," sez I, up clear and decided. " Is a woman calling herself Anna Clark at your house ?" I wuzn t a-goin to fight for Annie with any pew ter weepons of untruth. No, I wuz a-goin to fight with the two-edged sword of Eternal Truth and Jestice, and I took em out and whetted em (as it were), and sez I, sharp and keen " Yes, sir !" " Well," sez he, lookin dretful defiant and mad at me, " she is my wife, and I hereby forbid you har boring her, for I will pay no debts of her con tracting." " Like as not," sez I coolly, " as you never paid any of your own." He kinder -blushed up some, but he went on some as if he wuz a-rehearsin a piece he had learnt : " She has left my bed and board !" Then I waved that sword of Truth agin that I had been a-whettin , and sez I "It wuz her bed. Her mother gin it to her for her settin out, and picked every feather in it from 88 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. her own geese and ganders. I got it from Annie s own lips, and you sold it for drink. As for the boards," sez I candidly, for even in the midst of the fiercest battle with the forces of wrong I must be jest to my foe, and so sez I As for the piece of board you speak of, I d no whose it wuz, but I believe it wuz hern. Any way, I know she earnt every mite of food and drink you took into your miserable body." And the remembrance of Annie s wrongs and woes so overmastered me, that I sez right out " You drunken, low-lived snipe, you ! how dast you be comin round that good little creeter, and tryin to git her back into her starvation and slav ery, and peril of life and limb ? How dast you, you drunken coot, you ?" sez I, a-lookin two or three daggers at him and some simeters. He quailed. I d no as I ever see signs of quail any plainer than I see it in him. But he muttered sunthin about "A man s having a right to his wife and child." "A right ?" sez I ; "do you dast to look anybody in the face and talk of your right to wife and child, when it wuz your poor, abused, half-starved wife s weak arms and mighty love that riz up between you and your child and murder ? Riz up between you and the gallows ?" SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE. 89 He quailed deeper, fur deeper than he had quailed, and his lips trembled. And I see ifnder the quail, come to look clost at him, that there wuz a kinder good-hearted look un der all the weakness and dissipated look of his face. I see, or thought I see, that it wuz bad influences that had led him astray, and if he had kep under good influence and away from bad ones (the B. I. L. and his hard cider, etc.), I thought like as not, from the generous lay of his features, that he might have been a tolerable good-lookin feller and behaved middlin well. And that is why I spozed that Annie looked so heart-broken, that wuz why, I spoze, that, in spite of all she had underwent, my contoggler loved him. But anon he sprunted up some and said sunthin about bein bound to have his wife. And I waved my sword of Jestice agin (men tally) and sez " Wall, I am bound that you shan t have her, and you ll see," sez I, " who ll carry the day !" And then he sez, " What right have you to inter fere ? \Vhat relation are you to her ?" And sez I, a-liftin up my head in a very noble way " The same relation that the Samaritan wuz to the man by the wayside. She s my relation on the heart s side, the Pity and Sympathy s side. 9O SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Closter ties than the false, shaky ones that bound her to a life of slavery and danger with you bound her to you, who promised to protect her, and then half-murdered her. And you ll find out so !" sez I, a-lookin as bold as brass, but in my heart I quaked considerable, not knowin but I wuz a-goin agin the hull statute and constitution and by-laws of the U. S. of America. But I spoze my mean skairt him. It had sech determination and courage into it, and he sez " I will go and call my brother-in-law. He is a rich and respectable man and very religious. I will bring him to talk with you." " Wall, do so !" sez I, bold as a lioness on the outside. " I d love to set my eyes onto that creeter, jest out of curosity, jest as I would look at a me nagerie of wild beasts and man-eaters." So he went back into the tarvern and brung him. He wuz a mean-lookin creeter in his face, and he wuz short in stattcr, and his figger looked sort o sneakin under the weight of guilt he wuz a-carryin round under the cloak of religion. And his little black eyes looked guilty, and his hull face, under some kinder red hair, looked withered and hardened, as if his doin for years what he knew wuz wicked had hardened his face into a cruel mean ness. He looked mean as mean could be. SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE. 91 But hejtried to hold his head up, and he bust out the first thing about takin the law to me ! " You take the law to me ! you ! " And oh ! how my simeter of Truth and Jestice jest flashed round that man s short, meachin figger. " You take the law on anybody, you mean cree- ter you ! who have brung all this sin and misery to pass for your own selfishness. You, who took the good-tempered, weak boy and poured your poison down his throat till you flooded out all his moral sense and husbandly and fatherly affection, and filled up the empty space with the demons of Hatred and Brutality and crazy quarrelin s ! " You talk of law, \vho stole away every mite of that poor girl s happiness and every cent of her money for your cursed drink ! " You, who drove out of their home the sweet angel of Happiness, who used to board with em stiddy, and drove in your beasts of prey ! " You ruined her happiness, you starved her, you broke her heart, and now you want her back to tor ment her agin ! " Wall, you won t have her, unless you take her over my prostrate form !" The B. I. L. wuz half skairt to death, and he stood demute. But Ellick broke in with tremblin lips. He 92 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. stopped talkin about Annie for a spell, bein , I spoze, perfectly overcome by my eloquence. And he begun on another tack, and sez he in tremblin axents " I want my boy," sez he, " I will have my child ! " And I see that he did have a deathly longin and hungry look in his eyes. I could see that he did love his wife and child, deep and earnest. And I felt a little mite tenderer towards him, not much, for I kep a-thinkin of how Annie s face had looked as she come and throwed herself at my feet. The memory of that white face and them big, an guished eyes riz my heart up and kep it from meltin right down under the agony of that man s look. The B. T. L., whose selfishness had done the hull work, he too looked a heartfelt anxiety about the boy. I see that he loved him too, and wuz proud of him. But, as I say, the memory of the Giant Wrong that had struck down Annie and the boy stood right by me and nerved me up, and I sez " You can t have the child !" Then Ellick flared right up, and sez he " I will have the child, and I ll let you know that I will ! I am his natural guardian, and I ll let you know that the law is on my side, and I can take him, and I will take him !" SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE. 93 " No," sez I, " you can t take him !" " He can !" sez the B. I. L., speakin up sharp as a meat-axe u -he can ; nobody loves the child as well as we do ; and he is the child s natural guardian, and we can take him away from any place you have put him in." And agin I sez, " No you can t, not from the place he is in now. The boy has got another gardeen now, a better one." " Another guardian !" sez the father ; " well, I will tear him right out of his hands ; I will make him give him up !" He wuz jealous as a dog, I could see, of the gardeen. " No you won t !" sez I. "Yes he will!" sez the B. I. L. ; " we ll teach him what the law is, and that a father can get his boy every time !" " Not this time !" sez I ; " this gardeen is power ful and kind, too ; and he has got him in a safe place. He wuz misused and kicked and beaten and half starved ; but he has enough now ; he has got a home of plenty and rest and happiness. He is safe," sez I. " No matter how safe it is we will have him right out of it !" sez the B. I. L. " He is my child, and I will have him !" says Ellick Gurley. 94 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "No," sez I, "you can t have him. You can t pull that tender little body out of the grave to mis use it agin. You can t draw the sweet little sperit out of God s happy home to torment it agin. The Lord is his father and his gardeen now, and He will keep the boy !" " Dead !" cried the B. I. L., and he staggered back like a drunken man, and his face turned white as a bleached white cotton shirt. " Dead ! my baby dead !" sez Ellick Gurley. "Then I am his murderer !" And he threw up his arms as if he had received a pistol shot right in his heart, and then he fell jest like a log right down in the road. Wall, I disem barked from my democrat, and by the time the B. I. L. had got him up in a more settin poster on a log by the side of the road, I wuz by him a-holdin his head and a-chafin his hands and his forward. When he come to and riz up and sot upright, his first words wuz " Oh ! poor Annie ! poor girl ! how did she bear it, all alone with our dead boy ! Oh ! my boy ! my boy that I killed !" I see plain that there wuz good in the man, after all. But the B. I. L. had by this time sprunted up, and wuz a-thinkin of his phylakricy, and a-pullin it SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE. 95 over himself and Ellick, and seemed anxious to sort o hush him up, and sez he " It wasn t *your doings, it wasn t the accident that killed the boy, it was probably something else." " Yes;" sez I, lookin at the B. I. L. straight in the face "yes, it wuz sunthin else, it wuz you ! You smooth-faced, selfish hyppocrite, you ; it wuz your doin s that killed the boy ! If you had left his Pa alone, and not led him into a condition fit to murder, jest to put a few cents into your own pocket, the boy would have been alive and happy to-day, and so would Ellick and Annie." Sez I, " It wuz your doin s, and you don t want to forgit it !" sez I. He quailed, he quailed hard, and sez he " You talk like a fool !" " No," sez I ; "you are the fool, for it is the fool that hath said that there is no God, and you see there is," sez I " a God that punishes sin, who is even now a-punishin you ; a God who said, " Cursed is he who putteth the cup to his neighbor s lips." Sez I, " You have prospered and grown rich in your bizness of beast-makin , and you didn t be lieve there wuz Eternal Jestice a-watchin over your sinful deeds, and you find now that you wuz a fool to believe it. For you find now that there is a God. You find now that you are cursed for your sin in 96 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. makin murderers and assassins and wife-beaters and child-killers !" Sez I, " You loved little Rob ; your bad heart is achin now this minute to think it wuz your hand that dealt out the poison that reached him through his father s weakness and miserable vice !" He wuz demute. He didn t say a word, but a look come over his face that I don t want to see agin. He didn t want to give up and own up his guilt and repent, and he wuz jest crushed right down about little Rob. He wuz jest tested both ways, between agony and selfishness. He didn t want to give up his profitable bizness of beast-makin , and he wuz horrow struck to think that his own little idol had fell a victim. His face looked like a humbly fallen angel s, or how I sp.oze they look. I never see one fall. He didn t say another word, but turned on his heel and walked off. The last word he said to me, as I stated hereto fore, wuz callin me " a fool." But I didn t care for that. I knew I wuzn t. But still that broken-hearted father, that wretched, lonesome husband sot there by the side of the road. Finally he spoke " Can I see Annie ?" " No, sir !" sez I plain and square jest as plain 98 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. and jest as square as if my own heart wuzn t a-achin , and a-achin hard, too, for the miserable, broken-hearted man. My tears, if they fell, and I spoze they did from my feelin s, fell inside of my head ; for I wouldn t let him have a chance to misuse and torment that good little creeter agin, not if I could help it. He trembled like a popple leaf. He wuz paler than any dish-cloth I ever see, and I see my advan tage, and I hardened my heart, some like Pharo s, only a more pious hardenin , for it wuz done on principle. " You talk of wantin that poor girl to go back to your cold, naked home, to hardship, to starvation, to wretchedness bodily wretchedness and heart wretchedness. For she loves you still, you poor snipe, you ; she loves you, fool that she is, but wimmen are weak." I see his face grow brighter for a minute, and then turn pale as death agin. " Will she forgive me ?" sez he in axents weak as a cat, and weaker, too, and fur hopelesser than any cat I ever see. " Not if I can help it !" sez I heartlessly (on the outside) and boldly. " I ll do better. I ll promise her to not drink another drop !" SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE. 99 " Promises are cheap," sez I in a lofty way, a-lookin up into a tree, for his pale face weakened me, and I felt^that I must be strong. So I looked up into the tree overhead. It wuz a slippery ellum, but I held firm. " Promises are cheap and slippery," sez I. I spoze it wuz that tree that put me in mind of that simely. " She shan t be led away by em agin, by my consent." " If I don t drink for a year will you help me to have my wife back again ?" His voice trembled. " That is beginnin to talk like a human creeter," sez I, and I looked down from the ellum sort o benignantly. And I sez in a more warmer axent, but not too warm jest about milk warm " You stop drinkin for a year. You git another home for her as good as you took her to at first, and I ll advise her to talk with you about goin back, and not one minute before !" sez I. "Can I see her one minute?" sez he. Annie wuz to home. Josiah wuz away. All de volved on me, and I riz up to the occasion. " No !" sez I, "you can t; you can t see her to day for a minute, or a secont !" (1 knew putty wuz hard in comparison to her heart, and I wouldn t run the resk.) 100 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "You stop drinkin for six months," sez I, "and you may see her for one-half hour in my presence, and not a minute longer," sez I, as resolute as iron. " I ll take care of her, and when you ve earnt the right to have her agin with you, I ll give her up to you and not a minute before," sez I "not a minute !" He riz right up, the tears runnin down his face, and he ketched holt of my hand and kissed it. I d no when I ve been so kinder took back. But I knew that Josiah wouldn t care on sech a occasion as this, there wuzn t anything immoral in it, and I couldn t hender it anyway, it wuz done so quick. And then he started right off, fast as he could go. And as sure as the world, that man went to work at his trade. Got two dollars a day. He didn t drink a drop. He rented a little house with five acres of grass land round it and a paster. He kep two cows, milked em nights and mornin s, sold his milk and laid up money. Workin with all his heart and soul to be worthy of his wife and home. And I writ to that man stiddy, jest as stiddy as though I wuz a-keepin company with him, every week of my life. Josiah didn t care. Good land ! I writ on duty. I sent him good letters, all about how Annie \vuz, SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AMD JUSTICE, ibi and how she looked, and what she said, and a-hold- in up his arms like Arun and Hur (specially Hur, it sounds some? like a woman). She made it her home with me, but went out to contoggle here and there, and laid up money, bought sheets and piller-cases and sech. And I helped her to two comforters and a bed-spread. But she didn t go back to him till the year wuz up. No, I see to that. And when that year had gone by, he wuz a sober man all the time, completely out from under the influences of the B. I. L. and cider and whiskey and saloons, and completely under ourn, Annie s and mine and Temperance. And we a-doin our very best for him, and a-believin in him, and a-helpin him, all three on us. Why, then I ventered to let her go and live with him agin. And I even made a party for em on the occasion. Some like a weddin party, for we all brung presents to em. And the children and a few sincere well-wishers that she had contoggled for and Josiah and me all jinin hearty in the prayer Elder Minkley put up after supper for the peace and prosperity of the new home. And they ve prospered first-rate. Their sweet, cozy home is pleasant, as a home IO2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. where Love is always must be. But it is a-settin down under a shadder, and always will set there. It can t be helped. The shadder stands up behind it, some like a mountain ; but the peace and happiness of the present is gradually a-makin a meller, tender haze in front o.n t ; some as the blue, luminous sky of Injun Summer iloats in and softens the truth of the year s decay. It is there, all the same, but time and that soft, tender mist wears off the sharp edges on t, and sometimes the shadders fall some in the shape of a cross. The sun hits it in jest the right way. Annie and Ellick jined the meetin -house the year after they come together agin, and the Elder and several of us bretheren and sistern gathered round em, and held up their courage and helped em along all we could. And though some are kinder mean and throw r out hints, for human nater can t be helped, and mean and small souls have got to act out what is inherient in em, and some, specially the B. I. L. "SAVE THE SAM, IT MAY COME IN HANDY IN THE FUTER." SAMANTHA S SWORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE. 103 and his family, made lots of talk about him and her, and poked fun at em, and acted. But Ellick is a-learnin -to be patient and bear what he says he know r s is "The Wages of Sin." But, as naterally follers, he is now in the employ of another Master, and his wages is a-comin in better and better every day. And wuzn t he happy when he held another little boy on his knee? Little Tom Josiah, named after my two best-beloved males. And Annie wanted to add " Sam " to it for me, but I demurred, sayin , "They didn t seem to go together smooth. Tom Josiah Sam didn t seem to have the flow and rythm to suit my melodious idees. Sez I, " Save the Sam, it may come in handy in the futer." But the dimpled hands of that child seemed to draw Annie and Ellick nigher together than they d ever been, and pull em both along, onbeknown to em, into the sunshiny fields of happiness. Thomas J. gin little Tom Josiah ten dollars to put in the Savin s Bank at compounded interest, and Josiah gin him two lambs, which are a-goin to be put out to double to the very best advantage for him. By the time he is twenty-one he will have con- 104 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. siderable money, and a big flock of sheep to drive on before him down the path of the futer. But I might talk for hours and hours and not exhaust the fascinatin subject of the peace and prosperity of the one who has left the paths of sin and hard cider and whiskey, etc., and is walkin in the paths of sobriety and success. But to them not interested so much in this cause, so dear to the heart of her whose name wuz once Smith, the subject may grow monotunous and tejus, so I will resoom and take up the thread of my discourse over my ringer agin, and let it purr along on the spool of History. CHAPTER V. A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY. WALL, Al Faizi hearn this story about the contog- gler s sufferin s and the doin s of the B. I. L., and I never see him so riz up about anything as he wuz with that. Sez he " This man who loved the child sold stuff to his father that he knew would make him liable to murder him ? I cannot believe it possible that such a crime can be permitted. " To one coming from a heathen land it seems incredible." " Yes," sez I, "I ve always said that it wuz a worse practice than any savages ever dremp of." Said Al Faizi " This is probably the one solitary instance that ever occurred where the death of a person much beloved was caused by a man for a few cents gain." " One instance !" sez I ; " why, all over this broad country, day after day, and year after year, murders are brought about almost solely by this cause !" He sithed deep and seemed to he turnin in his 106 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. mind some possible remedy for this dretful state of things. " Could not these men be persuaded to stop this trade that kills men in this world, and destroys their hopes of Heaven ?" "No," sez I, "they can t be persuaded ; it has been tried by good men and good wimmen for years and years ; they will keep on, driv by Sel fishness and Ignorance, that span of bloody beasts !" " Could not the law interfere ?" sez he ; " could not your great police force step in and punish these dreadful doings ?" Sez I, " It could, if it wuzn t spendin its hull strength on devisin ways to protect the liquor traffic. " The police might bring some on em up if it wuzn t a-sneakin into side-doors a-partakin on the sly of the poison !" Sez I, " It gits braced up in this way, so s it s ready to drag off to jail the poor, weak drunkards, made so by the saloons, and by the men who sup ply the saloons, and by the voters who make this thing possible, and by the goverment that sus tains it." " Why does not your great nation interfere and compel them to stop it ?" sez he. A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY. IO/ " Because this great nation is in company with em," sez *I " partakers in this iniquity, and takin part of the bloody gain." And my feathers drooped and my face wuz as red as blood to have to own up these things to a heathen, that wuz a-contrastin our ways with his own, which wuz so much more superior and riz up on the liquor question. " Your holy church," sez he, " why does not that, so great and powerful a force in this land, why does it not interfere and frown down these wicked ways ? Why does it not pronounce its anathema on all those who commit this sin -this B. I. L., as I have heard him called, and men like him, who own saloons and supply the stuff that makes murderers ?" "This B. I. L.," sez I, "is a piller in his meetin - house. He sets in the highest place," sez I. " One of your holy men who take charge of the sacred things, permitted by your customs to carry on such iniquity ? I cannot understand it," sez he. Sez I " Nobody ort to understand it !" Sez I, " It is a shame and a disgrace, anyway !" "Why," sez he, "in my own country our men who take part in holy observances have to lead pure lives to fast and pray continually. I cannot understand that one would be permitted to carry on IOS SAMANTHA IN EUROI K. an evil business six days during the week and touch the sacred things of your religion the seventh day." Agin I sez "Nobody ort to understand it; it would be a shame to heathen countries!" sez I. Sez he "This very man who was the cause of all this wretchedness and crime and murder he prays for the heathen, does he not ?" " I spoze so," sez I. " IK carries round the vessel in which YOU gath er the inoiu-v to send to the heathen for charity and instruction ?" "Yes," sez 1 ; "but we call it the contribution plate." " NYell." sex he. " we refuse to accept his money ; we refuse to take the money that man desecrates by touching. "And," sex he, " I will tell him so." And so I spoze he did good, simple-minded creeter. He didn t seem to have but two idees in his head one to learn the will of God, and the other to do it. And from what I ve hearn sence I guess he did impress the B. I. L. The idee of havin a heathen from heathen lands come to labor with him on religion kinder shook him up, from all I can hear. A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY. 109 I shouldn t wonder if he did leave off his dretful trade, and come part way up to a heathen s stand ard of morality. But if he duz, no thanks are due to our own law or to our own gospel. They wuz both weighed in the balances and found wantin . If things are ever put on a more religious and no ble and riz up footin it will all be caused by the missionary efforts of a heathen. But to resoom. Another thing about our contoggler interested Al Faizi dretfully. It wuz some talks he had with her about wimmen s dress. Annie wuz sensible, and hated the tight girtin s indulged in by some of our females. And Al Faizi expressed the greatest wonder at the ignorance and folly showed by civilized wimmen. The pressin in and destroyin all the vital or gans by lacin in the waist. He expressed great wonder that a civilized people could commit this crime aginst the laws of health and the solemn laws of heredity. He said when he contrasted the loose, comforta ble robes of his own wimmen with the deformities caused by tight lacin , more and more he wondered at the strange sights of civilization. And then he said that in hospitals (for this strange I 10 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. creeter had peered round everywhere in search of knowledge), he had seen some of the terrible effects of tight lacin and high-heeled "shoes. He said that he had seen cases of blindness, caused by the last, and a destruction of the nerves. In lacin , he had seen dretful cases of internal diseases, incurable, and had seen terrible diseases in infants, caused alone by this destructive custom of the mothers young infants who, if they lived, must carry a maimed body through life with em, caused alone by this habit. Sez he, " Compare these high-heeled shoes with the loose, comfortable sandals that our own women wear. And these painful steel waists, that compress the lungs and heart, with our own women s loose, flowing garments," and he wuz astounded at our ways. Wall, I agreed with him from the bottom of my heart, but sech is poor human nater that it kinder galded me to have my sect so sot down on and de spised by a heathen. And I, kinder onbeknown to me, brung up their own veiled wimmen. "And," sez I, " every country has its own shortcoming ; I don t like the idee of your wimmen havin their faces all covered up with veils." My tone wuz kinder het up and agitated. A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY. in But his voice wuz as sweet and calm as the even- in breeze a-bTowin over a bed of Japanese lilies. " Yes," sez he, " perhaps we err in that direction, in veiling our women too much from the public gaze. " But," sez he, " I went to a grand party once in your great city Chicago, and to one also in Wash ington, and I see the women s forms almost entirely disrobed and nude, while great folds of cloth trailed after them down on the floor. I knew not where to look for shame, for even when I was a nursing babe in my mother s arms, I could not have witnessed such sights. " And while we Eastern people may err in the direction of veiling the charms of our women-kind, methinks you Western people err still further in the opposite direction. At these public parties I saw the naked forms of the women, displayed with far more than the freedom of the courtesans in my own country, and my heart sank down with shrinking and wonder at the strange customs of civilization." I felt meachin . I felt small enough to have gone to bed through my bedroom key-hole. But I thought I wouldn t. I only sez " Wall, I guess it is about bed-time." Josiah had already sought repose in our bedroom. And Al Faizi got up at once and took his night- I 12 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. lamp, and bid me good-night with one of his low, reverential bows. I knew what he said wuz the truth. I had medi tated on it. And in my own way I had tried to break it up the tight-lacin , train-dragglin , high- heeled doin s. But, as I say, it galded me deeply to hear these truths discanted on by a heath en. I love my sect, and wish her dretful well, and I can t bear to see heathens a-lookin down on her. And then Al Faizi hearn about how little children are put to work at a tender age down in the damp, dark mines, shet away from Heaven s light, through long, long days, until their youth is gone and ONE OF HIS LOW, ENTIAL BOWS. - old age dims their eves. o j And he sot off for a distant part of the country to see the owners of the mines, and see for himself, and use his influence to have this evil abol ished. And then he hearn about how young children are bought in the great stores of the big citys. He hearn all the tales of sin and woe connected with sech doin s worse than the Masacreein of the Innocents. A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY. 113 He sot out to once to investigate, and to warn, and to rebuket And he hearn with wonder and unbelief, at first, the story how children could sell their honor and all their hopes of the futer at a tender age. And how this great nation permits this iniquity, and makes laws to perpetuate it, and shield the guilty men who indulge in this sin. And all the horrows that gathers round them in famous words "The Age of Consent." As he talked with me about it, I could see by the deep fire that wuz lit up in his usually soft eyes his burnin indignation aginst this idee that had jest been promulgated to him. Sez he "You Christians talk a sight about the car of Juggernaut that rolls on over living victims and crushes them down, but," sez he, "death leaves the soul free to fly home to its paradise ; but your Christian country has found the way to ruin the souls of children, as well as their bodies. How can you sit down calmly and know that such a law is in existence ? How can mothers happily watch their sweet little baby girls at play, and know that such a horrible danger lurks in the path their ignorant little feet have got to tread, such a snare is set for them ?" 114 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " They don t set calm and happy mothers don t !" I bust out ; " their hearts and souls are full. They cry to God in their anguish and fear, but they can t do nothin else, wimmen can t ; men made this law, made it for men. Men say they don t want to put wimmen to the trouble of votin , and so they hender em from the hardship of droppin a little scrap of paper in a small box once a year, and give em this corrodin , constant fear and anguish to carry with em day and night, like a load of swords and simeters, every one of em a-stabbin their hearts." " But how can men, fathers of young girls, make this law, or allow it to go on ? Don t they think of their own young daughters, who may be ruined by it ?" "They don t make this law and vote for this law for their own girls it is to ruin other men s girls that it is made." " Don t they know that the sword of retribution is two-sided that it is liable to cut down their own beloved ?" " No, they don t think at all ; their vile passions clog up their ears and blind their eyes." " But your ministers, your holy men, what are they doing ? I supposed their mission was to preach to sinners, and try to make the world better. I A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY. 11$ have heard them speak of many things in the high places where they stand to warn the people of their sins, and the judgment to come, but I never heard them allude to this. Why do they let this enor mous crime go on unrebuked ?" " The land knows !" sez I ; " I don t ; they go on year in and year out, a-preachin about Job s suffer- in s, and Pharo s hardness of heart, and the Deluge, and other ancient sins and sufferin s all healed up and done away with centuries ago. "Why, it is six thousand years sence Pharo s heart hardened or Job s biles ached, and the green grass of centuries has riz up over the sweepin swash of the Deluge, but they will calmly go on Sunday after Sunday for years a-preachin on that agony and that wickedness and that overflow, and not one word do they say about the hardness of heart of the men who make and permit this law, which makes Pharo s hardness seem like putty in comparison, or the agony and dread this law brings to mothers hearts in the night watches, a-thinkin on t, and thinkin of their own helplessness to pro tect the ones who they would give their life for. And the depths of wretchedness that overwhelms the souls this law wuz made to ruin ! What are biles compared to these pains ? " But the clergymen, the most on em, go calmly Il6 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. on a-pintin these old sins and pains out, and the overflow of the Deluge, and drawin tenthlies and twentiethlies from em, and not one word about this cryin iniquity, so great that it seems as if it would open the very sluce-ways of Heaven and let a new flood down onto this guilty age that will allow sech crime to go on unrebuked. " And philosophers will moralize on old laws and new ones, and their cause and effects ; on Heaven and earth, and not seemin ly cast a eye of their spectacles on this law of sin and shame that rises up right before their eyes. And scientists rack their brains to discover new laws and utilize old ones, but don t make a effort towards discoverin a way to avert this enormous cause of woe and guilt, this fur-reachin and ever-increasin anguish and crime. And law-makers, instead of try in to over come it, try their best to perpetuate it and make it permanent ; bend all their powers of intellect, band together, and use the cunnin of serpents and the wisdom of old Lucifer to git their laws passed and git Uncle Sam to jine in \vith em. Poor mis guided old creeter, a-bein led off by his old nose, and made to consent to this crime and help it along !" Al Faizi had been listenin in deep thought, and now he sez : "This uncle of yours I know him A HEATHEN S STANDARD OF MORALITY. 117 not ; but your great Government, could it not in terfere and stop this iniquity?" " It could" (sez I, mad as a hen) "it could, if it wuzn f jined right in with them law-makers and helpin em along ; and," sez I, " now they re tryin to git the poor old creeter to consent to a new idee. Some big clergymen and other wise men are a-tryin to have these wimmen, ruined by the evil passions of men, shet up in a certain pen to keep em from doin harm to innocent folks, and not one word said about shettin up the men who have made these wimmen what they are. Why don t they shet them up ? There they be foot loose. If they have ruined one pen full of wimmen, what henders em from spilin another pen full ? But there they be a-runnin loose and even a-votin on how firm and strong the pen should be made to confine these victims of theirn. And how big salaries the men who keep these pens in order shall have good big salaries, I ll warrant you Wise men and ministers advocate this onjestice, and lay men are glad to practise what they preach. " There hain t nothin reasonable in it ; if a pen has got to be made for bad wimmen, why not have another pen, jest like it, only a great deal bigger, made for the bad man ? "Why, this seems so reasonable and right I Il8 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. should think that Jestice would lift the bandage offen her eyes and holler out and say it must be done ! But no, there hain t no move made towards pennin bad men up not a move." Al Faizi sez " I cannot understand these strange things." And I sez " Nobody can, unless it is old Bel- zibub ; I guess he gits the run on it." Wall, he took out that book of hisen and writ for pretty nigh an hour. And that is jest the way he went on and acted from day to day. CHAPTER VI. A LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE. AL FAIZI got acquainted with the Baptist min ister at Jonesville, and Elder Dean took to that noble heathen in a remarkable way. He wuz a truly Christian man and deep learnt, and he and Al Faizi talked together right in my presence in lan guages, a good many of them dead, I spoze, and some on em, jedgin from the sound, in a sickly and dyin state. Elder Dean wuz English, college bred. Been abroad as a missionary, broke down, and come to Jonesville with a weak voice and lungs, but a full head and a noble heart, for six hundred dollars a year and parsonage found. They d always had a hard time, bein put to it for things and kinder sickly. But he and his heroic wife had one flower in their life that wuz a-bustin into full bloom, and a-sweetenin their hard present and their wearisome past, and the promise and beauty on t a-throwin a bright, clear light clear acrost their futer even down the steep banks 120 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. where the swift stream rushes through the dark, and clear over onto the other side. This brightness and blessin that lightened up their hard and toilsome way wuz their only child, a youth of such manly beauty and gentle goodness that his love made up to em, so they said to me, for all they had suffered and all they had lost through their lives. He had been brought up on clear love mostly. His Pa and Ma had literally carried him in their hearts from the time his sweet, baby face had smiled up to em from his cradle. Nobody could tell the tenderness and love that had been lavished on him. His Ma jest lived in him and his Pa, too, but their devotion hadn t spilte him, not at all not mentally nor morally. Though there wuz them that did think that his Ma, bein so dretful tender of him and lookin out so for his health in every way, had kinder weakened his constitution and he would have been stronger if he had roughed it more. Bein watched over so lovin ly all his days, he wuz jest about as delicate and couldn t stand any more hardship than a girl ; but he wuz stiddy and indus trious, a good Christian, and dretful ambitious. And they looked forrered to him as bein an honor as well as a blessin to em in the futer. A LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE. 121 The minister had learnt him all he knew, so he said, and for years back they d been savin every penny they could, deprivin themselves of even necessaries to git the money to send Harry to college. From his babyhood they d worked for this. And jest before Al Faizi come to Jonesville, the long looked-for and worked-for end had come Harry had gone to college, a-carryin with him all his parents love and hope for the futer, and a small trunk full of necessaries, some Balsam of Fir for his lungs, and some plasters and things his Ma had put in. Wall, as I said, Elder Dean had took dretfully to Al Faizi, and he to him. So one day I invited the elder and his wife over to dinner. I went myself to gin em the invitation. I found the elder a carefully coverin a old book of poems he had bought, which wuz very rare, so he said, and jest what Harry had wanted. He had took the money he had been savin for a winter coat, so I hearn afterwards, to buy it. And she wuz knittin a african to put over the couch in his room. She had ravelled out a good shawl of her own to git the red for it, so I hearn. " But," she sez, " when he comes into his room a little chilly, it will be so nice to throw over his feet, and he always liked that soft, crimson color. He 122 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. gits cold real easy," sez she, a-holdin up the african and lookin real affectionate at it. It wuz a good african. I asked em to come to dinner the next day, and they both demurred at first, sayin that it wuz the day for Harry s long letter to come. He writ em long letters twice a week, and they both felt that they wanted to be right there by the post-office so s to git it the minute it arrove. Wall, it wuz compromised in this way I prom- isin that Ury should be at the post-office when the afternoon mail come in and bring it to em right to our house. And I mentioned that the old mair could go pretty fast when Ury and Necessity wuz a-drivin her ; so they consented to come. And I cooked up dretful good vittles. I don t think they re ever than above well fed to home, and I did enjoy a-cookin up good, nourishin food for em with Philury s help. I had some good beef soup, two roast chickens, with garden sass of all kinds, cream biscuit, straw berry shortcake and jell, and rich, yellow coffee with cream and loaf sugar in it. I did well by em. And I had a real good visit with em ; for I jest as lives spend my time a-hearin about Harry as not. I wuz a-knittin , and of course could hear and A. LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE. 123 knit. And Josiah and Al Faizi (good creetersboth on em) had^jest as lives hear the elder praise up his boy in dead languages as in live ones. And so they enjoyed themselves real well. As I say, when the elder would git tired of praisin him up in English he would try it in Greek, and when that language got tired out and kinder dead, he would try a healthier, stronger one, so I spoze. He and Al Faizi sot out in the porch some of the time, but I could hear em. Miss Dean and I got along first-rate in our own native tongues, though once in awhile I felt that, visitor or no visitor, I had to sprunt up a little and tell my mind about Thomas J., and what a remark able boy he always wuz, and what a man he d made. But I see they wuz so oneasy when they wuzn t a-praisin Harry that I switched off the track as polite as I could and gin em a clear sweep. And from that time Happiness and Harry rained su preme in our settin -room and piazza. And rem- inescenes wuz brung up and plans laid on and prophecies foretold, and all wuz Harry, Harry, Harry. Wall, I see Miss Dean kep a-lookin at the clock, though I told her it lacked three hours of train time. But in the same cause of politeness I had held up through the day I sent Ury off a 124 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. hour before it wuz time, and in due time he come back bearin a letter. He brung it up to the stoop and handed it to the elder. As the elder took it he turned pale -white as a piece of white cotton shirt, and sez he "This is not Harry s hand !" Miss Dean jest leaped forward and ketched holt of his hand. " What is it? Not Harry s writin , what does it mean ?" Wall, when the letter wuz opened, we found what it meant. Dead ! dead ! That bright young life, full of hope and beauty and promise, had been cut down like a worthless weed by the infamous practice of Hazin . Gentlemen s sons, young men who had had every means of civilization at their command, had com mitted the brutality of a savage. Young men of riches, education, culture, position, they had commit ted this murder jest for wanton fun. They had called him out of his bed at midnight on a false errent, locked him out of his room for hours, poured a lot of icy water on him ; he, shiverin with his almost naked limbs, had plead in vain for help. 126 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Where wuz his Ma and Pa at this time ? Asleep and dreamin of him, mebby. A congestive chill had attackted the weak lungs, and in two days he wuz dead. One of the pupils not engaged in it, in deep sym pathy and pity, writ the hull thing out to the be reaved parents. We carried em home and helped em out of the democrat helped em to walk into the house, for they couldn t walk alone. We sot him down under a picter of Harry that had fresh flowers under it laid her on a couch covered with the woosted work she wuz a-makin for him, and took care on em as well as we could while they waited for Harry to come home. Oh dear me ! Oh dear suz ! ! ! I can t tell nothin about that time. My pen trembles, jest as my heart duz, when I try to write about it. I m a-goin to hang up a black bumbazeen cur tain between the reader and that seen for the next few days. Reader, it is best for you that I do it you couldn t stand it if I didn t. The curtain ort to be crape, but crape, though all right in the line of mournin , is pretty thin for the purpose you might see through it. But I will jest lift up a corner on t a few days A LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE. I2/ later to show you another coffin, with the broken hearted mother a-layin in it, with a broken-down old man bendin over it alone, waitin for the sum mons to jine em in another country. One victim buried, another victim layin in the coffin, another victim, most to be pitied of all, a-stayin on here alone in a dark world a-waitin for the end. Gay, light-hearted young man, havin a good time at college sowin your wild oats havin royal good fun, what do you think of the end of that night s jollity ? Al Faizi couldn t understand it. Sez he to me " His murderers will be hanged, will they not ?" " Hung !" sez I in astonishment ; " oh, no ! this is merely Hazin college fun for young gentlemen." " Gentlemen !" sez he. " Do gentlemen murder in your country? Why, your missionaries tell our people that if they murder they must be hanged in this world and eternally punished in the next." " But," sez I, " these young gentlemen were sim ply havin a little fun !" My tone wuz as bitter as wormwood and gaul, and he see it. " Has such a thing ever been done before in this country ?" sez he. " Oh, yes !" sez I (wormwood and gaul still satu rating my axents); " it is very common it is always 128 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. practised. Sometimes the victims are only fright ened to death and maimed and made idiots and invalids of ; sometimes they don t die so soon ; but then, agin," sez I, "they die fur quicker some times, when the young gentlemen want to be extra funny, and use some deadly gas, their victim dies to once, right under their hands." " But don t the Government interfere to punish such dreadful deeds ?" " Oh, no !" sez I ; " the Goverment has its hands too full a-grantin licenses and sech, sellin the stuff that helps to make these disgraceful seens." " Well, do not men and women rise and punish such deeds themselves ?" " Oh, no !" sez I ; " wimmen are considered too feeble-minded to pass any jedgment on sech doin s they re considered by the college professors and presidents, as a general thing, as too weak-minded and volatile to take in a college education, and men are kep pretty busy a-bringin up arguments to keep wimmen in their place. "Of course, no sech doin s ever took place in a woman s college. They generally spend their time in learnin , and don t riot round and act, and that it self is considered, I believe, an evidence that wim men are inheriently weak and not really fitted for the higher education. It is, I believe, considered a A LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE. 129 damagin evidence agin her powers of mind to think she don t have no hankerin to spend her col lege days a-gittin up the reputation of a prize fighter and a boat-swain, and had ruther spend her time a-bringin out the strength of her mind and soul instead of her muscles." Sez I, " Take that with her refusal to kill and maim and torture her fellow-students by Hazin , and her dislike to cigarettes, drinkin , etc. take em all together, though she carries off prizes right and left for learnin and good behavior, yet these weak nesses of hern in refusin to jine in such upliftin exercises, tells agin her dretfully in the eyes of the male world !" Oh ! how the wormword showed in my axent as I spoke. " Of all the strange things which I have seen in your strange country," sez Al Faizi, "this is one of the strangest a civilized nation practising such barbarities !" And he took out that little book with the cross on t and writ for a quarter of an hour, and I d no but more. Wall, the days went along, one after another, as days will, droppin off, droppin off the rosary Time counts its beads on, and the time pretty near elapsted for us to embark on our trip to Europe. 130 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. The tickets wuz bought, the nightcaps wuz packed, and the time drawed near. But as the time aproached, the thought of the deepness of the water in the Atlantic growed more and more apparient to me. I took down my old Atlas and Gography from the cupboard over the suller way and poured over em, and sithed, and sithed and poured. The distance looked fearful between shore and shore, and my reason told me, also experience, that the reality wuz jest as much worse as black water is worse than yeller paper. The ocean wuz painted on this old Atlas bright yeller. And the last time Al Faizi came back from quite a long trip he had took to Washington and New York he found me a-pourin over the old Atlas ; while the nightcaps and dressin -gown, all done up, lay on a stand by my side. As I mentioned more formally, I d made a nice flannel dressin -gown for myself, and it satisfied my desires for comfort and also my pride ; though I didn t act over it as my pardner did over hisen. No ; a sense of dignity and propriety restrained me. I cut it out by my nightgown pattern and made it fuller it looked well. It wuz a brown and red stripe, tied down in front with lute string ribbin, A LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE. that I paid as high as 14 cents a yard for, and thought it none too good for the occasion ; I thought in case of a panick at sea, and I had to ap pear in it, I wouldn t begrech the outlay for the ribbin. And then, agin, seein we wuzn t to any extra ex pense for the voyage, I thought it wuzn t extrava gant in us to lanch out in clothes, or that is, lanch out some in em, not too fur. For I didn t believe in goin through Europe fol- lered by a dray full of trunks. No; I felt that two large satchels, that we could carry ourselves, wuz what the occasion demanded. That wuz our first thought, though we afterwards decided to take a trunk. Of course I took my mantilly, with tabs, jest as good as it ever wuz, and a big wool len shawl to wear when it wuz cold on the steamer. And my good, honorable bun- net, with my usual green baize veil to drape it gracefully on the left side. My umbrell, it it needless to say, occupied its usual place in my outfit protection from storms and tramps and other dangers, and it could also be used for a cane. It wuz I TOOK DOWN MY OLD ATLAS. 132 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Noble utensil ! I would have felt lost indeed to have missed it from its accustomed place at my right hand. As I say, Al Faizi come back and found us en grossed in preperations and study. I with my Atlas, and Josiah carefully brush- in his dressin -gown, though there vvuzn t a speck of dust on it, and a-smoothin out them tossels. We wuz a-makin our last preperations, for it only lacked about six weeks of the time when we wuz to embark. Our satchels stood all unlocked, with the keys fastened to cm with good strong wel- tin cord, so s we wouldn t have to hunt for the keys at the last minute. Some long letters for the rela tions on both sides lay on Josiah s desk, to be sent after our departure ; they wuz dretful affectin letters; we thought more n as like as not they would bring tears. And as Al Faizi come in and witnessed our hasty preperations, he announced in that calm way of hisen that he would go with tis. For a minute I \vuz dumfoundered, and knew not whether I wuz tickled to death at the proposal, or felt sorry and meachin over it. I felt queer. Sez Al Faizi, " I come to your land expecting I hardly know what. A LITTLE FUN AND ITS PRICE. 133 " My heart had been touched by learning of your holy religion. I had accepted the teachings of the blessed Lord Christ with all my heart and soul ; warmed by His love, I come to your country to learn what that Divine religion would be amongst the people who had followed His teach ings eighteen hundred years, and had no false re ligion to paralyze its power and now " Wall," sez I, for Al Faizi paused for a good while, not a-lookin mad, nor pert, nor any- thin , but jest earnest and some sad, and very quiet. " Now what ?" sez I. He didn t say nothin . He looked as if he wuz afraid of hurtin somebody s feelin s ; but at last he said in that soft, melodious voice of hisen " Now, I should like to go to other lands." I felt fearful meachin , and showed it, I spoze, to have a Hindoo come here and git disgusted with our ways, for I mistrusted that he wuz, though he didn t say so out plain. And there wuzn t a shad- der of blame on his face ; jest calm and earnest, jest as he always had been, and always would be, so fur as I could tell. He couldn t find Truth and Jestice here, and so he wuz for follerin off on their trail over the Atlantic. 134 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I felt queer as a dog, but Josiah hailed the idee with joy. He seemed highly tickled to have one more ingregient of curosity added to our cav alcade. CHAPTER VII. THE EMBARKATION. AND so it wuz settled, and Martin bein writ to to git another ticket, he got it, and sent it in a letter to us. But what he would say when he see the passenger who wuz goin to use it I knew not, but I knew that Alice and Adrian wuz good- natered, and would feel as I did about usin folks well. And then I remembered that complaint in Martin s eyes, and felt that if he didn t take to Al Faizi, he would most probble be so near-sighted that he couldn t see him much, if any. And so it turned out (to go ahead of the wagon a spell, or, ruther, to paddle backwards a few fur longs), after the first conversation Martin held with him, and see what his bizness wuz over here in America and wuz a-goin to be in Europe Mar tin s eyes wuz so bad that he couldn t see him hardly ever. But Alice wuz sweet and courteous to him, and Adrian liked him dretfully from the first. And Al Faizi, when he first see Alice s sweet face, he stood stun still for more n quite a spell. 136 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. And on his dark, handsome face dawned a look sech as a man might have who had been walkin a considerable time through a underground way, who had come out full in view of the mornin sun a-risin up on a June world. I d no as anybody noticed that look but jest me ; I don t believe they did, for Martin wuz talk- in to Josiah in a dretful kind and patron i/in way, and Alice wuz all took up a-lookin with her heart s eye on the land where her prince reigned. And Adrian wuz, as I say, dretful took up with Al Faizi, and see nothin in his dark, expressive face only what he looked for, and what he found in it from day to day all through our tower the good nater of a patient comrade, \vho loved him for his own bright, winnin little self, and loved him more for the sake of another, whose heart s joy Adrian wuz. Martin s eye complaint seemed to be real bad so fur as the noble heathen wuz concerned. I guess Al Faizi, in the first conversation he had with him, tackled him in the everlastin cause of jestice, and pity, and mercy subjects that Martin hain t "ofay" in (that is French. I seldom use foreign languages, but I ve hearn Maggie use it considerable, and know it is lawful). No ; Martin and Al Faizi looked on this earth THE EMBARKATION. 137 and the things of life with sech different pairs of eyes that I d no as they could be said to look on this old planet on the same side. Al Faizi looked on the deep side of subjects. He looked fur down under the outside current to try to discern the hidden springs, from whence these clear and turbid torrents flowed. If he found a spring that yielded black water, his first thought wuz to give warnin and try to dam it up. Martin would try to keep it a-humpin , so s to utilize it sell the mud that flowed from it, mebby. Al Faizi s gaze pierced through the clouds of earth, and rested on the gold pinnacles of Heaven. Martin clutched handfuls of the gold ore of earth and held it clost to his eyes, and so shet out the sight of the Heavenly City. One wuz honestly a-tryin to sweep away utterly the vile sperits of ignorance, evil, and want, etc., etc. Martin wuz for catchin em and hitchin em to his lawn-mower, to keep the lawn smooth round the house of his earthly tabernacle. Curous extremes as ever met, I believe, and as interestin to witness from day to day as the most costly and curous menagerie of wild animals would be. But, as I said, Martin s eyes bein formed in jest 138 SAMANTIIA IN EUROPE. that way, he wuzn t able to hardly see the noble heathen after that first interview. Wall, to go back to the wagon agin and proceed onwards with my history, or paddle back to the steamer. At last the last minute come Ury and Philury had took us to the cars and been shooken by the hands, and amidst fervent good-byes had been adjured over and over about the necessity of keepin the cat out of the milk room, and the gate shet be tween the garden and paster, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. And they had promised faithfully to adhere to our wishes, and to advise us of the results in weekly letters. We let em move right in and have half of every thing butter, cheese, eggs, wool, black caps, etc. And they wuz highly tickled as well as we. Thomas Jefferson and Maggie had gone with us to the station, where Whitfield and Tirzah Ann put in a late appearance, on account of Tirzah s bein ondecided whether to wear a thick or a thin dress ; the day bein one of them curous ones when you don t really know whether it will be hazy or warm. And they d come in time to kiss us and clasp our hands in partin . The girls both brought bokays with em, and 140 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Babe, the darlin , brought a bunch of English violets to send to Adrian, knowin that he jest wor shipped that posy and it s one of my favorites, too. Wall, the last words wuz said to us, Al Faizi had made his last low bow to the children, and said the last polite, melodious adieu, and we embarked on to the cars. But I looked back, and I see Tirzah Ann a-wrestlin with her polynay, that had got ketched into her parasol, and Whitfield a-helpin her to ondo herself. And I see Maggie s sweet, upward look to the car winder, and met the clear, affectionate, compre- hendin look of my boy, Thomas Jefferson. It is curous how well acquainted our sperits be with each other, hisen and mine, and always has been, from the time when he sot on my lap as a child. Our souls are clost friends, and would be if he wuzn t no kin to me. He is a young man of a thousand, and he under stands my mind without my speakin , and I do hisen. But to resoom. It had been arranged that we should proceed directly to a hotel that wuz nigh to the Atlantic, and Martin should call for us there, his own residence bein in a opposite direction. We did so, and after a good meal and we all did THE EMBARKATION. 14! jestice to it, bein hungry a big carriage driv up, and Martin alfghted from it and come in. Anon we embarked in it, and after a seen of almost indescribable tumult, ovvin to the screamin of drivers, the conflict of passin wagons and car riages and dray carts, etc., etc., etc., etc. And after numerous givin s up on my part that now indeed wuz the time I wuz to " likewise perish," we found ourselves on the big- steamer s deck that o wuz to bear us away from our own native land. Lots of folks wuz there a-takin leave of friends. Some wuz weepin , some wuz laughin , some wuz talkin , and that las some wuz multiplied by hun dreds and thousands, seemin ly. And piles of flowers lay round, offerin s to and from fond hearts that must sever. Adrian had his bunch of sweet blue violets, and the violets wuzn t any sweeter than his eyes. And I, even at the resk of losin my umbrell, clutched my precious bokays the frail links that seemed to con nect me with my own native Jonesville and my loved ones there. Josiah seemed to be lookin round for somebody he could scrape acquaintance with. And Al Faizi stood in that silent way of hisen, with his dark, ardent face seemin ly on the lookout for sunthin or other he could learn, and a-seein 142 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. every move that Alice made, as I could see, though nobody else noticed it. Martin \vuz a-flyin round, busy a-seein to every thing. Alice wuz a little apart a-bendin over the side of the great ship. She seemed to be lookin intently on sunthin 1 or somebody on the pier, and as we sailed off I see her snowy handkerchief wave out, and where she d been a-lookin I see an arm lifted up and another white hand kerchief wave out a farewell. When I looked clost at her, I see that her big blue eyes wuz full of tears. As for me, I wuz tryin my best to keep my equilibrum, for the boat tested some, and my equilibrum hain t what it would be if it hadn t had the rheumatiz so much. But my umbrell helped me some ; I planted it down and leaned heavy on it, and in its faithful companionship and support I found some relief as I see the land sail swift away from me, seemin to be in a hurry to go somewhere. And I sez in my heart "Good-bye, dear old HER BIG BLUE EYES WUZ FULL OF TEARS. THE EMBARKATION. 143 Land ! you no need to be in sech a hurry to go back and dissapear in the distance ; no truer lover did you ever have than she who now witnesses your swift departure," and even in my reverie wantin to be exact, I added " she whose name wuz once Smith." Quite a while did I stand there until Reason and also Josiah told me that I had better seek my state room. I don t find no fault with that room, it probble wuzn t its fault that the narrer walls riz up so many times, and seemed to hit me in my head and stomach, specially the stomach, and then anon turn round with me, and teeter, and bow down, and hump up, and act. No ; the little room wuzn t to blame, and my suffer- in s with Josiah Allen for the three days when he lay, as he said, in a dyin state, right over my head I a-sufferin twice over once in myself and agin in my other and more fraxious and worrisome self. The wild demeanors, the groans, the frenzied ex clamations, and anon the faint and die-away actions of that man can t never be described upon, and if it could, it would make readin that no man would want to read, nor no woman neither. But after a long interval, in which, while I wuz 144 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. a-layin , a-tryin in a agonized way to think how I wanted my effects distributed amongst the surviv ors I would be called away from that contempla tion to receive my pardner s last wills and testa ments, and I heard anon or oftener, spoke in solemn axents " Bury me in the dressin -gown, Samantha." He clung to that idee, even in his lowest and most sinkin est moments. I reached up, or tried to, and took holt of his limp hand that dangled down over my head, and I sez " You will live, Josiah, to wear it out." And as feeble as he wuz, and as much as he had wanted to die, them words would seem to sooth him some, and be a paneky to him. I repeated em often, for they seemed to impress him where more affectionate and moral arguments failed. But I may as well hang up a double rep curtain between my hearers and the fearful seens that wuz enacted in our state-rooms for nearly three days and nights. I hang a rep curtain, so s it would shelter the seens more ; cretonne is too thin. But some of the seens are so agonizin and sharp pinted that they seem to pierce even through that envelopin drapery. THE EMBARKATION. 145 One of them dagger-like episodes wuz of the fog horns. If Josiah s testementary idees and our united wretchedness would have let me doze off some in rare intervals, the tootin of them horns would be sure to roust me up. Yes, they made the night dretful ringin of bells, tootin of horns, etc. And once, it wuz along in the latter part of the night, I guess, I heard a loud cry a-risin above the fog horn. It seemed to be a female in distress. And Josiah wuz all rousted up in a minute. And sez he " Some female is in distress, Saman- tha ! Where is my dressin -gown ?" Sez he, "I will go to her rescue !" And he rung the bell wildly for the stewardess, and acted. Sez I " Josiah Allen, come back to bed ! no woman ever yelled so loud as that and lived ! If it is a female she s beyend your help now." And I cur dled down in bed agin, though I felt queer and felt dretful sorry for her ; but felt that indeed that yell must have been her last, and that she wuz now at rest. But he wuz still wildly arrangin his gown, and hollerin for the tossels they d slipped off from it. Where is them dum tossels?" he yelled ; " must I hear a female yell like that and not fly to her res- 146 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. cue ? Where is the tossels?" he yelled agin. " You don t seem to have no heart, Samantha, or you d be rousted up !" " I am rousted up !" sez I ; "yes, indeed, I have been rousted up ever sence I laid my head onto my piller ; but if you wuz so anxious to help and save, Josiah, you wouldn t wait for tossels !" But at that minute, simultaneous and to once, the chambermaid come to the door, and he found his tossels. " Who is that female a-screamin ?" sez Josiah, a-tyin the cord in a big bow-knot. "That is the Syren," sez she. And she slammed the door and went back ; she wuz mad to be waked up for that. u The Syren!" sez Josiah ; "what did I tell you, Samantha ?" And sez he, a-smoothin out the tossels, " I wouldn t have missed the sight for a dollar bill ! How lucky I found my tossels !" sez he. " Yes, dretful lucky," sez I faintly, for I wuz wore completely out by my long night watches, and I felt fraxious. " Yes," sez he, "I wouldn t have appeared before a Syren without them red tossels for no money. I always wanted to see a Syren !" sez he, a-smoothin out the few hairs on each side of his cranium. Sez he, " She wuz probble a-screamin for her THE EMBARKATION. 147 lookin -glass^ and comb ; I ll go to once on deck. It is a bad night; if she has missed her comb, I might lend her my pocket-comb," sez he. " You let Syrens alone, Josiah Allen !" sez I, git- tin rousted up ; " you don t want to meddle with em at all ! and do you come back to bed." " Not at all," sez he ; " here is the chance of my lifetime. I ve always wanted to see a Syren, and now I m a-goin to !" And he reached up to a peg and took down his tall plug hat, and put it on kinder to the side of his head in as rakish a lookin way as you ever see a deacon s hat in the world ; he then took his umbrell and started for the door. Agin come that loud and fearful yell ; it did, indeed, seem to be a fe- THEN TOOK HIS UMBRELL AND ! . ,. STARTED FOR THE DOOR. male in direst agony. " But," I sez, " I don t believe that s any Syren, Josiah Allen ; we read that her voice lures sailors to foller. her ; no sailor would be lured by that voice, it is enough to scare anybody and drive em back, instead of forrered. " What occasion would a Syren have to yell in sech a blood-curdlin way, Josiah Allen ?" "Wall," sez he, put to his wits end, " mebby her 148 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. hair is all snarled lip by the wind and salt water, and in yankin out the snarls, it hurts her so that she yells." I see the common sense of this, for the first night I had used soap and salt water my hair stood out like quills on my head, and it almost killed me to comb it out. " But," sez I, " Syrens are used to wind storms and salt water. I don t spoze their hair is like other folkses." Agin come that fearful, agonizin yell. Agin Josiah sez " While we are a-bandyin words back and forth, I am losin the sight," and agin he made for the door. But I follered him and ketched holt of the tossels. He paused to once. He feared they would be in jured. Sez I, " Come back to bed ; how it would look in the Jonesville paper to hear that Josiah Allen had been lured overboard by a Syren, for they always try to drown men, Josiah !" sez I. " Oh, shaw !" sez he ; " they never had me to deal with. I should stand still and argy with her I al ways convince the more opposite sect," sez he, lookin vain. But I see the allusion to drowndin made him hesitate, and sez he " You don t spoze there is any danger of that, do THE EMBARKATION. 149 you, Samautha ? I would give a dollar bill to tell old Gowdey and Uncle Sime Bentley that I d interviewed a Syren ! " sez he. "It would make me a lion, Samantha, and you a lioness." " I shan t be made any animal whatsoever, Josiah Allen, by follerin up a Syren at this time of night. They never did anything but harm, from their grandmothers days down, and men have always been fooled and drownded by em !" sez I ; " you let Syrens alone and come to bed," sez I ; " you re a perfessor and a grandfather, Josiah Allen, and I d try to act becomin to both on em," sez I. He fingered the red tossels lovin ly. " Sech a chance," sez he, " mebby I never shall have agin. I don t spoze any man who ever parlied with em wuz ever so dressy in his appearance, and so stylish no knowin what would come of it !" sez he. He hated to give up the idee. " Wall," sez I, " it s rainin as hard as it can ; them tossels never would come out flossy and beautiful agin, they would all be limped and squashed down and spilte." " Do you think so ?" sez he anxiously. He took off his hat and put down his umbrell, and sez he " It may be as well to not foller the investigation to-night ; there will probble be a chance in fairer weather." 150 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But the next day we found out that the Syren wuz a thing they fixed onto the fog horn for certain signals, and Josiah felt glad enough that he hadn t made no moves to talk with her. I wuz glad on the side of common sense. He on the account of them tossels. But after we found out what it wuz, and all about it, that fog horn made us feel dretful lone some and queer when we heard it, half asleep and half awake. It would seem as if one half of our life wuz a-hollerin out to the other half. Youth and middle age a-callin out to each other " Loss ! loss !" and " Gain ! gain !" as the case might be. Jonesville and London, "Yell ! yell !" Love ! peace ! death ! danger ! u Shriek ! shriek !" Them you love who wuz here on earth, and them who d gone over the Great Flood, " Shout ! shout !" II Ship ahoy ! What hail !" Queer sounds as I ever hearn floated in on them high yells, borne by the winds and the washin waves of ocean depths and the misty billows from Sleep Land, broken up some as they drifted and mixed with the billows of our own realm. . But daylight would always seem to calm down WE TOTTERED UP ON DECK, TWO PALE, THIN FIGGERS. I 52 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. this tumult and bring more lusid and practical idees. Wall, the time come when we tottered up on deck, two pale, thin riggers, to be confronted by other faces that wuz as wan, and some that wuz wanner. But after these days we begun to feel first-rate. Alice and Adrian had had a hard time of it, so I had learned before from the stewardess. And I d sent em lovin messages time and agin, and they me. Martin, I don t believe, had a minute s sickness, nor Al Faizi. They both seemed to be real chipper ; though they both seemed to be perfect strangers to each other ; and I spoze they wuz and will be to all eternity even if they wuz settin on the same seat on high. Their two souls hain t made right to ever be inti mate with each other. CHAPTER VIII. LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. WALL, after all, as much as I wuz afraid of the deepness and length and breadth of the ocean, I had a pretty good time, after all. Somehow, I got to feelin that the ship wuz a big city, and I got to feelin as if it wuz about as safe as the land. We d no what is a-goin on under us on land- no, indeed, we don t, and if we git to forgittin it, we often git a shake-up and a hunch from old Mom Nater to let us know that we are entirely ignorant of what she s a-doin down in the depths of the earth. Yes, we git shook up with earthquakes, or cy clones lift us up and sweep us off, and hurricanes and water-spouts are abroad, and cars break down, and horses throw us out of wagons, etc., etc. I d bring up these consolin thoughts a sight when I d be a-layin on my narrer piller and a-thinkin that only a few boards wuz between me and what ? And I d kinder shudder and turn over, and try to forgit it. 154 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. How cold the water wuz and how deep, and how lonesome it would be a-sinkin down, and down, and down, and how big the shark s mouth wuz, and how the cold, bitter, chokin waves would wash anythin to and fro like a piece of weed, and sweep one so fur off and so fur down that it didn t seem as if the Angel of the Resurrection could ever find us ! But I spoze he could. It stands to reason that we could as well be found in a shark as in some poseys that grow up from the dust of our body, and whose perfume exhale in the mornin dew goin up to the clouds, fallin in rain, and goin through countless forms before the resur rection. Oh ! did I not bring up all these thoughts anon or oftener ? And did I not say to myself, time and agin, for my comfort and consolation, " The One who formed me out of nothin is able to reform me." Yes, my best comfort wuz to ask the One who careth for em who go down to the sea in ships to care for me, and to rest in that thought. To lay down in the depths of that wide love and care and repose myself in it Wall, we had a pretty good time on board. There wuz lots of different kinds of folks there, jest as there always is on land. LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 155 I had hearn that there wuz a live English Lord 4f> on board, and Josiah picked him out the first time we went on deck. Yes, there he wuz, as we spozed, a tall, slim, supercilious-actin and lookin feller, who ordered round the ship s crew, and wuz dissatisfied with his food, and snubbed the ocean, and felt that it hadn t no need to breathe so loud, and looked askance at the Heavens if the day wuz dull. Yes, he looked down on everybody and every thing. And Josiah sez " He can t help it, he wuz brung up that way ; he is a Lord." " Wall," sez I, " Lord or not, he acts like a fool !" Sez I, " He might lower his nose once in awhile to rest it." Truly, he held it right up in the air the hull of the time. But come to find out, that feller wuz a Grocer s clerk, who wuz a-makin his first trip, and felt as if Heaven and earth wuz a-watchin and admirin his move. And the Lord we found out wuz a short, square- built man, dressed in rough tweed, so jolly and full of fun that his wife had to hold him back all the time. She would have been glad to had him put on some dignity and things, but he wouldn t. 156 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. One night some pretty American girls give a dance, and they handed round some little favors that looked like big nuts, and when you opened em a hull tissue-paper suit come out on em, and that Lord come out with a pink paper suit on, and went round through the dance half bent, for the skirt wuz but short, with a woman s ruffled cap on, and a dress. His wife seemed to suffer agonies. Her pride ached, I spozed. But his didn t ; he wuz as happy as a lark, and didn t put on any more airs than any common medder lark would. I liked him first-rate, but that clerk wuz austere and exclusive to the last. He wouldn t mingle with us. He wuz a-travellin abroad. And, to use a com mon adage, usually applied to horses " He felt his oats." Wall, they got up a paper on board and printed it on a typewriter the Lord furnishin most of the jokes for it. And then they had a peanut-party, and the Lord carried the most of anybody on the back of his hand and got the prize 3 long strings of glass beads, and he wore em all the evenin , to his wife s horrow. But the clerk, whose father kep a peanut-stand, LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 157 and who had Jwelt with em all the days of his youth, he thought it wuz a vulgar party, and he looked at peanuts as if he knew em not. There wuz times when the sea wuz rough, and Josiah and I retired to the cabin, and for hours bemoaned our fate and wondered if we should ever agin see the cliffs of Jones- ville. And on one heavey day, when the floor of our cell seemed to rise up and smite us in the pits of our stumicks, Josiah made his will, and handed it to me, with a face on which love and agony and fear ap peared, about a third of each on em. Sez he, in a voice tremblin with emo tion " Take my last tribute of love, and," sez he, " have it recorded, or it may be broke." "But," Sez I, "dear Josiah"- for his THE LORD WITH A PINK PAPER love awoke my own ; it had been havin a nap while I wuz a-wrestlin with the elements, and furniture that wuz a-tryin to upset me. Sez I " If you die, I, too, shall perish. So what avails a will ?" He hadn t thought of that, and sez he, a-speakin out feebly from his bunk with his eyes shet "You re fat; you may float," sez he; "my prize 158 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. shoat did that slipped out of the wagon fordih the creek." Sez I, in the same faint axents truly our two voices W T UZ as feeble as a pair of feeble cats, and weaker sez I, " I always said you would twit me of my heft on your death-bed if the subject come up, and you had your conscientiousness." Sez he, " I ve showed my love to you I have left you everything onconditional. You can marry agin." Sez he, "This is no time for selfishness and jealousy." " Marry agin!" sez I feebly; "what do I want of another pardner? Heaven knows, I don t know !" " Wall," says he tenderly, for my words touched him "you may feel different when you hain t so sick to your stumick." " Yes," sez I, " and you may, too !" He had never made a will before that left me onhampered, and I felt that when his legs wuz firmer under him, and his stumick and head wuz steadier, that he, too, might undergo a change. And he did. It wuz a bright, calm day. He felt well, and I see him the next mornin a furtively tearin up that will and a-strewin the torn bits out of the port-hole winder. LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 159 As he did so. his hands got entangled in a cord I d made out of weltin cord. And sez he, a-lookin down onto it " In the name of the gracious Peter ! what is this ?" He thought in a minute of rope ladders and troubadors he acted jealous. Sez I, " It is some handkerchiefs that I am a-washin in the Atlantic Ocean, Josiah." He didn t know I wuz awake, and it startled him. And sez he " How did you ever come to think on t ?" "I d no," sez I; " but I thought it would be sunthin to think on, to say I had used the Atlantic for a washtub." Sez he u Wash one of mine, Samantha. I d love to tell Deacon Garvin on t." Sez I " Your second best bandanna is on the line." He looked down onto the heavin billows with content, and sez he " I m as hungry as a bear." That mornin the sea lay calm and beautiful. The sun riz up on it and flooded it with delicious waves of color ; the east wuz a flame of color, and the crest of the heavin billows wuz aflame with gold and crimson and amethyst, and fur off some tall icebergs loomed up like cold, pale ghosts, a-hantin us with a vague sense of danger, like the l6o SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. undertone of sadness that underlays all things the most beautiful and grand. Then there wuz moonlight evenin s, when the moon shone down full and clear, and the glorified sky and the glorified water seemed to be a part of each other, and the long and deep rythm of the waves seemed to bear us up with em in a grand hymn that all creation wuz a-chantin . And then there wuz misty days, when clouds of fog settled down round us like gray, mysterious wings, a-holdin us clost in their folds of mystery, when we knew not what \vuz a yard in front of us ; when we sailed on, blind creeters, not a-know- in what we wuz a-comin bunt up aginst a ice berg, or another ship, or jest the open space ahead. When the cries of the fog-horn seemed to be a- hollerin out " Git out of the way, we re a-comin !" But how could a iceberg hear and wheel round ? No, it hadn t come down from the pole for no sech a purpose, it wuz a-goin straight ahead. Them wuz solemn times, and we would think that we couldn t never forgit em. o But we did. When the sun shone bright agin, we wuz ready to forgit the sorrer and danger of the night and be happy agin. And at times, fur off on the fur, watery plain fur off ahead, we would see a sail. LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. l6l Nearer and nearer it would come, and then go by us and dissapear in the horizen back of us meetin and partin at some distance without a word ; some like human bein s goin by each other on the ocean of Life. Separate worlds full of human life and interest meetin and partin, floatin by onbeknown. I took a strange and a mysterious comfort some times a-bendin over the sides of the ship and lookin fur down into the depths of the water and a-seein huge forms a-playin down in their strange, green depths, or imaginin I could. And I took a kind of dretful enjoyment a-ponderin on what would foller on and ensue if I should fall off and plunge down into the liquid depths. But them thoughts wuz too full of or to indulge in long. They driv me back to the side of my be loved pardner, or the society of little Adrian and Alice. Adrian knew everybody on board, and every body loved him. But, above all, he liked a sailor called Mike. From all I could learn, that seaman racked his brain to tell all sorts of wild sea stories to the child. I d no as I ve told about Josiah s appetite durin that voyage. My pardner s appetite wuz always a strong subject, but now it wuz exceedingly queer. l62 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. After he got over his seasickness, most the first words he said, and they come right after his "good- by" and partin words to me, though some time after he waked up out of a deep sleep, and the first words he said to me wuz, in middlin feeble axents " Do you spoze, Samantha, I could git a little biled beef and cabbage, and some pork and beans?" He had been a-livin on water gruel, and the words almost startled me. But I obtained the ingregients with some trouble, and as I bore them in, a large platter full of each, he looked up dret- ful feeble and languishing and sex he " Set em down by the bed, Samantha, and mebby I could eat a bean, or part of one." "Part of one bean" didn t sound very encour- agin , but I set em down, and the next time I see them platters, about ten minutes afterwards, they wuz both clean as though they had been swept and garnished. And from that minute he gained on t. My own first hankerin after I got better wuz for a biled dinner. Of course, I couldn t git that, but I ex changed milk porridge for roast pork, and sas- sige, and cabbage hot slaw the first thing, and felt satisfied and happy with the change. Curous, hain t it ? If I d been on land I be- LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 163 lieve they would a-killed me, but I thrived on the diet Wall, I never shall forgit how good the land looked to me as I looked fur forrerds over the heavin billows of blue, and see the beautiful green shores of Oueenstown a-risin up ahead. Adrian said, " Auntie, is that the Emerald Isle, and are the hills all covered with emeralds, like Alice s ring?" Sez he, "Mike told me they were." Sez I, " Don t you pay any attention to what Mike sez. The hills are jest covered with soft, green grass that would look enough sight better to me than any jewelled stuns would." Al Faizi stood motionless, lookin on the fair seen ahead, as if he wuz a-lookin over the Swellin s of Jordan into the Promised Land ; part of the time that riz up look rested on Alice s sweet face. Alice and Martin wuz a-walkin arm-in-arm up and down the deck, as much took up with the sight as we wuz, only Martin thought it looked more wise to not act tickled and enthuastick about it. That is the first rule in etiket with some folks, to not act tickled and glad about anything, but to look as stunny and onmoved at a masterpiece of Art, or a towerin Alp, as at a plate of cold ham. 164 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Josiah, he vvuz a-worryin about the tug that wuz to take us on shore. "A tug!" sez he; "I don t like that name, it don t sound reliable. If it is a good convenience, why is it sech a tug to it to carry us ?" Sez I, " Be calm, Josiah, everything will come out right." And sez he, "One of the passengers called it a tender. If it is so tender, I don t believe it is safe. Tenderness means weakness," says he. " Not always," sez I, "quite the reverse." But I see that it wuz no time to plunge into meta- physicks and prove to him what I knew well, that "the bravest are the tenderest the lovin are the darin ." Then sez he, "If we ever live to git into that tug, we have got to have our baggage all over hauled by the Custom House Officers." "Wall," sez I, "what of it? We hain t nothin to conceal or cover up." " Wall," sez he, " that dressin -gown of mine will jest as likely as not be all throwed round and mussed up. It worries me !" sez he. Sez I, " Don t worry, Josiah Allen ; it is good rep, and it will stand a good overhaulin and not hurt it." " Wall," sez he, " them tossels can t be handled LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 165 over by all^ Ireland and come out hull and sound. It is nothin but dum foolishness to have to go through all them performances." But his worryin wuz worse than the reality. For anon we sailed into Cork harbor, and got into the tug that come out to meet us. The officers jest give our things the lightest examination pos sible. They didn t throw things around at all, and they wuz real polite, only in one thing they asked us if we had tobacco or sperits. Josiah never took his eyes offen that dressin - gown through the hull of the ordeal, and he wuz foldin them tossels lovin ly as soon as they dropped his satchel, when I wuz lookin back and a-wonderin at the size of the steamer that loomed up above us some like a cliff. As I say, the man with the officers asked me if I had sperits or tobacco in my luggage. I confronted him with a stern look, calculated to wither him, and sez I "Do I look like it, sir?" " Look like what ?" sez he. " Like a old toper who carry s round whiskey and a pipe ?" Sez I, " I never drink a drop stronger than coffee, half cream, and I never smoked a pipe in my life, only once I smoked a little mullen for asthma." 1 66 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. He felt ashamed, jest as I wanted him to. He see the power of principle, and he didn t hardly touch my things. Wall, it wuz no wonder that Josiah worried some. These things were new to us. He and I wuz, as you may say, the only students and novices in traveilin in the hull party, for Al Faizi had been everywhere, his con versation wuz enriched by allusions to every land. And Alice had been to Paris to school for three years. And Martin had took her over and went after her. lie often spoke of his familiarity with for eign life and the exhaus tive study he had made in foreign fields. "There wuz little left for him to see," he claimed. He had took Alice over and , went after her, but went with lightnin speed only when he wuz bed-sick. So Alice told me with her own lips. WITH A STERN LOOK, CALCULATED TO WITHER HIM. LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 1 67 He boasted a sight of his intimacy with foreign ways and customs. Wall, did it not seem good to set our feet on land once more ! But I wuz almost ashamed to see the way my pardner reeled round, for he acted for all the world as if he had been a-drinkin . I wuz jest a-goin to mention it to him when he whispered to me " Hang on to me, Samantha," sez he ; " I will never tell on t in the world." " Tell of what ?" sez I, as I made a effort to stand up straight and strong. "Why," sez he, "if you took a little too much sling for that cold of yourn, I hain t one to throw it in your face." Sez he, " That Stewardess wuz always a-rec- omendin it." " Sling !" sez I coldly ; " I hain t took a drop of anything stronger than tea, and," sez I, " knowin my principles as you do, I should think you d be ashamed of yourself to misuse a pardner in this shameful way !" " Wall," sez he, " you can t walk straight to save your life ! and," sez he, " you grew so indignant on the tug at that man, that one would almost mistrust you." I see that there wuz some reason in his talk, for 1 68 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. too much indignation looks like guilt, lots of times. Sez I, " You talk about my reelin round ; what are you doin ?" sez I, as his knees crooked and he crumpled down like one intoxicated. Wall, he gin up that it wuz the effects of the ship, and erelong we were in a good, clean tarvern and had breakfast. After breakfast \ve wuz indeed glad to lay down and rest for a little while, and then, as the rest of the party had all sallied out, my Josiah and me took a walk all to ourselves, or that is what we had lotted on. But of all the droves of beggars that follered us, I never see the beat nasty and shiftless and talkin and teasin the very life out on us. I gin em a few cents in order to git rid on em. But the more I gin the more they follered on. So I jest shet up my portmoney and put it into my pocket. Josiah poohed at em and didn t give a cent, and didn t approve of the three cents I d expended. Till one old woman whispered to him, and I hearn her say " I see, young man, that you are good to your old mother ; won t you for her sake give me a shilling ?" LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 169 He wavered he almost gin it to her. Sez she " I will pray for blessin s on your handsome young head." He handed her the shillin with a happy, foolish look, which lasted till she come round to my side, and she whispered to me " My pretty young lady, give me a sixpence. Your poor old father has give me a gift, and do not let your own young heart be harder nor his." His liniment darkened rapidly, and he hurried me through the narrer streets, full of shops and tar- verns ; and he did not console himself as I did by lookin up on the steep hill and seein the hand some residences no, he seemed cut to the heart. Wall, Martin said when we got back that we would go up to Cork at once, as he wuz anxious to see all he could in Ireland as rapidly as possible. He said that in a week at the outside he thought we could exhaust all the sight-seein in Ireland and git to the bottom of the " Irish Question." " Wall," sez I, " you ll do well if you do that." And I didn t make no moves to break it up, and we wuz soon a-ridin through the beautiful green country. And we seen on each side on us " sweet fields arrayed in livin green." Never wuz there sech velvety grass, and the roads wuz as smooth and as hard as a pavement. 1 70 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Stun walls run along, with their soft, gray color, and anon a hedge, birds, and flowers would break the seen. And little, low cottages covered with vines dotted the landscape here and there ; and now and then a chapel would point its spire up into the blue overhead. Once in awhile a queer rig with seats rigged out back to back, drawed by horses, and full of folks, and once in awhile a smaller cart drawed by a donkey, and once in awhile a woman with a red 01 blue cloak and a white cap, and a man with short pantaloons and coat. And so we rid on, green underneath, blue over head, until we arrived in Cork. Wall, we put up at the Imperial Hotel. Every thing wuz clean and sweet about the house, and we had plenty to eat, and that wuz good. It wuz in deed a comfort. And the waiters wuz dretful civil and eager to please. It beats all, the difference in their actions here and in Jonesville. I ve had Irish wimmen work for me who seemed to look down on me, and accepted their dollar a day hautily ; but here they would thankfully receive their sixpence a day, and treat you like a lady, too, which is more n half the battle. Queer, hain t it ? But human nater is human LANDING IN THE EMERALD ISLE. 171 nater, and even a little child, if she has been tyran- ized over by her Ma, will misuse her dolly or the cat. I spoze that trait in nater can t be helped from caperin when it gits a chance. WE WENT IN WHAT THEY CALL A " JAUNTIN* CAR." Wall, the next day Martin said he " wanted to go to Blarney Castle for several reasons." He didn t say what they wuz, but I spoze one of em wuz that old reason of hisen about wantin to 1/2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. do what other folks did. And then, mebby, he wanted to try to palaver better than he had pal avered. Tenny rate, we all set out for the castle next mornin after breakfast. We went in what they call a " jauntin car." The passengers sot back to back, but as my Josiah wuz placed by my side I did not mind it. On one side sot we two, and Al Faizi, on the other Martin and his children. Wall, the view wuz enchantin beyend description. The road wux as smooth and level as smooth glass, bordered by hedges full of pure white and other colored poseys, a-fillin the air full of perfume, and the cottages and every old tower and ruin wuz cov ered with the glossy green of the ivy. It wuz a fair seen a fair seen ! Nater duz her best in Ireland, anyway. She seems to delight to cover the meanest things old straw-thatched cabins, and stuns, and everything with a robe of the richest, brightest green ; mebby she wants to kinder make up to the Irish for \vhat they hain t got, Jestice and comfort and sech, and mebby, agin, it is the moist climate. CHAPTER IX. A VISIT TO BLARNEY CASTLE. ANON we reached the old castle, for when any thing gits to be six hundred years old you can well call it old. Why, I should call Josiah dretful old if he wuz over six hundred years old. It towers up considerable high a hundred feet, anyway. Some of its walls are eight or ten feet thick. Al Faizi asked what they had sech thick walls for. And Martin told him it wuz built so to keep enemies from breakin in and killin the inhabitants of the castle. He looked dretful thoughtful, and then he asked what made them big holes in the walls. Martin said that Cromwell made em 200 years ago. Sez Martin, " Cromwell made the land red with blood." "Was he not a great religious leader among your people?" said Al Faizi "a Reformer?" "Yes." " Did he not preach the doctrine of peace, love to your enemies, good will ?" SAMANTHA IN EUROPP:. " Yes, of course he did," sez Martin. " Why did he kill so many men, then ?" sez Al Faizi. " To make the other men behave themselves," sez Martin. u Kill them to make them act better ?" " The Catholics and the Protestants both fought in the name of their religion, and tortured and killed and slaughtered thousands and thousands of men and women." " For the sake of religion ?" sez Al Faizi. And he took out his book and wrote rapidly for awhile, but he didn t say nothin . " It was a case of killing or being killed," sez Martin. "It was a religious war." " A religious war ?" sez Al Faizi dreamily. " Where was His teaching, the divine Christ, Love your enemies, do good to them that persecute V you ? " That won t work," sez Martin ; " those words are good in peace, but in danger they don t work worth a cent." Al Faizi looked up slowly to Martin s face ; in his eyes wuz a shinin light, a softness, a tenderness sech as made his face shine, and underneath it all wuz a sort of a innocent, wonderin look, which I spoze would be called primitive and oncivilized. A VISIT TO BLARNEY CASTLE. 175 Martin s Jace looked commercial and successful, sharp and shrewd, and what he called civilized. I had quite a number of thoughts as I looked on the two men, over a dozen and a half, anyway. Alice and Adrian wuz pickin- some of the green ivy sprays, and they brung em to me and wanted me to look at em. Sez Alice, " Some of this ivy that grows here so wild and luxuriant acres of it, it seems to me is just the kind that we see little slips of in our green houses at home ; do you see how beautiful it is ?" And she held up a few of the glossy leaves to Al Faizi. He glanced at it, and then beyend into her sweet, uplifted face. " Yes, I see how beautiful it is," he sez softly, and he ended his words with a deep sithe. And a shadder settled down over his face, and he turned to his writin agin. As for Alice, she see nothin , but kep a-gatherin her ivy sprays and a-singin to herself in her low, sweet voice " I give thee an ivy leaf, Only an ivy leaf, Oh, wear it forever, love, nearest thy heart." I knew very well who she wuz aposthrofizin in her own heart entirely onbeknown to her as she wuz 1/ SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. hummin over little snatches of the song and a-pickin the glowin green sprays. And I knew that the affection and constancy that dwelt in her soul wuz as deathless as that ivy and fur more clingin and beautiful. Martin had climbed up to the elevation where the Blarney Stun hung suspended two feet below the surface, fastened by iron clamps. But he wouldn t rusk his neck by bein lowered down to that place, but he kissed a little chunk that layed on the ground inside the castle, for I see him. And so did Josiah, though I didn t advise him to. Josiah, a-lookin up from below, had been makin calculations on how he could be lowered down to the big Blarney Stun on the ruff. Sez he, "It wuz a oversight in me not takin a rope ; but," sez he, all rousted up, as his ardent, im pulsive way is, sez he, "I might take that mantilly you ve got on." It bein a cool day I d worn it. " And you, and Martin, and Fazer could hang holt of one end, and tie the other end round my waist. I could be lowered down and kiss it and not git a hair of my head hurt." I glanced pityin ly at his bald head, and sez I coldly A VISIT TO BLARNEY CASTLE. 1/7 " How would it be with the tabs?" 4p " Oh," sez he, " it might stretch em a little, but if a pardner wouldn t be willin to resk a tab for her husband, she can t think much on him." And he prepared to mount the steep, a-holdin out his hand for the mantilly. I stood still, foldin my tabs round me more clost. Sez he, " You talk a sight about your feelin s for me, and now you put a mantilly ahead of em. I hain t equal in your mind to a tab," sez he bitterly. A thought struck aginst me. " No, Josiah," sez I, " you use my mantilly to-day, and tomorrer we will come back, and I will use the tossels on your dressin -gown." (They wuz stout ones stout as a rope almost.) He looked dumbfoundered. " Use them tos sels ?" sez he. " Yes," sez I ; "you can t think much of me if you put them tossels ahead of me." Sez he, " Them tossels hain t a-goin to be used to lift a ton s weight. I might as well give em up to once as to misuse em so." "Then I hain t as much importance in your mind as a tossel ?" sez I ; and he admitted that I wuzn t half so good lookin . "Wall," sez I, <k less gin up the idee, both on us." 1/8 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Sez he, " Didn t you bring sunthin to eat with you ? I m as hungry as a bear." So I gladly led him away from the stairs leadin to Danger and Blarney, and we found a good, clean spot, and spread out our refreshin lunch that we had brung with us to refresh ourselves with, and Josiah did indeed do jestice to it ; but that dear man always duz do that, at home or in more foreign climes. Yes, indeed ! Wall, the day passed away with no particular coincedences. We went home by another road that led through the valley, by meetin -housen and horsepitals, jails, etc., and amongst the rest we see Father Mathew s statute. And if you ll believe it but I don t spoze you will all round the statute of that man, who spent his hull life a-fightin aginst intemperance, is a hull lot of drinkin places. As if they calculate to keep right on a-tormentin even his statute. But they ve no need to try it, good old creeter ! He himself has got beyend the toil and the heart aches caused by others sin and weaknesses. He has got to the place where he is not plagued and heart-broken by the sight of that sin and folly, for what duz it say A VISIT TO BLARNEY CASTLE. 179 " There are no drunkards there." gp Good old soul ! Keep on a-sellin your accursed stuff right under the marble nose of his statute if you want to, or pour whiskey over it, you can t git nigh to him, this hero, this martyr, who give his life, and has now found it in glory. But to resoom. Wall, the next mornin we sot off in a carriage for Killarney. There wuz some sort of a meetin that day, and the bells wuz a-ringin as we rode along. Mebby amongst em wuz the Bells of Shandon. I shouldn t wonder ; I sort o listened to the sound of em with my soul, but I d no as I could recognize em so s to tell em from the other bells. Our souls hain t learnt our mortal ears yet, as it would love to, as it will in the futer. But it seemed as though I could hear as we rode along the Bells of Shandon. And thoughts of what I d seen in a face the day before kinder chimed in with the sweet, melan choly sounds. As it happened, Al Faizi sot by me, and I, a-feelin that I had a duty to do, and a-layin out to do it if I got a chance, I kinder brung the con versation round to Alice ; and as I spoke of her 180 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. sweetness and charm, the strangest look come into his eyes you ever see, and he sez to me, jest as though I wuz a-beholdin his secret thoughts onbe- known to him " I have a vow I am wedded to the cause of truth." He said it with a deep shadder settlin down over his glowin eyes. And then with Duty and Pity a-bolsterin me up on both sides, 1 sez "Alice is engaged to another feller." He looked full at me as curous a look as I ever see in my life what did I see in his eyes, or ruther what didn t I see ? I see Religion, Devotion, Deathless Human Love, warm, glowin , eager Re nunciation, Pity for himself (I could see plain that he wuz sorry for himself sorry as a dog), Eager Zeal, Pity for the hull world layin in wickedness. It wuz a strange look. And I never said anythin to him, only the look I gin him in answer, where deep pity and admira tion and respect blended about half and half. And a motherly look of full comprehension and sym pathy a-shinin out a-tellin him that I knew all, and pitied all, and would never tell anybody what I knew. We had volumes of conversation in jest them two looks, and no one wuz the wiser I told nobody. But, indeed, this secret knowledge added a ingre- A VISIT TO BLARNEY CASTLE. l8l gient of a, deep curosity as wuz ever carried round by a menagerie as a side show, for me to transport round from place to place, or wherever we pitched our tent on our tower. Yes, truly, things wuz in as curous a state as I ever see, so fur as the affections and sech wuz con cerned. Alice a-bein wropped up in the thoughts of her feller, and her father a-bein determined to not let her so much as think on him. Al Faizi wropped up in Alice, speakin to nobody only in the soul language of the eye, anon or oftener, and nobody but me a-knowin it, but I a-knowin it for certain. Alice a-bein adored by a heathen ! Queer feelin s it gin me and queerer still to read in that heathen s eyes the knowledge that she had nothin to fear from him -she would never have even an appeal to her pity in futer days. As she sot by her husband s side a-holdin a baby s head on her bosom, she would never look down into its sweet eyes and think with pity of lonely, despairin eyes that wuz facin a lonely, empty futer. No ; that heroic soul kep its own secrets. Why, you can be a hero in anything even boots and galluses, and sech, if you bear pinchin from em 1 82 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. without complaint (Josiah never could, he groaned audibly and frequent unless his galluses wuz jest right). And Adrian, a happy little soul, pleased with everything, and a-praisin himself up jest as calm as he did castles and cathedrals, and jest as innocent. And Martin a-bearin himself up with dignity, near-sighted as ever when it come to recognizin American bores and curous tourists. And Josiah and I in our usual attitude of rapt devotion to each other, which is our two most striking traits (a good deal of the time they be). CHAPTER X. KILLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE. MARTIN said that he wouldn t for the world have folks ask him if he had visited the Lakes of Killarney, and have to say no. And I believe that thought kep him up through all the long day s journey and the two nights and one day we spent there. I don t believe he had any deeper feelin s and more riz up ones when he looked at them three beautiful lakes, with the mountains a-standin up all round em with bare heads. Yes, you d think them old mountains had took their green caps off and wuz lookin down on em with deep reverence and respect. They wuz so exquisitely beautiful. But Martin, mebby, can t be expected to be as riz up and as elevated as them peaks ; anyway, he acted out his nater, which wuz to see everything he could see, to stand round with his hands in his pockets if he felt like it, or if he wuz kinder tired, to lean back and shet up his eyes and rest and have his body KILLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE. 185 dragged along through the places, so s he could say he had been in em. And Al Faizi acted out his nater, which wuz to stand like a devotee before a shrine as the beauty of them seens busted onto him. And in noticin that the rich, highly cultivated lower lands layin about the lakes wuz all fenced in with high walls, and that one or two men owned hundreds and thousands of acres, sacred to the use of some animals they wanted to hunt down for pleasure once or twice durin the year, while hundreds and thousands of poor human bein s wuz starvin all round the borders of these immense estates. Livin in miserable, rotten cabins, so poor that one of these rich men would not think of lettin one of his beasts stay in em for a night. Immortal souls for whom Christ died hungry, starvin for a crust and dyin for a bit of the luxury that wuz wasted upon dumb brutes. In noticin this, Martin sithed to think that them oien wuzn t to home, so that he could call on em. He said that he would love to say that he had met em. But Al Faizi, after askin all he could about the estates of the two or three wealthy men and the thousands of starvin ones round em, looked 1 86 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. dretful thoughtful, and took out his little book with the cross and star on t and writ a lot in it. And Martin spoke of its bein jest as bad in the north of Scotland, where the Crofters can hardly git enough food to keep from starvin . And they live in sech huts as no man would keep his animals in. Big families of boys and girls huddled together like pigs in one small room, with a open fireplace in the middle, with no chimney and no ruff, nothin but rotten straw ; the smoke blindin their eyes, and nothin to eat hardly. And as miserable as this hovel is, the landlord is liable to turn em out at any time to make room for happier and better cared-for animals sheep, deer, etc., etc. As Al Faizi hearn this his face looked sad and thoughtful,- and he wrote down quick a good deal in that little book of hisen. I think Martin liked it. He thought he wuz takin notes of his conversation, and he felt big over it, but I don t believe it wuz anything personal that Al Faizi writ. I believe it wuz sunthin as deep as jestice and as pure as love and pity that he wuz a-writin about ; anyhow, his face wuz a study as I watched it. There wuz indignation in it and pity and love, and another look, that I felt instinc tively wuz a-lookin forrered to jedgment. KILLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE. 187 Lookin forrered not many years to the time when things would be different, Wall, we stayed there and went round part of the way in boats, and part of the way in wagons all of the next day, a-lookin at the beautiful gems of lakes in their settin s of richest emerald, and in little walks about the country, and in comparin the heights of luxury to the depths of squalor and misery. Not fur from here wuz the cottage where Kate Kearney used to live. You know who she wuz, I spoze. " For did you not hear of Kate Kearney? She lives on the banks of Killarney ; From the glance of her eye Shun peril and fly, For fatal s the glance of Kate Kearney." Whether he flew from her I d no, but presoom he didn t, men are so sot in these things. Peril and danger hain t a-goin to make em fly from a pretty woman no, indeed ! In the lower lake, on an island, wuz the ruins of a big castle, picturesque and ivy-covered. It wuz owned by the O Donohues. And the boatman said that every seven years the chief of the O Donohues come back for a night to see his castle. 1 88 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I thought to myself, mebby he come oftener than that, but didn t say a word, not wantin to do anything to either make or break a legend hun dreds of years old. Wall, we wuz a-layin out to leave there the next mornin , but Martin, by his pry in round, found that there wuz a-goin to be a wake that night in a cabin not fur from the tarvern where we wuz a-stayin , and by payin some money I d no how much he got a chance to attend to it, and he said that Josiah and I could go if we wanted to. He told me he didn t spoze that Al Faizi would care about goin , and he wanted Alice and Adrian to rest, for the next mornin early we wuz to set out for Dublin. But I thanked him real polite, and told him that " I would stay with the children." And afterwards, seein that Al Faizi wanted to go, them three men sot off. A old man had passed away, and they wuz a-makin a great wake for him. They didn t stay long, for they said that the whiskey and drinkin and tobacco-smokin in the little hovel drove em out. But Martin observed complacently that he would be glad to say that he had been to a real Irish Wake. KILLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE. 189 Al Faizi spoke of the old wimmen wallers, and said that they had jest sech professional mourners in Egypt and parts of Africa, and he wondered quite a good deal how that custom come way off here in this fur-off Ireland, but he spozed that it wuz in some way brought here from the East. DRINKIN AND TOBACCO-SMOKIN IN THE LITTLE HOVEL DROVE EM OUT. Mebby it come down from them old days nobody knows anything about, of which relics remains in them old round towers, etc. So old nobody knows who built em, or what for. He wondered a good deal, but didn t take out that book of hisen with the star and cross on t. 190 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. No, he writ in another book with a plain Russia leather cover on t. My pardner restrained himself until the others had departed to their couches, but I see that he wuz fearful agitated and excited. And sez he, the minute they went out " I tell you, Samantha, it wuz a excitin seen, and," sez he, " what a excitement it would make in jonesville if we should have one !" Sez he dreamily " Uncle Nate Bentley is over ninety ; there might be one arranged easy." Sez I, "Josiah Allen, don t you go to lookin forrered to any sech doin s !" "Why?" sez he; "if I should leave you, you could probble git the Widder Lummis up to Zoar and Drusilla Bentley to wail for a little or nothin ." Sez I, "Josiah Allen, no widder or old maid is a-goin to wail over you by my hirin em to ; if they wail, it will be at their own expense. " You will have one true mourner, Josiah Allen, whose grief will be too deep and heartfelt to dis play it before a crowd, with whiskey and tobacco as accessories." "Oh ! I didn t expect you d have any drinkin or smokin . I knew your principles too well. They KILLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE. 19! might smoke a little catnip, or sunthin of that sort, or pass round some lemonade." Sez I, " There will be nothin of the kind done, Josiah Allen." But he sprunted up and sez, " You seem to be settlin things all your own way. I should think that I ort to have some say in it. Whose funeral is it, I d like to know, we re talkin about ?" But I sez, " I don t want to hear another word of sech talk, and I won t." And I riz up and sal lied off to bed, and in sweet slumber that man soon forgot all his stylish ambitions. Wall, the next day we sot off to Dublin, and havin arrived there with no casualities worth men- tionin , we settled down in a good-sized tarvern, and after a little rest we meandered around to see the sights of the place. Martin said that he wanted to visit the great manafacturys where Irish Poplin is made, as he had some friends who wuz interested in that trade, and that it would be expected of him. And I then mentioned to Josiah, seein that he wuz right here at the headquarters, perhaps it would be best for me to buy a gray poplin dress. I knew it would last like iron. But Josiah said with deep earnestness, that if I only knew how much better he liked my old gray IQ2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. parmetty dress to home I never would speak on t. Sez he, " You look perfectly beautiful in it, and there is so many associations connected with it." Sez I, " I should think there would be, seein I ve worn it stiddy for upwards of eighteen years without alterin it." " Wall," sez he, " it is a perfect beauty, and you look lovely in it." He hadn t been so complimentary to me for up wards of fourteen years, and I wuz touched by it, and gin up the thought of gittin a new dress. Oh ! how many, many wimmen have done the same thing under the same circumstances. But the numerous shops wuz full of the loveliest goods of all kinds, and politer creeters than them clerks I don t want to see. St. Patrick s Cathedral wuz of course one of the first places we visited. They say that this wuz built, in the first place, by St. Patrick himself about fourteen hundred years ago, but if that wuz so, I thought St. Patrick would feel sorry for the filth and wretchedness that surrounded the meetin - house up to the very door. There wuz a magnificent carved marble sar cophagus of Archbishop Whateley, with his own marble figger stretched out on top of it. And a monument to that kinder queer, kinder KILLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE. 193 mean, smart chap, Swift, and a tablet to poor Stella, who would a-done better if she had married some other feller, mebby not so smart, but better natered and a better provider. Poor creeter, I m sorry for her ! There wuz lots of other interestin monuments and memorials, but Time and Martin wuz in a hurry, so we did not delay. We visited Trinity College, the castle, the beau tiful part of the city where the rich folks lived, and the Liberties, where it seemed as if all the liberty the poor creeters had wuz the liberty to be jest as poor and degraded and nasty as they could be. There wuz beautiful parks, one on em over eighteen hundred acres in it, full of beauty, and we see lots of statutes, erected to the great men who had been born in Dublin the Duke of Wellington, the great orator, Daniel O Connell, etc. The monument to Nelson, the hero of the Nile, is one hundred and ten feet high before he stands up on it, and he is 1 1 feet high. He is in a sightly place. If his sperit comes back in some still moonlight night, and looks over the world with him, I wonder if it ever looks over the mistakes he made ? I won der if the beautiful Lady Hamilton ever comes into its thoughts ? 194 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. She hain t got any monument. I wonder if he s sorry for it, that he stands up so high and she so low in the opinion of people so low, when once he felt it his greatest glory and happiness to kneel at her feet ? But such surmises are futile, futiler than there s any need on. To resoom. Charles Lever, the novelist, wuz born in Dublin, and so wuz Tom Moore. We went to the birthplace of Moore. It wuz a common-lookin buildin , though it had a bust of the poet in front up between the winders. The lower part of the house wuz used as a grocery store, and Josiah himself proposed that we should buy here some little souvenir of the poet. I wuz dumbfoundered. I never knew him to propose any outlay of the kind before, and I sez as much. " Wall," sez he, " I knew you wuz always want- in to buy sunthin to remember sech romantic places by, and I thought here would be a good chance." I wuz so touched by his thoughtfulness that I sez " Dear Josiah, what had you got it into your head to buy ?" And he said that he thought a few crackers and KILLARNEY, DUBLIN, AND A WAKE. 195 a little cheese and a herrin or two would be as 4P good as anything. " Did you mean to keep em, Josiah ?" sez I, for a dark suspicion swept over me. And he owned up that he layed out to nibble on em a little on the way back to the hotel. I see right through it, and I didn t fall in with his overtoor. Somehow, herrin s and cheese seemed incongrous with Lally Rooks, and Peris, and Para dises, and I told him so. And he sez, " Dum it all, they had to eat in Paradise if they kep alive, and," sez he, "a Peri, if she knew anything, wouldn t object to a slice of good cheese and some soda crackers." So I told him that if he wanted sunthin to eat to buy it ; but, sez I, " never veneer a selfish thought with the fine gold of romance and tender memo ries." And he said that he didn t want nothin to do with varnish of any kind, he wanted some cheese and crackers. So he bought a few, I guess ; I didn t watch him. I myself wuz quite took up with lookin round the place, sanctified by genius of a certain kind, and I murmured almost onbeknown to myself the words I had hearn Tirzah Ann repeat. She always loved Moore fur better than Thomas J. did. 196 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Though Thomas J. thought well enough on him, but Tirzah Ann used to rehearse and sing him by the hour, so in spite of myself I had learnt lots of his poetry by heart. And as I looked round the room I found myself entirely onbeknown to myself a-hummin over the " Last Rose of Summer," and the " Meetin of the Waters," and the " Harp that once through Tara s Halls." That last one Tirzah Ann ust to sing a sight, and I always liked to hear it, though I never got it into my head jest who Mr. Tara wuz, or what line of business he wuz in. Wall, knowin that Tirzah Ann would prize it so high, I bought some choclate drops of candy to take home to her. They wuz as sweet as Moore s poetry, and softer, some. CHAPTER XI. JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. WALL, Martin said that he should probble be asked if he had visited the Giant s Causeway, so he thought we had better proceed to it to once. So we went directly from Dublin to Port Rush. We stayed there all night, and the next day we all went out on the electric car, for Martin said that he wanted Adrian to go, for in futer years he would probble be asked if he had been there. Adrian wuz tired out and didn t want to go he wuz real cross about it. Alice told her Pa that Adrian said that he wouldn t look at anything if he went, but Martin said that it would be better for him to go, even if he didn t see anything, for then he could say that he had been there. So we all sot off the way we went wuz a perfect sight and wonder in itself, for what power do you spoze it wuz that rolled the wheels that took us onwards ? It wuz all done by a waterfall at Bush Mills, a few milds away. The water that poured down 198 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. from the hills is harnessed, as you may say, and made to carry us along. Queer, hain t it ? And shows that you never can tell what will happen to you in the futer. Why, if anybody had told them little free, sparklin rivulets that leap along up in the hills, foamin and chatterin of liberty and freedom, and sech if anybody had throwed it into their bright, sparklin faces that they wuz a-goin to be ketched and tackled up with some kind of riggin and carry Josiah Allen s Wife and her pardner, and the world at large, them rivulets would have resented it they would have laughed and gurgled and swept on in different and onbelievin . But so it wuz, they had to come to it. And after they got broke in they didn t seem to mind it, for they bore us on so smooth and easy and noiseless, that it wuz a perfect treat. No steamin , no smokin they learnt that up in the hills. It wuz a comfort to ride after em. And we had nothin to hender us from thinkin of the Giants and talkin about em. Josiah said that he had always approved of giants, and that he would love to see one or two of em. Adrian didn t git real reconciled to goin till after we got started, then he got real excited, and JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. 199 got the idee that we wuz goin to see Jack the Giant Killer, and asked me quite a number of ques tions about it. Runnin sunthin like this How big wuz the Giants, and where did they come from, and what wuz their names, and how long did it take em to build the Causeway, and " What is the Causeway made of ?" " Of rocks." " What are the rocks made of, and who made the rocks, and when were they made, and how, and what for ?" Good land ! I wuz tuckered out, and told him I guessed I would look out of the winder a spell and take the air. And then he wanted to know what air wuz made of, and who made it, and if there wuzn t any air out of the winder if I could make some air. He didn t ask so many questions as a general thing he seemed to be kinder fractious that day. Poor little creeter, he wuz tired out, and I knew it, and I encouraged him to kinder lean up aginst me and take all the rest and comfort he could. Alice wuz real happy. She d got some letters that mornin , and two big ones wuz in one hand- writin I knew it. She read em over two or three times in the train. 200 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Al Faizi looked at her as she read em, and his face looked queer he see the glow on her face, and I see that, like the sun, that bright light could cast a shadder. Sunshine and shadder, how they chase across the landscape of life ! How clost they f oiler each other ! What strange picters they make ! What thoughts they give ! But to resoom we got to the Causeway in pretty good season, and we found it wuz a sight, a sight. It is made of high round columns, or pillows, and you can walk on it jest as you could on the walk Josiah made out to the hen-house out of bricks sot long end up. But this Giants walk is fur, fur immenser than Josiah s. It is so extremely big that they say the Giants built it. It runs out into the sea in a kind of a curous shape, and is a sight to behold. I thought I wouldn t go and see the caves that wuz nigh there. You had to go to em in a boat and as I looked on that boat, and considered the size on t, and then subtracted the size of it from the bigness of the Atlantic Ocean, I gin up that I wouldn t tackle it. I had done some of my multiplyin and subtractin out loud, onbeknown to me, and Josiah hearn me, and said he guessed he wouldn t go. He looked JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE, 201 round the Heavens and earth as if to find a suitable 4> excuse, and finally he sez " It seems so kinder muggy to-day, I guess I won t go, though I should enjoy the trip immensely if it wuzn t for the clost atmosphere." Wall, I wuz glad to have him gin it up on any account. Al Faizi didn t seem to care about goin , nor Alice, nor Adrian. But Martin said that he wouldn t want it to be said that he hadn t visited the caves. So he sot off with a couple of boatmen. There wuz a dretful sort of a heavey look to the Atlantic, and I wuz glad that I didn t venter, for I felt truly that the Giants, if they ever heard on t, would make allowances for my feelin s in not dastin to venter out on the Atlantic in a boat. As it turned out, glad enough wuz I that there didn t none of the rest on us go, for there come up a sudden squall right when Martin wuz in the cave, and they had to hurry out for their lives. The rough waves wuz a-washin the boat up aginst them hard pillows of stun, and they wuz in sech danger of their lives that the boat men had to jump out on the rocks the best way DRIITIN WET WHEN- BACK. 202 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. they could, and haul Martin, more dead than alive, up over the rocks. He wuz drippin wet when he come back to the hotel, and I sez, " Martin, how sorry I am you ven- tered out there !" And he sez, with his teeth a-chatterin and the water a-drippin off of him, that he wasn t sorry, fora friend of hisen, a very rich and very influential man. had been caught in jest the same way. And he gin me to understand that he anticipated a great treat in talkin over the experience with him. Wall, there is sunthin in that there is com fort in talkin over past troubles and dangers, and I couldn t dispute it. But I sez : " For mercy sakes ! do change your clothes and git dried off." But he hadn t any other clothes with him, and the upshot of it wuz, he had to go to bed while his clothes wuz dryin . But Josiah wuz sorry for him, and blamed him self for not thinkin to bring along his dressin -gown. Sez he, " I wouldn t think of lendin it on a com mon occasion, but," sez he, lookin round on sech big work as the Giants had done there, sez he, " I wouldn t want to act small, and refuse to let Martin put it on for an hour or two." JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. 203 Wall, as soon as Martin wuz dried off, we sot sail back to Port Rush, and it wuz there that night that I had a severe trial and fright. We had had a good supper, and Josiah had eat more than wuz good for him, I believe, and drinked too much coffee. He is used to tea at night, but bein so wore out and kinder chilly, Martin ordered strong coffee. And I believe that coffee wuz to the bottom of our trials that night. Bein kinder fagged out, Martin had gone to his room early, and the rest had follered his example, and my pardner and I had also sought the seclusion of our quiet bedroom. And I immegiately and to once begun my preper- ations for slumber. I onfolded my nightgown and laid it over a chair and ondone my sheepshead night-cap, and mekan- ically went to sort of flutin the border between my fingers, as I sot there, and I begun to feel real drowsy. But Josiah didn t seem to be sleepy a mite. He had donned that dressin -gown of hisen and tied the strings in a large bow-knot, that showed off the red tossels to the best advantage, and walked 2 and fro several times, and seemed to look and act real senti mental. He has sech spells I guess all men do at 204 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. times. And finally he leaned back in a big arm chair and kinder hummed over some tunes not sech tunes as I would approve of his singin , but some songs such as " Ben Bolt," and " Lorena," and " She s all my Fancy painted Her." And finally he broke out quite loud a-singin - " I ll chase the antelope over the plains, The tiger s cub I ll - "What is it, Samantha, that he said he d do to the tiger s cub * with a chain ?" Sez I, " Choke it, mebby I presoom he d be skairt enough to want to." " No ; it wuz sunthin like harnessin , Samantha. Do you know what it is ? It comes right in the turn of the tune, and it hampers me to forgit it." And then he begun agin " The tiger s cub I ll tie with a chain I ll tackle with a chain " No, that hain t it tie hain t the word " The tiger s cub I ll, folderol, with a chain. He made the turn and went on to the next line " And the wild gazelle, with its silvery feet, I ll get thee for a playmate, sweet. " Sez he, " I ve got it all but that one word, and that that will come to me," sez he. JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. Sez he, " I feel like singin to-night, Samantha." " Sing!" sez I in icy axents ; " I d call it singin , if I wuz you." "Wall," sez he, "if I dast to let my voice out, you d hear singin , but it would wake em all up. My voice is powerful, and I feel in full voice to night." " Wall," sez I, " I m glad that sunthin holds you back. "And," sez I, " I am beat out and I am goin to bed." And so I got ready and went to bed. The rest wuz all asleep, so I spozed. Wall, I fell asleep most the first thing, and I d no how long I d slept, when I hearn a knock- in at my door, and I got up, and Alice stood there, white and tremblin . " The Banshee !" sez she in tremblin tones ; " I saw it myself, and heard it." Sez she, " You know this is the very part of Ire land where they have them." Sez I, " You d been a-thinkin of em and im agined it." "No, indeed !" sez she ; " I was just falling asleep when I heard those awful wails of distress, and I got up and went to father s room, which is next to mine, and he got up and looked out of the window, 206 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. and -he saw it and heard it too." Sez she, " You know the Banshee always appears before some dreadful trouble comes to a family, and it seems as if it is meant for us, for it is only a little ways off." Sez she, " You and Uncle Josiah get up and come into my room, and you can see it for yourselves." At them words there seemed to come to me a realizin sense of my sur- roundin s ; bein jest waked up with news of a ghost, I d overlooked the fact of my companion s absence. But I sez, " I will come, Alice. Your Uncle Josiah has probble heard it, and gone out to investigate." So I throwed on my flannel wrapper and slip ped on my shoes and put my breakfast shawl round me and went into Alice s room. There we found Martin wrapped in his Pegama, or whatever they call it. Alice s winder commanded a better view than hisen, and he stood motionless by the winder. Al Faizi and Adrian wuz in the other side of the ALICE STOOD THERE, WHITE AND TREMBLIN JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. 2O7 house, and so wuz the rest of the folks. These two rooms wuz Idnder built out on the side by them selves. Sez I, " Martin, you don t believe anythin of this kind, do you ?" But Alice spoke up before he could answer, " Why, at Dunluce Castle that we saw to-day there is a Banshee that always foretells death to the fam ily, and they have them all over Ireland." Sez I, advancin towards the winder, " You don t believe anythin of this kind, do you, Martin ?" He answered evasively / There is something dread ful queer-looking down there across the road it is standing still now, but it has been giving the most blood-curdling sounds and wails that I ever heard." "Yes," sez Alice, "the Banshee always gives those same terrific screeches and harrowing yells. I know it is a Banshee, and it is for us, father, for it appeared to us." And she commenced to cry. I guess her first thought was of somebody that wuz in her mind the hull of the time. Sez I, " Hush up, Alice I don t believe anything of the kind." But as I looked out, follerin Martin s solemn and silent pint, I did see a sight that made the cold chills run down my back in spite of myself, and 208 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. goose pimples gathered freely down my shoulder blades. I see a dark figger a-standin up on a little rock that riz up there above the rest of the ground ; it stood motionless, and, indeed, it looked skairful. And onbeknown to myself I sez " For the land s sake ! what is it ?" My own voice wuz tremolous with fear, and Alice see it, and cried harder than ever. And Mar tin sez " You ought to have heard the terrific screams the thing gave if you want to be scared seeing it isn t nothing at all to hearing it. " And," sez he, " I ll go and call up the hotel- keeper and find out what it is. Maybe it is a lunatic broken out of some asylum. I am going to know something about who and what it is." But jest at this minute the creeter broke out in one of its wild cries, and Martin and Alice shud dered, and sez he, " Did you ever in your life hear anything so awful ?" And Alice sez, l I cannot bear it, Aunt Saman- tha. It is too terrible." But there wuz to me sunthin familiar in the sound, and I lifted the sash, and the words come in plain A DARK FIGGER A-STANDIN* UP ON A LITTLE ROCK. 210 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " Bind with a chain ! The tiger s cub I ll bind with a chain And the wild gazelle" etc., etc. Sez I, " It is my own pardner with his dressin - gown on, and a-singin ." The words Martin said then I won t never tell no, indeed ! besides the wickedness on em, it wuz too humiliatin to hear em applied to my own pard ner. " Fool " wuz the last one of the three, and " The" wuz the first one, but I will not tell the middle word you can t make me. Alice went to laughin (partly hysterics) ; she felt dretful relieved, and as the figger seemed now to be aproachin the house, I went back into my room, into which it soon entered in a gay and jaunty manner. He had been enjoyin himself first-rate, and sez he "Wall, Samantha, I ve found the word, and I ve been a-singin ;" sez he, " I sung the verse all over, and it sounded beautiful, and then I stood still a spell, and all of a sudden the right word come to me. It wuz * bind, " sez he. Sez I coldly, " You ve skairt a woman almost into fits and made a church-member and a relation swear like a pirate." Sez I, "I ve seen you took for lots of things, Josiah Allen, from first to last, JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. 211 but I never thought I should ever live to see the day to see you took for a ghost a Banshee. A common ghost would sound as good agin as that." And I went on and related the facts. He acted mad and puggilistic like, and sez he " I can t help folks from makin dum fools of themselves." Sez I, " I wish you d kep yourself from it." Sez he, " It is a pity if a man can t sing a little durin the evenin without his folks actin like per fect fools !" " Sing !" sez I ; " I wonder how many more episodes you ll have to go through without your learnin the truth about what you call your singin ." Sez I, " You can t sing, Josiah Allen, any more than a cow can play on the melodian, and I ve told you so often enough for you to believe it." " Wall, wall," sez he, " it s time to go to bed. When a man is a-travellin with a hull crew of loon- aticks and fools, it stands him in hand to git what little rest he can, nights." That man wuz ashamed of his conduct, and I knew it. Mortification works out sometimes in jest that way. It gaulded him to be took for a Banshee, for I hearn him mutter the word two or three times scornfully, as he wuz a-ondressin . Sez he, " A Banshee ! ! ! Dum fools ! ! ! I d love 212 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. to be one a spell I d show em some screech- in !" He didn t mean me to overhear him, but I did, and I sez calmly from my piller " You needn t blame yourself, Josiah Allen ; there hain t a Banshee in Ireland but what would be proud to mate with you after hearin you to-night there hain t one on em that could outdo you." " Keep on your aggravating" sez he, and he didn t say another word for as much as three minutes, when he begun to complain of bein chilly. And I took alarm to once, and made him some hot lemonade I had the ingregiences, and a alcohol lamp with me. And I folded up my woollen shawl, and tucked him all up in it, and spoke real soothin to him, and affectionate. For sech is the mystery of human love, though pardners may mortify you, or anger you, yet their sufferin or danger shows how strong are the ties that bind two lovin hearts nothin can break it. He answered me back in the same affectionate way, though terse, but showin the ten der regard he had for my welfare. Sez he " For mercy sake, do come to bed ! your feet will be as cold as ice suckles." And so sweet peace havin descended down onto us, we wuz both soon wropped in slumber. JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. 213 Wall, Martin concluded that we would go as soon 4* as we could to Glasgow, " For," sez he, " I feel that we have seen everything that there is to see in Ireland, and gone to the bottom, as you may say, of the Irish Question. So we might just as well go to Scotland as soon as might be." So we proceeded to Glasgow, partly by train and partly by steamboat. Martin talked comfortably agin, on the train, of havin seen everything in Ireland, and of havin gone to the bottom of the " Irish Question." " For," sez he, " the land is governed admirably splendid standing army, admirable police force, and as for the people," sez he, "in good seasons, statistics show that there is half a ton of potatoes to each person. More than I consume," sez he compla cently, leanin back with his fingers in his vest pockets. Sez I, " Mebby you d consume more potatoes if you didn t consume nothin else." Sez I, " You take out your fowls, and fish, and beef, and lamb, and puddin s, and pastry, etc., etc., etc., and eat nothin but clear potatoes, and how many do you spoze you d consume, and how much comfort do you spoze you d take consumin em ?" He looked lofty, and sez he : <l That isn t a parallel case." 214 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " And," sez I, " when the potato crop failed, what then ?" Agin he sez, " That isn t a parallel case." Sez I, "Paralell to what?" And he said, " Don t you want the window shut awhile ? Let me put your shawl round you ; it is a little chilly." And then he went on talkin to Alice as fast as he could about the scenery, and I wuz too well bread to say anything more. But I see that Al Faizi had took out his little book with the jewelled cross on it, and he wuz writin in it. And from the way the light from above fell on it as he held it, the rays streamed out from the jewelled cross some like the flashin rays from a sword. He had spoke to me before about the wretched ness and beggary of the people, and expressed won der that one or two men should own hundreds of thousands of acres and keep it for idle pleasure grounds, while all round were men who couldn t, no matter how sober and industrious they might be, buy enough land to build a shed on. He had looked dreamy and strange while he talked it over, but, as his usual way wuz, he didn t blame nothin nor nobody that wuz the difference between me and him. JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. 215 He would seem to ask about and find out about things, and then jest write em down in that book of hisen. His face a-lookin calm a most all the time, but dretful earnest and deep and sorrowful, a good part of the time. His writin wuzn t nothin hard, I don t believe, but comparin the doin s here with the things in his own land, I spoze. I had noticed that he had wrote down quite a good deal after he had hearn this conversation on Home Rule, and how for hundreds of years a brave people had tried to git the rule of their own land. Not always makin wise efforts, I spoze, but brave ones every time, and how the grand old man in England had stood up for em aginst his own folks. I see Al Faizi had writ down quite a considerable, a-praisin Gladstone, for all I know. He never told what he writ down or drawed our attention to it, no more than the sun duz as it photographs the pictures of the bendin trees and the flowers on the earth beneath. Jest duz it, and that s all. The sun and Al Faizi did. That s where I dif fered some I talked more. Wimmen do have to talk once in a while they re made so, I guess, onbe- known to em. And I said quite a good deal aloud and found considerable fault, though I meant not to be too hard on either side. There s always two sides to every story. Ireland 2l6 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. hain t always right, I don t spoze, no more n England. When two men git to fightin back and forth, there must be some fault on both sides before they git through, anyway, sech as swearin , kickin , etc., etc., etc. I hain t got nothin agin Queen Victoria, and she knovvs I hain t. The Widder Albert is a good woman and a good calculator, and has brung up her children well, and has laid up for em. And if ever any woman wuz a mourner for a pardner, she s been and is now. But I can t think she duz jest right in this case, not to let the Irish people rule their own country. It stands to reason that Josiah and I wouldn t want Deacon Gowdy to rule our house and farm, though he s a real likely man and a brother in the same meetin house, and a good calculator. But even if we didn t do quite so well, we would ruther tend to our own house and affairs everybody would. And I laid out to talk to Victoria on the subject the first time I had a real set-down visit with her. And then if Deacon Gowdy took all the money he could rake and scrape out of us, and spent it all on his own place, that would mad us, too. And like as not if he kep Josiah and me down so poor that we wuz most starved, and he should try JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. to turn us out of our own house, and use that dear place, sacred to us, and the door-yard and orchard, for a home for his dogs and fightin roosters and sech, why, I d no if Josiah see me barefooted and hungry, a-beggin Deacon Gowdy not to turn me out of the house I wuz born in, and on. an empty stumick, too, I d no but he d knock him down and jump on him. And that would make trouble Miss Gowdy wouldn t like that, but if she should come to me with it, I should say to her, "Let him tend to his own business, then, and let us alone." And if she should up hold him and say we hadn t no jedgment, and wuz shiftless, and we couldn t take care of our land, and they had to do it because we wuz too indolent, and slack, and sech I d tell her agin that it wuz none of her business. Sez I, " If we run through with our own property we can go to our own poor-house, can t we ? " But," I d say, " you needn t worry ; what encour- I LAID OUT TO TALK TO VICTORIA ON THE SUBJECT. 218 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. agement do we have to work and git things ahead when we know you d take all the profits of our labor ? You go off and tend to your own business, and we ll work hard enough, and lay up." And then, after freein my mind to her, if old Gowdy wuz too bad off, I dare presoom to say I should offer him some worm-wood to make a poul tice of to show him that I didn t have no malice towards him, only jest wantin to have my rights and be let alone. But to resoom. We arrove in Glasgow with no fatal results a-flowin from our voyage, and we put up at a good sizable tarvern, where we had plenty of things for our comfort and luxury. Amongst the things of luxury, I counted the water that I drinked from day to day, for I found that it wuz water brung from Loch Ka trine. And when you remember Ellen s Isle, as described by Sir Walter Scott, is right there in Loch Katrine you may perhaps imagine the height and depth of my emotions. Why, the very water I sipped, and wet my front hair with mornings before my lookin -glass, may have gurgled and murmured round the very isle where Ellen Douglas dwelt in her father s hidden lodge, covered with ivy and Idien vines. SAMANTHA AND ELLEN DOUGLAS. 220 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " The rocky isle with copsewood bound, Where weeping birch and willow round With their long fibres swept the ground." Where she dwelt and roamed, dreaming of Malcolm Graeme, and where she met the King of Scotland, onbeknown to her. Poor feller, .poor young king ! he thought more of Ellen than wuz good for him, but he acted like a perfect gentleman through it all, and that is better than bein a king. Or ruther it ts bein a king. He forgive her Pa, who had been rambellous, and with that gold chain of hisen, that he might have hung him with, he bound the girl he loved to anothet man forever. Good, generous creeter ! But we are wanderin too fur back into the realm of poesy, accompanied by noble Warriors and Ladys of the Lake, and to come out into the hard-beat track of reality agin, and to resoom. Martin sot a great deal of store on visitin the great public buildin s and the Cathedral, which is nine hundred years old, and the University, big enough for over a thousand scholars I guess a thousand and a half. But I myself took more interest in visitin the Necropolous, as they call their buryin ground, and seein the monument riz up to John Knox. It tow- JOSIAH AS A BANSHEE. 221 ers up towards the sky dretful high ; but not so high as John s principles loomed up not nigh. And I wuz dretful interested while in the city in lookin at the statutes of Sir Walter Scott, and James Watts, and David Livingstone, and Robert Burns. And seein the place where Sir John Moore wuz born. It wuzn t any better place than Elder Minkley wuz born in, to Jonesville, or Deacon Blodgett upinZoar. And as I looked onto the onpretentious walls I methought how it wuzn t likely at all when he wuz a baby, his Pa a-puttin up pills and powders at the time, his Ma a-holdin his little helpless, dimpled form to her bosom, that he would grow up to be sech a hero and die fur from her, over in Spain, and " be buried darkly at dead of night." And be left there cold and still, fur from kindred and loved ones "Alone in his glory." Wall, here in this city I had a great and welcome surprise Martin made me a present of a Paisley shawl ; they wuz manafectered in a place nigh here, and Martin got me and Alice one. Men don t realize sech things, but I knew, and Alice knew, that she wouldn t be old enough to wear hern for twenty years yet. But then, as I told her, she would grow up to it in time. 222 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But she kinder laid out, as I could see, on cover- in a lounge with it in her boodore, which means her private settin -room. I seldom use foreign languages, but when I do, I don t think it is any more n right to translate it for the benefit of em who hain t had my advan tages. What would Philury, or she that wuz Sub mit Tewksbury, know about a boodore f They d probble think it wuz jewelry or some kind of agin . CHAPTER XII. ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. WALL, from here we took some excursions to places of interest in the vicinity. One of heart-thrill- in interest wuz to Ayr, and lasted two days, for Martin said he wanted to see every spot connected in any way with Robert Burns. He said he didn t care about readin his historys and sermons, but it seemed to be the stylish and proper thing to do, so he wouldn t fail of doin it for anything. So we sot off one mornin with great anticipations, and each on us a satchel, for the forty milds trip. Josiah wuz riz up in his mind about Sir William Wallace more so than he wuz with Burns. For the " Scottish Chiefs " had been read by him with avidity in his boyhood, and permeated his fancy, and he still thought it wuz the most thrillin book that wuz ever wrote, exceptin " Alonzo and Melissa." " That," he said, "never will be equalled for heart-breakin interest." So as we journeyed along he talked a sight about Wallace and that claymore of hisen. "Why,"sez he, "it must have weighed 4 hundred or 5 hundred 224 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. pounds. What a man he wuz to wield it as he did and cut down his enemies with it ! "Why," sez he, "it would take two common men to lift it, they say, and what a sight it must have been to see him swingin that round his head and mowin down his enemies jest as Ury would mow down oats !" Sez I, " Josiah, I hope you are too good to enjoy sech a blood-curdlin sight, if it ever took place, but you must be careful about believin everything you hear about Wallace. I suppose that, like King Ar thur, an old I Iliad that Thomas J. ust to read about so much, lots of things has been told about him that never took place." " Take care, Samantha ; I can stand a good deal from a pardner, but when you go to doubtin William Wallace, then is the time for a man to take a stand. " Why, you ll be a-doubtin Thaddeus of Warsaw next. I wuz brung up on them books," sez he, " and on them books I take my stand. If I d hefted that claymore myself, I couldn t believe in it any more n I do." Sez I, a-tryin to bring him back into the plains of megumness and reason " You know history sez that Wallace wuz a sheep- stealer, in the first place. Don t pin your faith onto him too much, Josiah Allen." ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. 225 " A sheeg-stealer !" Wall, I will pin up a heavy shawl between Jo siah Allen and the public for the next few minutes. I guess I ll hang up my Paisley shawl, that s pretty thick, and I too will withdraw myself behind it. Suffice it to say when we emerged from behind it, I wuz a-sayin - "Wall, wall, I spoze like as not he did own a claymore, Josiah Allen, and I dare say it wuz a pretty hefty one." And then I turned the subject off onto Robert Burns, and bagpipes, and sech. Truly there is a time for pardners to stand their ground, and a time for em to gin in. When they see blood-vessels are on the pint of bustin and pard ners are chokin with rage gin in to em if you can, and keep your principles. I allers foller this receipt, and it has bore me on triumphant. Truly great is the mystery of pardners. Wall, Josiah got real sentimental a-talkin about Wallace s first wife, Marion, and his second wife, Helen Mar. " You know," sez Josiah, " Helen said in them last hours My life must expire with his. " And I sez, " Wall, it did at jest about the same time she died of a broken heart," sez I, bein willin to talk kind o sentimental with him, and soothe him down. 226 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "Yes," sez Josiah, "and don t you remember what Bothwell said as he raised her clay-cold face from Wallace s coffin - " * They loved in their lives, and in their deaths they shall not be divided ?" Josiah was dretful sentimental at them remines- cences, but he gradually chirked up agin, and by the time we come in sight of that tower of William Wallace s, in Ayr, more n a hundred feet high, Jo- siah s sperits riz up almost as high as that tower. Ayr is the seen of some of the most thrillin events of Wallace s life. Here he would sally out aginst his enemies here he wuz took by em and imprisoned. Here Robert Bruce and his troops made it their headquarters for a spell, and so did Cromwell and his army. It is a dretful interestin spot on lots of accounts, but on none of em so much as bein the birthplace of Robert Burns. The humble cottage where the immortal flower of Genius sprung up like a tall white lily out of the dust of the wayside This cottage is on the banks of Bonny Boon- There Simmer first unfaulds her robes, And there she langest tarries, And there he took his last farewell Of his sweet Highland Mary. ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. 227 The immortal tenderness and sweetness of that 4* love meetin and partin has made the waters of Bonny Doon ripple along full of the melodies of the past. In Nater there is a universal tendency to retain the good and beautiful, and forgit the commonplace and dreary. We forgit the steamin vats and big cheeses Mary must have had to turn and lift at her place of service, Gavin Hamilton s, or, as Burns called it "The Castle of Montgomerie." We forgit all the toilsome labor that must have turned Mary s pretty hands brown and hard, and made her slim back ache. We forgit the achin " Ploughman shanks " the laborer Burns must have carried sometimes to their trystin place beside the Bonny Doon. For though you may lighten the labor of plough- in by religious poems, like the " Cotter s Saturday Night," or brave, heroic ones, like " Scots wha hae wi 1 Wallace bled," or verses to " A Mouse" and "A Mountain Daisy" "Wee sleekit, cowerin , tim rous beastie," and " Wee modest, crimson-tipped flower," and " Brigs" and "Glens" and "Water-fowls" And though he may have added a flavor to it by 228 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. sarcastic verses to " Holy Willie," and " The Deil " and " The Unco Guid"- Yet to hold the heavy plough as it tore its long furrows in the flinty soil wuz weary work, and the back and arms of the poet must have ached as sorely as any other ploughman s. But you forgit all that ; they dwell here forever care free, serene in glowin youth and beauty. How near they seemed to me, these immortal lovers, as I stood there lost in thought by the rip- plin waters of the Bonny Doon ! The white clouds floated along in the same blue bendin Heavens ; the bright waters dimpled and laughed along jest as gayly and crystal clear, and their memory dominated all things above and below. Here they stood, happy youth and maiden, beside the overrunnin Doon, that carries em on, and will carry em on forever, through the land of Love and of Fame. She is a-lookin up with blue, love-lit eyes into his eager, ardent face. He is sayin to her, as he did a hundred years ago " Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, And leave auld Scotia s shore? Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, Across the Atlantic s roar ? ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. 22Q Oh, sweet grow the lime and the orange, 4 And the apple on the pine ; But a the charms o the Indies Can never equal thine." And agin he is sayin , as we imagine, with a smile and a tear in his half sad, half humorous way " Bonnie wee thing, cannie wee thing, Lovely wee thing, wert thou mine, I wad wear thee in my bosom, Lest my jewel I should tine. Wishfully I look and languish In that bonnie face o thine ; And my heart it stounds wi anguish, Lest my wee thing be na mine." Wall, his forebodin wuz correct ; Death, a more triumphant and constant lover than poor Burns would have been, bore off the bonny lassie into his icy but secure realm mebby beyend the star her bereft lover apostrophized so long afterwards a-talk- in to her "dear departed shade " Thou ling ring star, with less ning ray, That lovest to greet the early morn ; Again thou usher st in the day My Mary from my soul was torn." But though Death bore her off in her first sweet youth, and him long years after, a sad, middle-aged man, with a big family of children, who called THIS IMMORTAL PAIR OF LOVERS. ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. 231 another woman mother still they stand there by the Bonny Doon. The blue eyes and the brown eyes (that have been dust for a century) are still lookin love to each other. Warm, clingin hands, that can hardly be torn apart, love so great that it fills the universe love ! constancy ! despair ! heart-ache ! flowin out from the rapt atmosphere that surrounds this immortal pair of lovers ; it is a power that enfolds all feelin hearts. The deep emotions that sanctified that spot live on still in the heart of the w^orld. Devotion ! heart-breakin grief ! death ! eternity ! they are all brought nearer as we stand by these sparklin waters that flow on forever, whisperin the names of Robert Burns and his Highland Mary. Other thoughts come to us anon, or a little later- thoughts of the labors and struggles of the poet to make a home and respectable livin for his family. The warm poet nater, endowed, as all true poet souls are, with the fiery " love of love, and hate of hate, and scorn of scorn," tryin to make its way in a practical, money-lovin age. It wuz some like takin an eagle down from the heights, and trainin it to become a barn-yard fowl, 232 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. or breakin in a wild gazelle to churn in a treadle machine. It wuz hard work ! And the fashionable world, that took him up with the interest it would give to a new toy of a novel design, soon grew weary of him, and turned away coldly from the strugglin poet, in his unequal con flict with poor land, high rents, misaprehension, poverty, and hardships. No wonder he turned away from the world at last and said to poor Jean (she that wuz Jean Armour), the wife who had been constant to him in evil and good report- " I am wearin awa , Jean ; Like snow in a thaw, Jean, I am wearin awa To the Land o the Leal. " And there I would be fain In the Land o the Leal." No wonder he said it, poor creeter ! I spoze the gay world apoligized for its neglect and coldness by sayin that Burns drinked and cut up. Wall, I spoze he did some ; but he wuz a good- hearted creeter. And anyway they overlooked it in the first place, ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. 233 and em who worship his memory now look calmly over them faults as if they were mere specks on a blazin sun. Why didn t they do so then ? Why didn t they take a few of the posies they scatter on his cold tomb to-day (one hundred years too late) and lay em in the tired, hard-workin hands, toilin on at Nithsdale ? Why didn t they take a few bits from the ban quets they spread now to his memory (one hundred years too late) and give it to the half-starvin poet and his wife and little ones, while it would have done some good ? Why didn t they take a little of the immense sums they spend in marble blocks and shafts to rear monuments to him all over the world, to buy a few comforts for himself and his loved ones ? For what did almost his last letter state, he had writ to a friend askin some relief, for without it, he sez " If I die not of disease, I must perish of hun ger." Heart-sick with the tyrrany of his employers, the little minds about him, who mebby rejoiced to tyr- ranize over and torment a soul so much above their own. Heart-sick with the neglect of the world, he fell asleep July 2ist, 1795. 234 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. About a month before his death he writ to a friend " As to my individual self I am tranquil, but Burns poor widow and half a dozen of his dear lit tle ones, helpless orphans. Here I am weak as a woman s tear, tis half of my disease," etc. I should think Scotland would be ashamed of herself. I honestly should, to let her greatest pride and glory die of a broken heart, caused by her neg lect and heartlessness, and then praise him up so and spend sech sums of money on his tombstones, and things (one hundred years too late). But, then, it s a trait in human nater. Scotland hain t the only country that duz it. It is nateral to torment and torture the soarin bird of Genius, and pluck out the plumage from its quiverin flesh one at a time cut its feathers down, hang weights to its wings, and act. And then when the agonized and heart-broken soul has took its flight out of the tortured body, to stuff that soulless effigy with the softest and warm est stufnn of praise and appreciation, put jewels in the blind eye sockets, cover the cold breast with diamond bright stars of praise, and lift it up on high, up on top of the soarinest monuments they can raise to its honor. Too late, too late ! ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. 235 But I am jndeed a-eppisodin ; and to resoom. Everybody in the village had sunthin to say of Burns. Everybody wuz proud of livin in the place his feet had once trod. Them who looked the coldest on him when livin , or descendents of them who had wrung his sensitive soul while warm and beatin , and achin for sympathy Descendents of the big man of the village, " Holy Willie " himself, who once would not have spoken to his humble neighbor, or if he d spoken at all, they d been words of insult that would have rankled in the soul of the poet, now considered it their greatest pride and honor to live in the country that gave him birth. The cottage is a low, long buildin only one story high. And jest think of it, how many are born in five-story houses that nobody hears from afterwards. The roof is thatched, the floors are stun, clean and white. A cupboard full of dishes stood on one side of the room. There wuz some letters that Burns writ with his own hand. I thought more of seein em than any of the other relicks. Letters that his own hand rested on his own ardent, handsome face had bent over. What emotions they gin me ; I never can tell the heft and number on em. 236 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Yes, the thought of Burns filled the place, jest as some strong, rich perfume fills the hull room where it has been spilt. I didn t hear much of anything said about Miss Burns (she that wuz Jean Armour), but I took quite a considerable spell of time and devoted it to jest thinkin about her. I didn t think it wuz no more n right that I should. I spoze she felt real proud to be the wife of sech a great man, and it wuz a great thing. But, then, she had her troubles. Poor thing ! patient, hard- workin creeter ! Washin dishes, mendin clothes, takin care of the children, takin all the care she could of her husband. And then when she got him all mended up for the week, and as good vittles for him as she could with what she had to do with then to have him a-writin verses to other wimmen ! A-takin the strength her own pot-pies and pud- din s had gin him, and a-spendin it all on writin verses to other females. His heart a-beatin voyalent aginst the vest she had newly vamped for some other "Chloris" or "Clorinda" or etc., etc., etc., etc. A-walkin off in the stockin s she had new heeled to catch a glimpse of some " lassie wi lint white locks," so s he could put her rustic beauty into rhyme. ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARY. 237 A-throwin himself down in a good coat that she d jest washed and fixed up, to look up into the sky and apostrofize some other female up in Heaven. It must have been tough on Jean fearful gauld- in to her ! But, then, mebby she wuz willin to have the fire of his genius catch a brightness and glow from any object. And woman s beauty wuz always, to Robert Burns, what the very best kindlin wood is to me when vittles are to be produced in a hurry. Mebby she looked on it with a lenitent eye- most likely she did, or she couldn t thought so much on him as she did. I guess he wuz a good, tender husband to her, and a good provider, so fur as his means went. But thinks I, here is another sample of the devotion and constancy of my own sect. I thought on her about i 7 minutes. Other tourists may foller my example or not, jest as they think best, but I done it, and am glad on t. But to resoom. We then went to see the old Bridge of Ayr, whose single arch connects each green shore. It wuz over this bridge that Tarn o Shanter rode on the old mair Maggie, pursued by witches, " Wi mony an eldritch screech and hollow." SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. And I eppisoded some. I have to in the strangest places. I methought that the same furies that pursued the drunken Tarn is still sold in the same old inn, and even in the very birthplace of the poet. THE SAME FURIES THAT PURSUED THE DRUNKEN TAM. The same sperits of delerious fear, and senseless terror, are bought and sold at so much a glass. Poets live and poets die empires rise and empires fall, but whiskey has to be sold jest the same. Drunkards race through their sottish lives, hag rid by the furies of drink and debauch. And mairs ROBERT BURNS AND HIGHLAND MARV. 239 have to be rid to death, and have their tails cut off. Sez Josiah, u It wuz probble a witch that cut off the mair s tail." Till he answered me, I hadn t mistrusted that I wuz a-eppisodin out loud. Sez I, That is to tippify how drunkards abuse their animals, most likely," sez I, "and to show that these foul sperits don t have no power where pure water is in full sway. "The drink demon hates water," sez I. But Josiah sez "Wall, wall ! I didn t walk out here to hold a Temperance Meetin !" Sez he sar- castickally, "This hain t a Total Abstinence So ciety !" Sez I, " It s a pity there wuzn t one here a hun dred years ago !" Sez I, " Probble it would have saved poor Burns from a good deal that he went through, and," sez I, "it would be a-settin a differ ent sample before young folks from the one that wuz sot, and is still a-settin a sample his genius, and noble qualities, and his light-hearted good nater tempt em to f oiler." Sez Josiah, "Hain t you got a Temperance Pledge round you, Samantha, or some badges, or some banners, or white ribbins, or sunthin ?" Sez he ironacly, " I could carry a banner with 240 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Temperance or * W. C. T. U. on it jest as well as not, and I d ruther lug it round and be done with it than to have to everlastin ly hear on t." "Wall," sez I soothin ly, "we will go back now and have a good lunch." And as we wended along, I meditated thatmebby I hadn t gin enough thought to my pardner s feel- in s. For truly mortals have not now any more than in the time of Burns the "gift to see our- sels as ithers see us." But I wuz upheld by thinkin I d talked on principle, and that is a dretful upholdin thought. CHAPTER XIII. EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. WALL, from Glasgow we went to Edinburgh, and we found that that wuz a beautiful city, beautiful, with the ancient castle perched up on the rocks four hundred feet above, and old Edinburgh a-lyin at its feet, like old Vassals that gathers round their Chieftan ; all on em aged, but loth to part. The streets of old Edinburgh are so narrer that you can almost reach to both sides of em and touch the houses. The houses, with pinted ruffs and gabriel ends, are quaint and picturesque in the extreme, and inter- estin . Between the new and the old is a gulf, as there often is, but partly filled up with a R. R. Station, and statutes and gardens and handsome bridges are throwed acrost it. New Edinburgh is laid out dretful handsome, with broad, wide streets and handsome buildin s, and statutes and fountains and parks and everything else that it needs for its comfort ; and it might have got along with less on em, it seemed to me, 242 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I rode through em, for Martin always said he wanted to view every city exhaustively. And we did it every time we rid out with him ; I come home perfectly exhausted. He wanted to see so much, so much, in sech a short, sech a very short time. Yes, indeed ! Oh, dear me suz ! When Josiah and me went alone by ourselves we took as much agin comfort, for though mebby I didn t see so many things, I see em much better. My brain didn t reel nigh so much, nor my spec tacles wobble so. Why, with Martin I would no sooner git them specs sot on anything, a steeple or anything, but them poor specs would have to do as poor little Joe did, that Dickens wrote about, "move along," and move lively, too. I wuz sorry for em and for the eyes under em. Yes, indeed, I wuz ! Half of the time Martin wouldn t look at the dif ferent things at all. But he said that he had never visited Edinburgh before, and that he wanted to take in all the sights. And I believe my soul wuz raced through every solitary street that day we wuz out together. He seemed to feel well when we got back to the EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 243 hotel, he seemed to sort o wake up or roust up. I d no as he had been sound asleep, mebby he d been in a deep study about sunthin about his money- makin , I guess. But his eyes wuz shet a good deal of the time. But he said, with a happy look, that we had ac complished a great deal. I knew he d accomplished one thing, he had jest about killed one female. And my poor pardner ! poor creeter ! wuz not his looks pitiful ? He bore up in Martin s sight (that man is kinder deceitful, but I \vouldn t want him to hear that I said it). But when we wuz alone, he would take on, and limp, more n I believe wuz neccessary. Sez I " You ve no need to limp, Josiah ; you rid most all the way." " Rid ! I should think I had rid ! I m bed rid, that s what ails me ! I never shall be good for nothin agin. We ve been four hundred milds sence we sot out, if we ve been a step !" And he sunk down onto the bed and groaned loud, so s you could hear him quite a good ways. " Wall," sez I, " let s bear up under it the best we can it s all paid for." " What good duz payin for a thing do that kills you ?" Sez he, " When you re killed, payin for things 244 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. hain t a-goin to help you ! Oh ! if I ever set foot on my farm agin," sez he, " I ll never leave it to go to meetin , or anywhere." No megumness here, as I could see, but I pitied him and sympathized with him deeply. Sez I, "It would seem dretful good, wouldn t it, Josiah, to see you a-comin in with two pails of milk ? It would be jest about this time you d want the milk scum for the calves." "Don t mention it!" he groaned, "them happy times wuz too happy to last ; we didn t appreciate em." " No," sez I ; "don t you remember how you ust to dum the calves, and barn chores ?" "I praised em always," sez he stoutly, "and I d ruther milk my hull herd of Jerseys now this minute than to eat !" Sez I, " I don t believe I appreciated how happy I wuz a-standin by the buttery winder, calm and peaceful, a-washin dishes, or a-skimmin milk, and a-seein the red sun a-sinkin low beneath Balcom s hill ; and the sweet south wind a-wavin the mornin - glory vines, and my snow-white strainer spread on the blossomin rose-bush under the winder. And the sight of the barns lookin so good, and sort o settled down and at rest, and the hen-house, and the ash-house, and the garden EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 245 " And how I ust to ketch the old mair," sez Jo- siah, " and we d ride over and see the children after the chores wuz done. Oh ! happy days," sez he, "we never shall see you agin !" "Yes you will, Josiah Allen," sez I; " bear up, and we will anon be back in our own peaceful home." And wantin to roust him up still further out of his despondency, I sez, " You will enjoy that home better than ever now, for how you will enjoy tellin Uncle Smedley all about what you see to-day, Jo siah Allen." He brightened up ; " Yes, Samantha, if I ever live to get home, it will be a treat to tell what we went through, and," sez he, "won t Uncle Smedley open his eyes when I tell him of Alas ! alas ! I had done what I sot out to do. I had lightened my pardner s gloom, but wearisome wuz the hours I spent a-hearin him rehearse what he wuz a-goin to tell the Jonesvillians. Oh, the peticulars, oh, the peticulars ! It wuz hard to tread the ground over under the rain of a Martin, but it wuz harder still to hear em rehearsed by the voice of a Josiah. But of course I lived through it, or I wouldn t be here to tell the tale. Martin always done the fair thing, so fur as gittin good places to stay wuz concerned, and we had a 246 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. plenty of everything for our comfort, only jest that one thing rest. But my onusual common sense learnt me that I mustn t expect to be to home and on a tower at the same time. And I felt quite grateful to Martin for invitin us to go with him a good deal of the time I did ; and I tried to do my part as well as I could. I kep a eye on Adrian, and see that his clothes and feet wuz dry, and see that he learnt his Sunday-school les son, and see that Alice took her cough medicine every day ; and when Martin took it into his head to go off for a day or two, he felt easy about the children, knowin my love and care for em couldn t be excelled and gone beyend by anybody. He said it wuz a great care offen his mind, and made him feel at liberty to go and come. He had to see certain men on business in these different countries where we went, and I presoom he did feel better to know that the children had some one with em that loved em while he was off milds away for days at a time. And Alice kep a-sayin every day that she couldn t have got along without me anyway. And I presoom I \vuz some company for her ; anyway, I loved her, and she knew it. You can t hide sech feelin s under a bushel. EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 247 And lots of times I gladly, gladly stayed to home with Adrian Awhile Alice went out with her Pa. She would say so sweetly that it wuz too bad to deprive me of the pleasure of goin out with her Pa. And I would say, " Don t mention it, Alice ; I am perfectly willin to stay to home with Adrian." And Heaven knows I spoke the truth ! She would come home, the horses covered with sweat, and Martin and herself all fagged out; but the fagness of 20 hain t like the fagness of more maturer and older years. And in the mornin she d be ready for another start. Of course some of the excursions I gladly jined in. I wuz glad enough to go to see Holy rood Palace, once the home of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots Miss Darnley, she that wuz Stuart. The most interestin queen that ever walked down the pages of history. A-walkin along with her big, soft eyes bent kinder downwards under that cap of hern, and her sweet face a-drawin men s hearts out of their bodies to foller her to the throne, or the scaffold, as she trod onwards. Heaven pity her for her sorrow ! If she wuz true or false, she atoned for her sin, poor thing ! by the hardness of her fate. 248 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Poor Mary ! poor Miss Stuart that wuz ! I wuz always sorry for her, and I always believed her cousin Lizabeth wuz jealous of her. You know Lib wuzn t very good-lookin , and she wuz as vain as a pea-hen, and it gaulded her to have her cousin praised up so to her. Relations are dretful mean sometimes, they re dretful jealous of each other cousins specially ; and though they don t make a practice of behead- in the ones they are jealous of, yet they stab em with the sharp, pizened daggers of detraction, lies, hatred, envy, mean insinuations, total incomprehen sion of their motives, etc., etc., etc. So if you have to live nigh em, you might jest about as well have your head cut off, and done with it. But to resoom. We see the rooms, not very big either, that poor Mary, Queen of Scots, ust to live in. It made me feel real bad to see in what a condition her rooms wuz kep . Poor thing ! it seems as if she went through with enough while she wuz alive to have some respect paid to her memory now, and her rooms kep clean. But they wuz dusty and dingy lookin . The curtains round the bed where that pretty head ust to lay a-dreamin what ? wuz all ragged. EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 249 I wouldn t have sech ragged things in my back chamber. Hut, poor thing ! I didn t lay anything to her ; my rooms git out of order if I leave em for three days. And if I wuz away for three hundred years, mine would look jest as bad, and mebby worse. Josiah wuz dretful took up in lookin at them blood spots in the anty-room, but I wouldn t look at em. Sez I- " If them stains are made new every few days from beef creeters, hens, or etcetery, I certainly don t want to see em. And if they re made by the blood of that Italian Rizzio, I wouldn t give a cent to see em." Sez I, "I m sorry for him, but I don t believe he wuz what he ort to be. Anyway, he ort to known he wuz a-makin trouble in a family ; men ortn t to make pardners jealous of em if they can help it. But," sez I, after thinkin a minute, "I d no as he could help it. That fatal power Mary wielded held him, poor creeter ! and drawed him on to his fate, jest as it did the jealous pardner, when the time come." Wall, I had sights of emotions in that palace and in the chapel adjoinin , where we trod over the graves of so many kings and queens once so high and mighty, now nothin but dust. Curous, curous, hain t it ? Wall, I went with em to visit the castle of Edinburgh. And the view from them rampants wuz so wide and extended that Josiah vowed he could see clear over to Jones- ville. I disputed him, but he said and stuck to it, that he recognized the steeple. I knew better, but it wuz a grand and sweepin view as I ever see, or ever expect to see. All Scot land lay spread out before us, some as our old map would if it wuz spread on the kitchen floor, and I looked down on it from the top of the kitchen table. We see the room here where poor Mary, Queen of Scots, gave birth to a prince, James VI. , after wards James ist of England. What she went through in this room ! For when her baby wuz only eight days old it wuz let down in a basket from the cliff. Jest think on t, sech a little baby let down four hundred feet ; but it wuz to save his life, and she stood it. Here we see the crown that they said rested on the head of Robert Bruce. And we see the place where so many, so many politicians had their heads cut off. EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 251 I didn t like to hear sech talk, and I showed that I didn t by my mean. But I proposed that we should jine Martin. He wuz a-settin down in front of them rampants a-addin up a row of figgers in a account book. He said that it wuz some home business that had to be attended to. As he put the book back in his pocket, and proposed that we should start for some where else, I sez, "The view is enchantin from here, hain t it, Martin ?" " Yes," sez he in a absent-minded way, without turnin his head " Yes ; there ! I forgot to add that last five thousand dollars to the balance," and he wrote it down as we walked onwards. But my remark wuz evidently a-hangin round in some by-place in his mind, for he presently re marked as he went down the path " Yes, as you say, the view is perfectly en chanting." And he gazed dreamily at the rocks that riz up before us and shet out every mite of view from that place. Al Faizi stood on the lofty eminence a-lookin off in silence, and it seemed as though he couldn t hardly be tore from the seen ; and the grandeur and beauty wuz reflected in his eyes, some as you 252 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. can see your own face in a pardner s orbs if you look clost and lovin into em. Alice and Adrian wuz a-\valkin along, and seemed to be enjoyin themselves first-rate. Adrian wuz a-askin her quite a number of questions about Robert Bruce and King James, etc., etc., and she wuz a-answerin him quite lusid ; bein so late at school made her quite a adept in history, adepter than any of the rest of us \vuz, by fur. Wall, we went to the Church of St. Giles, and we see the Heart of Mid Lothian. I had heard Thomas J. read the story, and I wuz interested in it. In the northwest corner of the church there is a heart cut in the pavement, and here the old Tolbooth, the city prison, first stood. In St. Giles Churchyard John Knox wuz buried. The grave-stun has nothin but his initial and the date of his death. As I looked at it, I thought what long epitaphs and in poetry, too, some on em failed to git any attention from posterity. But as long as posterity lives and I spoze that will be a good while yet this una- sumin grave will be visited, for a Man lies buried here a hero who wuzn t afraid to speak his mind, and who follered the right, so fur as he see it, through good and evil report. EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 253 Wall, in the Parliament House we see a copy of the first Bible that wuz ever printed. That gin me a sight of emotions a sight ; and I had quite a number of emotions a-seein the manuscript of the Waverley Novels, and in meditatin that Walter s own hand rested on these pages. Kinder tired hands some of the time, no doubt, and the eyes above heavy from study and toil. And he (Walter) not a-dreamin how so many years after she who wuz once Smith would stand and look on em with respect and almost veneration. No ; he didn t have this to encourage him and make him happy, poor creeter ! But how well he did ; how much happiness he has gin, and how much valuable information has been took onbeknown from the pages of his stories, like powders of smartweed in a spunful of honey. Old Gray Friar s Church and churchyard wuz dretful interestin to us on account of a good many things. Alice and I wuz extremely interested to learn that here wuz where Walter Scott ust to come to meetin in his young days. And to see the graves of his Pa and his Ma, and some of the rest of his folks in the old churchyard. In this meetin -house the National Covenant wuz signed in 1 638. After listenin to a heart-searchin ser- THE NATIONAL COVENANT SIGNED BY THE EARL OF SUTHERLAND. EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 255 mon by Alexander Henderson this paper wuz signed 4* by the Earl of Sutherland, and all the rest of the folks who wuz to meetin that day. It wuz then took out into the buryin -ground outside, and spread out on a flat tombstone a fittin spot, jedgin from what come afterwards and signed by crowds and crowds of the people. Some writ their names in blood, showin their willingness to die for the Faith. This wuz the Confession of Faith of 1580, drawed up by the principal Presbyterian ministers of Edin burgh. Them that signed it agreed to protect and preserve their religion even to the death. And these Covenanters wuz persecuted and killed for their faith, and then, when they wuz in power, they wuz jest as cruel to their persecutors. And all in the name of Religion. Sweet sperit, how can she stand it ? But I spoze she made allow ances for em, a-thinkin they wuz mistook. Al Faizi looked down in silence on the stun with a railin round it where the Covenant wuz written. And finally he took out that book of hisen with a cross on it, and he writ quite a lot in it. What it wuz I d no. And as he stood in front of that monument, riz up there to the memory of the martyrs put to death for their religion, he writ a hull lot more. I myself got a piece of paper from Josiah s 256 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. account book, and I had a pencil with me, and I copied this inscription, so s to let Thomas J. see it. It wuz dretful readin . As History held up her torch to light me as I writ it down, mournin weeds seemed to wrop her round and droop over her for ward, and her face looked cold and pale and awful out from under them weeds. It read as f oilers And I thought, I can tell you, as I read it of how Miss Argyll felt and Miss Renwick and the children, for though it is a good ways back, it hurt jest as bad to have your head cut off then as it duz now, and hearts of loved ones who wuz left ached jest as bad. It read as f oilers " From May 27, 1661, that the most noble Mar quise of Argyll was beheaded, to the i 7th of Feb ruary, 1668, that Mr. James Renwick suffered, were one way or other murdered or destroyed for the same cause about 18,000, of whom were executed in Edinburgh about 100 of noblemen, gentlemen, ministers, and other noble martyrs for Jesus Christ." Al Faizi s face wuz a deep study as he stood there. And he sez to Martin, who had sauntered up and wuz a-lookin round, with his hands in his pantaloons pockets EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 257 Sez Al F#izi " This war was between Presby terians and Catholics ?" " Yes," sez Martin. " Both of these religious sects thought they were right ?" "Yes," sez Martin; "I suppose so." "They both send missionaries to my people ?" " Yes," sez Martin ; " quite likely ; of course they do." Al Faizi didn t say nothin , but he writ down quite a lot more ; what it wuz I d no. But his face looked very thoughtful, and the light struck that jewelled cross on the back of his little book, and its rays streamed out as red as blood. But he kinder shifted it a little after awhile, and a pure and lambient light gleamed from it. Queer ! I d like to know what them stuns wuz. I d no what Josiah did think as he looked at that monument, but I had a sight of emotions, and of great size. And I sez to my pardner " One thing I am impressed by as I read of these dretful things done by men who thought they wuz doin right," sez I, "it learns me to not be too set in my own way, even when I think I am right." Sez Josiah, " I always knew you wuz too sot !" Somehow the words grated on my nerve. It is 258 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. so much easier to run yourself down than to be run. But right here in front of so many martyrs I wuzn t goin to be overcome by a muskeeter, for truly my sufferin s wuzn t bigger than that, com pared to theirn. And I wuz jest a-goin to complete my self- conquest by speakin soft to him, when he whis pered to me "I m as hungry as a bear, Samantha. Not a bear in a circus," sez he, "but a Rocky Moun tain bear. " I wonder if Martin hain t about ready to go ?" Wall, Martin wuz ready by that time ; but I see lots of other things whilst we wuz there. Alice and Martin went to the Queen s Drive. 1 d no who the Queen wuz, nor who she driv, nor how fur. And they went to the ruins of St. Anthony s Chapel, and Alice raved over the beautiful view from Arthur s Seat. I d no what kind of a seat it wuz, nor how long Arthur sot in it, but she said that the view from there wuz enchantin . And we all went to the Antiquarian Museum, and see sights and sights of relicks. Autograph letters from Charles 2nd, Cromwell, Mary, Queen of Scots, and we see the old Scotch Covenant with the names of EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 259 Montrose, Lothair, etc., signed to it. And one of the banners them Covenanters had bore in their battles. Here wuz the very glass that Prince Charlie drank from before the battle of Culloden. And then the pulpit of John Knox ; out of which that man three hundred years ago thundered out sech burnin words agin the Church of Rome. Here is a piece of the last garments put on to Robert Bruce, and in which he was laid in his last sleep a sound sleep. Poor creeter ! disturbed not by the warlike bugles and sounds of fray. And here is the blue ribbin of the Knight of WHEN PRINCE CHARLIE AND FLORA MACDONALD PARTED. the Garter, wore by Prince Charlie, and the ring gin to him by Flora Macdonald as they parted. And then there wuz sights and sights of weepons, coins, medallions, seals, old implements, etc., etc. But one thing I see there madded me more n considerable ; it wuz a kind of a gullotine rigged up 260 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. with a axe, that wuz held up between two posts, and let down on the necks of em they wanted to kill. This very thing took the life of the Earl of Argyll, Sir John Gordon, and lots of others. But what madded me most wuz the name of the creeter. "The Maiden." It is a wonder they didn t call it the "Old Maiden," if they d wanted to be a little meaner. It rousted me up fearfully to think a lot of men should rig up such a horrid, death-dealin thing to carry out their bloody and brutal idees and then call it " Maiden." Why didn t they call it after their own selves, and call it the "Old Man," or "the Feller," or sunthin like that ? "The Maiden! ! !" No woman would countenance sech cuttin off the heads of folks, and they knew it. They named it so to be mean. And Martin, sayin that it would be expected of him, and he should have questions asked him by influential parties which he should want to answer, went to see lots of Horsepitals, and Schools, and Universities. Josiah went with him one day, and come home and said Heriot s Horsepital beat anything he ever EDINBURGH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 261 see for architecture, and, sez he, " it wuz designed by Indigo Jones." Sez I, " I don t believe any woman ever named her babe Indigo in this world." And I inquired, and found out that it wuz " Inigo." Josiah said I hadn t made out much. It wuzn t any better name. But it wuz. Indigo ! the idee ! ! A little ways out of the town is the home where Doctor Guthrie lived, and one of the most beauti ful and interestin houses I see in Scotland or any where else. It wuz the one his brother, Mr. Thomas Nelson, built. Every American who goes to Scot land ort to walk by it and meditate out a spell, any way, if they don t go in. Durin our late war, when foreign nations thought our great republic wuz a-totterin over to ruin, this man had faith in us, and invested thousands of pounds in goverment bonds. And the rise in them bonds paid every cent this palace of hisen cost. I didn t begrech it to him, not at all. Them in England who invested so largely in Confederate bonds, and lost every cent, wouldn t be so happy in ridin by that noble structure and lookin at it, mebby. CHAPTER XIV. MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. AND one excursion I took part in with the greatest delight and one small satchel for we wuz to stay one night wuz to Melrose Abbey and Ab- botsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott. Josiah said he wanted to see Melrose Abbey by moonlight. He said it would be so romantic, and, sez he, " I wish I could have a guitar. How stylish and romantic it would be for you and me, Saman- tha, to visit it by moonlight, and I could sing to you," sez he. But I sez, " A old couple a-viewin that seen by moonlight, with thick blanket shawls on, and heavy overshues and I should wear em, Josiah," sez I, " and make you wear em, for our ruma- tizes is bad, and lookin up at the moon through spectacles hain t what it would be in younger and less bundled-up days/ " Throw a blanket onto it!" sez he; "wet a blanket wet as sop, and throw it onto my plan. I never can git you to foller up any idees of mine that are stylish and romantic." MEMORIES OE SIR WALTER SCOTT. 26 "I ll Roller em," sez I, "but I ve got to foller em with an eye on azmy and rumatiz. And as for your singin ," sez I, "it don t seem as if I can hear it." And I shuddered imperceptibly ; I thought of the near past. But the rubber strings that men s memories and consciences are strung on a good deal of the time had sprung back, and he wuz jest as ready to be sentimental and bust out in song as if he hadn t been took for a Banshee. But we visited the Abbey in broad daylight, which wuz better for our two healths at our age. We went to the Abbey Hotel, close by the Abbey, and after a comfortable dinner we went through the little iron gate that leads into the grand and wonderful ruin. It must have been a sight, a sight, in its early days. But bein built in the first place in 1 136, it hadn t ort to be expected to be in the order it would have been if it had been built in 1836, and we d call that bein pretty old in our young country. Wall, we walked all round amongst the ruins, and the waves of the past swashed up aginst me in a powerful manner. I COULD SING TO YOU, SEZ HE. 264 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Here, sez I to myself, is the plaee where the heart of Robert Bruee is buried. That eager, rest less heart that dared so mueh, and endured so much. Strange, passing strange that that great heart lays dumb and mute, and Samantha Allen and her pardner are a-walkin over it. Here is the grave of the wizard that bold Del- oraine visited, as I told Josiah, and he looked down with scornful mean, and sez he " He has stopped his wizardin now !" Josiah has no veneration for the oceult. And here lies the Earl of Douglas, and here is the tomb of King Alexander 2nd. Hero, king, and wizard, all dust, and through the tall, ruined arches the blue sky smiles down on all on em alike, and sweet Nater drops on their restin -places ; on grave and monuments the same posies, and flowers, and long sprays of ivy. Nater is the true democrat ; she treats all alike.. But \vhat richness of carvin and design is to be seen on every side ; every ornament that wuz ever carved, it seems to me, wuz here on the tall pillows and arches. And that east winder wall, I wake up in the night now, and think on t, the perfect wonder and symetry of its design, and the marvels of its stun sculptur. But how different folks look at things ! Al MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 265 Faizi, as 4ie looked up and around him, took in the beauty and majesty of the seen in every pore, as you may say you could see that in his liniment. Alice wuz took up with some of the marvellous statutes and sculpturs of wreath and blossom. And Adrian wuz a-pickin some flowers. It beat all what a case. that child wuz for flowers. And Josiah wuz took up, I guess, with musin on the failure of his romantic idees, as he sauntered about. But Martin, when he d been there about an hour, he come up to me, and sez he " Now, having seen everything there is to see here, I think we had better go. I expect some letters and telegrams," sez he, " and I ve seen suffi cient to reply to any inquiries that could be made of me at home." Everything we could see ! Why, I could have hung right round there for a week and discovered some new wonder and beauty every hour. But it wuz compromised in this way : Martin went back to the hotel, and Josiah- and Adrian went with him. And Al Faizi and Alice and I stayed till night wuz a-drawin down her mantilly previous to puttin it on. The soft linin on t of crimson and gold wuz turned over in the west as we walked back to the little hotel. 266 SAMANTHA IX EUROPE. Wall, the next mornin , bright and early, Martin got a carriage, and we drove three miles to Ab- botsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott. By Martin s advice (that man has good practical idees) we took our waterproofs and umbrells. And glad enough wuz we that we did ; why, in all our trips almost waterproofs wuz neccessary compan ions ; for short, quick showers would descend upon us at any time seemin ly, and then pass away jest as quick. Three showers come up that very day, but two on em took place when we wuz inside, and the third jest before we got home at night, so umbrells and waterproofs saved us from damage. Wall, we found it wuz a beautiful place, castle and mansion, about half and half. It stands in well-kep , handsome grounds and sets down in a sort of a valley amongst the hills which stands round it, as if proud on t and glad to shelter and protect it all they could. Home of industrious talent, so hard-workin and constant as to be as good if not better than genius. The mansion and all round it is full of relicks of the past. The big entrance hall is panelled with dark wood, and all along the cornice the different Coats of MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 267 Arms of*the Border is painted in rich colors and shields, on which is this inscription These be the coat armories of the clans and chief men of name wha keepit the marchys of Scot land in the auld tyme for the kynge. True men were they, in their defence. God them defendyt." Here you see battle-axes and breastplates and weepons of all kinds. Most all on em with a tragic history. Here wuz several suits of armor : one on em holdin a big sword in its hand, captured at Bosworth s Field. Another holds a immense claymore took from the battlefield of Culloden. Josiah wuz took up with the looks of that, and he said he wished he owned one, and, sez he, " how nice it would be if I only had a coat of armor ! " Why, Samantha," sez he, " how economical ! When a man got one suit, he never would have to be measured for another suit of clothes never be cheated by tailors or pinched by em. Cool in the summer," sez he " how cool and good they would feel in dog-days, when broadcloth jest clings to you ; and warm in winter. The cold wind couldn t blow through them collars," sez he, alludin to the hel mets. " And then," sez he, " when your clothes got dirty, jest wet a towel and clean em off you could do it in half an hour, and then they d be good for an- 268 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. other twenty years. I wonder," sez he, " if I could dicker with the Widder Scott for one of them suits ? Scott ll never wear em agin," sez he. "WHEN THEY GOT DIRTY, JEST WET A TOWEL AND CLEAN EM OFF." But I hastened to set him right, and, sez I," Scott never wore one of em. He knew too much. How MEMORIES OE SIR WALTER SCOTT. 269 do you spoze," sez I, "you could git round and do your spring s work a-luggin round a ton of old iron ?" Sez I, " You couldn t lift one of the legs on t with both your hands, and how could you plough with one on em on ?" Sez Josiah dreamily he wuzn t hearin a word I said 11 If I could git it cheaper without that head piece, I might use our coal scuttle." Sez he, " I be lieve its shape is more stylish. Oh !" sez he, "what a excitement I would make a-walkin into the Jonesville meetin -house with the hull thing on ! how stylish and uneek it would be ! "Where is the Widder Scott?" sez he; "I ll tackle her about it." Sez I, " She s with her noble husband in a land where style and folly have no home." And then with deep argument I made him see that a suit of armor was not suitable for farm work or meetin -house duties. But he gin it up reluctant, and at the last he sez " How it would clank and rattle as I passed round the contribution plate how all the other deacons would open their eyes !" But I silently led him away to where there wuz a suit of Scott s clothes, the last ones he wore. And I had a very large variety of emotions as I 2/O SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. looked on the clothes that had wropped round the magician who had the power to charm the hull world with his magic pen. My emotions drownded out the talk of the guide and the remarks of Mar tin and Josiah. And on one side of the fireplace stood the famous mistletoe trunk, as it s called, that poor Genevra hid herself in on her weddin night. The Baron s daughter, you know, the one that her Pa called The star of that goodly com pany," meanin , I spoze, that she looked better than any of the rest of the young folks that he d invited in to the weddin . Poor, pretty, young creeter ! I wuz always dretful sorry for her. You know what she said to Lovell, the young feller she wuz married to (he worshipped the very ground she walked on). " I am weary of dancing now, she cried ; Here tarry a moment, I ll hide, I ll hide ; And, Lovell, be sure thou rt the first to trace The clue to my secret hiding-place." And you probble remember how the crazed young bridegroom, and the old Baron, and all the rest of the weddin guests hunted for the pretty, young creeter all night and all day, and f6r weeks and months and years all in vain, in vain. Till at last, when Lovell (poor, broken-hearted creeter !) wuz a old white-headed man, a old chest MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 2/1 wuz found in the castle, and they see, on liftin up the led " A skeleton form lay mouldering there In the bridal robes of the lady fair. Oh, sad was her fate ! In sportive jest She hid from her lord in the old oak chest ; It closed with a spring, and her bridal bloom Lay withering there in a living tomb. Oh, the mistletoe bough ! Oh, the mistletoe bough !" But I don t have any idee that it wuz the mistle toe that caused the trouble. I spoze that it would have been jest the same if it had been red cedar hung up there, or dog-wood. It wuz more likely a lack of common sense and lookin ahead. Genevra ort to tried the lock and see how tight the led shet down, and had a little forethought afore she got into it. But poor, young creeter ! I don t spoze she thought of anything, only jest her light-hearted hap piness and gayety, and wuz carried away by the thought of foolin Lovell a little and havin a good time. Poor, pretty young thing, how she must have felt when the realizin sense come to her that she wuz trapped in a death-trap, and should never see the light of day agin, and, what wuz worse, should never see the light of love a-shinin in her Lovell s eyes ! 2/2 SAMAXTIIA IN EUROPE. Oh, dear me ! I wiped my eyes as this heart- searchin thought come to me what if it had been my Tirzah Ann. And I couldn t help thinkin that it would be jest like Tirzah to be ketched in that way. Maggie, my son s wife, would have looked at the ketch before she let the led down, and she d never wrinkled up a long white dressin that contracted place. But I am indeed a-eppisodin and to resoom. The entrance hall and the rooms leadin out of it are jest as Mr. Scott left em, and that made me feel curous as a dog to look round me, and I meditated and eppisoded to extreme lengths, to myself mostly. The library is a large and handsome room, lined with books, twenty thousand in all. And under neath its deep, big winders runs the river Tweed. How many times, when he got tired of writin down his rushin thoughts, did Walter stand and lean up aginst the winder, and look down into the rushin river ! I leaned up aginst the side of the winder where he had leaned, and on lookin down, I see that the river wuz still a-flowin along jest the same. But the eager, active mind wuz where? The dead water, with no soul, rushed and flowed on ; the rocks couldn t stop it no, it made a leap downward and flowed on more free and placider. MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 2/3 And I^ez to myself " Death s rocky portals is jest the same ; after the leap down into the oncer- tainty the darkness, it goes on in the Certainty and the Light, fuller and freer than ever." I didn t say anything of these thoughts to my pardner. He wuz a-lookin round at one thing and another, and not havin the deep feelin s that I had, as I could see. But Al Faizi wuz a-lookin down into the water or at the beautiful landscape from another winder. And I ll bet if I d atted him about it his idees would have been congenial to mine and inspirin . I jedged so from the looks of his liniment. But I knew he didn t care about talkin much, so I restrained my tongue. The rest on em wuz a-prowlin round and a-lookin at relicks priceless ones, some on em and I methought to myself volumes as I looked on em. The clock of Marie Antoinette wuz there what hours, what hours that clock ticked off for Marie ! And then there wuz the inkstand of Lord Byron and what black, gloomy ink and sometimes kinder nasty, that poor creeter dipped his pen in a good deal of the time but lofty and riz up, too, at times, very. And then there wuz two gold bees took from Napoleon s carriage what bees buzzed and hummed 2 74 SAMANTHA IX EUROPE. in his ambitious brain as the carriage whirled him on ! Then there wuz a crucifix that belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots ; most probble held elost to her poor, frightened heart as the pretty creeter walked away to have her head cut off. A miniature portrait of Prince Charlie, a box from Miss Edgeworth, a purse made by Joanna Baillie, a little case from Miss Martineau, a snuff box of George IV., and lots, and lots, and lots of relicks from Egypt and Italy and everywhere else. But I d no as I see any from Jonesville. But oversights will take place, and contrary temps will occur. Wall, in the armory we see bows, and arrers, and spears, and muskets, and rifles. A musket that be longed to Rob Roy, a sword gin by Charles ist to the Marquis of Montrose, a pair of pistols that be longed to the ist Napoleon, found after the battle of Waterloo. Poor creeter, how he must have felt ! No wonder he lost em ! James VI. hunting flask, the key of old Tolbooth prison. And then we see thumb-screws, and a gag for scoldin wives I looked on that with scorn. But Josiah jest peered and squinted at it, and walked all round it, and took out a piece of string out of his pocket and tried to measure it, and I sez, " What on earth are you a-doin ?" I NEVER SHOULD THINK OF USIN IT." MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 2/5 " Wallf" sez he, " I believe I could make one of em after I got home, with a little of Ury s help." "What do you want of one, Josiah Allen ?" sez I coldly. " Oh, nothin , nothin in the world, only I thought it would be uneek to own one. I never should think of usin it," sez he, as I looked still more stonily at him. " I should think not !" sez I, and my axents wuz about the temperture of five ice suckles. But after we d all turned away and wuz a-lookin at other relicks, I see him furtively apply that string to it, and mark down the dimensions on t in his ac count book. I d no what under the sun the man wuz a-thinkin on, and I don t believe he did. Wall, we wandered round through the rooms for a long time, I with memories a-walkin tight to my side what a host of em wuz a-follerin me of them shadow shapes- Sweet Ellen Douglas, and Ivanhoe, and Rebecca, Marmion, Rob Roy, Guy Mannering, Rosamond, Nigel, the Wild Huntsman, Meg Merrilies, etc., etc., etc. Oh, what a crowd of phantoms, and what differ ent lookin creeters they wuz that wuz a-walkin up 276 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. and down that room with me, onbeknown to Josiah and the rest ! And what curous words they wuz a-pourin out into my ears words that I only could hear some on em wuz in poetry " Charge, Chester, charge On, Stanley, on"- or "Oh, mother, mother, what is bliss, Oh, mother, what is bale Without my lover, what is Heaven ? And with him, what were Hell?" And noble, practical idees, and solemn, historical ones wuz a-soundin in my ears. And riggers of noble knights and heroes and fair ladies wuz by my side, up and down the room they walked with me and in and out. Some of the picters on the walls of the different rooms wuz dretful interestin drctful. The one on em that gin my heart and mind the deepest shock wuz the head of poor Mary, Queen of Scots, said to have been took a few hours after her execution. The mournful, noble beauty of that white, still face gin me feelin s I couldn t express, and I didn t try to. It seemed as if the home where her soul had so MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 2// lately sojourned had a dignity and peace gin it, a-flowin out from the seens that soul wuz a-beholdin after it had cast off the tribulations and persecutions of earth. It wuz a dretful interestin picter to me. Then there \vuz Charles XII. of Sweden, Charles II. and Cromwell, and lots of picters by Turner and other great artists. The house from top to bottom W T UZ full to over- fknvin with objects of interest. I could have stayed there for days and not seen half, but Time and Martin wuz a-hastenin . And we went from there to Dryburgh Abbey, to see the spot where Scott wuz buried. We see his tomb and the place where his ances tors are buried. His son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart, who wrote Scott s biography, is buried here. In Dryburgh Abbey we see the winder where the White Maid of Avenal ust to appear. But she didn t appear to us, much as I d loved to seen her (right there in broad daylight, with my pardner with me). The Abbey is said to be hanted, mebby by them who have been imprisoned and tortured in the dungeons onderneath. There are holes in the walls where the hands of prisoners were held by heavy wedges. 278 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. It don t seem right to have a meetin -house used to torture folks in, and so I told Josiah, But he said that he didn t know about it ; he thought once in awhile it would do good to jest pinch Deacon Garvin s thumb a little, to make him do right, or to make Deacon Bobbett come to terms, when he got too rambunktious to business meetin s and wanted his own way. " Yes," sez I, "or to make Deacon Josiah Allen more willin to give to charitable objects." His liniment fell. "Oh, the Charitable Object has more done for him than I do, they re always raisin money for him." That wuz his favorite mode of puttin off from givin to charity. "And," sez I, "you see from Loyola and Crom well down to Josiah Allen the carnal mind wants to punish somebody else for doin suthin different from what you want em to do." " Wall," sez he, "I wonder if Martin hain t a-goin back ? I believe it s a-goin to rain, and you ort to have sunthin to eat, Samantha. It worries me to have you see so much on an empty stumick." " Wall," sez I, for his thoughtfulness touched me, "some dinner would taste good." Sez he, in a low, thrillin voice- " Samantha," and MEMORIES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 279 tears wu& almost in his eyes as he spoke, " imagine I am in the barn door, and the smell of roast chicken, and baked potatoes, and lemon puddin , and cream biscuit floats out, a-wroppin you all round, as you are a-standin in the back door a-call- in me in to dinner. As you stand there a-lookin perfectly beautiful," sez he. Agin my heart wuz touched, and sez I, " And roses under the winders, and voyalets, and the blossomin trees, and the new-mown grass in the orchard a-smellin sweet as the scent comes in on the warm south breeze." " Yes," sez he, " and the good, rich coffee, and cream cheese, and honey, and things." " Yes," sez I, " and after dinner we could set down, and set there as long as we wanted to." "I wouldn t stir in over three days!" sez he, " not an inch from my good old rockin -chair. 4< But," sez he, with a deep sithe, " them days wuz too happy to last." " No," sez I, " Providence permitting we will see agin the cliffs of Jonesville ; and home never seemed so sweet as it will when troubles and toil and foreign travel is all past, and our two barks are moored once more in our own peaceful door-yard." " Never to be onmoored !" sez he, with a almost fierce mean. And my own longin heart and achin 28O SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. back and tired-out eyeballs gin a deep assent to his remarks. Sweet, sweet is the fruits of foreign travel, but lofty and precipitus are the thorny branches it hangs on, and wearin in the extreme is the job of pickin em offen foreign fields and bringin em home in our mind basket. And happy are they who carry em back fresh and hull and sound some folks carry em home in a sort of a jell or a jam dretful mixed up and pro- miscus like. CHAPTER XV. OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. WALL, as we got back to Edinburgh it was on the first edge of the evenin , and I had the chance of hearin a real Scotch ministrel ; not one of them bagpipes of theirn, which sounds perfectly awful to me, but which Josiah wuz dretful took with (of which more anon), but this man had a violin, or fid dle, and sung in a sweet, high voice some of the best ballads of the country. I shed tears and wept to hear some on em. " Scots wha hae wi Wallace bled." And "Auld Joe Nickleson s Bonnie Nannie." My heart sort o listened as I hearn the words. I had hearn our Tirzah Ann sing em in the melancholy stillness of a June j () evenin , when through the open winder the distant sounds of the frogs and the tree-tuds would come in from the cedar swamp, fur off, and the moonlight throw all over her and the organ the long shadders of the mornin -glories. SI AH WUZ DRETFUL TOOK WITH IT. 282 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. This is one of the verses " There is mony a joy in this world below, But sweet are the hopes that to sing were uncanny ; But of all the joys I aer hae known, There is nane like the love of my Bonnie Nannie ; Oh my Nannie, my sweet little Nannie, My dear little niddlesome, noddlesome Nannie. There naer was a flower, In garden or bower, Like auld Joe Nickleson s bonnie Nannie." And then he sung "John Anderson, my Jo, John," and my mind onconsciously reverted to my beloved pardner, as he sung words tellin how he looked "When they were first acquent." And then "John Anderson, my Jo, John, We clamb the hill thegither, And mony a canty day, John, We ve had wi ane anither : Now we maun totter down, John, But hand in hand we ll go ; And sleep thegither at the foot, John Anderson, my Jo." There wuzn t hardly a dry eye in my head as I heard it, and I looked round to see how my Josiah wuz a-takin it. OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 283 But right behind, that sweet singer wuz a man with a bagpipe, and after the melodious warbler had moved away he piped up, right under our winder, that screechin , awful sound ; and Josiah s attention wuz all took up with him. And there wuz a distant, dreamy look to my pardner s eyes as he gazed onto him, of which I did not git the full meanin till bime-by of which more anon. After we had had our supper and had gone to our room Adrian come a-runnin in and told us that a company of Scotch soldiers wuz marchin through the place on their way to Sterling. So we quickly made our way out onto a balcony, where we could git a good view of em, with their short kilt skirts, bare legs, plaid stockin s, and feathers. If it hadn t been for their whiskers and mustaches, you d most thought they wuz wimmen. Sez Alice, " Oh, how picturesque they look ! don t they ?" And I sez, " More picturesque than comfort able !" Sez I, " What clothes them must be to wear into a battle-field, or to pick rosberrys in ! What would hender thorns and bullets from stickin right into them bare legs ?" Sez I, "They don t use no reason ; we see to-day that they ust to dress in iron all over, when they 284 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. ust to go into battle, but now they go half naked." Sez I, "Oh, the beauty of megumness ! They wore too much in old times, and now not enough, which, I ll bet, their cold legs would testify to, if they could speak up." As I said of the bagpipes but more anon. It wuz that night, jest as I wuz preparin my body for rest, that Josiah s dreamy study a-lookin at the bagpipes become manifest. I see my com panion foldin up two handkerchiefs kinder queer and a-measurin em by his arm, and anon kinder layin his jack-knife between em, and actin . And I sez, "What are you a-doin , Josiah Allen ?" "Why," sez he, "I wuz a-thinkin of makin a bagpipe." " Out of two handkerchiefs !" sez I mockin ly. " No ; I wuz jest a-layin out the work and gittin a view of its nater ;" sez he, "I wuz a-layin out to use two bags." " Bags ?" sez I. "Yes, meal bags," sez he; "take them bags, and dip em into starch to stiffen em, and the n paint and varnish em, and there you are as fur as the wind is concerned ; the music," sez he, " I believe could be rigged up some way with a mouth-organ OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 285 or sunthin , or mebbe our old accordeun ; fix the bags onto both ends on t and then draw em out, or shet em up, with wind accordin . " What a sensation it would create in Jonesville ! How it would stir the people up !" sez he. " And I might on occasions, on 4th of July and sech, wear the Tarten costume. I could take that old plaid overskirt of yours, Samantha, it s dressy, you know red and green cut it off a little above my knees, and my own red stockin s would look all right. And the old rooster would furnish very stylish feathers I should look beautiful ! And of course," sez he, " I should sing with it." " Yes," sez I, "your rumatic old knees would look beautiful bare nak ed, and them bags and accordeun, and your singin would empty Jones- "WHAT A SENSATION IT WOULD n 111 CREATE IN JONESVILLE!" ville as soon as a cyclone would, or a water-spout." And, in the name of duty, I said further, "Your singin is like thumb-screws and gullotines, and with that bagpipe added, it would cry to Heaven !" "There it is ! there it is !" sez he ! " throw cold water on it." 286 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " Better that," sez I, " than the hot water you would be deluged with if you should try it in public. Nobody would stand it, and you d find it out they wouldn t without scaldin you." Wall, from Edinburgh Martin said that we would start for London, and so we took the train goin south and sot off in the early mornin and in pretty good sperits. We only made one stop on our way to London, and that wuz at York the quaint, old, walled city, in which Americans take an interest on account of their own New York bein named after it. Our New York is some younger about seven teen hundred years younger, and that is a good deal of difference between a Ma and a young child. But, then, it hain t common to have the youngster about twenty times bigger than its Ma. Wall, we went to a good tarvern and recooperated a little durin the night from the fatigues of travel, and the next mornin bright and early \ve sot out to see the sights of the city, knowin that our stay there wuz to be but short. Martin engaged a guide, though he didn t often want one, sayin , as he did, that he felt that he wuz so familar with history and all those places that a guide was " an unnecessary outlay and a drug." But bein in a hurry to git on to-day, we went first OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 287 to see the^great wall that has stood for centuries, and seems able to stand quite a number more of em. I got out of the carriage and laid my hand on the wall, feelin that it would be a satisfaction to put my hand on the stun. Josiah said, "That looks foolish, Samantha ; you have never tried once to put your hand on to the stun wall between our paster and Deacon Gowdy s." " But," sez I, " that wall has never been looked upon by Adrian and Constantine the Great ; it has never been trod by Britons, Picts, Danes, and Saxons, each on em a-warrin for and defendin their native land." " Wall," sez he, " our wall is a crackin good one." Josiah looked kinder scorfin at me for my enthoo- siasm, but I didn t mind it any. And Martin, seein my enthoosiasm, and though he didn t share it, not at all, he asked me if I didn t want to go up and walk on the great wall which I did. So we had the carriage stopped at one of the gates, and he and I and Alice and Al Faizi went up and walked on the parapets. And I probble had as many as 70 or 80 emotions as I felt that eight-foot wall under my feet and looked up at the solid, round watch-towers, with narrer slits in the stun, for arrers to be shot out of 288 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. onto the enemies, and way up above em the little turrets for the sentinuls to look out. I wonder how that sentinul felt there on cool moonlight nights twelve or fourteen hundred years ago I wonder what century old grief or pain hanted his lonely heart through the night-watches Love, Hope, mebby they lightened his lonely watch jest as they do in 1900. Tenny rate, the same sun and moon looked down on him, and Love and Hope is as old as they be as old as the world. Al Faizi, I believe, had a sight of emotions, too. He stood still and looked off with a dreamy look on his face. Martin thought the stun wuz good and solid, and might be utilized for buildin depots and grain elevators and sech. Alice looked good-natered and didn t say much. Josiah wuz a-makin a cat s cradle with Adrian when we went back to the buggy. And I told him I didn t see how he could be a-playin with weltin cord at sech a time as this, when he could see this wall. And he sez, " Dum it all ! mebby you wouldn t take so to stun walls if you had broke your back, and got so many stun bruises as I have a-layin em." OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 289 " Wali," sez I soothin ly, u do jest as you feel, Jo- siah. But I wouldn t have missed the sight for a dollar bill." Yes, it rousted up sights of emotions in me. Another thing that endeared York to me : here in this city wuz Christmas celebrated for the first time by King Arthur, fourteen hundred years ago. I don t spoze he ever gin a thought at that time of what a train of tur keys, Christmas presents, trees, plum puddin s, bells, * stockin s, Santa Clauses, etc., etc., etc., would f oiler on his wake. But it wuz a good idee, and he wuz quite a likely creeter buildin up the meetin -housen the Saxons had destroyed. Wall, we thought we would leave the Cathedral, or Minster, as they Call it for the last. And anon we THAT SENTINUL TWELVE OR T n ... FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO. see a almost endless procession of anteek gate-ways, and housen, museums, churches, the ruined cloisters of St. Leonard founded by Athelstane the Saxon, and the ruiris of St. Mary s Abbey, with its old Norman arch and shattered walls. But from most every part of the city where we 290 SAM ANT HA IN EUROPE. might be we could see the Cathedral, towerin up above us, some like a mountain of sculptured turrets and towers. And anon we found ourselves within its walls, and its magnificent and grand beauty al most struck us dumb with or. The guide said that it wuz the most gorgeous and beautiful in the world. But I considered it safe to add a word to his description, which made it one of the most gorgeous and magnificent cathedrals in the world and that I spoze is true. It wuz about two hundred years a-buildin , and I don t believe there is a carpenter in Jonesville that could have done it a day sooner. Seth Widrick is a swift worker on housen, but I believe Seth would have been a week or two over that time at the job. The guide said that it wuz 500 and 24 feet long, and 250 feet broad 24 feet longer than St. Paul s Cathedral in London, and 145 feet longer than Westminster Abbey, and the most magnificent min ster in the world. The greatest beauty of the hull interior is, I spoze, the immense east winder. Im agine a great arched winder 75 feet high and 30 feet broad all aglow and ablaze with the most magnifi cent stained glass. A multitude of saints, angels, priests, etc., all wrought in glass, the colors of which are so soft and glowin , so harmonious, that OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 29 1 they carut be reproduced in this day by the most cunnin workmen ; the secret is lost. This winder is known as The Five Sisters ; the pattern bein took, it is said, from embroideries these maiden wimmen made. Josiah said, when the guide mentioned it, " Good for the old maids ! they done well." But as I looked upon that marvellous poem of glowin color, I felt beyend words, but I could still think. And I thought proudly of the exquisite work my sect had wrought, and I wuz glad for the moment that I too wuz a woman ; and though seven hundred years lay between them noble sisters and myself, yet I felt that our hearts, our souls, touched each other in that pleasant day of 1895. Wall, Passin Time and Josiah tore me away from the contemplation of that glory, that wonder, that delight unequalled, I believe, in the hull world. And at Martin s request, for he said that he should be asked about it probble, and would wish to be prepared with answers, we went out on a little stun platform or bridge outside, from which we had a view of the hull glowin interior a vista of leafy gothic arches, and sculptered columns, more n five hundred feet in length, and at the end the great west winder, with the riggers of the eight earliest 292 SAMAXTIIA IN EUROPE. Archbishops of York, and to keep em company, eight saints and other figgers. All seemin ly a-standin in the glowin light took from the most gorgeous western sunset. They wuz put up about five hundred years ago, and I can t begin to describe the beauty and richness of colorin , and design, nor Josiah can t. There wuz lots of other winders, too, that would be remarkable anywhere else. And among em wuz one over the entrance that they called the Mary- gold winder, circles of small arches in the form of a wheel, the color of which makes it look some like that flower. Though, as Josiah well said " Nobody ever hearn before of a marygool thirty feet acrost." In the vestries we see some historical relicks. One of the oldest is the great Saxon Drinkin Horn, by which the church holds valuable estate near York. The old chieftain, Ulphus, knelt at the altar and drinked out of the horn, and by this act gave to the church all his land, housen, etc., etc., givin to the fathers this horn as a title-deed. Josiah wuz dretful took up with it, and vowed that he would save the horns from the next beef creeter he killed and make out his next deed with it. " So strong and safe," sez he ; " no whereasis and OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 293 4 to wits*and namelys, and runnin up to a stake, and back agin, to wit." Sez he, " It would be a boon to git rid of all that nonsense. That would use up one horn, and then 1 might make my will with the other. I could will you all my property with it, Samantha, and then we could both drink root-beer, or sunthin , and you could jest keep the horn, and there would be no way to break the will. 2d. Wives have lots of trouble, but how could anybody break it, Samantha, when you had the horn locked up in the tin chest ?" It wuz thoughtful in him, and showed a deep kindness to me, but I felt dubersome about it. Then there wuz another drinkin cup presented by Archbishop Scrope. But it wuz bigger than I love to see I am afraid that Mr. Scrope drinked too much. But as he had his head cut off in 1405, I couldn t labor with him about it. Then there wuz the chair in which the Saxon kings wuz crowned. And a old Bible presented by King Charles II., and one gin by Charles 1st. A old communion plate 500 years old and oak chests, etc., etc., etc. When we looked at the communion plate Josiah nudged me, and sez he, " Don t that make you think of she that wuz Sally Ann Plenty ?" Sez he, " You know she bought a old communion service once 294 SAMAXTIIA IN EUROPE. because she could git it fora little or nothin ." Sez he, " That wuz the same day that she bought a crosscut saw, and a box of gloves 4 sizes too big for her, and wore cm with the ends of the fingers a-hangin down, jest as if they wuz onjointed." Sez I, " I lush ! This is no place to bring up sech worldly and foolish eppisodes." Wall, Martin clim up into the Lantern Tower, two hundred and thirteen feet high, for he said that he would wish to say that he had been there. But Al Faizi wuz the most took up with lookin at the monuments in the Cathe dral. They wuz beautiful in the extreme, and some on em wuz saints, some on em Archbishops, but the most on em WITH THE ENDS OF THE FINGERS A-HANGIN wuz riz up to men who had made them selves famous by killin lots and lots of folks some in England, some in Russia, and in India, and in Burmah, etc., etc., etc. As I stood in front of them bloody records, and meditated that a common murderer, who had only killed one or two men, couldn t never git a statute, but it wuz those that killed hundreds and thousands who had em built through foreign lands, and my own native country as I wuz a-meditatin on this and a-considerin on how the more a man killed the OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 295 higher his monument wuz riz up, and the nigher he wuz buried to saints, I see Al Faizi take out that little book with the cross on t and write down quite a lot what it wuz I d no, but I pre- soom it wuz good writin . His idees are congenial to mine, very. And then another place where I see Al Faizi a-writin down quite a lot in that book of hisen wuz at Clifford s Tower, in the castle enclosure, where two hundred Jews were masicreed in 1490. From what the guide said, I made out as follows : When the Crusaders got back from fightin the Infidels they wuz kinder mad to see that the Jews wuz bet ter off than they wuz had better clothes, more money, etc. so they begun to kill em off. There wuz so many fightin Christians the Jews couldn t defend themselves, so they come to the castle with their wives and children. And all the soldiers in York come to help the Crusaders kill the Jews. And when the poor Jews found that they couldn t stand it any longer, they did jest as the ! Rabbi told em. They killed the wives and children that wuz left, to keep em from fallin into the hands of their persecutors, and sot fire to the castle, and then killed themselves, so s they shouldn t burn to death. This massicre of these onoffending Jews by 296 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Christians wuz one of the most barbarous acts that ever took place on earth. Lots of folks now have their souls massicreed in the same way out of envy and jealousy. I d no what Al Faizi writ in his book as he looked at this place where this dretful deed wuz done in the name of Religion. But his face wuz a sight to see as he writ solemn and awful ; not mad, but sunthin of the expression of the Avengin Angel, or as" I mistrust he would look dretful sorry, but sot, awful sot. Wall, we went back to the tarvern and got a good dinner, and I laid down for a nap I wuz clean used up. When I waked up it \vuz sunset, and Josiah sot by the little casement with the panes of glass about four inches big, a-readin . And I asked him if Martin laid out to go to London in the mornin , and he said that he guessed he did. " But," sez he with a tone of regret " I did want to visit Scarborough ; there s no need hurryin so to London," sez he. "Who and what is Scarborough ?" sez I in a weary axent as I got up and wadded up my back hair. " Why, it is the fashionable waterin -place of England," sez he; "it is only a little more than OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 297 forty milcls away," sez he; we could go jest as well as not, and it would be so genteel. I would," sez he, a-smoothin out the folds of his dressin -gown, and bringin the tossels forred in a more sightly place " I would love to mingle in fashionable circles once more, Samantha." I looked down at his old bald head in silent dis- aprobation. He wuz too old to hanker after fash ion and display, and too bald, and I knew it. But I knew that I could not make him over, after he had been made so long no, I should have to bear up the best I could under his shortcoming. But I sez mekanically, and to git his idees off " I would kinder love to visit Whitby, Josiah ; that hain t much further away, and that is where all the most beautiful jet is made. I thought like as not that you would want to buy me a handkerchief pin, Josiah Allen." He looked injured, and sez he, " Where is the black pin you mourned in for Father Smith ?" His tone wuz sour and snappish in the extreme. Sez I, " That pin wuz broke over twenty years ago." 4 Wall," sez he, "I can glue it together with Ury s help, or we could tie it up, so s it would be jest as good as a new one. It don t come to any strain on your collar," sez he anxiously. 298 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " No, Josiah ; but I shouldn t like to wear a pin that you and Ury had con toggled up. But let it pass," sez I ; "I can do without it, if my com panion don t think enough of me right here in the headquarters of black breastpins and beads to buy me anything." My tone touched him. He sez " I d look round and see about it, but I hain t no time, for we ve got to be a-pushin right on to London ; if we ever lay out to git home agin we ve got to be on the move." I didn t say nothin only what my liniment spoke, and anon he sez "If worst come to worst, Ury and I could make you a crackin good one out of coal. All of this jet in Whitby is made out of coal. And how much less it would cost we could make you a hull set in one evenin earrings and all." I gin him one look, and that wuz all the argu ment that I would dane to waste on the subject. Alice kinder wanted to go to Robin Hood Bay, which wuz not far from Scarborough. She said that she would love to see the place where the hero of Sherwood Forest had lived once the bold out law who took from the rich with one hand and gave to the poor with the other. But her Pa laughed at her for believin that OLD YORK AND ITS CATHEDRAL. 299 there ever wuz sech a man, or if there wuz, he wuz nothin but a common robber, who deserved hangin . I believe Martin would favor drivin Santa Glaus out of the country and killin his reindeers. His imagination hain t, I really believe, not much bigger than a pea not a marrowfat one, but a common field pea. So Martin decided at first that we would go direct to London, but finally he concluded to go a little out of our way to visit the estate of the Duke of Devonshire the grandest home in Eng land. And he wanted to stop a little while at Sheffield on business property matters, I spoze, or mebby he wanted to buy a jack-knife I d no what his business wuz. I knew he could git a good jack-knife here, for they ve been makin knives and sech right here for five or six hundred years. CHAPTER XVI. EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEV( )\STIIRE. So anon we found ourselves in the smoky, grimy, dirty city. A heavy black cloud seemed to hang overhead, seemin to shade the hull spot ; but then I didn t want to lay it up agin em, for I knew we had our own cities, that had to set down under a cloud of smoke jest as they did Pittsburg, and others, etcetery. I can t say that I took sech a sight of comfort here in Sheffield, but Josiah and Martin seemed to enjoy themselves a-goin round and seein all they could. Martin said it wuz a sight to see how perfectly each workman did his work, and how faithful they wuz to their employers ; he said he wished he had sech men to work for him. And it wuz curous to think on. As nigh as I could make out, generations of one family would work on and on, a-workin at one part of a jack- knife, for instance, a-keepin right on a grandpa, and his son, and his .son s son, and etcetery all contented and industrious and awful handy, as they EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OE DEVONSHIRE. would naterally be, _a-workin on at one thing year after year, year after year ; mebby a-makin a rivet to put into a handle of a knife. It stands to reason that they would learn to do it well after workin at the same thing over and over for hundreds of years. And these workmen seemed to be sot on doin jest the best work that they could, and stay right on in the same place. " And," sez Josiah, " I wonder if Ury s boy and grandson and great- grandson will be willin to keep right on workin for me ?" Sez I, " Do you expect to out live Ury s grandson, Josiah Allen ?" Sez he, "They did in Bible times." Sez he, " I wouldn t be nigh so old then asMethusler," and he went on " I use my help as good agin as they do here. If I should put Ury to work in sech a dark, dirty, on- handy place as these workmen have, he d kick in a minute and leave me ; but here they \vork, gener ations of em, all in one place." Sez I feelin ly, " I wish I could git sech a gener ation of hired girls ; but no sooner duz an American housekeeper git a hired girl broke in, so she can IT DON T PAY TO TUSSEL WITH KM. 302 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. bile a potato decent, or make a batch of bread, than off she trapes somewhere else to better herself. It don t pay to tussel with em," sez I. " Wall," sez Josiah, " you ort to go into some of these factories ; it is a sight to see how perfect everything is done. One part of a knife, for in stance, done in one house, and then another house doin another part, and then another another, and every part done jest as well as it can possibly be." And then Josiah went on about that wonderful knife they make here, with a new blade added for every year. And bein we wuz alone, and I hadn t nothin else on my mind, I moralized some, and sez I " Old Fate is makin her knife pretty stiddy, and seems to add a new blade every year for us to cut our feelin s on, and jab ourselves with." And sez I, " They don t hurt any the less because we dig the metal ourselves and shape the sharp blades with our ignorant hands, not knowin what we re a-workin on, and some on em," sez I, " handed down from foolish, ignorant workmen who have gone before queer !" sez I, " passin queer !" "Yes," sez Josiah, "it wuz quite a sight ; Martin and I enjoyed it. " But the drinkin here in Sheffield," sez Josiah, "is sunthin dretful to witness." Sez he, "I EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 303 thought we had drinkin habits in America, but I never see nothin , nor I don t believe anybody else did, to compare with some of the places we visited to-day. Why," sez he, " it would do a W. C. T. U. good to jest look at em." " Good ?" sez I sternly. " Wall, yes," sez he ; " it would set em to kinder soarin and wavin them banners of theirn and talk- in you know jest how they love to talk," sez he. Sez I, "You better stop right where you are." Sez I, " Do you realize that you are talkin about your pardner ?" "Wall, yes," sez he; " that s what I wuz kinder figgerin on Heaven knows you love to talk, you can t dispute that." I wouldn t dane to argy with him. But, indeed, it wuz a sight to walk through some of the low, dingy, filthy streets, with saloons on every side flauntin their brazen signs, and men and wimmen with bloated, sodden faces, that strong drink had almost changed into the faces of ani mals. The same sin the same useless, needless sin, parent of all other vices jest as bad on this side of the Atlantic as in Jonesville and America, and worse. I left it there a-performin and cuttin up, and I 304 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. found it here actin jest the same. You d think after crossin the Atlantic it would git sobered up a little seein so much water and everything. But it hadn t. It wuz jest the same reelin , dis graceful, foolish, leerin , bloated Shame- Jest as bad in Sheffield as it wuz in Jonesville and Chicago, and worse. It wuz enough to melt a stun with pity, and make hard eyes weep with sorrer and Hash with a righteous indignation, at the Nations that don t devise some means of wipin out this gigantic cause of wickedness, woe, and want. They can connect worlds together with chains of lightnin , they can make roads through the earth and on top of it, and in all ways ; then why can t they keep a man from drinkin a tumbler full of whiskey? They could if they wanted to, and all put in together. Wall, wuzn t it a change to leave this smoky, grimy city and find ourselves in the open, beau tiful English country, and in the most beautiful part of it, too ? We went by railroad to Matlock Bath, and from there went in a carnage to the little village of Edensor, the loveliest little village I ever sot eyes on. Its housen are all built in some quaint, beau tiful style of architecture, and it looks like a EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 305 picter, and a great deal handsomer than lots of picters I ve seen chromos and sech. This village belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, and is on his estate, which is the finest in England, and I guess on this hull earth. And I d no whether they ve got any on any other planet that goes ahead on t. Mebby Jupiter has, but I don t really believe it. Why, jest its pleasure park the door-yard, as you may say has two thousand acres in it. This estate, known as Chatsworth, is twelve milds from Edensor, and nobody could describe the beauty of the landscape all about us as we passed onwards. As we went acrost a corner of this immense door-yard, through the most beautiful pieces of woodland, and the verdant slopes covered with velvety sward, great, beautiful pheasants and herds of deer would look round at us and then walk off, not a mite afraid, fearless as they will be if they re used well. Anon we would ketch a glimpse of some enchantin vista, with herds of contented cattle, makin picters of themselves aginst the back ground of green grass and noble trees centuries old. From a little hill top we could see twelve milds in every direction, and not a foot of land that this man didn t own. 306 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Twelve milds ! the idee ! It seems more n he ort to have on his mind. Anon we reached a beautiful stun bridge, de signed by Michael Angelo, and crossin the little river, went up to the great iron and gilt entrance gates. Martin sent his card in to somebody that takes care of the premises, I guess (and how he dast to ask any favors of this gorgeous-dressed creeter in knee-breeches, I d no, but he did, bold as brass), and word come back that we could look over the place, and one of the hired men wuz sent to go with us and show us round. It wuz well he come ; we should have got lost, sure as the world. But lost in sech a place sech a place ! Why, I d read the Arabian Nights quite a good deal, and a considerable number of fairy stories about enchanted castles, and sech. But never did I ever hear, in a book, or out on t, of sech mag nificence as I see here. First we went through a great courtyard into the splendid entrance hall, seventy feet long if it wuz a inch; the wall and ceilin s ornamented with frescoes, all representin the life and death of Caesar. We went up a majestic staircase, with all the richly ornamented columns and statutes it need ed for its comfort, and more, too, it seemed, though EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 307 they wuz- beautiful r beyend tellin ; and here we went into the State Apartments of the house. I spoze they are called State Apartments because in every room there s enough of beauty and grandeur to supply a hull State, if it wuz scattered even, and I don t mean Rhode Island either, but New York and Maine and sech sizable ones. Why, every one of these lofty ceilin s is painted with p i c t e r s handsome enough for the very handsomest handkerchief pin, if they wuz the right size. The hired man told us what some of the picters represented Aurora (and, oh, how beautiful Au rora wuz !), and one wuz the "Judgment of Paris." I hadn t no idee before that Paris jedgment wuz so perfectly beautiful ; I spozed it wuz kinder triflin . They seemed, as fur as I could make out, to be MARTIN SENT ins CARD IN. 3O8 SAM ANT II A IN EUROPE. a-samplin apples lovely creeters they wuz that wuz standin round. And then there wuz u Phaeton in the Chariot of the Sun." It didn t look a mite like our phaeton fur more magnificent. Room after room opened into each other, all dif ferent as stars differ from each other, but every one full of glory ; all full of the treasures of every land Persia, Egypt, and every other. The hired man drawcd our attention to the pres ents of kings and princes, and all the rare objects of art and virtue. But I sez, " As fur as virtues is concerned, I d no as kings would be any more apt to git hold of em than common men, or so apt, but," sez I, " call em perfectly beautiful, and I agree with you." In them magnificent and immense rooms are pic- ters by Landseer, Holbein, Salvator Rosa, Raphael, Rubens, Claude Lorraine, Correggio, Hogarth, Titian, Michael Angelo, etc. A great many \vith the autographs of the painters priceless, absolutely beyend price, are these works of art. And if I should talk a week, I couldn t describe all the beautiful objects we see there, so valuable that one on em would make a man rich. In one room wuz a clock of gold and malachite EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, 309 a present from the - Emperor Nicholas, worth a thousand guineas, and a broad, shinin table of one clear sheet of transclucent spar, and a great table of clear malachite. I d be glad to git enough of it for an earring for Tirzah Ann. In one room we see a picter by Holbein of Henry VIII., and a rosary belongin to him. I wondered as I looked on t what that poor, misguided creeter ust to pray about as he handled them beads. He couldn t want any more wives than he had, it seemed to me. Mebby he wuz a-wishin some of the time that he wuz back with Katharine, that noble creeter \vho said "Weep, thou, for me in France, I for thee here ; Go count thy way with sighs, I mine with groans." And when they had that lawsuit of theirn (he gittin after another woman, and wantin to git rid of her), after he d bought off the jedge, Katharine sez to Henry liftin her right arm up towards Heaven " There sits a Jedge no king can corrupt." Noble, misused creeter ! I ll bet if them beads could have told \vhat wuz said over em, they would have said that Henry thought of her, his lawful wife, when his memory wuz sick of recallin Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. But to resoom. 310 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. We see the bed that George 1 1. died in. The chairs and footstools used by George III. and his queen. And the two chairs used by William IV. and Queen Adelaide at their coronation. And then we see the most beautiful tapestry that ever wux made, and busts and statutes. Richly colored, priceless old china filled the splendid cabinets inlaid with finest mosaic work in fact, the hull length of these rooms, openin into each other so that you could see their hull length of 550 feet, wux full of the most costly and beautiful objects man ever made. The oak floor wux polished, and shone like a mirror. The library wux one hundred feet long of itself, with columns risin from floor to ceilin and a gallery runnin round it, and two more openin out of it, with alcoves of Spanish mahogany, these full of picters by Landseer and others, and medallions, etc., etc., etc., and full of the choicest literature of every land. And then there wux a private chapel that went ahead of any meetin -house I ever see or ever expect to, all marble and spar and wonderful wood-carvin s, and picters from the old masters filled it full of beauty and glory. Faith and Hope wux there all carved out beautiful, so s you could see em right before you, as well as feel em in your heart. EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 311 *> In the sculptor gallery is the most wonderful treasures, busts and statutes and mosaics, relicks from every land and age, and beautiful riggers, al most alive, by Canova, Powers, Thorwaldsen, Gib son, Bartolini, etc., etc. Some \vuz presented by emperors and kings, and some on em bought by the Duke and his folks. The hull room, one hun dred feet long, is full of the rarest treasures that can be collected ; it made my brain fairly reel be neath my best bunnet to see the wealth of glory and beauty, and Al Faizi turned away from it a spell and looked thoughtfully out of the win der. But I see that here, too, wuz a picter that no artist could reproduce, and so it wuz in every win der that you could look out of. A green, velvety lawn a hundred feet wide and over five hundred long, bordered by most beautiful colored flowers, and out of another winder you could see the velvety slopes, with walks and river and bridge, and way off the noble trees and terraces, one risin above another, all full of beautiful plants and shrubs. And in the centre from the top down, hundreds of feet, wuz a great flight of stun steps, thirty feet wide, down which flows and sparkles a sheet of \vater, reflectin in its mirror-like surface all the white statutes on its margin, till it reaches the edge of the broad gravel SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. walk, when it disapears right down into the earth and flows off in some eurous, underground way to the river. Josiah wuz all rousted up when he see this, and, as is the way of my dear, ardent-souled companion, he tore a page out of his account-book, and begun to make calculations on t. And I sez with a sithe "What are you a-fig- gerin on now, Josiah Allen ?" "Oh! I m plottin out a lovely addition to the beauty of our home, Samantha I m a-plannin sunthin so uneek and fascinatin that it will make the Jonesvillians open their eyes in astonishment and or." " What is it ?" sez I. "I m a-plannin on how we can have a waterfall on our back doorsteps." Sez he, " I hain t seen anything so perfectly beautiful and strikin as this sence I come to the Old Country, and we can have one jest as well as not. You know our back steps are quite high, and how beautiful they would look with the sparklin water flowin down em how re- freshin it would be in hot weather to have a water fall right on your own doorsteps, and set in the open back door, right on its banks, as it were, and hear the murmur of the- water, and see it a-glidin down towards the smoke-house. We might have it 3 H SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. dissapear," sez he, "between the smoke-house and the ash-barrel." " Where would you git your water ?" sez I coldly. "Wall," sez he, a-holdin up the paper with quite a lot of figgers and marks on it, " I figgered it out that we might have a pipe go from the kitchen pump, cut a little hole in the thrasholt to let it go in, and there you would be." "And did you lay out," sez I in frigid axcnts, "to have me stan there a-pumpin all day to supply your waterfall ?" His mean begun to fall a little it had been tri umphant- and he sez kinder meachin "You have to throw out your dish-water anyway, and you might s well throw it on the steps as to throw it in the dreen." "Wall," sez I, "a fountain a-runnin dish-water would be a beautiful spectacle, wouldn t it, Josiah Allen ? " I guess it would astonish the eyes of the Jones- villians, and their noses, too !" " I didn t mean that !" he hollered quite loud. " What did you mean, then ?" sez I. He agin murmured sunthin about the pump, the cistern, and the old mair. And I sez, "That poor old mair agin!" Sez I, EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 315 " If I hadn t broke it up, that mair wouldn t live three days after we got home, with all you d put on her, a-apein foreign idees, Josiah." " I hain t been a-apein , and you know it !" But I went right on " Even if you could make it work, how could we git into the house if the doorstep wuz turned into a waterfall ?" "Wall," sez he, a-lookin up kinder cross, "I ve hearn lots of times of havin the bottom sash of a winder hung on hinges, and goin in and out by em." "Wall, "sez I, "after you d clumb up through the buttery winder onct or twict with a pail of milk in both hands, I guess you d git sick of door step waterfalls !" He see by the light of my calm, practical reason- in that his idee wuz visionary and couldn t be carried out, but he wouldn t own up to it not he. He jest jammed the paper down into his vest pocket, and snapped me up real sharp the next words I said to him. He acted awful growety ; but I didn t care, I knew I wuz in the right on t. Wall, after goin through the brightest and most lovely garden you can imagine, you come into a place with huge rocks and cliffs, romantic shrub bery, massive ledges, and a waterfall fallin . into a 316 SAMANTIIA IN EUROPE. deep, dark basin, caverns, etc., and as you go round a corner, you come face to face with a huge rock that you think must have fell there. You think you will have to go back ; but no ! Do you think you will have to turn back for anything in this enchanted place ? The hired man touches the rock, and it turns right away and lets you pass, and then you see that npt only is the en- chantin beauty of the place made, but the rough wildness of this spot. One of the curous things in this place wuz a tree with kinder queer-lookin branches, and the hired man touched it somewhere, and w r ater flowed out of every leaf and twig, turnin it into a foun tain. The conservatory is from one end to the other two hundred and seventy-six feet long, and broad enough to drive through it with a carriage and four horses, so you can imagine the wealth of beauty in it orange-trees full of their glossy fruit, lemon-trees, feathery palm-trees fifty feet high, bamboos, cactuses, bananas, queer, broad, velvety leaves of every shape and color, and all of the flowers that ever \vuz hearn on, and never wuz hearn on, it seems to me. There are thirty other greenhousen, all runnin over with beauty of various kinds. Graperies EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 317 seven hundred feet long, with the rich white and purple clusters hangin down in every direction. Peach housen, strawberry housen, apricot, mushroom, vegetable housen, in which every kind of vegetable is raised. Why, the kitchen-garden and green- housen covers twenty acres. But there is no use of talkin any more like Niagara, and the World s Fair, you have got to see it to understand its vast- ness and its perfect beauty. I wuz glad I d seen it. I believe that even Mar tin wuz kinder took down off from the Mount of Self Esteem he always sets on, as he wandered through it. He d always prided himself quite a good deal of his home in the city, and it is palatial and grand. But what comparison would it bear to this ? Not even " Like moonshine unto sunshine, Or like water unto wine." No ; it wuz like a small kerosene lamp unto sun shine. And he felt it, Martin did. He didn t patronize anybody for as much as three quarters of an hour after he left there. He give the hired man a good-sized piece of money, for I see him. It wuz so big that the man turned fairly pale, and called Martin "Your Highness." He sez "When will Your Highness return again?" 318 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. So we come off with flyin colors, after all. Wall, seem that we \vuz so near, Martin thought we d ride over to Haddon Hall, only a few milds away. This is one of the fine old buildin s of the Middle Ages. It stands on a rocky eminence above the River Wye ; over the great arched entrance is the arms of the Vernon family, who occupied it for three hundred and fifty years. As we passed in through a little door, cut in one of the broad sides of the gates, we see, on the rough stun thrasholt, the impression of a human foot, wore there by the innumerable feet of warriors, pil grims, ladies, troubadors, children, kings, and queens, for all I know. Anyhow, she who wuz once Smith put her own common-sense shoe right into the worn footprint, and stood there, kinder on one foot, and had more n eighty-seven emotions as she did so, and I d no but eighty-nine or ninety. I had a sight, anyway, as we went into the stun courtyard, ornamented with stun carvin , into the interior. Josiah didn t take to it at all. But, then, as I told him, what could you expect of a house where the folks had been away for sev eral hundred years any place would look kinder dreary. But he sez, " Dum it all ! when it wuz new, who d EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 319 like to hav^ sech rough stun floors ? And look at that fireplace in the kitchen, big enough to roast a hull ox. How could a .man cut wood enough to keep that fire a-goin ?" Sez I, "The man of the house didn t have to do it at all, his vassals did it, Josiah." " Wall, he had to tend to it, and I d ruther do the work any time than to keep a vassal a-goin , that is, any vassal that I ever hired by the month, or day." But in the great banquettin hall, with its oak rafters and long table, where they feasted, at one end a little higher for the quality, I spoze he ketched sight of the minstrels gallery at one end. And sez he, his face lightin up, " The man of the house could git up there and sing while the rest wuz eatin , if he wanted to, and nothin said about it." "Yes," sez I pintedly, "if he could sing; but," sez I, wantin to git his mind off en this unpleas ant theme, sez I " I d love dearly to see this table set out as it ust to be, and the noble and beautiful a-settin round it, with boars heads on the table, and great sides of beef, and gilded peacocks." "And jugs of ale and wine," sez Josiah. ;R COMMON-SENSE SHOE. 320 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But I waved off that idee, but couldn t wave it fur, for the beer cellars wuz a sight to behold. They must have been drunk a good deal of the time, jedgin from the accommodations for drinkin . Up the massive stun stairway we went into another big room, used as a dinin -room by the later occupants of the Hall. Here over the fireplace are the royal arms, and under them, in old English letters, the motto " Drede God, and honor the king." Goin up six heavey, oak, semicircular steps, we go into the ball-room, over a hundred feet long, with great bay-winders, out of which you see picters more beautiful than any that could be painted by the hand of man perfect landscape of quiet country, silvery stream, rustic bridges, grand old parks, and the spire of the church from the distant village pintin up to the blue sky. Then through other rooms with Gobelin tapestry on the walls, still holdin skripteral stories in its ancient folds. Then through other rooms that are modern com pared with the others, and have been used in the present century. Here, agin, in one of em we see Gobelin tapestry drapin the State bed. Follerin the guide through a anty-room we come out into the garden on Dorothy Vernon s Walk. EDENSOR AND THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 321 Under th tapestry is concealed doors and pas sages, as the guide showed us by pushin the folds aside, through which many a man or woman, drove by Fear or Love, or some other creeter, had rushed for refuge or secret meetin . The garden of Haddon Hall is picturesque and beautiful in the extreme. Dorothy s Walk, shaded by noble old trees, leads to the massive flights of marble steps, down which she hurried with beatin heart and flyin steps to meet her lover, Sir John Manners, while her friends were merry-makin in another part of the Hall, and never dreamed of her flight. Haddon Hall by this means passed into the family of Rutland, who lived here till the first of this century. The Duke of Rutland keeps the place in its ancient form, much to the delight of those who love the old ways. CHAPTER XVII. JOSIAII HAS AN ADVENTURE. WALL, Martin, who sometimes changes his mind, but don t think he duz, always a-sayin that it shows weak-mindedness and is a trait belongin to wimmen (which I never feel like disputin , knowin that my sect has in time past been kno\vn to be whifrlin ; but so have men, too) so it didn t surprise me much when he said that instead of pro- ceedin directly to the Lake Dis trict from here he thought we would go first to the home of Shakespeare. Sez he: " I may be called to London any minute on business, and I feel that it will be expected of me to visit Shakespeare s birthplace anyway." Sez Martin, with a thumb in both vest pock ets, and a benine, patronizin look on his lini ment " Shakespeare wrote a number of very creditable A QUAINT, OLD FASHIONED TARVERN. JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 323 productions, and though I never had the time to spare from more important things to peruse his works poems, I believe, mostly yet I always love to encourage talent. I think it is becoming for solid men, for progressive, practical men, to encour age writers to a certain extent ; and Shakespeare, as I am aware, has been very much talked of. I would be sorry to miss the chance of saying to those who inquire of me that I had been there, so I believe we will proceed there at once." "Wall," I sez, "I shall be glad enough to go;" and Al Faizi looked tickled, too. He had read him, he said, in his own country. And sez he to me, with his dark eyes all lit up, "To read Shakespeare is like looking into clear water and seeing your own face reflected in it, and earth, and mountain top, and over all the Heavens. And it is more than that," sez he, " it is looking into the human mind and reading all its secrets all the wonder and mystery of the soul ; it is like looking at life, and death, and eternity." He wuz dretful riz up in his mind a-talkin about it, and he quoted Shakespeare quite often on our way to Stratford, and always in the right place, and he is generally so still, that I see, indeed, how he felt about him. Alice talked, too, quite a good deal about Shakespeare. And Al Faizi listened. Yes, 324 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. he listened to Alice poor creeter ! And everybody blind as a bat but jest me. Wall, we got there anon or a little before, and put up to the Red Horse Inn, a quaint, old-fashioned tarvern, but where we had everything for our com fort, and wuz waited on by as pretty a red-cheeked girl as I want to see. A sight of emotions wuz rousted up in me as I sot in that tarvern, or walked through its old-fash ioned, low-ceiled rooms and meditated on who had been under its ruff. When rare Ben Jonson, and Drayton, and Gar- rick, and all of Shakespeare s friends come down from London to visit him, of course they stopped here, and of course Shakespeare himself often and often come here mebby too often for Miss Shakes peare s feelin s. Much as I honor Shakespeare, I have to admit that he did stimulate a little too much but, then, who hain t got their failin s ? Why, Solomon, the very wisest man, had more wives than he ort to had. Seein , I spoze, that we wuz Americans, our sup per that first night wuz served in Washington Irving s room, as they call the room that he occu pied, our own genial wit and poet. Mebby his words didn t come in rhyme, but they had the soul of JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 32$ poetry, and quaint, sly wit, and good sense and good manners and everything. I always sot store by Washington Irving. (I had got acquainted with him through Thomas J.) Alice quoted a lot from Irving, and a lot from Shakespeare, while we wuz to the table, and I felt their presence in my heart. Wall, .1 wuz so kinder beat out that night, that, as poets say, " I sought my couch" to once, a good- lookin oak bedstead, with a teester cloth overhead, and some curtains hangin down on each side. The weariness I had gone through with that day, mixed in with the powders Mr. Morpheus keeps by him, brung on a sleep almost imegiately and to once. And I wuz sweetly a-dreamin of seein the Jonesville steeple a-pintin up through a ile paintin of cows and calves. Philury wuz a-peacefully milkin one of the cows, while Ury, a-settin on the steeple with a pail of skim milk, wuz a-tryin to bagon one of the calves to him, but a Madonna with a long beard poked at the calf with a sceptre and made it kick. It wuz a sweet, tender dream of home, tinged slightly with the surroun din s we had been sur rounded by on our tower. But anon as the Madonna and Philury changed into two gorgeous altar pieces, and Ury leaned near the calf and fed it out of a stained-glass winder 326 SAMAXTHA IX EUROPE. Even at that very minute a sharp scream cut through the silence of night, like the ragged thrust of a bread knife through a loaf of light bread. Once, twice, three times, did that cry ring out, and then I heard the sounds of rapid footsteps, and anon the door busted open, and my pardner rushed in and slammed it shot and clicked the bolt to. And then he sunk down in his chair and almost buried his face in his hands. I riz up on my piller, and sex I in agitated axents 44 What is the matter, Josiah ?" Sex lie from out from under his hand, " I ve done it now !" " Done what ?" sex I. " Don t ask me !" sex he, a-shudderin visibly ; " it is nothin you want to know." But his words made me more and more deter mined to know the worst, as wux nateral they should. And finally he said in a surly, cross way "Wall, if you must know, I ve been into a woman s room." " Been into a woman s room !" sex I coldly ; "what did you want in a woman s room ?" " I didn t want nothin Heaven knows I didn t, only to git out agin." JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 327 4f> " Who wuz it ?" sez I in stern axents. " I d no she wuz a perfect stranger to me," sez he, with his face still hid in his hand. " Wuz she good-lookin ?" sez I in the same stern tones. I hain t a mite jealous, as is well known, but I felt that I wanted to know the worst. " Don t ask me," sez he ; and he continued fierce ly, " What business has a woman to be up a-ondress- in herself at this time of night ? Why wuzn t she to bed and covered up ?" Sez he, a-growin more and more excited and fierce actin -- u l m a-goin back and tell that woman that it is a shame and a disgrace to be -up and ondressed at this time of night. Why wuzn t her door locked, if she had to ondress ?" "What business wuz it of yours?" sez I. "Do you spoze she expected you to be a-prowlin round her room and a-prancin in, onbeknovvn to her ?" " Gracious Peter !" sez he in pitiful axents ; " duz she think I wanted to be there ?" " Why did you go in, then ?" sez I. " Because I made a mistake !" he thundered out. " I thought it wuz our room. How should I know that there wuz a dum, red-headed fool there a-on- dressin herself at this time of night ? Why wuzn t she abed up, and skairin a man half to death ?" " If you d kep out, Josiah, you d have escaped," 3 28 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. sez I more softer like, for I see by his a-xents that he wuz a-sufTerin from fear and the effects of the shock. Sez I, " Be calm ; accidents will happen, Josiah. Come to bed, and try to forgit it." " I won t try !" sez he. "I m a-goin back and give that dum fool and loonatick a piece of my mind. What henders some other man from walkin in ?" Sez he, " I m a-goin back it is my duty !" I riz up and laid holt of him, and sez I, " Do you stay where you be, Josiah Allen. I should think you d done enough for one SEZ HE, "I M A-GOIN BACK IT is MY DUTY." night." Sez he, "What henders Martin and Fazer from walkin in jest as I did, and bein skairt to death ?" Sez I, " Martin and Al Faizi know enough to take care of themselves, and it is your place to go to bed and behave yourself." " A-ondressin herself at this time of night!" he kep a-mutterin as he put his vest down on a chair. " What are you a-doin ?" sez I. JOSIAII HAS AN ADVENTURE. 329 " Wall, there hain t a lot of strange wimmen round, is there ?" I see it wuz vain to dispute the pint. He acted deeply injured, and as if the woman had made a plot to skair him, and I had to gin up the idee of wringin any jestice out of his words and demean ors in the case. But the next mornin he felt calmer, and didn t seem to blame her so much, and admitted that she had to ondress, and said of his own accord that mebby he had been too hard on her. But he wuzn t quite reconciled, I could see, and felt deeply that he might have escaped the shock if she hadn t ondressed. Wall, our first visit wuz to Shakespeare s birth place. We sot out bright and early. It is a long, old-fashioned-lookin house, with three gabriel ends in the ruff on front, and kinder criss-cross-lookin , some like a big checker-board, the cross pieces of oak filled in with plaster, I should jedge. We first went into the kitchen, with its wide, open fireplace, and how I felt when I thought that here, right here, in this spot, the immortal Shake speare had often sot, with his feet and face burnin hot, and his back a-freezin , as is the way with them old fireplaces ! 330 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But no matter how his body felt or didn t feel, think of that mind, that soul that wuz eaged in here between these narrer and queer-lookin walls. What visions them eager, bright eyes ust to see in the burnin flames ! What shadders and shapes the clouds of smoke took as they floated up and away ! How his soul follered em ! How he sailed off into strange heights and depths, sech as no other writer ever did, or can, foller and explore ! How the mind of the Infinite must have brooded over that little sleeper that lay over three hundred years ago in that low, shabby room upstairs a small, dreary- lookin apartment, with the walls covered with the names of visitors and verses, etc. We went up to it on a steep, narrer stairway. Martin had to take off his tall hat or he couldn t have got in I d no whether he would or not if he hadn t had to. I wuz proud to see that my pardner took off his hat the minute we got in side ; I wuz proud of the reverence he showed for genius, and told him so. But he said he forgot that it wuzn t meetin , it seemed some like it, he said, all dressed up at ten in the mornin , and goin off all together. After I spoke he wuz a-goin to put his hat on agin, but I sez " If you ve blundered into reverential and noble JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 33! * ways, Josiah Allen, don t, for pity sake, break it up." Of course my pardner always takes off his hat when goin into housen, visitin , or callin , or sech, or in our own residence. But on our travels, goin through big, cold buildin s, dungeons, etc., he s made a practice of keepin it on, bein bald, and sufferin in his scalp from cold. But here, in this place, this hant of genius, I felt for about the first time sence I had been huntin antiquities, that I d love to take off my own bunnet and dress-cap, but I spozed that the move would draw attention and call forth remarks, so I kep em on. But my sperit knelt bareheaded and bowed itself down before this shrine of Wisdom and Genius, this earthly abode of one who showed what a grand and divine thing the human mind may be ; who held the secret of all things common and transcendent all things " that are dreamed of in our philosophy" and more This magician, who showed "what fools we mor tals be," and showed to what heights of wisdom men may attain Who held up his wonderful microscope and let mortals look through it into the inside of their own hearts and feelin s and emotions. And who held 332 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. up a lookin -glass to Mom Nater, so she could see her old face in it, every beauty and every de formity Who plunged us into the depths of sorrerful and heart-breakin experience, bewitched us with his wit, and brung us up so clost to the divine good that we almost feel the beatin of the great heart of love. Wonderful magician, indeed, and havin sech feel- in s for him for years and years (ketched a good deal from Thomas J., who admires him beyend any tellin ), I felt that it wuz strange indeed that she who wuz once Smith should stand right here in the place where he had once lived. Al Faizi felt jest as I did, only more so jest as still waters run deepest. I could talk \vith my com panion yet, and the others, but he stood reverent and silent, and walked through the rooms like one in a dream, in which sech visions come that it "give us pause." But, as I say, I could still talk some I seem to be made that way that conversation is hard to smother in my breast. Lots of wimmen are made jest so, and men too. Martin wuz talkin fluently to Alice and Adrian as they went from spot to spot in the old house, and Martin wuz, I spozed, a-layin up a fount of JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 333 memories that the public could tap, and valuable information would flow for their refreshin . But anon I missed my pardner ; but even as my Thought wuz a-reachin after him, as it always must while it is yoked to my constant Heart, he come up to me with joy in his mean and a piece of paper in his hand, and sez he, with a glad and joyous axent, in which, too, pride wuz blendin , about a third of each ingregient a-makin up his hull mean. Sez he, "I have been a-writin a poem in the visitors book, Samantha, and I copied it off for you on a leaf out of my account book I knew that you would want to see it, and then I shall keep the copy in my tin trunk with my money and deeds." I groaned instinctively, but suppressed it all I could as I sez " Let me know the worst to once ! What have you \vrit ?" He proudly ondid the paper, and I read " I, Josiah, Am settin by the fire, Am right on the spot Where Shakespeare sot ; I m proud to be there, Though I spoze, from what Samantha sez, that it hain t the same chair." " There," sez he proudly, as he folded up the pa- 334 SAMANTIIA IN EUROPE. per, and put it into his portmoney. There hain t a verse here on these hull walls or on the visitors book that will compare with that." " No," sez I coldly, " there hain t Heaven knows there hain t." Sez he proudly, " It has three great qualities, Samantha it is terse, melodious, and truthful. Shakespeare s chair wuz sold two hundred years ago to a Russian princess, and they ve kep on a-sellin the original chair several times sencc, so how could it be here ? If I d been writin in prose, I should a said that it wuz a dum humbug !" And here he paused reflectively and dreamily. " I might have said sunthin strong and strikin here " It makes me mad as a June bug To see em try to humbug. 1 JOSIAH. " You know that June bugs hum," and he mur mured dreamily, " humbug, and bughum ; it would have been very ingenious, and I might say sunthin strong about tire, to rhyme with Josiah, about relicks bein made to order. It makes me tired, you know, only have it come all in poetry," sez he ; "it would be dretful appro/^v." Sez I coldly, "What you mean by that, I don t have any idee." JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 335 " Wrr," sez he, "I see it in The World; it is French, and it means to have anything come in appropriate appro/to^, you know. I should have used it in my poem, but I couldn t think of any thing to rhyme with it but hoss." Sez I, " Tire is a good word to use in connec tion with your poetry. Everybody would appre ciate it, and hail it with effusion." " But," sez he with a wise air, "you have to be so careful in poetry. You can t use strong phrases much, if any. And then, knowin that I wuz writin in the same book with kings, etc., I felt that it must be genteel and stylish. And I knew you always loved to be remembered, and so I brung your name in, Samantha." "Yes," sez I, "you brung it in in sech a way as to hurt his folkses feelin s as long as they make them chairs of hisen." "Wall," sez he, "it looks well for pardners to remember each other, and it s a rare quality, too." I felt that he wuz right, and didn t dispute him, and sez he " Samantha, I wanted you to be jined with me on the pillow of fame. I don t want to be any where where you hain t, Samantha." His tenderness touched my heart, and I kep still and let him go on, only I merely remarked 336 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " As for its bein melodious, Josiah, your first line has got 2 words in it, and your last one seventeen." "Wall," sez he, "that s the way with great writers they warm with their subject as they go on, and git all het up with inspiration. Jest think of Browning and Walt Whitman." Sez I, " Don t go to comparin that verse of yourn with Browning. Why, folks know what you wuz a-writin about ! Don t compare yourself with Robert Browning." He see in a minute his deep mistake he see that folks could find out what he d undertook to write about. "Wall, \Valt Whitman," sez he, "he writ jest as long and short lines. I ve seen em to home in that Leaves of Grass Thomas J. owns." "Wall, I wish your grass wuz to home, too," sez I ; " but," sez I, a-sithin hard, " I ve got to stand it, I spoze. But," sez I warmly, "there hain t a spot, from Egypt to Jonesville, but what I d ruther had you broke out into poetry in than in this house." And I turned onto my heel and left him, feelin cheap as dirt about it, though I comforted myself with the thought that his poetry wuzn t the only foolish lines writ there. I believe that if Shakespeare s ghost comes back JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 337 and hants this old spot as it seems likely to spoze it duz about the hardest thing it has to bear is to read the effusions writ all over the walls and in the visitors book, though some on em are quite good. Prince Lucian writ a very good verse. But, then, he writ in it that " He shed jest one tear." How under the sun anybody can make calculations ahead on sheddin jest one tear, no more, no less, is a mystery to me, and it must have been jest out of one eye, and not the other. But bein a Prince, I Spoze he done it SHAKESPEARE S GHOST READING THE EFFUSIONS ON THE WALLS OF HIS HOUSE. but I never could. I couldn t calculate closter than a dozen or twenty before I begun to cry, and I couldn t cry with one eye and keep the other dry to save my life. 33$ SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Our own Washington Irving writ quite a good verse, and so did the American Hackett the best actor of some of Shakespeare s characters. Lots of actors have left their names in the room where the poet wuz born Edmund Kean, Charles Kean, and a great many others. And in the visit ors book you see writin s from kings to chore- boys, and lines in every language English, Ger man, French, Chinese, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, etc., etc., etc. The Poet of the World has the world come to do honor to his memory. Next to the thought that I wuz under the ruff that bent over the head of Shakespeare wuz to see the writin of some who had writ their names on the low walls. Charles Dickens ! Why, jest to look on that one name, writ by his own hand, would have been enough, if I had been to home, to furnished me with deep emotions for ten days. Nobody knows what my feelin s have always been for that man. It hain t quite so fashionable to love Dickens now as it ust to be. The world has grown older and more genteel, and seems to prize more the writin s it can t understand the vaguer ones and more cross like, and morbid, " Is Life Worth Living " " No, it hain t." JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 339 11 How to be Happy though Married." Ibsen, Tolstoi, etc., etc., etc., and so forth and so on. But I lay out to like Dickens till, like Barkis, the high water comes, and " I go out with the tide." So his name, the Master, I laid my hand on t, and had ninety-seven emotions durin that time, and I presoom more, though truly I didn t count em. And Thackeray, who laughs with us over the weaknesses of humanity, yet once in a great while strikes sech a hard and onexpected blow onto our hearts and feelin s, that we look right under that cynical veil he chose to wear, and see the great, tender heart of the man. His name, writ by his own hand, gin me powerful emotions, and sights on em. Lord Byron s name rousted me up some. Poor, onhappy, restless creeter ! I wuz always sorry for him sorry he wuz so mean and grand too dretful grand. I spoze he wuz so onhappy that he couldn t help lettin it run off the ends of his fingers some times onto the paper. Some of his poetry uplifts you, like bein on a mountain-top in a storm, and some is like a calm moonlight night in the tropics, and still there is some on t that I never felt willin that Josiah Allen 340 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. should read I felt that it would be resky to allow it. As I looked at his signature I instinctively sez over to myself a verse of hisen, that always seemed to be kinder open-hearted, and ownin up, and had a good deal of human nater in it. Some despair and some plain curosity they always seem to touch a chord in everybody s nater I guess that most everybody sometimes feels jest about so, jest so kinder curous to know what is comin next " My whole life was a contest since the day That gave me being And I at times have found the struggle hard, And thought of shaking off my bonds of clay ; But now I fain would for a time survive, If but to see what next can well arrive !" Wall, he see the last thing arrive that we know anything about here. What come next, after he shet his eyes in Greece (dyin nobly, anyway) we can t tell. But probble the one who formed that strange soul knew jest what it needed the most, and deserved. Probble that was the "The next thing that ar rived." But I am indeed a-eppisodin , and to resoom Then there wuz Sir Walter Scott, and Tennyson, and Longfellow, and everybody else, as you may say, who have distinguished themselves in literature JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 341 and art, and lots of Lords and Ladies, but them I didn t mind so much, knowin that for the most part that they had been born into their lofty places onbeknown to em, but the others had made the high pinnacles for themselves, and then stood up on em. In another room we see lots of relicks of the past. Josiah nudged me once or twict a-lookin at em, I spoze to call attention to his poetry and his doubts. But I declined to be nudged, and never looked up at him at all, but kep my eye on the relicks. One is a seal ring of Shakespeare s, with his initials, W. S., tied together with a true lover s knot. It wuz found near Stratford meetin -house, twenty years ago and over, and is spozed to be really his ring, as he said sunthin in his will that shows that he had lost his seal ring. Then there is a letter writ to Shakespeare by Richard Quincy, askin the loan of some money. I sez to Josiah, " Whether he got it or not, if he could come back now he could sell that letter of hisen for enough to make him comfortable." " Yes," sez Josiah ; " I would give fifty cents for it myself, or seventy-five, if he would take it in pro visions." " Hush !" sez I, "you couldn t git it for that, for this letter, I feel, is genuine. It seems so nateral, 34 2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. borrowin money of a writer. Why," sez I, " truth is stomped onto it." Then there wuz the desk that Shakespeare sot at when a boy. A rough, battered desk it. wuz, with the lid lifted by leather hinges. I sot down to it and leaned my head onto my hand and thought thought of how he felt when he wuz a-settin at it, and wondered if he had boy ish joys or boyish sorrers jest like the rest of children. And if he scribbled poetry when he ort to be study- in his rithmetic, and whether old Miss Shakespeare, his ma, sent him off to school happy, with fond words and a kiss, or kinder mad from a spankin . To spank Shakespeare ! My soul revolted from the thought. Or whether, while he sot here, he studied his schoolmates and teachers with eyes that must have held some fur-seein wisdom in em even at that age, or whether his mind wuz- all took up with goin in a-swimmin in the clear waters of Avon, or a-goin a huntin , or a-nuttin in his rich neighbor s woods, Sir Thomas Lucy, who looked down with sech disdain on William when a boy and a young man, and now whose only earthly chance of bein held in any remembrance is the fact that he misused Shakespeare. JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 343 But theft mebby William wuz tryin , boys are sometimes. I wondered if while he wuz a-settin here where I sot any dreams of Anne Hathaway begun to come into his brain. She must have been about eighteen, allowin that William wuz ten ; mebby some dreams of the pretty young girl hanted the boy s vision, edgin themselves in between thoughts of play and study. But before long them little dreams wuz a-goin to rise up and push every other vision out of his mind. And then there wuz Shakespeare s jug, and the old sign of the Falcon I hated to see em. And some old deeds and documents relatin to his father s property, from John Shackspere and Mary his wyfle, and a deed with Gilbert Shaks- pere s autograph on it. And lots of engravin s of different places about Stratford, and a great many portraits of Shake speare. Poor creeter ! if he and Columbus have got acquainted with each other where they be now, as I spoze it is nateral to think they have, how they must sympathize with each other over the numerous faces they wuz said to have had on this planet ! Noble creeters, it wuz too bad, when they only had one apiece, and good, noble-lookin ones, I most A GREAT MANY PORTRAITS OF SHAKESPEARE. JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 345 know, or fhey wuz, anyway, when they got older, for Time, the sculptor, must have sculped some of their noble traits into their faces. Martin and Alice bought quite a number of steroscopic views, and I bought a few, and would, though Josiah looked askance at me as I did it, and we left the cottage. But I laid my hand on the doorway as I went out, as though it wuz a shrine, as indeed it wuz. Wall, havin seen the place where he wuz born, we naterally wanted to see the place where he is a-layin , where " After life s fitful fever he sleeps well," havin " Ended the heartache, and all the natural ills that flesh is heir to." So we sot out for Holy Trinity Church. New Place, as it wuz called, where Shakespeare spent the last days of his life, and where his girl entertained Queen Henriette, wuz torn down in 1757 by its owner, who had moved away, and didn t want to pay the heavey taxes levied on it. While livin there, he had cut down the mulberry-tree Shake speare planted, because folks thronged into his garden so, and cut off twigs, etc., for relicks ; so he cut it down. It seems mean in him, and then, on the other hand, it would be hard for us to be broke in on any hour of the day, sometimes when we had a hard 346 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. headache, and wanted to set quiet under our own vine and mulberry-tree, to have a gang of enthu- siastick tourists come, and not only break up your quiet, but break off your branches over your achin head, and mebby recite Shakespeare right there in broad daylight, and declaim, and elocute, and act. It would be tuff tuff both ways. But the young folks of Stratford wuzn t megum they didn t try to see on all sides, as she who wuz once Smith tries to do, so they used to pelt his winder with stuns and things, so he moved out. And much as I honor and revere Shakespeare, I feel kinder sorry for the man, mebby because nobody else seems to say a decent word for him. But I believe he see trouble, with taxes, tourists, elocution, and sech. And because our eyes are sot on a blazin sun that is shinin high in the Heavens, it hain t no sign that we ort to kick over every kerosene lamp and candle that we come acrost. No ; less be jest to all, and respect what is respectable in em, and be sorry for humble trials, as well as proud of lofty glories. But to resoom The house that stands on the spot now is owned by the town, and is a museum of Shakespeare s relicks and souvneirs. It is need less to say how many emotions I had as I walked onwards towards the tomb of the greatest writer who has ever appeared on our planet in fact, I JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 347 couldn t cotfnt em or begin to, if there wuz any need on t. Nor nobody couldn t see the crowd that walked with me King Lear, with sweet Cordelia a kinder holdin him up ; eloquent Portia, Lady Macbeth the Henrys and Richards the bright-faced Shrew that wuz tamed Prince Hamlet Ophelia a-bab- blin her love ditties Imogene poor Desdemona, and her folks, and etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. How they pressed round me ! a great deal nigher to me than Adrian wuz, though I wuz a-leadin him by the hand. The church stands near the banks of the sweet Avon. And we went up to it by a avenue of trees, and through a great Gothic door, into a porch that led into the church itself. The old sexton, who had onlocked the door for us, at our request led us right up to the monument, which is in a niche in the chancel, and is spozed to be a perfect likeness, as it wuz made by a sculptor who wuz acquainted with Shakespeare, and who had a death mask to work from. There he stands or sets, as the case may be, for a sort of a marble cushion comes up in front of him, and you can t see quite to the bottom of his vest. He stands (or sets) with that high, noble forward 348 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. and good-lookin featers, and eyes that look clear through your soul, and that deep collar of hisen on, under a arch that has some cupids up on each side on top, and coats-of-arms, and skulls, and things. And there he has stood (or sot) through the cen turies, jest as I spoze he would wanted to, with a paper in one hand and a pen in the other, to all appearance a-writin , and the hull world a-rcadin it. In front of the altar rails are the marble slabs over the graves of the Shakespeare family, among them his wife, Anne Hathaway ; it reads as follers " Here lyeth interred the body of Anne, Wife of William Shakspere, who depted this life the 6 day of Aug. 1623, being of the age of 67 years." Another slab marks the grave of Susanna, the poet s daughter. But, of course, the slab that gin me the biggest sized emotions, and the greatest number on em, wuz the one over the poet, which has these mysterious and immortal lines on t " Good friend, for Jesu s sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare ; Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones, And cursed be he yt moves my bones." I had a immense emotions of or as I read these words, and dassent hardly lay my hand on t. But JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 349 made up my mind that as I didn t have no idee of movin his bones, and laid out to spare the stuns, I might venter. There are them that think that some great secret wuz buried with Shakespeare them are the ones that are so sot on thinkin that Bacon wuz the one who writ the great plays, and they say in this very inscription is hid in cypher a confession that Bacon writ em. But I didn t seem to think so, nor Josiah didn t, though he wuz all took up with the idee of the cypher, as Martin broached it. Sez he, " How beautiful it would be, and how stylish, to write to you when you re off on your towers with a cypher ! I could write it in poetry, and it would be so uneek, and if I wanted to complain to you about the children, or Ury, or anything, how handy it would be !" " But," I sez, " in answer to that idee of yourn, I can quote to you the first line of Shakespeare s epitaph, and I feel it, too," sez I. He went back and read it over agin, and come back lookin real puggicky. But I see that other folks had felt jest as I did about disturbin the slab, for it looked fresh and new, while the other ones near it wuz all worn with the footprints of time and the tourists ; and when 350 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. the poet s wife and daughter died, they wanted dretful to be laid by William, but they dassent open the grave. The curse he threatened held em back. Queer ! I wish I knew what he meant by it, but can t ; the silence of three hundred years can t be broke by one small woman s voice, or ruther one woman s small voice. No answer comes to our deep wonder and curosity. In this church is the font where Shakespeare wuz baptized this wuz in the church at the time of his birth, but wuz took out in the seventeenth century, and replaced by a new one ; this old one lay for years in a heap of rubbish, and wuz used for a pump trough for a spell jest think on t ! There is other interestin things in the church, but we didn t wait to see em. We went out and wandered for a spell around the quaint streets of Stratford. Every shop almost has souvneirs to sell of the great man busts and medallions and picters of him and his home, and his tomb, and carvin s, engravin s, etc., etc. I would buy a plate with his birthplace on t, though Josiah demurred. Sez he, " I always thought you wuz so peticular, Samantha, what you eat on, and the idee of eatin on Shakespeare cow-slop greens, for instance, or pork and beans." THE FONT IN WHICH SHAKESPEARE WAS BAPTIZED JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 351 I sez, " Tt hain t Shakespeare s face." " Wall, eatin cabbage and onions on a meetin - house." "It is his house," sez I. " Wall," sez he, " custard and Shakespeare s birthplace." "Wall," sez I, "what of it what of custard and Shakespeare ?" My tone wuz cold cold as ice, and it danted him, and he sez " Oh, wall, if you can reconcile em, and bring em together, buy it- It wuz the money he begreched, though you could git em from a sixpence up. I gin a shillin for mine. It wuz a good plate. Wall, we went acrost the old bridge, over the clear waters of the Avon. And we visited the Memorial Hall, a big buildin built in honor of the poet s three hundredth anniversary. It has a theatre to act out Shakespeare s plays on Memorial days, and a library filled with the vol umes that have been writ about him, and the picter gallery is filled with picters, some on em different faces of hisen, and them relatin to his life and writin s. It wuz a interestin spot, and I would have loved to lingered in it longer, and so would Alice and Al Faizi, but Josiah wuz tired out, and he sed to me aside 352 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " It is most night and I am starved to death !" Sez he, " I hain t most starved, but starved." " Wall," sez I, "we shall have to do what Martin sez." " Martin !" he whispered enough to take my head off " Martin ! Can he suffer and die for me, do you think ?" And then he reviled me for nor havin some cookies and cheese with me. And I asked him if I could be expected to make a restoraunt of myself, and lug round cookies and cheese for him all over Europe. And we had some words. But the expression of his face wuz pitiful in the extreme when Martin come up, and sez he " Without doubt it would be expected of me to visit Shottery and see Anne Hathaway s cottage. And as my time is limited, and I have already wasted nearly a day of my valuable time in noticing Shakespeare, I think that we had better do up the whole of this weary job to-night ; so I propose that we go at once from here to Shottery." And he hurried out to the carriage. Josiah whispered to me in a feeble voice, " He needn t use any Shottery on me or stabbery or any other killery, I shall fall dead without em. I can not stand it, Samantha !" sez he. He did indeed look wan ; weariness and hunger JOSIAH HAS AN ADVENTURE. 353 had made sad inroads on his mean, and my heart melted, and I hurried out to see if I could gain Martin s consent to wait till mornin before we went. But no ! He said he knew that he should be asked if he had seen the cottage, and he could not waste another day on a writer of books and the girl he married. Alice come out jest then a-lookin considerable pale, and I sez, " It is goin to be pretty hard on Alice and Adrian ; they are pretty tired now." "Are they?" sez he. That man would have jumped into the Avon if it would have pleased either of em. He worships em. And then he sez, " I suppose I can stay over another day." Sez he, " They are of the first importance." Josiah sez to me aside " Dear Samantha, you have saved my life !" And the supper that man eat wuz so enormous that I whispered " Have I saved you, Josiah, to lose you now ? saved you on the road and relicks, to lose you on a plate and deep dish ?" And he didn t like it. THE SUPPER THAT MAN EAT WUZ ENORMOUS. CHAPTER XVIII. SIIOTTERV AND WARWICK CASTLE. WALL, the next mornin we sot out bright and early for Shottery, Josiah feel in as peart as you please, and the two children s faces lookin like roses. Al Faizi s eyeswux bent on the biggest and sweetest rose, as you may say, with a worshippin look, that nobody noticed but she who wuz once Smith. We found the cottage a long, low buildin , lookin as old as the hills, though, like em, there didn t seem to be no signs of fallin down and decayin . They say it is in jest the condition it wuz \vhen gentle Anne Hathaway lived here, and drawed William over here so often by the strong magnetism of love. The walls wuz kinder criss-crossed, lookin some like Shakespeare s cottage, and the ruff W T UZ kinder histed up in places, down towards the eaves, into gabriel ends. And some birds wuz playin and wheelin round the chimblys. They might have been to all appearance the very same birds that sang round the latticed winders of Anne s room, and SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 355 waked rffcr up on summer mornin s, a-sayin to her, as they wheeled round and round it, in the rosy dawn - " Will is coming to-day to see you ! Will loves you ! Will loves you !" I presoom the birds wuz relations to them very ones grandchildren, " removed" a great number of times. If birds keep a family tree and plume themselves on their ancestors (and trees and plumes comes nateral to em), I presoom they talk this over amongst themselves ; mebby that wuz jest what they wuz a-talkin about that day, a-twitterin - about legends a-flyin down from the past How the happy, eager-faced lover ust to come to see their pretty Anne, and how her heart wuz won, and she went out of the old house a happy bride with the man of her heart, who wuz not an illustrious man to her at all, but only Will, Will Shakespeare, the man she loved, and who loved her. How they did chirp and talk sunthin over ! I d no what it wuz. Inside wuz some old-fashioned furniture, amongst the rest a bed that ust to belong to Miss Shake speare, she that wuz Anne Hathaway. Mebby it wuz the same bedstead that her pardner left her in his will 356 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " His second-best bed and beef furniture." It seems as if he hadn t ort to done it ; it seems as if she ort to had the best one. Howsumever, there might be reasons that I don t know nothin of that influenced him. Mebby they d had words over it ; mebby she d told him that she wouldn t take it as a gift, and that he needn t give it to her ; mebby she thought it wuz extravagant in him to buy it, and throwed it in his face that as much as he paid for it, it wuz nothin but hens feathers, and the second-best bed, the one her ma had gin her, wuz as good agin and softer lay in . I d no, nor nobody don t. Anyway, he willed it to her, and I presoom it wuz on this very bedstead it wuz put ; it gin me queer emotions to look on t, and a sight on em. Wall, Martin sed that as the day wuz partially wasted, we might jest as well drive over and see Warwick Castle ; it wuz only eight milds drive. The old town of Warwick is about eighteen hundred years old, and dates back to the time of the Romans. But, as Martin well sed, " Think of a town over eighteen hundred years old with only ten thousand inhabitants, and then," sez he, a-leanin back in the carriage and puttin his thumbs in his vest pockets a-pityin and a-patronizin the Old World dretfully SH OTTER Y AND WARWICK CASTLE. 357 " Thin.k of Chicago, about fifty years old and with a population of about forty hundred thousand " he spread out the population a purpose. He owns lots of real estate in Chicago, and is always a-puffm it up. Sez he, " They haven t got public enterprise and push over here, as we have." But his tone kinder grated on my nerve some how, and I spoke up and sez " They don t base their reputation on a mob of folks, and beef and pork ; they have sunthin more solider and more riz up like." But I ll be hanged if I didn t have to change my mind a little afterwards, of which more anon. You see I had heard Thomas J. read a sight about the old Saxon earls of Warwick, and specially Guy Warwick in the time of Alfred the Great (you know the man that fried them pancakes and burnt em, and had other great reverses, but come out right in the end, as men always do who are willin to help wimmen in their housework). I always bore strong on this great moral when Thomas J. would be a-readin these deeds to me (I thought he might jest as well wipe a few dishes for me once in a while as well as not). And he d read " how Guy killed a Saxon giant nine feet tall, and a 358 SAMAXTHA IX EUROPE. wild boar, and a green dragon, and killed an enor mous cow." At the porter s lodge we see the rib of that cow, and Josiah said, " You sed that they didn t date back any of their greatness to beef ; what do you call this ? Why," sez he, " Ury and I kill a cow almost every fall ; nothin is said in history of it ; you don t set any more store bv me." I see that I had done the man on jest ice, and I sez tenderly, " You are a good provider of beef, Josiah, and always have been ; but," sez I, " this cow wuz probble twice the size of one of your Jerseys. You couldn t wear that breastplate, or swing that great tiltin -pole, or the enormous sword that hangs up there," sez I, "you couldn t move em hardly with both hands, and," sez I, " look at that immense porridge-pot of hisen ; you couldn t eat that full of porridge, as he probble did." " Try me !" sez he, earnestly " jest try me, that s all." Sez he, " I could eat every spunful and ask for more." . And there it wuzn t much after noon. That man s appetite is a wonder to me and has been ever sence I took it in charge. And foreign travel, which I thought mebby would kind o quell it down, only seems to whet it up to a sharper edge. The way to the castle is through a large gateway, SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 359 and theji we go through a roadway which is cut through solid rock for more n a hundred feet, and then when you come out, you suddenly git a full view 7 of the grand old castle, with its strong walls and noble old Round towers. The first is Guy s Tower, one hundred and twenty- eight feet high, and has walls ten feet thick jest think on t ! the walls further acrost than our best bedroom. Then there is Caesar s Tower, eight hundred years old and one hundred and fifty feet high, and between these towers the gray, strong old castle walls, with slits in"em for the bowmen to shoot their arrers out of, and port cullises and old moat, showin " You COULDN T EAT THAT FULL OF PO: that the castle m its young days had everything for its comfort and defence. En- terin one of the arched gateways in the wall, you find yourself on the velvet grass and amongst the stately old trees of a spacious courtyard, with the ivy-covered walls and towers and battlements risin on every side of it. We walked round up on them walls dumb up into Guy s Tower and looked off on a glorious land scape, as beautiful as any picter, and went down 360 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. below Caesar s Tower into some dungeons ; gloomy places of sorrer, filled even now with the atmosphere of pain and agonized memories. The great hall, sixty-two feet by forty, with oak ceilin and walls darkened by time and covered with carvin s, has firearms of all kinds, and splendid armor of all ages English crossbows, wicked- lookin Italian rapiers, weepons of all kinds inlaid with gold and silver in the most elegant workman ship. We see Prince Rupert s armor, Cromwell s helmet, a gun from the battlefield of Marston Moor. And, in fact, all round you you see the most elegant and curous curosities, and can look down the hull length of the grand apartments that open into each other, a length of three hundred and thirty feet the red drawin -room, the gilt drawin -room, the cedar drawin -room, etc., etc. At the end of a little hall leadin from the great hall I see the noted picter of Charles ist on horse back, with one hand on his side. I declare, it actually seemed as if he wuz a-goin to ride right in here amongst us, it wuz so perfectly nateral. It wuz painted by Vandyke. I don t see how Vandyke ever done it I couldn t. The apartments are all furnished beautiful: beau tiful. Cabinets, bronzes, exquisite old china, mag- SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 361 nificent^anteek furniture, and the most rare and beautiful picters are on every side by Rubens, Sir Peter Lely, Hans Holbein, Salvator Rosa, Rem brandt, Vandyke, Guido, Andrea del Sarto, Teniers, Murillo, Paul Veronese. And beautiful marble busts by Chantrey, Powers, etc. There wuz a lovely table that once wuz owned by Marie Antoinette. And others had rarest vases on em, and wonderful enamelled work of glass and china, with raised fig- gers on em, made by floatin the metals in glass ; nobody in the world knows now how to make em. One dish we see wuz worth one thousand pounds. As I see this I nudged Josiah, and sez I, "When you think of what this dish is worth, hain t you ashamed of standin out about that plate ?" And he said " It wuz the sperit of the thing I looked at, mixin Shakespeare up with vittles ; though," sez he, " I would gladly eat now off en a angel or a seraphin ; why," sez he, " St. Peter himself wouldn t dant me." " Wall," sez I, " we ll be havin dinner before long." We laid out to eat at Warwick before we went back. Sez I, " Look round you and let your soul grow by takin in these noble sights." Sez I, " Look at them bronzes and tortoise-shell and ivory and mosaic." 362 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Sez he, " I d swop the hull lot of em, if they be longed to me, for a plate of nut eakes or a bologna sassige. And I d ruther see a good platter of pork and beans than the hull on em !" I knew he wouldn t complain so much alone, so I left him and sauntered round to look at the beautiful objects on every side. In the state bedroom is the bed that belonged to Queen Anne, and the table and trunks that she used, also her picter. In the grand dinin hall is a great sideboard, made from a oak that grew on the Kenil- worth estate, so old that they spoze it wuz standin when Queen Elizabeth come here to the castle a-visitin . The carvin s on it show the comin of Queen Elizabeth and her train, her meetin with sweet Amy Rob- sart in the grotto, the queen s meetin with Leices ter, etc., etc. Jest as I wuz a-lookin at this and a-standin be fore it in deep thought, Martin come on out of the drawin -room, and sez he ["HE MORE I SEE OF MOATS, THE MORE DETER- INKI) I BE TO HAVE ONE ROUND OUR HOUSE." SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 363 " A wonderful display of art and virtu !" sez he. My eye wuz bent on that sideboard, and I sez " I d no as I d call it a display of virtue I don t believe I would." I W T UZ sorry for Miss Leicester sorry as a dog. Though when I see the epitaph she put above that handsome, fascinatin mean creeter (her hus band), put it over him her own self, when he wuzn t by her to skair her and make her stand up for him as pardners will sometimes I d no as I wuz very sorry for her. Thinkses I, She either didn t know enough to know what her pardner wuz up to, or else she wuz sech a fool she didn t care about it. In either case I felt that my sympathy wuz wasted of which epitaph more anon. Wall, we went through a place in the wall they called a portcullis, and over a bridge called a moat. And Josiah nudged me here, and sez he, " The more I see of moats, the more determined I be to have one round our house." Sez he, " How stylish it would be and how handy ! When you see com pany comin you didn t want, or peddlers or agents or anything, jest pull back your drawbridge, and there you d be safe and sound." Sez he, " I ve wanted one for years, and now I m bound on havin 364 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. one." Sez he, " Ury and I will start one the min ute I git home." Sez I, " You won t do any sech thing." " Why," sez he, a-arguin , u it would be a boon to you, Samantha ; hain t I hearn you groan when on- expected company driv up, and you wuz out of cookin or cleanin house or anything? All you d have to do would be jest to speak to Ury or me, and jest as they wuz a-comin along, a-thinkin of dinner mebby, a-wonderin what you d have bang ! would go the drawbridge, and they d jest have to back up, and turn round and go home." " Yes," sez I ; " how could I face em the next Sunday in meetin ? It hain t feasible," sez I. " Face em ?" sez he ; " if they said anything, tell em to start a moat of their own ; tell em you couldn t keep house without one." " Oh, shaw !" sez I ; " come and look at this vase." And, indeed, we had entered a greenhouse full of the most beautiful flowers and rare plants, and wuz even then in front of the famous Warwick vase. It is a huge, round, white marble vase that holds one hundred and thirty-six gallons, with clusters of grapes and leaves and tendrils ; and vine branches, exquisitely wrought, run round the top and form the tw r o large handles, with other designs full of SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 365 grace and beauty all wrought in it. How old this vase is nobody knows, but it wuz used by somebody probbly centuries before old Warwick Castle wuz ever thought on. Who wuz it that drinked out of it ? How did they look ? How come it sunk in the bottom of the lake ? I d no, nor Josiah don t. It wuz found at the bottom of a lake near Tivoli by Sir William Hamilton, Ambassador then at the court of Naples. I gazed pensively on the vine-clad spear of Mr. Bacchus carved on it, and sez I to Jo siah " How true it is that that sharp spear that Mr. Bacchus brandishes is covered with beautiful vines and flowers at first ; but it stabs," sez I " it stabs hard, and," sez I, "who knows but somebody that had been pierced to the heart by that spear of hisen, a-reachin em mebby through the ruined life of some loved one who knows but what he got so sick of seein them symbols of drinkin revels that he jest pitched it into the lake ?" "Keep on!" sez Josiah, "keep on! I believe you d keep up your dum temperance talk if you wuz on the way to the scaffold." "That would be the time to preach it," sez I ; " scaffolds is jest what drinkin revels lead to, and 366 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. if it wuz my last words, mebby folks would pay some attention to what I said." " Wall, wait till then," sez he. "I have got to have a little rest. I am dyin for a little food, and if I git through this day alive I have got to be careful, and let my cars rest anyway." He did indeed look quite bad, and I sez sooth- in ly "Wall, Martin will be for goin back before long now. He is gittin hungry himself ; I heard him say so." We didn t stop to but one more place on our way back to the tarvern where we had dinner, and that wuz to that old horsepital founded by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in 1571. It wuz meant in the first place for one Master and twelve breth- eren, the bretheren to be of the Earl s servants, or his soldiers who had been injured in battle. But now they are appointed from W T arwick and Gloucester, and have a comfortable livin . It wuz quite likely in Robert to build this horse pital a old-fashioned-lookin place enough in 1895. But sech likely deeds as this couldn t cover up his black performances. The chapel is an elegant buildin , built for a memorial to the great Earl of Warwick, the first in the Norman line, and his elaborate tomb is here. SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 367 But ifrwuz in this chapel where I see the epitaph of which I spoke more formerly. It is over the tomb of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the one Queen Elizabeth thought so much on. There I see the epitaph I despised. On the tomb are the recumbent riggers of Leicester and his pardner, the Countess Lettice. Probbly about the only time they wuz ever so nigh to each other without quarrellin , and this epitaph sez, after givin all his titles more n enough of em "His most sorrowful wife Letitia, through a sense of conjugal love and fidelity, has put up this monument to the best and dearest of husbands." She must have been a fool, for besides his goin s on with the queen w r hich would made me as jealous as a dog a learned writer says " According to every appearance of probability, he poisoned his first wife, disowned his second, dis honored his third before he married her, and in order to marry her, murdered her first husband, while his only surviving son was a natural child by Lady Sheffield." "The best of husbands!" What wuz Lettice a-thinkin on ? She d no need to put his actin s and cuttin s up on a tombstun. I wouldn t advised her to ; but I should say to her " Now, Lettice, 368 SAM AMI I A IN EUROl K. you jest put onto that gravestun a good, plain Bible verse The Lord be merciful to me, a sin ner, or, Now the weary are at rest, " or sunthin like that I should have convinced her. But, then, I wuzn t there I wuz born a few hundred years too late, and so it had to be ; but it made me feel bad to see it. I want my sect to have a little self- respect. Al Faizi is dretful well-read in history, and he took out that little book of hisen, and copied off the hull of the inscription on Leicester s tomb, all the glowin eulogy of his glorious deeds, which he knew wuz false. He didn t say nothin , as usual, but looked quite a good deal as he writ. I didn t say nothin to him, but Josiah will att him once in a w r hile about his writin , and he sez now "What are you a-writin about, Fazer ?" He turned his dreamy, pleasant eyes onto us, and seemed to be lookin some distance through us and beyend us, and the light from the East winder fell warm on his face as he sez evasively " Your missionaries tell our people to always tell the truth that we will be lost if we do not." " Wall," sez Josiah, "that is true." Al Faizi didn t reply to him, but kep on a-writin . SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 369 Wall, happy man wuz my pardner as we re turned to the tarvern, and a good, refreshin meal of vittles wuz spread before him. He done jestice to it full jestice yes, indeed ! Wall, the next mornin we sot out for the Lake Deestrict, accordin to Martin s first plan, which he d changed some. Sez Martin, as we wuz talkin it over that evenin - " It would, perhaps, be expected of me to go on and visit Oxford." " Yes," sez I warmly, "Thomas J. has read so much to me about Tom Brown at Oxford, it would be highly interestin to see the places Tom thought so much on." " Yes," sez Alice with enthoosiasm, " and where Richard the Lion-hearted was born, and where Alfred the Great lived." Sez Josiah, " I wouldn t give a cent to see where he lived. I. despise fryin flap-jacks, and always did, and if a man undertakes to fry em, he ort to tend to em and not let em burn." But Alice went right on, "And think of being in the place which William the Conqueror in vaded !" "And," sez Al Faizi, "where Latimer, and Rid ley, and Cranmer were burned at the stake for their religion by Bloody Mary." 370 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. It beat all how well-read that, heathen is he knows more than the schoolmaster at Jonesville, enough sight. But sez Martin, with his thumbs inside of them armholes of hisen "It is not for any such trifling reasons that I would visit Oxford, but, as I say, it un doubtedly would be ex pected of me, if it was known at Oxford that I was so near, that I would give a little of my valua ble time to them ; for there, I have thought hard of sending my son to finish his education. " For as you know, Cousin Samantha, my boy is to have the best and costliest education that money can give. His future is in the hands of one who will look out sharply for the very best and most valuable means of education. It is not as if he were a common child. But he is my little Partner- are you not, Adrian ?" sez he fondly to the little I AM GOING TO WORK FOR THE POOR. SHOTTERV AND WARWICK CASTLE. 3/1 boy, wko wuz lookin dreamily out of the win der. Adrian turned, and the gold of the settin sun wuz on his sweet face. " Your father will look out for your future, little Partner ; we will work together for your good, will we not, my boy ?" Mebby it wuz because I sot there so nigh meb- by it wuz the perfume of the English voyalets Alice had pinned into the front of my bask, jest like em I wore that day, but, anyway, some recollec tion seemed to take him back to that time at Jones- ville, for he sez, jest as he did then " I am going to work for the poor." " Ah, indeed !" sez Martin, smilin , u and how will you do it, little Partner ?" Agin he turned his sweet face towards us, and agin the big, earnest eyes and sweet, serious mouth wuz gilded by the glowin , yet sad smile of the sinkin sun. And he sez simply, " I don t quite know how, Father, but I know I shall work for them, and help them in some way." Wall, Martin dismissed the matter with a laugh, but I kep the words in my heart, and believed em. I believed truly that the Lord would lead him, and make him do His work. 372 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Wall, I kinder wanted to visit Mugby Junction, as Dickens named Rugby Junction. It wuzn t fur from Warwick, and I d loved to seen it, and eat one of them sandwitches, and been glared at by the female in charge there, and her help, and seen her poor, browbeat husband and the />Vr, but didn t know as they wuz all alive. And if they wuz, as Josiah well sed, sez he. " My stumick is bad enough now, without eatin leather sandwitches." And I sez, " I d love to give em my recipe for good yeast bread, and I d willin ly tell em how to make delicious sandwitches, and not ask a cent for it." Sez I, " Take good minced chicken, or lamb, and a little mustard and sweet butter, and a pinch of minced onions and But Josiah interrupted me, They d only look stunily at you if you offered your services ; why," sez he, "they always look as if they feel so much above you at our railroad stations to home, that you want to crawl into your hand-bag and git out of their way. They d despise your overtoors." "Wall," sez I, "my conscience would be clear, and travellers nightmairs wouldn t be so frequent." But d bystander observed that they had good sandwitches there now. SHOTTERY AND WARWICK CASTLE. 373 Havip been turned round in their stuny and leather course, by Dickens, I spoze. So we packed up our things and started in pretty good sperits for the Lake Deestrict. CHAPTER XIX. THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. WE went to Windermere, and from there took the omnibus for Bow ness- One of the charmin est little villages I ever sot my eyes on, as clean as my kitchen is when I git it all swept out. The housen are all built of stun, and some on em have little porches built out on em, but all on em overrun with ivy. And flowers and pretty climbin plants make every house at tractive, and not a mite of dust or dirt I wonder what they do with it ? The little tarvern where we stayed wuz so clean and comfortable that I wondered what the tarvern- keeper and his wife would say if they wuz sot down in some of our own small hotels. It wuz a lesson in perfect neatness and order, the hull place wuz. And the landscapes all round the little village wuz pretty enough to frame, and we see em more or less all the while we stayed there ; we made our headquarters there, and sallied out for excursions, a-lookin on picters on every side on us green grass and foliage, high, tree-covered hills, little, THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. 375 lovely, clean, picturesque villages like them I have described, magnificent country seats, with grand en trances and porters lodges, and stately green parks, and fountains, and deers, and sleek herds of cattle walkin through on the velvet grass and green tree aisles, and cottages, and quaint old bridges, and dark stun churches half covered with ivy. Bowness is on the shores of the lake. As I say, we put up at a good tarvern, and the next day we sot out on our sight-seein . The waiter at the tarvern told us as we sot out on our first excursion that we had better take our waterproofs and umbrells. It is needless to say that I had my faithful um- brell in my hand, but the rest hadn t, so they got theirn, and I went back for my waterproof, and glad enough we wuz, for before night we wuz ketched out in four different showers good drivin ones, but short. Martin, who had been ust to fur bigger lakes- Michigan, Ontario, Superior, and sech wuz bitterly dissapinted in em, and sez he " A trout out of Lake Superior would die of thirst in one of these lakes." And Josiah, who had been up on our lakes on a tower, sed that those lakes would make a pretty good waterin trough for American cattle ; sez he, 3/6 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "There would be in each one of em as much as an ordinary Yankee cow would want to drink." I see the driver a-lookin on in deep surprise, and sez I, " Josiah Allen, remember you are a deacon ; let it be known to once that you are talkin in parables." " Wall," sez he, " I would want to be took in that way, but they re dum small potatoes compared to our lakes." " But they re beautiful," sez I, 44 and are full of tender associations." Sez I, " Look at the poets that have hallowed these sacred spots Coleridge, and Southey, and Wordsworth, and Mrs. Hemans, and" " Wall," sez Josiah, interruptin me, " on our lakes there is me, and But I turned away in silent scorn, and looked out on the beauty of the seen. Lovely picters lay round us on every side wooded shores, lovely islands, glowin waters a paneramy of beauty never to be forgot. Dove s Nest, which wuz once the home of Mrs. Hemans, I looked on with a deep interest, for though Felishy and I didn t think alike about little Casey Bianky, who " stood on the burnin deck," and I should have approved of his runnin away before he got burnt up, still I respected her THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. 377 for quite a number of things, and as I meditated on the poets who had loved this beautiful place, and lived here and wrote their songs, I instinctively thought, in the words of Felishy " Where are these dreamers now ?" The biggest of these lakes are Windermere, Ullswater, Conoston and Durwentwater, but there are a good many others. And they are all, like our Niagara Falls and Thousand Islands, been turned into money-makin shows. Wall, of course we wanted to see " How the waters come down to Lodore." But we wuz dretful dissapinted, for the water didn t come a-sweepin down with the force and fury Mr. Southey described not at all. Josiah, who had hearn Thomas J. read the poem, wuz mad to think it wuzn t so. " And," sez he, in a threatenin way " I could tell Mr. Southey that we didn t know none the better for his tellin * How the waters come down to Lodore. "Why," sez he, "the mill-dam to our buzz-saw mill in Jonesville is furious agin as this, and more noble and impressin lookin by fur, and," sez he, gettin all het up, " I d love to tell Mr. Southey so." 378 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Sez I, " Josiah, don t git nerved up and talk about jawin a man who has been dead for more n fifty years." Sez I, " It don t sound decent in you he meant well." Sez I, " He wuz good to his own family, and then think of how dretful good he wuz to Cole ridge s wife and children ; though, to be sure," sez I, " they wuz relations on Her side." "I understand that," sez Josiah; "he could do that and not deserve any particular thanks to him self. I know how that is." I see he wuz insinuatin sunthin or ruthcr, but I wuzn t browbeat, nor wuzn t led off by him. Sez I- " He writ first-rate prose, and wuz Poet Lauer- ate. " That wuz what might be expected," sez Josiah. I don t exactly know what he did mean by that, and I don t believe he did. " Then," sez I, " he wuz the greatest talker that ever talked. He would talk for hours and hours, without gittin up, or those gittin up that heard him." " I know what that is," sez Josiah ; " that don t raise him in my estimation ; no, Heaven knows it don t!" I hain t the least idee what he meant by that, but THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. 379 he foun^J immegiately that I wouldn t multiply any more words with him. But, as I sez, it wuz a comfort to visit this hant of Southey, and I wuzn t goin to see him run down too much for enlargin a little mite about the power of that waterfall ; as I sez to Josiah " Sunthin ort to be allowed for a poet s license." " Oh, yes, that is so ; I didn t think of it," sez he. " I thought it wuz a barefaced lie. I see," sez he ; "I make use of one of them poet s licenses myself sometimes ; I forgot." Wall, the waters did mean der down in a very languishin and thin sort of a way, and I couldn t deny it, but the sur- roundin s wuz beautiful and the associations hantin and powerful in the extreme. Wall, while we wuz in that neighborhood I see everything I could of the remains of the Lake School of Poets. I told Josiah I wanted to, and he sez " Wall, I d no .as I m a-goin to make much of a effort to see their hants." Sez he, " Probble they got that name, Lake Poet, because their poetry MY TONE CHILLED HIM TO THE VEINS. 380 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. hain t no bigger accordin than the lakes be, and if that is so, I don t want to patronize em." " Patronize !" sez I, lookin several icy cold daggers through him. " I have to stand Martin s demeanors and acts, though they are harrowin to my soul and sickenin to the stumick, but I wont stand by and have my own pardner talk about patronizin Coleridge and Wordsworth." Sez I, Talk about patronizin the man that wrote The Ancient Mariner. My tone chilled him to the veins, and he walked off some distance away. And my mind roamed on that weird and matchless poem I had heard Thomas J. read so much, that I wuz as familiar with as I wuz with the Almanac. How the Ancient Mariner " Held the wedding guests with his glittering eye." And how that belated guest " beat his breast" as he heard the weddin guests pass in, and he havin to set out on a stun by the side of the road, and had to hear this "gray beard loon" tell his story. For the old Mariner knew the one he had to tell it to when the fit come on, and so that weddin guest had to set and hear that most weird and wonderful story ever told. And at last, jest as he released that poor, tuckered- THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. 381 out guest (when the weddin wuz all over, poor dis- sapinted creeter !), how he ended with these lines, so noble they must have mollified that poor, belated creeter " He prayeth best, who loveth best All things, both great and small, For the dear God, who loveth us, He made and loveth all." And then there is the poem of Christabel, another one of my very primest favorites. How many times the truth of some of them lines have been brung up to me in my own native land of Jonesville ! " Alas ! they had been friends in youth, But whispering tongues can poison truth." Alas ! for the whisperin tongues that carry the poison of asps with them. Alas ! for the hearts and lives that through their malice and whisperin s are torn apart, and nothin can atone for their evil effects nothin , nothin " Can free the hollow hearts from paining, They stand aloof, the stars remaining. Like cliffs that have been rent asunder, A dreary sea now flows between." Yes ; my mind jest dwelt on Mr. Coleridge all the time while I wuz in the Lake Deestrict. But we see while we wuz there lots of other places of great 382 SAMANTHA IX EUROPE. interest to me. Though, as I sed, the Falls of Lodore didn t fall quite so much as he had depic- tered em, yet Rydal Falls wuz a seen of beauty and enchantment, with the water flowin down through the rocks and overhangin trees. It wuz a picter to always remember, to frame round with admiration and hang up in your memory. And then there wuz a promontory called Storr s Point, which had a observatory built on it. Here wuz where Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, and Con way met in 1825 to see a regatta gin in Scott s honor. It must have been a pretty sight, the scenery around it wuz so beautiful. And then we see Miss Martineau s handsome residence, called the Knolls. I spoze on account of its being built on quite a rise of ground. I spoze she wuz quite a likely poetess, and wrote most probble twenty books on every subject, from religion and politics to mesmerism and handicraft. But Thomas Jefferson couldn t never git over sunthin she said to Charlotte Bronte in a kind of a fault-findin way ; it jest gaulded Charlotte dretfully. Poor little creeter ! with the mind of a giant and the body of a child a glowin soul of fire and the shrinkin weakness and tenderness of heart of a young child. THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. 383 Harriet hadn t ort to said it she ort to known * that God don t send a genius any too often onto this dull earth, and folks ort to prize em and guard em when He duz ; but folks don t ; they pick at em, and they have to stan it, and build up a stun wall of endurance and constant anguish of patience between these tormentors and their own souls and sensitive feelin s. And then set behind that barri cade and try to write. And folks only see the stun work, and don t see what it wuz raised for, and they call em cold, and cross, and unfeelin , and etc., etc., etc. But they hain t cold, nor etc., etc., etc. no sech thing. But I am a-eppisodin , and to resoom. I presoom that one thing that made Harriet sour and kinder hard sometimes wuz she wuz so deef ; not a-knowin any of the time what other wim- men wuz a-sayin about her behind her back, or to her face either ; it s enough to sour any disposi tion, only the very sweetest ones. Wall, we went to Hawkeshead, where Words worth went to school, Martin sayin he should probble be asked if he had seen the old school-house. It wuz a old schoolhouse a hundred years ago, when Wordsworth went to school there. It is a little, old-fashioned place, and Martin put SAM A NTH A IN EUROPE. his fingers in his vest pockets, and leaned back, and looked round him some as if he wuz a-patronizin them old memories with which the place wuz filled. Good land ! he d no need to ; them memories towered up and filled the hull place, and floated off round it into the serene, beautiful English landscape, and up towards the blue heavens above. Martin couldn t quell em down with his leanin s back, and thumbs in his armholes, and patronizin ways. I sot down to the poor, shabby old bench to which he had sot, and see the very spot where the boy Billy had cut his name in the rough old desk. Mebby he got licked for it I shouldn t wonder a mite. The teacher not knowin that though he MARTIN WITH HIS PATRONIZIN WAYS. mjght be slapped }n youth> and laughed at by Reviewers in early manhood, yet a great man a man of simple manners, and a soul of genius sot there at that desk, jest as the great oak wuz hid in the heart of the acorn in Billy s pocket, mebby, at the time. I had quite a large number of emotions as I sot there probble upwards of seventy-five. THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. 385 Wall, of course we went to Rydal Mount, the home where he lived and worked, and to Grass- mere, where he lays asleep with his kindred. The south wind waved the branches of the trees that stood jest a little ways from the simple slabs. Not fur off wuz the grave of Hartley Coleridge, son of Wordsworth s friend a son who inherited all the splendor and weakness of his father s nater. He drinked ! But some of his sonnets are upliftin in the ex treme. " Poor creeter ! what he could have been if he had left stimulants alone," I sez to my pardner, as we looked down on his quiet grave. And he sez, " There you be agin meetin -housen and castles can t stop you, nor buryin -grounds skair you out ; I m sick of your dum W. C. T. U. talk !" I felt too riz up to argy with him, but I felt deeply the truth of what whiskey had done in his case. And as to his pa, I said to myself, " Weak ness of will, and opium, mebby, stood in the way of the world s seein another Shakespeare not jest like him, but a new and uneek type of poet ; jest as great and dazzlin , but different as one big star differs from another all on em a-flashin out light onto a dark, dull world. 386 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Alice felt deeply the sweet sadness of the spot the quiet beauty of the landscape round us, the bird s song in the green branches overhead, and the low, sweet song of the little stream, the south wind amongst the trees. She stood under a tree lookin up through it into the sky overhead, followin the flight of a bird. Her face looked so sweet so sweet that I thought if Words worth was here he would be reminded of his own lines, and think that- " Beauty born of murmur ing sound Had passed into her face." Her face had a good look to it, too, that made me think that she \vuz a-goin to make " A perfect woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort and command, And yet a spirit still and bright, With something of an angel s light." A LIVIN POEM BOUND UP IN A GIRL S SWEET BODY. THE LAKE DISTRICT AND ITS POETS. 387 Al Faizi felt this, I see I could see that by his face. But / knew, havin seen her tired out and kinder fraxious when her shoes hurt her feet or a hairpin pierced her, or her cosset pinched her, etc., I knew she wuz a creeter " Not too bright or good For human nature s dally food, For transient sorrows, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles." But he see her only as a " lovely apparition," a " phantom of delight." I felt that as he stood there in that rapt moment he see all the beauty of nater through her he see rock and plain, earth and Heaven, glade and bower. I methought he wuz sayin to himself as he looked at her " The floating clouds their state shall lend To her ; for her the willow bend ; Nor shall she fail to see, Even in the motions of the storm, Grace that shall mould the maiden s form By silent sympathy. " The stars of midnight shall be dear To her ; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place, When rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty, born of murmuring sound, Shall pass into her face." 388 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. And I felt, too, in view of what I knew, that all that would be left of Al Faizi in the futer would be the memory of what had been and never more would be. Yes, all took up as he wuz with the poets of the western world, he wuz more heart in terested in the livin poem bound up in a girl s sweet body. And he turned away from the hants of poets to look in her sweet face. Poor creeter ! I see what he didn t spoze I did, and all the rest wuz deef and dum deef as posts and dum as adders. But I am a-eppisodin and to resoom. We sot out for London the next day. CHAPTER XX. THE ARRIVAL. IN LONDON. MARTIN, who owned, or pretty nigh owned, sev eral railroads, wuz dretful talkative about the supe rior merits of our cars, etc. And, to tell the truth, these English cars did seem quite a good deal like ridin in a wagon, or a old-fashioned coach, where you set facin each other, and they wuz pretty low, made so as to not bump our heads when goin through covered bridges, I guess. Of course, Martin paid for the best there wuz, and we had a hull car to ourselves, all cushioned and fixed off in the nicest manner, and after we all got in we felt very comfortable all alone by ourselves if we d wanted to. And ever and anon a basket of good refreshments to refresh ourselves would be handed in to us. But it filled me with borrow to see bottles of beer, wine, etc., in every one of em, and I sez to myself "Who and what did they spoze I wuz ?" I wuz indignant to think that they should dast to offer she that wuz once Samantha Smith bottles of intoxicants. 390 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Josiah kinder hefted the bottle in our basket, and said dreamily sunthin about when you wuz in Rome of doin as the Romans did. But I sez to him coldly " Be you a deacon or be you not ? Are you a member of the Temperance Society in Jonesville, or are you not ?" And he kinder wriggled round oneasy in his seat and laid the bottle down. If it hadn t been for me, I tremble to think what would have been the result to Jonesville and the world at large. Ever and anon the guide would walk along side ways by our winder and go the hull length of the train, for all I know a-seein to us. I don t see what hendered him from fallin off. It wuz sunthin I wouldn t have done for a dollar bill. I never wuz any hand to walk sideways, even on the ground. But, howsumever, there wuzn t any casualties re ported. Another thing that did seem strange to us wuz that we didn t have any checks for our baggage to take care on. That seems dretful queer to Ameri cans to have to go out and hunt round and find our own trunks. Though we had no trouble with ourn, for it wuz a very valuable one, and easy to be recog nized with the naked eye. It wuz a trunk that be longed to Father Allen, and made on honor, and it THE ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 39 1 lasted him through his life, and then descended onto Josiah and will, we think, descend, as good as new, onto Thomas Jefferson. One reason it has wore so well is, I spoze, that Father Allen never took but one trip in his life with it, and that wuz up to Canada. That journey lasted him for a story all his days ; he wuz looked upon with considerable or as a highly travelled man. The trunk is covered with hair of a good gray color and trimmed off handsome with brass nails. And Josiah, to make sure of its not bein stole, writ our names in bright, brass-headed tacks. It took him quite a spell. He sed he believed in doin the fair thing by me, so it reads " JOSIAH AND SAMANTHA ALLEN, JONESVILLE, U. S." Them last letters he sed wuz a stroke of genius. He sed the English people would be so tickled when they see it, for they would see in a minute that he and me had really come over ! We wuz there ! " US !" Samantha and THEM LETTERS wuz A STROKE OF GENIUS. 392 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Josiah ! and then, too, it would stand for the United States. He made them two letters of a little bigger nails, but they wuz all good sized, and a very bright brass color. And truly it did seem as if England wuz glad to have us there, for I don t remember of seein a sin gle Englishman that looked at that trunk that didn t laugh when he see it, or smile warmly. Yes, they wuz glad enough to have us there. Martin didn t see the trunk until we arrove at the steamer, and it affected him different. He looked fairly stunted and browbeat when he sot his eyes on it ; evidently he thought it wuz a pity to run the resk of jammin it, or gittin the nails rusty, for sez he : " Good Heavens ! let me get you a new trunk ! It isn t too late !" And he rushed off like a man half distracted. But it wuz too late, for the bell rung in a minute, and we sot sail. But Martin never see it durin that hull trip but he looked on it with that same look of or a kind of a dark, questionin or. Alice jest laughed when she see it. She liked its looks, we could see, though she didn t come right out and say so. But Adrian sed it wuz the most beautiful thing THE ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 393 he ever j>aw in his life. And he beset Josiah to put his name on one of their trunks with the same kind of nails. And Josiah, who had took a few along to repair damages in ourn, in case we should lose some of the nails, or some envious Englishman should steal em out, stood ready to do it. But Martin broke it up. I guess he thought that Adrian wuz too young to go into sech extrava gances. They had four trunks between em, but not so much luggage as the English carry round with em. They beat all, baskets, bundles, portman- tys as they call their trunks and hat-boxes and rugs and bath-tubs. The idee ! What would we be thought on in America if we lugged round sech things. Josiah, who always hankers after style, sed he was most sorry we didn t take our enamelled wash-dish. Sez he, " It would have looked dretful genteel ;" sez he, " We could have lashed it to our trunk with some red cord, and it would have looked so stylish." " Oh, shaw !" sez I. " Wall," sez he, " when you re in Rome, do as the Romans do, and," sez he, " I d love to let the English that carry round their bath-tubs see that * U. S., the ones that own that trunk, know what gentility is and what style is." 394 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But I wouldn t gin in to the idee, though he as good as sed that he stood ready to buy a new wash- dish for the venter. But economy prevailed, not common sense, but jest closeness. I see in his mean that he wuz givin up the idee, as I told him that with the care I would give it the wash-dish we had would last for years and years. Wall, we got to London in what ort to be the daytime, but it wuz as dark as pitch with fog, and how we wuz ever goin to git through them streets, full of blackness and roar, roar and blackness, wuz more n I could tell. I leaned back in that omnibus time and agin durin that trip, truly feelin that my hour had come. As Josiah told me afterwards, in talkin it over I wuz a-dwellin on my feelin s durin the epock, and he wanted to outdo me, I guess, and sez he " I know jest how you felt, Samantha ; I too felt, in the words of another, as if every breath I drawed would be my next. Sez I, "You meant your last." " Yes," sez he, " my last ; it wuz a dretful time." "Wall," sez I, "I put my trust in Providence a good deal of the time I did." " Yes," sez he, " so did I. I wuz jest ground down to it that I had to." THE ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 395 "Wall," sez I, " less be thankful that we got out alive out of that black, movin , rumblin roar." We wuz talkin it over in our room that night, a good, comfortable room, with all the modern im provements. It wuz a hotel for Americans that Martin had gone to, and it wuz jest like the best of our American tarverns. Josiah sez, when he see the bright lights in our room, " Thank Heaven, I won t have to use my candles !" He had hearn that "folks had to furnish their own lights in England, so he d lugged round a couple of taller candles, run in our own candle moulds to home. I told him not to, but he sed he wuzn t goin to pay no high price for lights when we had a hull soap-box full under the suller stairs. So he had took em at the resk of spilin his dressin -gown, as I told him. " No, I don t resk that," sez he ; " that is to the top of the trunk. The candles are packed down with my Sunday suit to the bottom of the trunk." I changed their position. But his feelin s for that dressin - gown are simply idolatrous, as I tell him specially the tossels. And he said he " never thought A HULL SOAP-BOX FULL 396 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. of makin idols of em worshippin a tossel!" sez he, scorfin ly. But he duz think too much on t. Wall, the next mornin the fog seemed to be lowered a little. I could see the sun, or pretty nigh see it, which I felt wuz indeed a blessin ; and after a good breakfast we sot off on a excursion. I had sed from the first minute London wuz talked on, that Westminster Abbey wuz my first gole, and the rest seemed to feel a good deal as I did. Al Faizi and Alice wuz dretful anxious to see it, and Martin sed He thought it wuz probble what would be ex pected of him, and if he wuz summoned home on account of his business, he said he must be able to say that he had been to Westminster Ab bey, anyway. So he engaged a big carriage, and we sot off, Josiah kinder laggin back and actin onwillin . He had found a New York World in the readin -room for the first time sence he left home, and he sed openly That he had ruther stay to home with his dressin - gown on and read that paper than to see any Abbey that ever wuz born. He thought it wuz some noted woman, and I wuz deeply touched by his preference, and cast- THE ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 397 iron principle ; but I explained, and would make him go. So we sot off. Wall, the first view I got of that imposin edifice looked jest as nateral as could be ; for Thomas J. has got a big photograph of it framed in his office, with the two great, high towers, 225 feet high, and the big Gothic winder between em, and the great Gothic door below. The buildin is a immense one ; it is built in the form of a cross, and is more n five hundred feet long. I can tell you, I had a sight a sight of emotions, and about as large sized ones as I ever had, as I stood inside, under them lofty arches, full of the mellow light of the stained-glass winders, and looked off down, down that long colonnade of pillows, at the end of which, fur off, is the chapel of Edward the Confessor. This chapel is full of the tombs of kings and queens Henry III., in brass, lyin on top of a huge porphery tomb ; Edward I. and his queen, Eleanor, who sucked the poison from her husband s wound in Palestine; and Queen Philippi, who put down a insurrection in Scotland, while her pardner, Ed ward III., wuz away from home. Noble creeters ! I wuz proud on em as I thought over their likely, riz-up deeds. I couldn t have done more for my Josiah, and I felt it as I looked on em. 398 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Wall, I said that the very first place I wanted to see vvuz the place sacred to the Great Dead. So I went off kinder by myself, as I spozed, led by a guide, but the rest follered on after me. Martin said that if a telegram should recall him home sudden, he spozed it would be expected of him, anyway, to say that he had stood by the monu ments to Shakespeare, Dickens, Thackeray, etc., in Westminster Abbey. Sez he, " I have never read the poems of the last two gentlemen, but I hear that they are very creditable ; so much so, that I have heard their names mentioned often, and 1 would like to say that I have stood by their re mains." I didn t say nothin to Martin, but the feelin s as I stood right by the side of that man made a deep gulf that swep him fur off away from me, and swep me back into a life that seemed more real, almost, than my own. Little fingers plucked at my gown, as it were, and, lookin down, I see the brave, patient face of Little Nell, and Tiny Tim, and David Copperfield, and the old-fashioned looks of little Paul Dombey, and Little Rowdey, Becky Sharp s neglected boy ; and little Clive Newcome s sturdy figger wuz pushed away anon by the tall, slender figger that walked by his cousin Ethel Newcome s side with THE ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 399 a achin heart. I seemed to hear the Old Colonel saying -" adsum " to the Heavenly roll-call. Mrs. Gummidge s melancholy voice, recallin the "old un ," mingled with Peggotty s comfortin talk and tender words to "Little Em ly ;" Mrs. Micawber, bearin the twins, passed on before me ; Micawber, Dombey, Pecksniff, Little Dorrit s patient form, Bella Wilfer s handsome, wilful face went by me, a-lookin up, coquettish, but lovin , into the sad, reasonable eyes of "Our Mutual Friend." CHAPTER XXI. WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. I SEE Captain Cuttle and Bunsby fleein from Mrs. McStinger, and Wall r Boy and his uncle, and Susan Nipper and Toots, and Mrs. Pipchin, and sweet Florence a-walkin by the Little Brother where the wild waves were talkin to him and the silver sails a-beckonin him over into a fur country- David Copperfield ; Dora, the child wife ; Agnes Wickfield, with her finger on her lips, and a-pintin upwards ; dear Aunt Betsy Trotwood, and Oliver and Nicholas Nickleby ; Mrs. Jellaby, with her dress onhooked and droppin papers with absent eyes, and Esther and Guardy, and Skimpole and the little Pardiggles How the crowd swep by me ! It wuz a sight. Ophelia passed by with her apron full of flowers, and she said to me, with a sad look out of her sweet dark eyes " Here is rosemary, I pray you, love, remem ber." Truly, I didn t need her reminder my soul wuz all rousted up and a-rememberin . WE STOOD LONG AND SILENTLY BY THE GRAVES OF THE GREAT DEAD. 402 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I remembered the young feller she kep company with yes, indeed! Hamlet, "the expectancy and rose of the fair state." His shadder follered her clost, and I almost said to him with Horatio, " Good night, sweet prince." But he looked kinder curous he wuz a little off and acted, and, poor creeter ! so wuz she, too ; I felt to pity em both, and anon she seemed to be singin the song that Hamlet ust to sing to her when he wuz a-waitin on her : " Doubt that the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move ; Believe that truth is a liar, But never doubt that I love." She believed still in his constancy. She wuz a good deal out of her head. Then Rosalind and Queen Catharine s stately figger glided by ; and eloquent Portia and Lady Macbeth a-holdin up her lamp, a-lightin her on to crime the light a-shinin back into her dark, evil face And old King Lear, with faithful Cordelia a-hold in his tremblin old arms, and a-helpin him along. Then, feelin pensive II Penseroso, I seemed to see John Milton s blind eyes lookin into Paradise, and the Fairy Queen seemed to look down on us WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 403 from the tablet of Spenser, and " Rare Ben Jon- son," Chaucer, John Dryden, Thomas Gray I wuz a-walkin back with him in the old church yard " Where the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep"- When Martin interrupted me, and sez he " Gray, Thomas Gray, I suppose that is the father of Lady Jane Gray." I didn t dispute him, but as I looked at him a-leanin back and a-feelin big, I allegored to myself " We don t need to remember Micawber or Dom- bey ; we ve got a livin curosity with us." Al Faizi wuz deeply interested in the Poet s Cor ner. He stood" long and silently by the graves of the great dead, and his face wuz a deep mirror of his thoughts. Alice wuz very much interested in em, too. But as I stood by Goldsmith s grave a-seein , with my mind s eye, Mrs. Primrose and Olivia and the good Vicar a-moralizin at em I hearn Josiah say to Adrian " Oliver, goldsmith." Sez he " I spoze Mr. Oliver wuz the best goldsmith in England, or he wouldn t be layin here. He probble made the crowns and septers they all have to wear in these monarkiel countries." 404 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I turned round, and sez I, "The metal that Gold smith used wuz purer gold than thatit wuz the rare wealth of a faultless style." " That s what I said," sez Josiah " stylish jewelry, and septers, and sech." But I explained it all out to Adrian, and kep him by me all I could. Alice drawed my attention to the bust of Long fellow, our own poet, and my emotions swep me off quite a long ways, clear from this old Abbey to " Where descends from the Atlantic The gigantic Storm winds of the equinox." Yes, he seemed to bear me clear to the musical murmurs of Minnehaha, Laughing Water, and from Acadia to Spain. I travelled fur and wide. And then there wuz the tomb of Thomas Campbell and Matthew Prior and James Watt and Mrs. Siddons. Not all in one place are these tab lets and busts and monuments, but my mind seems to kinder gather em in together as I look back. The most elegant chapel in the Abbey is that of Henry VII. Its noble arched ceilin is exquisitely ornamented and carved flowers, vines, armorial designs, etc., etc., in almost bewilderin richness WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 405 and profusion. Henry and his wife Elizabeth the last to rafn of the House of York. In this chapel is also the tomb of poor Mary, Queen of Scots, with her figger in alabaster on top of it. If it wuzn t in alabaster if she wuz alive, and if the kings and queens wuz also alive and actin - what a time there would be in that old Abbey ! If that exquisite body had agin that rare gift of magnetism or, I d no what it wuz, anyway, it wuz sunthin that drawed men to her despite their own will, and, it is needless to say, aginst their pardners wishes what a time, what a time there would be ! How the emperors and kings and princes that now stood so still and demute would gather round her ! How the wives would draw back and glare ! And mebby some on em, bein quick-tempered, would throw their septers at her. Poor creeter ! mebby it s jest as well that she is made of alabaster ; for not fur from her is the tomb of Queen Elizabeth, a-layin down guarded by four lions. She d a-needed em, Lib would, if she d a-ex- pected to keep her lovers from a-follerin after Mary. She wuz a jealous creeter, and vain, al though a middlin good calculator. 406 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But Raleigh, and Leicester, etc., etc. lions couldn t a-kep em from the prettiest woman no, indeed ! In the same vault is Bloody Mary, who burnt up about seventy folks a year durin her rain. Al Faizi took out his little book with a cross on t, and wrote quite a lot here, and he also did be fore Mary, Queen of Scots. I d no, mebby he, too, bein a man, felt some of the subtle charm that surrounds her memory, even to-day, and keeps men from ever doin plain jestice to her, and always will, I spoze. Not fur off is the restin -place of the little princes murdered in the Tower by Richard III. Al Faizi writ sunthin here, too, in his book- quite a lot. There are nine chapels in the Abbey, each one full of the tombs of em whom the world has delighted to honor ; and the guide told us that many a king and prince lay here who had not any memorial to mark his last sleep. One of these wuz the " Merry Monarch," Charles II. Among the great crowd who sur rounded him, like a swarm of hungry insects, feed- in upon him, and buzzin out their praise and compliments and loyalty to him, and flatterin his vices and weaknesses, not one of em thought WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 407 enough of him to rare up the least little mark to his memtfry A deep lesson of the worthlessness of worldly praise or blame. A great contrast to this is the monument to Charles and John Wesley. They worked on all their lives, a-preachin and a-warnin aginst the vices of the great, as well as the humble, and here they have their monument amongst the royal dead. Another thing that interested me in the Abbey wuz the Coronation Chair, in which every sov ereign in England, from Edward the Confessor down to Queen Victoria, has been crowned. It is a immense chair, the four legs bein four animals lions, I guess, though they looked kinder queer. But mebby they \vuz a-thinkin who and what they wuz a-holdin up that made their hair stan out so kinder queer, and their tails curl up so. Under the seat wuz a queer-look- in slab of stun, and they said it wuz the very stun Jacob had his head pillered on. It wuz carried back and forth by his descendants, and finally got to Ireland, where it wuz used at the Coronation of the Irish Kings. Ax IMMENSE CHAIR, THE FOUR LEGS FOUR ANIMALS. 408 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Some say that if the one who wuz a-bein crowned wuz unworthy royal honors, the stun would groan, but kep still if it wuz the right one in the right place. I should have thought it would have done con siderable groanin in the centuries gone by in the case of Henry VIII., for instance, etc., etc. I don t believe it groaned the last time it wuz used. No ; as a female a-thinkin of a female, I wuz proud to contemplate the fact that most probble it never gin a single groan, or even a sithe, at that time. Some say that wimmen can t rule good, but hain t Victoria rained well and rained long ? Yes, indeed ! Wall, we lingered in this venerable and intensely interestin place for a long time, and until the gnawin s of hunger woke in my pardner s inside, and he gin pitiful expressions of his inward oneasi- ness. But Martin sed he must visit the Housen of Parliament. He sed that it would certainly be expected of him ; so we went through Westminster Hall to the new Palace of Westminster, as the buildin is called. The laws made here ort to be noble and big-sized, indeed, to correspond with the place they are made WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 409 in. It covers eight acres of ground, has eleven hundred rooms, one hundred stairways, and eleven courts. It cost over fifteen millions, so they say. But I d no, I didn t feel ashamed of our own Capitol at Washington when I see it. That is a good sizable buildin , and made on honor, good enough and big enough to correspond with the laws made in it. Yes, indeed ! Wall, Westminster Hall, that we went through to go to the House of Parliament, wuz dretful inter- estin . The great Hall of William Rufus wuz built first in 1097. Rufus wanted a great Hall, where he could hold banquets, and not feel crowded, and feel that he had air enough, and wuzn t in any danger of hittin his head on the ceilin , so he built this Hall. It wuz partly burnt up once, but it has been re paired, so that it is a room now good enough for anybody, and big enough so s the World and his wife and children could eat dinner here if they wanted to, or so it seemed. It is three hundred feet long, seventy feet wide, and ninety feet high. The ruff overhead is carved into many beautiful forms, and is one of the largest in the world that has no columns or supports from below. 4IO SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Glorious seens have been enacted in this Hall, as well as dretful ones. After the Hall wuz built over and beautified by Richard II., the very first public meetin held in this Hall wuz to take away his crown and septer and send him to prison. Poor thing ! after all he d went through buildin it. I should thought them old timbers and jices would have creaked and groaned to have seen it go on. I know well how I should have felt after we got our house altered over, and I d jest got the parlor papered and carpeted and new curtains up, if I d had to be dragged off and shet up, and let Sister Bobbett or Sister Henzy move in and take the comfort of it. And I spoze Richard had feelin s as well as my self, and the splendor of my parlor would mad me all the more to leave it, even if it shed a glory over the seen. Charles I. wuz tried in Westminster Hall and condemned to death, and a few years later Oliver Cromwell was inaugerated in it Lord Protector of England. He sot in that Royal Chair, which wuz took out of Westminster Abbey for the first and last time. The chair never groaned or took on any as I ve ever hearn on, but I should have thought it would, WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 4!! not for reproof, but for sorrer. For only five years after*that Cromwell died, and wuz buried in Westminster Abbey amongst its royal dead, and then three years later his body wuz took up and hanged on Tyburn by command of the king, and his head wuz displayed on the pinnacles of Westminster Hall with Bradshaw and Ireton. Hangin a man who had been dead for three years, and for doin what he thought wuz right ! Al Faizi wrote quite a lot in his book here. He looked queer as he meditated on a civilized coun try committin sech barbarities. They laid out to have the skulls remain up there on them pinnacles for thirty years, and some say they did, and some say Cromwell s blew down dur- in a hard storm, and some of his descendants have got it to this day, and several of his skulls are in other places, so we hearn. Poor creeter ! He seemed to have as many heads as Columbus had faces. It beats all what them poor old fourfathers went through. In this Hall Charles I. wuz condemned to die, and also Sir William Wallace, that Josiah and I felt so well acquainted with, havin formed his acquaint ance and loved him through Thomas Jefferson and "The Scottish Chiefs." And Sir Thomas More, that witty, smart 412 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. creeter philosopher, statesman, and everything else the favorite of Henry VIII., and who succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as Lord High Chancellor, but who lost Henry s favor in his life, by not approvin of Henry s stiddy practice of marryin wimmen and then cuttin their heads off, and marryin another and another, and so on and so on. Here the poor creeter had his trial. Robert, Earl of Essex, wuz tried here and con demned ; and so wuz Guy Fawkes, and the Earl of Stafford, and many, many, many others. Wall, in the House of Parliament we see Parnell, the great helper for Irish rights. And it did my soul good to look on Joseph Arch, who wuz elected to Parliament as a representative of agricultural laborers. He wuz a plough-boy, and his mother learnt him to read and write. She wuz a earnest Christian. Later he become a local preacher in the Methodist Mee tin - House. Afterwards, meditatin on their wrongs, he organized a union of agricultural la borers, and finally wuz elected to Parliament. He wuz sent from that deestrict where the Prince of Wales lives. And you would have thought that some richer and more aristocratic man would have been chose to stand for that place, so nigh to the British throne. WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 413 But no, a good man, a man of the people, wuz chose. Tfie Prince of Wales never done a thing to break it up, so they say. He is quite a sensible, good-hearted creeter, the Prince is. Though, like the rest of the world, he has his failin s. Here we see Gladstone, that noble creeter. A man that will be revered and beloved and held dear to grateful hearts when lots of contemporary em perors and kings are forgot. Yes, indeed ! The House of Lords is made up of lords tem poral and lords spiritual twenty-six lords spiritual, which are the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and twenty-four Bishops, Dukes, Earls, Barons, etc., make up the lords temporal they come into their places by the right of their titles, which fell onto em onbeknown to em. Here they set makin laws with their hats on. Josiah drawed my attention to it, and sez he, " You ve always tutored me so about takin off my hat everywhere and in every season. I ve had sun strokes and froze my scalp a number of times in carryin out your orders ; but," sez he, " I ve made up my mind, Samantha, as to one thing, and you can t change me." I have a deadly fear of his plans, and can t help it in fact, I have reason to, as dire experience has 414 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. often showed me the dretful results flowin from em anon or oftener ; so I waited with breathless dread to hear him expound his plan. Sez he, " I m bound on it. When I m elected to Congress I m goin to wear my hat the hull time I m there ; I hain t a-goin to take it off only to go to bed ; I calculate to have a good warm head the rest of my life." Sez he, " If it s proper for em, in their high station, it s proper for me, when I git there." I thought a minute, and then sez I, "Wall, I guess I m safe in not objectin to it." Sez he, " You mean by that, that I wont git there, but you ll see, mom. The minute I git home I m a-goin to organize the farmers. I ll organize Ury the first one, and then I ll organize old Gow- dey. Uncle Sime Bentley I can depend on." Sez he, " If Arch and Burt and Macdonald, all on em workin men, can git into Parliament, what is to hender Josiah Allen from shinin in Con gress ?" Sez I mildly, " Nater broke that up from the start." Sez he, " Do you mean that I can t git in ?" Sez I, still more tenderly, " I alluded to shinin , Josiah ; but," sez I soothin ly, for I see that his lini ment begun to darken sez I, " I won t say a word WHEN I M ELECTED TO CONGRESS I M COIN TO WEAR MY HAT THE HULL TIME." 416 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. agin your wearin your hat under them circum stances." Sez I in affectionate axents, " Mebby I ve been too harsh with you about takin it off in cold weather ; mebby I hain t made allowance as I should for the weakness of the place exposed ; mebby etiket has ruled me too clost." Sez he, " You and etiket has been almost the death of me time and agin." One thing that is sure to strike the tourist and beholder with wonder is the extreme smallness of the House of Commons. How five hundred and sixty folks could ever git into that room is a wonder to me, and the guide told us that there had been as many as that a-stand- in there time and agin a-standin , of course, for there wuzn t no room for em to set. It struck Josiah, too, though, as usual, our medi tations wuz fur different. I methought, " No wonder laws hain t what they ort to be, made in sech a tight place, by folks jest crowded and squoze in together like sardeens in a box." And Josiah methought out loud, " You thought, Samantha, that I didn t allow half room enough in my new hen-house, and my brood of fowls have as much agin room accordin as these law-makers do." WESTMINSTER AND PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 417 " Wall/^sez I, " there both on em kep in too clost quarters to do well." But truly I couldn t break it up, for time and Martin didn t give me no chance. CHAPTER XXII. SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR. I HADN T been in London for more n a short time before I wuz attacked with a queer feelin and pain in my back. It seemed to be the worst on my right shoulder blade. It wuz a pain and a soreness all together, and the surface indications pinted to more trouble if I didn t tend to it. Josiah rubbed it with assiduity and camphire, and in hours of solitude bathed it in anarky. But to no purpose it grew worse and worse, and I feared it wuz a bile, but didn t know. It kep me awake nights, and I spoze it made me fraxious and restless, for Josiah urged me warmly to have a young man, who wuz a doctor in the hotel, look at my back and see what ailed it. And I sez, " I hain t a-goin to have that young man foolin round my shoulder blades." Sez I, " It would make me feel queer as a dog to think he wuz a-lookin at it through that eyeglass of hisen." Sez I, " Neuralgy hain t to be fooled with," SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR. 419 " I thought you said," sez he, " it wuzn t neu- ralgy ; you said it wuz sunthin mysteriouser." "Wall, so I do say," sez I; "it is sunthin I d no anything about. It is sore as a bile, and anarky don t seem to relieve it a mite. If I had some good lobely and catnip," sez I, "I be lieve I could make a poultice that would relieve it ; but where would I git lobely and catnip here?" sez I. " Wall," sez he willin creeter always when I am sick " Martin and I had made a agreement to ride to Hyde Park this mornin , and I shouldn t wonder a mite if I could find some lobely and catnip growin there idegenus. I will look for some, anyway." " Catnip in Hyde Park !" sez I mournfully ; "you might as well look for a angel at a dog fight, or a saloon in Paradise !" " Wall," sez he, " if I can t find any myself, I ll ask the policeman if he knows of any little corner or shady place where I d be apt to find a few sprigs for you." Sez he, " I d go to Windsor Park for you in a minute if I thought I could git sun- thin to relieve your pain I d go to Langly Marish." (Marish is marsh writ long.) Josiah thought that he would spell his old marsh in the beaver medder " marish," for style Jonesville Marish but I told 420 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. him that that wuzn t goin to make him any nearer the royal family, or make him act any more royal. I guess I broke it up. But to resoom Sez I, " It is good of you to think on t, but I wouldn t want to tackle Victoria the first thing for catnip. I d no as she has put up any more herbs than she wants to use herself her family is big, and she has frequent calls for catnip, anyway." Sez he, " I wuzn t a-layin out to tackle Victoria for it. I wuz a-goin to hunt round myself for it in the park." Sez I, " You d only tire yourself out for nothin ; you wouldn t find a sprig. And if you found any, I wouldn t want you to pick it without Victoria s consent it would like as not be some she had saved for the children or grandchildren ; no," sez I, " I will suffer and be calm," and I sithed. " Wall," sez he, " I m goin to be minded in this matter I am goin to have you see a doctor, and I hain t a-goin to put it off another day. You might put it off too long, and then what would the world be to me? What would life be without Samantha?" His tender tones touched my heart considerable, and I promised I would see a doctor that very day ; so he went away, quite contented, with Martin. SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR. 421 Wall, after he had went away, and I wuz left alone with my promise, I rumineated in deep thought. And the more I thought on t, the more I hated to have that little dude doctor, with his cane and his eyeglass, a-reconoiterin round my back and a-laughin at me, for all I knew for I felt instinctive ly that he wuz one that would laugh at a person s back, and I felt that in this case I should be the means of lurin him into that wickedness and deceit. He looked conceited and disagree- o able in the extreme, anyway, and I didn t put any dependence at all on his jedgment. But then my promise confronted me ; what should I do ? But as I mused I happened to think besides this little dandy doctor, with his case Of medicine, a-goin tO and fro, I had THAT LITTLE DUDE DOCTOR, WITH . . HIS CANE AND HIS EYEGLASS. noticed a tall, dignified, good-lookm , middle-aged man a-goin up and down the halls with his case of medicine. He usually went up the stairs as we wuz a-goin out about 10 A.M. and, thinkses I, here is a chance to keep my promise, and mebby git relief. For it 422 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. stood to reason that I had ruther display my right shoulder blade to a middle-aged, sober man, with a wife and children and grandchildren, and other things to stiddy him down, than to a little snickerin , supercilious young chap, who hadn t any wife, or chil dren, or any other trouble. So I left my door on a jar, and waited for his comin . I got my dress waist so s I could slip it off in a minute, and throwed a breakfast shawl gracefully round my figger, and waited calmly the result. Anon I heard a step approachin , and I looked out, and I see that it wuz the young doctor. He had a posey in his buttonhole and he wuz a-hummin a light tune and a-swingin his cane in his right hand, and I felt more and more relieved to think it \vuz not my fate to tackle him. Anon a hall-boy went by slowly, a-bearin a pitcher of" ice water ; anon a chambermaid, and then I recognized a messenger s slow, haltin step. And then I see the doctor s benine face, framed in gray hair and ornamented with whiskers of the same color, approachin . I folded my breakfast shawl closter around my form and advanced to the door, and sez I " Can I speak to you for a moment, sir ?" "Yes," sez he. SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR. 423 Sez 1,^1 would like to employ you for a few minutes." " Yes," sez he, a-enterin the room willin ly, as if it wuz the way of his business, as doctors always do. He looked round the room enquirin ly as he en tered, and as if mentally in search of sunthin . And I spozed mebby it wuz to see if he could see signs of any other doctor s medicine or sunthin . And I spoke up, and sez I : " I have had some trouble with my back lately, and I want you to look at it and see what is the matter ;" sez I, "I want to know whether it is neuralgy or a bile." He looked dretful surprised I spozed he wuzn t ust to havin a complaint so queer and myste rious. And I rapidly made my preperations, and pre sented my left shoulder blade for his consideration. And as I did so, I said anxiously " Is it a bile?" I dreaded his answer. Neuralgy I felt I could face, but a bile seemed dretful if met by me on foreign shores, far from catnip and a quiet home. Sez he, " I can t tell what is the matter ; if I were in your place I would have a doctor." Mekanically, and like sheet lightnin 1 , I seized the I HAVE HAD SOME TROUBLE WITH MY BACK LATELY, AND I WANT YOU TO LOOK AT IT." SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR. 425 breakfast shawl and drawed its voluminous folds about my ngger and faced him. " Hain t you a doctor?" sez I. " No," sez he ; " I am a piano tuner. I thought you wanted me to tune an instrument," sez he. I sunk into a chair and waved my hand towards the door. He bowed and vanished. And I, a not knowin whether to laugh or to cry, I did both at the same time. I felt meachin , and small, and provoked, and shamed, and tickled, and mad, and everything. But anon I thought I must not let this contrary- temps (French) vanquish me. So I called on all the common sense I had, and all the rectitude I had, and I had a real lot of it when I got holt of all of it. For I realized that my motives wuz as pure as rain water in a new cedar barrel, and so, bein dragged up to the tribunal of my own jedgment, I could not find myself to blame ; so I determined to keep calm and not let the World or Josiah know what I had been through. For it wuz a hard blow onto both my jedgment and pride, lookin on it with a nateral eye, and I felt that Josiah and the World would be apt to look at it through nateral eyes, and not through the rapt 426 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. vision of jestice that made me say and say calmly that Josiah wuz the one to blame ; for if he hadn t extracted a promise from me, this contrary temps would not have occurred. These large-sized emotions lifted me up quite a good ways, and so I spoze it made the next notch up come easier to me. For as I sot there I moral ized I have been a-relyin on mortal ingregients to help me and a-leanin on a pardner s jedgment. Ingregients have failed, pardner s jedgment has proved futile futiler it did seem to me than any thing ever had before sence the world begun, as futile as I have found em anon and oftener. So sez I to myself, "What if I should branch out and try the faith cure turn aside from doctors and pardners, reeds that have broke under my weak grasp ?" I will ! I will ! So I at once made my preparations for faith cure. I het some Pond s Extract in a little cup on the gas I had brung a little contrivance from home that fitted the burner. I het that extract as hot as I could bear it, and bathed that shoulder blade in the soothin mixture ; I then wet a cloth in anarky, and rubbed it for a quarter of a hour by the clock ; I then put on a strong poreus plaster I had by me, made from heal- SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR. 42; in herbs ; and then I het some more Pond s Extract, * and put in some tincture of wormwood I had a little in a bottle and I wet a woollen cloth in it and laid it over the blade. I then filled my hot- water bag with water and laid myself down on the bed, with the warm, soothin rubber bag pressed clost to the achin blade. And then, havin completed these simple pre- leminaries, I leaned on the Faith Cure I leaned heavy, and anon I felt that I had hit on the right plan. The pain grew lighter and lighter, my thoughts of the contrarytemps grew more peaceful and as if I could bear it. I felt that I could forgive Josiah, and then I knew nothin further for a long time. Anon I seemed to be back in Jonesville ; Phi- lury and I \vuz down in our back paster a-pickin rossberrys. The sun shone down warm as I stooped over the pink, laden boughs. The crick under the hill tinkled melogiously somebody wuz tunin it, I thought. It seemed to be play- in melogious cords I had never hearn before. A bird flew out of the deep, green depths of Balcom s \voods ; it flew up in front of me and lighted on my forward, and said SAMANTHA S FAITH CURE. 428 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " How do you feel, Samantha ? Are you worse?" I had layed there for five hours by the clock, and it wuz my own pardner s hand on my forward that rousted me up. " No," sez I, " Josiah ; I am much better than I wuz." "Did you git the doctor?" sez he. That wuz a tender subject to me, but I wuz able to meet it. I sez " I thought I would try the Faith Cure, Josiah, and," sez I, " I truly feel like a new creeter the pain has almost all gone." And it had, and from that minute I gained on it fast. At bedtime I tried the Faith Cure agin, after goin through with the same simple preleminaries I had went through, and the next mornin the cure wuz almost complete, which made the trials that begun as soon as I opened my eyes some easier to bear. I heard my pardner s voice the first thing, out in the hall, through the half open door. I hearn him a-sayin " Dum it all, don t you never have day here ? Is it always night ?" " It is day now," sez the voice of a agitated chambermaid ; "it is between 8 and 9 o clock." " Pretty day !" sez Josiah. Sez he, " Look out SAMANTIIA SEES A DOCTOR. 429 of the winder and see if you can see daylight ; a pretty day this is dark as a stack of black cats, and darker, for you could see the cats if they wuz a inch from your nose." Sez he, "We have been here three days, and I hain t seen daylight yet." He had a air of blamin the girl, and I interfered and called him in ; but the girl wuz waywised, and she said, "It is very unusual weather, sir very un usual. We have never had such a fog before." They always say that, from Chicago and London to Egypt they " never had it before." It always happens dretful onfortunate jest whilst you are there. Josiah wuz jest preparin to blame the girl agin, I dare presoom to say, when I hearn another voice on the seen. It wuz the voice of a Englishman that Josiah had got some acquainted with, and who had disputed warm with him about their two different countries, each one on em a-praisin up his own native land to the skies. And Josiah made a derisive remark to him right there in that untoward place about his " dum climate." I wuz mortified, but couldn t walk out and inter fere, not bein dressed. 430 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. After passin a number of sentences back and forth, I hearn the Englishman say u This is a great country, sir the sun never sets on it." And Josiah sez in a real mean axent "Good reason for that ! the sun never rises on t it can t go down where it hain t riz ! I hain t seen a ray of sunshine sence I come to England !" Thinkses I, " Dressed or ondressed, I ve got to interfere," and I hollered out agin, "Josiah Josiah Allen !" And he see in my axent a need of haste. And he come into the room, and I sez " Don t run down a man s country on a empty stumick, when it is as dark as pitch." And he sez, "Then I can t run it at all." His axent wuz pitiful. And it wuz indeed a fearful time. The winder presented a black, murky appear ance, the gas wuz lit in the house and outside, and away from the light the streets wuz. as dark as a black broadcloth pocket in a blind man s over coat. We felt gloomy at the breakfast-table, but Mar tin sed we must be gittin round some. So we concluded to go to St. Paul s Cathedral. So after awhile we ventered to sally out. We wuz about SAMANTHA SEES A DOCTOR. 431 two hours a-goin a distance that ort to took us about fifteen minutes a-movin on through the dense blackness, and not knowin what we wuz a-comin up aginst, or who, or when, or what. It wuz a fearful time, very. We went in two handsomes (though their hand someness didn t do us any good, for we couldn t see a speck on t). Josiah and I and Al Faizi went in one, and Martin and Alice and Adrian in the other. A strange and mysterious journey as I ever took, a-hearin anon or oftener a voice up on top of our vehicle a-shoutin out replies to the frenzied cries of cabmen on every side on him, and a not knowin who or what we wuz a-goin to run into, or be run in by. And the faint glow of the street lights a-shinin through the black mists like suns that wuz a-bein darkened, as the Skripters tell on. It wuz a fearful seen ; my Josiah wuz well-nigh prostrated by it, and sez he " If I ever git where the sun shines in the day time agin, I ll stay there." " So will I !" sez I, and I felt it, Heaven knows ! I wuz fearful agitated. Sez Josiah, as a loud, skairful cry from the top of our handsome wuz answered from others all round us - 432 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "Jest think on t, Samantha, bow bright and pleasant it is this minute in our back yard to Jones- ville ; how plain you could see the side of the barn ; how the sun is a-shinin down on the smoke house, and hen-park, and leech barrel. "Why did we ever leave them seens !" sez he. "Why, indeed!" sez I. Sez he, " Ury is mebby at this minute goin in to the house, happy creeter !" Sez he, " A-walkin out a-seein every step he takes ; and Philury a-standin in the back door a-watchin him, and a-lookin at the Loontown hills milds off, and the Jonesville steeple. " And we a-gropin along in perfect blackness at 12 M., and can t see our noses. Why," sez he bitterly, " my nose is a perfect stranger to me ; it might be changed to a Roman or a Greecy one, and I not know it." " You d feel the change," sez I. " I d no whether I would or not. I feel all lost and by the side of myself," sez he; "three more days of these carryin s on would make my brain tottle." "Wall, it couldn t tottle fur," sez I. I said it to comfort him, but it wuzn t took so no, fur from it. CHAPTER XXIII. ST. PAUL S AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. WALL, after a seen of almost inexpressible wretchedness we reached St. Paul s Cathedral. Josiah a-gittin it into his head that it wuz fash ionable to read up about places of interest, had flooded his brain almost beyend its strength to bear about the Cathedral. And that information oozed and drizzled out of the instersises of his brain all the time we wuz there. As for me, when we en tered the great central western door I wuz almost lost and by the side of myself as I ketched sight of the vast interior. As I looked down the immense, soft gray yeller depths of distance, I felt almost as though I wuz lookin down some of Nater s isles, with shaddersof blue mist a-lurkin in the corners. After my senses come back gradual I could pay some attention to the rich, dark carvin , the crimson cushions, the big organ towerin up, etc., etc. I felt lifted up considerable by the grandeur of the spectacle. But Josiah wanted to show off. 434 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Sez he, a-wavin his hand down the long aisle " There is the place for knaves ! See, Samantha, the beautiful arrangement they re set apart from good folks. It sez the knave runs down that way. He is made to run so s to separate him still more from Christians that go slow." "Where did you git that information, Josiah Allen ?" sez I. " Right here," sez he, and he took out his guide book and pinted to the words " The long nave runs down through the centre." Sez I, " How do you spell your vile person, Jo siah ?" " N-a-v-e, nave," sez he " the easiest way." I groaned, and sez I, " I would shet up that book, Josiah Allen, and go back to Webster s old spellin - book." He acted real pudgiky. But Alice wanted to go into the North Chapel, where the short service for business men wuz a-goin on, it bein almost noon when we got there. It wuz a impressive sight to see these busy men takin a breathin space from the hard labors of the day to give thought to the Better Country and the best way to git there. A beautiful sculptured head of the Christ looked down on these busy, careworn men, as if He wuz ST. PAUL S AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 435 sorry for Jem and wanted to give em a breath of peace and love to go with em through the hot, feverish toils of the rest of the day. After lookin up into the ineffible beauty and love of that face, it didn t seem as if those grocers could put so much sand into their sugar and pepper, or the merchants pay so little to the poor wimmen who make the garments they sell. But I d no. Wall, the chapel on the south side wuz meant to be a place to administer jestice at different times, affectin meetin -housen and sech what they call a Consistery Court. And here Josiah agin tried to explain things to me. Sez he, " This is called a Consistery Court here is where they try to be consistent when they attend to affairs of the meetin -house." And sez I in a dry axent, about as dry as a corn cob, sez I, " It s a pity they don t have sech a court in American meetin -housen." Sez I, "They re needed there," and my mind roamed over the pressin need of consistency in sech cases as Dr. Briggs, Parkhurst, Beecher, Heber Newton, Felix Adler, Satolli, etc., etc., etc. "And even in Jonesville, I sez to myself, "is it not possible to even now have one built in the pre- SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. cincts of the Jonesville meetin -house, where the members could go in half a day or so a week and try to be consistent ?" Thinkses I, If they did honestly try to live up to the buildin they wuz in, and be consistent, there wouldn t be so much light talk aginst re ligion as there is now, and more young folks brung into the church. Howsumever, whether Josiah got it right or not, one thing I do know, right in the midst of this court is a elaborate monument to the Duke of Wellington, that almost fills it up, so jestice is fairly scrunched up and squoze for want of room. That noble old Duke wouldn t wanted it so. But how little can we tell what people will do with our memories when we have left em ! But probble most of us won t have no sech immense memorial riz up to us after we have passed away. But my reflections wuz agin cut short, for Josiah wanted to agin show off. Sez he, "The man that that wuz riz up to wuz made of irom mostly lost his legs and arms, I spoze, and had iron ones made to replace em." " Iron legs ! " sez I ; " how could he git round ?" " By main strength." Sez he, " He wuz a power ful man ; he wuz called the * Iron Duke. I gin him a pityin glance, but strangers wuz ST. PAUL S AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 437 by, and I -wouldn t humiliate him by disputin him. I merely sez, "If I wuz in your place I would keep still for the rest of the day, Josiah Allen." But Adrian, who took it all in good part, and with immense interest, sez " How funny it must be to shake hands with him, but how it would hurt to have him strike you over the ear !" Sez I, " Adrian, you keep with Alice and me." Sez I, "We re a-goin to look at General Gordon s statute." This noble life and noble death are kep in memory by a beautiful statute, recumbient and a-layin down. The face, they say, is a good like ness. And as I looked at it, the thought of that noble and manly creeter almost brung tears to my eyes. Wall, we proceeded on eastward to the dome. Here is the pulpit and the place where the big ger part of the congregation sit. Lookin up, we see glitterin spaces filled with beautiful mosiacs, and up there are the benine figgers of the Evangelists, and the four great Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Agin that thought of what would be done with our memories hanted me. They wandered about in goats skins here afflicted, persecuted ; did they 438 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. think they would ever be throned in sech gor geous places ? No, indeed. Above Daniel, Isaiah, etc., is the whisperin gal lery, where the lowest whisper, clost to the wall, goes all round the entire distance a sight, hain t it ? And way up in the dome we see paintin s of the life of St. Paul and his deeds. Wall, down on the floor to the south are immense statutes to Lord Nelson and Cornwallis. Good creeters, both on em, I believe, though mistook in jedgment. And a great monument to Major-Gen- eral Dun das. There wuz lots of monuments to other eminent men. Most of the statutes, as is nateral, as is done in our own country, wuz mostly riz up to men who had been famous for fightin - them who had been successful in killin off thousands and thousands of men, leavin trails of agony and blood behind em, clouds of black gloom, under which widders and orphans groped, seekin for bread, and fallin down hopeless in the quest. Wall, it s nateral ; I couldn t say a word America duz it. I also see, as in America, the skurcity of female statutes. We see the absolute dearth on em. Why, if a inhabitant of Mars should light down there some day and take a fancy to go through the cathedral, he wouldn t have a idee that there wuz ST. PAUL S AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 439 ever sech a> thing as a woman in the world. He would go back to Jupiter and say : " One peculiar ity of the planet Earth wuz, there wuz no wimmen there only a race of men." And if they questioned him too clost how they wuz born, he would say that most probble they growed jest like trees. And then the old Mars would gather round him and congratulate themselves on bein on a planet where equal jestice wuz awarded to men and wimmen both, and where there wuz no more war. The red lights on the planet don t mean war, I don t believe ; it means the rosy glow of the strange foliage that the Mars gather for their children, and the Pars, too, for all I know. But I am indeed a-eppisodin . But a few centuries from now let that same visitor comedown and look into our great cathe drals, on both sides of the Atlantic, and he will see statutes to wimmen risin up jest the same as to, men. Under the benine faces of some on em he will read "There is no more war, for the former things have passed away." The former things wuz what made war injestice intemperance, brutality, licenses for prostitution, drunkenness, and infamy, etc., etc., etc. 440 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But I am a-eppisodin too fur, too fur. The stained-glass winders we see on every side wuz beautiful in the extreme. But if you ll be lieve it, this meetin -house hain t finished yet. See- in there has been a meetin -house here for thirteen hundred years or so, you d a-thought they d ort to got it finished ; but, then, they ve been burnt out several times. I don t want to brag over em, I didn t feel like it at the time, though I couldn t help a-thinkin that we built the Jonesville meetin -house in three months. But, then, this one is bigger and has more work on it. Though the steeple on our meetin -house is very much admired. Wall, we went down into the crypt. It is called one of the finest in Europe. It is the same size as the cathedral. Here are some more warriors buried Lord Nel son, the Duke of Wellington, etc. But to give credit to those who got up the buryin -ground, there are some ministers buried there sech as Dr. Liddon, Dean Milman, and eminent painters, sculpters, etc. Here lies the great architect of the cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren. Josiah read the tablet on his grave, and then went to explainin it to us. ST. PAUL S AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 441 Sez he, " It tells the date of his birth and his death, and then it sez sunthin about spice allspice, I guess. Christopher wuz probble fond of it. Sez I, for I knowed the words by heart " Reader, if you ask where is his monument, look about you." Sez Josiah, " You re wrong, Samantha. There s the word spice all writ out." Sez I, " It s a dead language, Josiah I ve trans lated it. And," sez I, "if you felt as I did a-lookin round on his matchless monument, sech as no man ever had before, you wouldn t talk about all spice." He acted real huffy, and moved on. Here are many monuments to illustrious people who are buried somewhere else. Down here in the east end is a chapel where they have early service every week day. In the west end is kept the funeral car on which the body of the Duke of Wellington wuz carried to the grave " To the sound of the people s lamentation." It is a handsome structer of gun metal. One gun took at each of the Duke s victories bein melted to make it. Twelve horses wuz needed to draw this car it broke through the pavement in many places. 442 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. As I wuz a-explainin this to Alice, I hearn Jo- siah say to Adrian : " On account of his legs and arms bein so heavey, I spoze, and his bein so great." And then I had to ex plain to that child agin that his greatness wuz not his heft by the steel yards, nor his bein called iron wuzn t because he wuz made of cast iron. I guess Adrian under stood it I guess he did. But Josiah Allen wuz a drawback to correct in formation - - indeed, he wuz. For as we wended on I hearn him explain how this cathedral wuz sot on fire in 1590 by a woman called Anne Do- mono. Sez Adrian, " She was a bad woman, wasn t she ?" " Yes," sez Josiah with a deep sithe, " old Dom- ono probble had his hands full with her she wuz a fiery creeter." YES," SEZ JOSIAH, "OLD DOMONO PROBBLE HAD HIS HANDS FULL WITH HER." ST. PAUL S AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 443 But here I interfered and explained it all out to Adrian, much as I hated to go agin my pardner s words. Strange doin s has been done in this old meetin - house durin the long centuries that it has stood here. It almost made my brain reel to think on em. Councils of the church wuz held here, the Bishop of Exeter sought refuge here from a mob wuz pro claimed a traitor and beheaded. Here Wyckliffe wuz tried for his religious opinions. Here popes sent out their legates. Here kings held their coun cils, and here men and wimmen sold their goods. And some with stuns and arrers killed the pigeons who made their nests in the ornaments of the walls. Here, too, they played ball and other games. Queer doin s for meetin -housen, but it wuz true. But what would the world say if my Josiah and Deacon Bobbett should take to playin ball in the Jonesville meetin -house, or Sister Gowdy and I should play tag round the pulpit ? Why, how foreign nations would be all rousted up and sneer at us ! Here the leaders in the War of the Roses acted and carried on. Here Richard, Duke of York, took a solemn oath to uphold Henry VI., and then tried his best to shake him off the throne lyin and actin in a meetin -house. Plere the dead body of Henry lay in state. 444 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. After the Reformation had begun it wuz dese crated by the very meanest kind of doin s. All kinds of business wuz carried on, all kinds of amuse ments. Busybodys and gossips made it their resort, and the Holy Evelyn said "It was made a stable of horses and a den of thieves." Then, if you ll believe it, some of the reformers, or them who called themselves sech (queer creeters, I guess), stole the beautiful altar clothes, commun ion plate, candleabra, etc. jest carried em off under the mantilly of religion they d put on. Curous ! curous ! but, then, that old mantilly covers up lots of stolen things to-day, and mean ness of all sorts. After this the grand old meetin -house wuz com pletely burnt down. I should thought it would have expected lightnin to strike it, or sunthin . Anyway, it all burnt down to ashes. The present buildin hain t been misused in that way the ser vices are carried on decently and in order. Wall, we hung round there for more n a half day. Josiah had took the precaution to eat a hearty lunch before we sot out, so he remained considera ble quiet till the nawin s of hunger overtook him agin. And we left at sunset. CHAPTER XXIV. "THE WIDDER ALBERT." I D told Martin when we d first come to London that I must see the Widder Albert whilst I wuz there. A few days had run by, and I sez to Martin " Like as not Victoria will be a-wonderin why I hain t been to her house." Of course when I first arrove I had sent her word to once, and asked her in a friendly way to come and see us jest as quick as she could, knowin that it wuz etiket for me to do so, and it wuz nothin but manners for her to make the first visit. And a-takin it right to home, that if she had come over to Jonesville, and wuz a-stoppin to the tarvern there, it would be my place to make the first call. I hain t over-peticular in sech matters, but still I set quite a store by etiket, after all, and havin made the overtoor and sent the word that I wuz here, I didn t want to demean myself by actin too over-anxious to make her acquaintance, though I did in my heart want to neighbor with her, think- 446 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. in quite a lot of her as a woman who had rained long and rained well. It wuz Martin that I sent the word by. He ar gued quite a spell about the onproperness of my send- in sech word to a Queen. But I argued back so fluent about the dissapintment it would be to her if she didn t know I wuz here, and my onwillin ness to hurt her feelin s by my not makin myself known to her, that I spoze he wuz convinced, for he sez " Leave it right in my hands ; don t say a word to anybody else on the subject, and I will tend to it in the right way." So I gin my promise, and as he hurried right out of the room, I spoze he tended to it imegiately and to once. And I sot in my room the rest of that day in my best waist and my shiniest collar and cuffs, expectin some that she would be to see me before night. And the next time I went out sight-seein , though I didn t say a word about her, accordin to my promise, yet I expected to go back and see the benine face, mebby a-lookin over the bannisters a-waitin for me. I didn t spoze she would have her crown on at this time no, I expected to see that good, likely face surrounded by a widder s bunnet, or mebby a crape veil throwed on kinder careless like. " THE WIDDER ALBERT." 447 I knew we should be very congenial. We both wished so well to our own sect we wuz both so attached to our pardners ; and though hern had passed on and mine wuz still with me, still I knew we had so many affectin incidents of our early days of our wedded love, before our perfectly adorin affection for Albert and Josiah wuz toned down by time and walkin round in stockin feet, and throwin crowns and bootjacks down in cross and fraxious hours, when meals wuz delayed, or the nations riz up and kicked, or the geese got into the garden, or slackness about kindlin wood, or the shortness of a septer, or etc., etc., etc, Yes, I spozed we both had had our domestic trials. I spozed that Albert had his ways jest as Josiah has. Every pardner has em they re frax ious, touchy at times, over-good at others, and have mysterious ways. Men are dretful mysterious cree- ters at times dretful. Yes, I felt that we could find perfect volumes to talk over on this subject, for if ever there wuz two wimmen devoted to their pardners with a de votion pure and cast iron, them two wimmen wuz Samantha and Victoria. And then, too, we wuz both Mas. I spozed she would tell me the good pints of Albert Ed ward, and I laid out to tell her of the oncommon 448 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. smartness of Thomas Jefferson. And the more she would enlarge on Bertie, the more I would spread myself on Tommy. And then the girls ; how she would tell me about Louise and Beatrice, and how I would tell her about Tirzah Ann how we d praise em up and compare notes about em. I presoom her boys and girls didn t always come up to her idees of what girls and boys should do, and should not do. And if she told me in confi dence anything of this sort, I wuz a-layin out to confide in her about Tirzah Ann, and how her efforts to be genteel wore on me, and how she would love to flirt if it wuzn t for religion and a lack of material. And if she made any confidences to me about Bertie anything relatin to the fair sex, and playin games, etc., I wuz a-goin to tell her, as much as I love Thomas Jefferson, I thought he did play checkers too much ; and sence he wuz riz up so as a lawyer, the wimmen jest made fools of themselves and him, too, a-follerin him up and a-makin of him ; but, then, Maggie didn t care a cent about it, and that he wuz perfectly devoted to his wife and children, jest as her boy wuz. I wuz a-goin to" say that I would never mention these things to a single soul but her, anyway, but I knew she would keep it, for she wuz jest like me "THE WIDDER ALBERT." 449 if her*boy didn t please her, she went right to him with it, and that ended it. She stood up for him to his back, jest as I stood up for Thomas J. Yes, I spozed we should take solid comfort a-con- fidin in each other, and mebby a-givin each other hints that would be helpful in the futer. And then we wuz both grandmas. How happy we should be a-talkin over the oncommon excel lencies of our grandchildren ! For though we are both too sensible to act fool ish in sech matters and be partial, yet we both knew there never wuz and probble never would be sech grandchildren as ourn wuz. And then I had some very valuable receipts I laid out to gin her in cases of croup and colic, sech as young people don t pay much attention to, but which I knew would jest suit her, and which might come handy for her grandchildren or great-grand children. I laid out to write em off for her. One or two of em wuz in poetry - "A handful of catnip steeped with care, With a little lobelia throwed in there, Mixed with some honey more or less, Will mitigate the croup s distress." And this "Some mustard seed, Some onion raw, Applied to chests 450 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I never saw A thing more strong To draw, to draw." The grammar wuzn t quite what I would have liked it to be in this last verse of poetry, but I made it in a time of pain, and I knew that when croup and colic wuz round, she nor I wuzn t a-goin to stand on a verb more or less. And then I had another one : " Some spignut roots Steeped on the fire Is always good For my Josiah. And a little Balm Of Gilead flowers Is good to calm In fraxious hours." I laid out to gin her all these receipts, and offer to send her the ingregients for makin the mixtures. Of course her pardner had passed away, but the world is full of men and wimmen, and sickness and fraxiousness are rampant, and good receipts like these don t grow on every gooseberry bush. And then, I had a lot of other receipts I thought she d like. And I wuz a-goin to ask her for her receipt for makin milk emptin s bread ; somehow, mine had seemed to run out and not be so good as " THE WIDDER ALBERT." 451 usual. And I had a receipt for corn bread that wuz perfectly beautiful " Two measures of meal and one of flour, Two of sweet milk and one of sour, And a little soda and molasses." Besides the literary treat of this poem, the excel lence of the bread wuz fenominal. And then, how we both would love to talk about the interests of the world at large ! I wuz a-goin to compliment her by sayin that though the sun never set on her property, while it sot every day on ourn, yet she couldn t welcome the blazin sun of Right eousness and Enlightenment any more gladly than I did. And how first-rate I thought some of her moves had been, and how highly glad and tickled I d been over em ; and then I wuz layin out to draw her attention to some tangles in the mane and tail of the old Lion of England, a-tellin her at the same time that I realized only too well the dirt and Onevenness in the feathers of our American Eagle. I wuz a-goin to talk it over with her about the opium trade, and the dretful intemperance and hor rible cuttin s up and actin s, and the dretful crimes bein perpretated \vay out in Injy. Dretful thing, indeed, takin a woman and ruinin her body and soul for time and eternity, and then 452 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. the goverment a-drawin money out of this eternal shame and ruin. I spozed we should talk a sight about that and draw lots of morals from it, too draw em a good ways. And the horrible doin s in Armenia I thought more n as likely as not we should both shed tears over it. But, as I say, time had went on, and she hadn t come to see me yet. I asked Martin anxiously what he spozed wuz the reason, and he gin me various and conflictin answers. Once he sed she wuz sick a-bed ; and the next hour, in answer to my anxious inquiry, he told me she had gone on a visit to a fur country. And when I re minded him of the descripency in his statements, he come right out and sed she d broke her legs both on em. " But," sez he, " don t make it public it s a State secret." Wall, then I worried considerable about her, and sed I ort to go and see her, and carry her some Tincture of Wormwood. And then Martin sed she wuz entirely well and comfortable and happy, but couldn t walk. But I sez, " She might send me word." " She did," sez he ; "she tells you that the next time you visit England she hopes to see you." " The next time !" sez I " there won t be no next "THE WIDDER ALBERT." 453 time. If * ever git acrost the ocean agin I shall stay there." " Yes," sez my Josiah ; " if we ever see home agin we shall probble never step our feet outside the house agin, or the back door-yard." But I sez, " I shall probble walk round some in the front yard, and mebby visit the children." Sez he, "Not for years, if ever." Sez he, " I want to set down on our back steps and set there for over a year without gittin up." I felt that along in January he would be willin to move round a little and git into the house, but that dear man can t be megum. Wall, with deep dissapintment I realized that the Widder Albert and I wuzn t a-goin to meet. If she wuz in the state Martin said she wuz, of course I knew she couldn t take no comfort a-visit- in , and I hain t no hand to go and visit sick folks if I can t help em. And I spoze, as Martin sed, that she had good hired girls and everything done for her comfort. But I worried about her quite a good deal. But it \vuz a comfort to me to think of what a big house she had it wuz big enough to hold plenty of help, and it must have good air in it yes, indeed ! The house itself is as big as from our house over to Deacon Gowdey s, and I d no but bigger. 454 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Martin made a great pint on goin to see the Bank of England. I believe he jest loves to walk round the outside of buildin s that has immense wealth in em, if he don t go inside. He and Josiah went and wuz gone all the forenoon. I spozed it would take a week to go through all the rooms. Why, there is nine different door-yards right inside the buildin 1 ; they call em eourts, and the rooms open into em ; so you can form a idee of how big it is. But I didn t seem to care so much about goin , so I stayed to home. 1 had quite a talk with Al Faizi about it. He d been a-huntin up facts and idees, as his way is. He didn t condemn the ways of England at all he simply told the facts and left em, jest as the postles did. tie sed he found that in the Bank of England wuz the greatest wealth heaped up in the smallest space that the world had ever known sence the creation. And with the same air of simply tellin a fact, and then leavin it, in the New Tes tament way, sez he " Almost in the shadow of this building, holding the world s wealth, I find the greatest want and wretchedness and crime existing that I have ever looked upon, and I believe the worst the world has ever seen." He didn t say that there must be a screw loose ALMOST IN THE SHADOW OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND, I FOUND THE GREATEST WANT AND WRETCHEDNESS." 456 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. somewhere in the great revolvin wheel of Human ity to make seeh a state of things possible. He jest writ down sunthin in that hook of hisen meb- hy it wuz expressions of wonder about our boasted civilization havin accomplished so little in eighteen hundred years, when the richest place on earth should have its dark shudder of the greatest want and crime clost to its side. No ; he jest stated the facts and let us draw our own morals, and as fur as we wanted to. Martin didn t notice his remarks, nor see Al Faizi at all, so fur as I could observe. He went on a-talkin with Josiah about the bank, and about Rotten Row ; he sed he wanted us to see that, and wanted us to set off to once. And I told Alice out to one side, when we wuz gittin ready, that I didn t know as I wanted her to go into any sech a nasty place, or Adrian either. I take good care of the children yes, indeed I do ! But \ve found out when we got there that Rotten Row wuz a elegant place, fixed off for ridin and drivin . Beautiful ladies and grand-lookin gentle men, and if there wuz anything Rotten about em, it wuz on the inside of their phylackricies ; the out side of em wuz clean and brilliant. Some say that the place where these great folks congregate is well named, but I don t believe every thing that I hear. "THE WIDDER ALBERT." 457 Martirvenjoyed the seen dretfully, though he sed, on commentin on the ladies ridin , that none on em could come up to an American woman in grace, and he sed that the best ridin that he ever see wuz by cow-boys on a Dakota ranch. Wall, I couldn t dispute him, never havin neigh bored with cow-boys. But let Martin alone for findin out all the attractions of U. S. A. No ; U. S. A. won t suffer in Martin s hands, not at all. As I sed, Martin and Alice went round quite a good deal to see her friends Lords and Ladies some on em ; she got acquainted with em to school, when she wuz a-boardin with that Miss Ponsions, a good likely school-teacher she wuz, so fur as I could make out. But owin to the Widder Albert enjoyin sech poor health, and not bein able to git to see me, I didn t seem to want to go round so much. I didn t want to go to parties no, indeed ! Alice come home from one gin by Lady L , and, if you ll believe it, her pretty dress wuz all crushed and torn, fairly spilte. Alice sed there wuz sech a jam she couldn t breathe hardly. And I sez, " Sech doin s don t speak well for the woman of the house lady or no lady ; and," sez I, " I d love to advise her ; I d tell her that when I give a quiltin or a parin -bee I never invite more n 458 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. can git round the quilt and the parin machines handy and without crowdin ." Sez I, " I could probble put idees into Lady L - s head that would help her all her life in futcr parties." But I didn t happen to see her, poor thing J and so I spoze she ll keep on in the old way. I have known em who lived in the country, fur back from the delights and advantages of Jones- ville -I have known them crceters, when they come in on a saw log or on a load of calves to ship, 1 have seen em look with perfect or at the commotion and life in the Jonesville street, where, right in front of the tarvern, I have seen with my own eyes as many as five teams and two open buggies, besides walkers on the sidewalk. This sight to em, fresh from country wilds, where one wagon along the road a day wuz a fair average, wuz as good as a cir cus to em. But the Jonesvillians wuz ust to the. rush and bustle of them seven teams, and acted calm and self-possessed and hauty through it all. But I have seen the pride of them very Jonesvil lians took down when they visited New York. There I have seen em stand with or on lower Broadway, when they see the rush, and jam, and push, and pull, and I ve hearn their remarks, full as won- RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TARVERN, I HAVE SEEN WITH MY OWN EYES AS MANY AS FIVE TEAMS AM) TWO OPEN BUGGIES. 460 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. derin and as agitated as the backwooders from way behind Jonesville. That makes two ors, as I figger on t. Wall, here is another one jest as big or bigger ; set them New Yorkers, them very Broadwayers, down in a London street, and you ll have another or jest as big to add as the two foregoin ones. The crowd is jest as much immenser, the roar jest as much louder, the jam, and push, and pull, and drive, and yell, and crash, and scramble, and roar, and rattle jest as much more enormouser. Why, imagine the slate stuns down to the Jones ville creek all springin up into men and wimmen, and horses and wagons, and carriages and drays, etc., etc., etc., and you may have a faint idee of the countless number on em ; and then imagine over all that seen a deep, black curtain of fog descended down sudden, and out of that roar the crowds of vehicles of all kinds, the yells of drivers, and most probble the yells of skairt-out females a-blendin in it- imagine it if you can ; wall, that is a London street. I wuz considerable interested in the bridges of London that crossed the Thames, and I meditated every time I crossed one on em on Old London Bridge, and what a seen, what a seen that wuz for centuries ; with houses built on each side on t, mer- "THE WIDDER ALBERT." 461 chants ad dealers in everything, and artists and preachers, for all I know. I know, anyway, one on em wuz a good preacher the immortal Bunyan. How he must have meditated as he s6e the throng surge past him old and young, beggars and princes, velvet and rags ! How he must have thought of the hard journey to the Celestial City, and what a hard tussle it wuz to git there ! Hogarth lived here at one time, and mebby got the idee of his " Rake s Progress" from some of the endless crowd he see go past. Anyway, he probble see rakes enough, if that wuz all, for they have per meated every field of life, a-rakin up all that is vile, and leavin the flowers and sweet blades of grass as they raked on. Holbein lived here. Life on that old bridge must have been a sight to contemplate, havin a good time on it some of the time, most probble, jest as we do in America and Jonesville. But in times of highest prosperity a-knowin that under em wuz a deep, black cur rent a-flowin , jest as we know it in Jonesville, only the current of Human Life is more mysteriouser and vague. Poor William Wallace had his head stuck up here ^ood crceter, it wuz a shame after all he went 462 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. through : a-losin his first wife and a-fightin so for freedom. And Thomas More, and Bolingbroke, and lots of others middlin good creeters, all on em. And then there wuz traitors, Jaek Cade, etc., etc., etc. I d no but their heads did less trouble here than when they wuz on their bodies, so fur as the world wuz concerned, but I spoze it come tough on em, a-seein these heads \vuz the only one they had. And Martin took us to parks so beautiful and grand that they took down Martin s pride consider able, and us Jonesvillians, whose grassy acre in front of the meetin -house had looked spacious to us, laid out as it wuz with young maples and slip pery ellums But where wuz our pride, and where wuz Mar tin s ? Think of four hundred acres all full of beauty: that is Hyde Park. And Windsor Park, Queen Victoria s door-yard, as you may say, has five hundred acres in it. Jest think on t. And there we ve called our door-yard big, spe cially sence we moved the fence and took in the old gooseberry patch. I had boasted to neighbor- in wimmen that it must be nigh upon a quarter of a acre but five hundred, the idee ! Wall, I m glad I hain t got to tend to it, and weed the poseys, and see that the grass is cut. "THE WIDDER ALBERT." 463 But, the, she s forehanded ; she can afford to hire. But, amongst all the parks we went to, Josiah and I seemed to like the Kew Gardens about as well as any. I had deep emotions, for wuz it not there that Clive Newcome walked with Ethel ? Her sweet form clost to him, but the dreary sea of Hopeless Despair a-surgin through his heart, a-seemin to wash her milds away from him, and she also, visey versey. Poor young creeters ! poor young hearts ! I seemed to see em a-walkin before me, with downcast heads and sad eyes, all up apd down them lovely walks, jest as in Windsor Park I seem ed to see the Merry Wives of Windsor, and poor old FalstafT a-settin out to meet em. I seemed to look out with my mind s eye for that poor, foolish, vain old creeter more n I did for Victoria s clothes, which I might have expected would be hung out to dry that day it bein a Mon day, and she sech a splendid housekeeper. I have said what emotions rousted up in me as I went through Kew Gardens ; as for Josiah, he liked em because he could git provisions here of all kinds good ones, too, and cheap. CHAPTER XXV. A VISIT TO THE 15KITLSII MUSEUM. WALL, we went to the British Museum. To give any idee of what we see in that museum would take more time, and foolscap paper, and eye sight, or wind and ears than I spoze I will ever be able to command. It is seven acres of land full of everything rich and rare and beautiful from our time back to the year one, and further, for all I know. The marbles, engravin s, picters, coins, manuscripts, curosities if I had the wealth of em in money if I could have the worth of jest one article out of the innu merable multitude of em, I could jest buy out the hull town of Lyme, and live on the interest of my money. The museum holds everything and more too. And the library, why, it is most too much to believe what we see there. Now, I ve always had a Bible and a New Testament, and have never gin much thought whether there wtiz any other different ones ; but I see with my own eyes seventeen hundred dif ferent kinds of Bibles. A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 465 And gof>d land ! everything else accordin every thing else a-swingin out jest as regardless of cost and space. The Egyptian Gallery wuz a sight to see, and statutes and slabs older than the hills. Who writ them words on em ? Did the heads ache, and hearts, jest as they do now ? I spoze so. Roman, Grecian, Assyrian galleries, galleries of all sorts, birds and beasts and fishes enough to stock the world, it seemed to me. But most of all the relicks ; some on em filled my tired-out brain with or and wonder and admira tion. Milton s contract with his publishers for " Paradise Lost" (he got five pounds down, and wuz goin to git five dollars more when the first edition wuz sold, and so on). They took the advantage on him ; you know he wuz blind, and couldn t skirmish round and look into things ; so Paradise or not, they got the better of him. And then his widder ; why didn t they try to do as they ort to by Miss Milton ? She sold out root and branch for eight dollars the idee ! Why, how many copies have been sold of that book ? Enough to build up a mountain as high as the Catskills. 8 pounds for em what a shame ! The publishers are dead, I spoze ; yes, I spoze 466 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Samuel Symon passed away years ago, but he left quite a big family, and they all seem to foller the old gentleman s plans, and are doin first-rate and layin up money real fast. And I see Hogarth s receipts for some of his pic- ters. And there wuz the very prayer-book used by Lady Jane Grey on the scaffold. " Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place for all generations," and " though I walk through the val ley and the shadow of death" I will be with thee. I wonder if she heard the words when the shadders lay so dark on her pretty head ? Then there wuz letters writ in their own hands from Martin Luther, Oliver Cromwell, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth, Peter the Great, Dudley, Leicester, Francis Bacon. And there wuzn t a word in Francises letter, so fur as I see, as to whether he wuz Shakespeare or not, or whether Shakespeare wuz him. I wish I knew how it wuz ! And there wuz papers and letters from all the kings and emperors, and George Washington right amongst em it kinder tickled my pride to see George there, but he deserved it. Then there wuz the old bull that gin Henry the VIII. the name of Defender of the Faith. What kind of faith did he act out the faith that he could A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 467 marry mdre wimmen and chop their heads off than any other old creeter this side of Blue Beard. I should have been ashamed if I wuz him. If he had been a woman a-marryin and a-killin and a-marryin , and etc., etc., etc., they wouldn t have stood it half so long they would have broke it up ; it wouldn t have been any worse in a female for anything I know. And then there wuz the message from Julius Caesar a-sayin that he had " Veni, vidi, vici." I spoze Thomas Jefferson would know jest what that meant. Josiah thought it wuz sunthin about some wimmen Nancy somebody, but I d no I wouldn t ask. And then there wuz letters from good riz up creeters, sech as John Knox, Sir Isaac Newton, Cardinal Wolsey, Cranmer, Erasmus, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., and so forth. Josiah wuz perfectly beat out when we got home that night, and so wuz I. But we found letters from home, and they seemed to refresh us and take our minds offen our four legs and our two dizzy and tired-out heads. Babe, sweet little creeter, she writ that she prayed for me every night, and for her grandpapa, too. I wonder if that is one reason why our legs didn t give 468 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. out completely that day, as they threatened to time and agin ? Thomas J. and Tirzah Ann writ affectionate let ters Thomas J. a-tellin us to be careful and not overdo, and Tirzah Ann sent a heart full of love, and a request to git a yard and a half of lace with deep pints on t to trim a summer waist. Ury and Philury wanted to know when we wuz a-comin home, and whether, with deep respects, they should take up the parlor carpet, that seemed threatened with carpet bugs, and whether it wuz best to break up the 8-acre lot. Oh, sweet and tender missives, how near they seemed to bring the old home to us drag it right along over the glassy bridge of the Atlantic and land it at our feet ! Wall, Martin sed he wouldn t fail to see Madame Tussaud s wax riggers. He sed undoubtedly he would be asked if he d seen em. And Adrian wuz anxious to go, thinkin it wuz sunthin like a circus. C- * BE YOU ANY KIN OF BlLDAD HENZY, OF JONESYILLE ?" A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 469 But we* found it wuz a sight, a sight to see how nateral they wuz. Why, some of the figgers almost breathed, and you can see em some machinery rigged up inside, I spoze. And then we see kings, and queens, and princes, and warriors, and every body else we got fairly light-headed a-seein em all, and I spoze Josiah got kinder excited and wrought up, or he wouldn t have done as he did. There wuz a old man a-holdin a programme in his hand, and every little while he would lift up his head and look round. He favored Deacon Henzy quite a good deal, and Josiah sez to me " I believe that is Deacon Henzy s cousin ; you know he sed he had one here in London. Don t you see he has got the real Henzy nose ? I believe I ll be neighborly and scrape acquaintance with him." "Wall," sez I, "he duz favor the Henzys, but," sez I, "don t be too forred ; the Henzys are big feelin ." " Big feelin !" sez Josiah ; " don t you spoze he will be glad to see a neighbor of his own blood relation?" Sez he, " He will be glad to neighbor with me." I felt dubersome, but he advanced onwards, and sez he in his most polite axents 4/0 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " Be you any kin of Bildad Henzy, of Jones- ville ?" The old man never moved, but read away, and occasionally lifted his head and looked round, and Josiah spoke agin a little louder "Be you any relative of Bildad Henzy ?" He never noticed my pardner any more n as if he wuz dirt under his feet, and my pardner got his dander up, and he fairly yelled in the old man s ears " Be you a Henzy ?" And hein mad, he added, " Dum you ! I believe you can hear if you want to." And he put his hand on the old man s shoulder to draw his attention to him. And for all the world ! if that man wuzn t wax ! Josiah looked meachin for as much as four minutes, and I sez " I told you to look ahead." " You didn t, nuther," he snapped out. "Wall," sez I, "it wuz words to that effect, and I wouldn t try to be neighborly agin to-day." Sez he, " If I see a man afire I wouldn t tell him on t." " Wall," sez I, " he would probble find it out him self ; but now," sez I, " you d better keep right by me." Wall, as I said, we see every noted woman from Queen Victoria back to Eve, I guess ; and from the A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 471 Prince of^Vales and his wife and children back to little Cain and Abel or I presoom Adam s little boys wuz there, though 1 don t remember of seein em. But there wuz Knights, Barons, Crusaders, Kings, and Emperors, all dressed up in royal robes ; the Black Prince, as good a lookin young man as I want to see, and Kings Edward and Richard and Henry, and Queens Mary and Elizabeth, and Mary, Queen of Scots, all ready to have her head cut off ; and her rosary, on which she had told her prayers those dretful days, slipped through her fingers as much as to say, I am goin into a country where I sha n t want you any more. And there wuz Marie Antonette poor creeter ! and Anne Boleyn, poor thing ! she d better not married a widdower. And Joan of Arc, noble creeter ! I felt real riz up a-look- in at her I always liked her. And I wuz dretful interested in the Napoleon rooms, full of the relicks of the great king maker. There he lay, jest as nateral as life, on a bed, with his cloak wropped round him the very cloak he wore at the battle of Marengo, and which he wropped round his body some like a pall when that heart had stopped its ambitious throbbin s ; and the world breathed freer. Then there wuz his coronation robe and if you ll 472 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. believe it, the coronation robe of poor Empress Josephine right by. I d a-gin ten cents cheerfully if I could have got a little piece of both on em for my crazy quilt. But I didn t spoze they d be willin to have me cut em off, so I didn t tackle the guide about it. And mebby it wuz jest as well, I d no as I could have slept much under them two robes and medi tated on what they had covered up. Love, triumph, doubt, jealousy, heartaches, despair would permeate the Josephine crazy block, and wild passions, and burnin ambition, and cold, remorseless neglect, and desertion would most likely surround the Napoleon crazed block. I d no but I should have the nightmair every time I tried to sleep under it. Then there wuz his watch, stopped the minute he died, his ring, camp knife and fork, coffee-pot, snuff box if I hadn t seen it, I wouldn t believed he used snuff, the idee is somehow so incongrous of the hero of the Nile, the conqueror of Europe a-takin snuff. Why, all Jonesville kinder looks down on old Miss Moody because she takes snuff black snuff, too, scented high with bergamot. Wall, one of the most life-like relicks wuz one of his teeth ; that NAPOLEON S TOOTH. A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 473 wuz a part of the great emperor, or wuz once, be fore it wuz pulled out. I spoze it ached jest like anybody s tooth, and I presoom he wuz hard to git along with, and talked rough, jest as any ordinary man duz, durin its worst twinges. I presoom he sed " Dum it!" repeatedly before he made up his mind to have it out. I jedge him by Josiah, and I spoze that is a good way to jedge men. Yes, I spoze you ketch any one man and study him clost, and you have a good idee of the hull male race. And then there wuz a lock of hair, took right from his scalp, so I spoze. Oh, what burnin thoughts and plans and ambitions once permeated the spot on which that grew ! My emotions wuz a perfect sight as I looked at it. And we see clothes and relicks of every other great man, it seems to me, that ever lived Lord Nelson, Henry of Navarre, etc., etc., etc. And we see riggers lookin jest as nateral as if they could walk up and shake hands with you, if they wuz a-mind to of Shakespeare and Macaulay and Scott and Byron, Calvin and Knox and Luther, Lincoln s homely, good face, and Grant, Henry Ward Beecher, etc., etc., etc. 474 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I wouldn t give a cent to see all the riggers of criminals and murderers, but Martin thought it ad visable to walk through it, so he could say he d been there, I spoze. And there \vuz one thing among everything else that gin me more than seventy emotions, and that wuz the very axe, the very old guillotine that cut off the heads of twenty-two thousand folks durin the Rain of Terror in Paris. I looked at the piece of iron with feelin s, as I say, beyend description. And I wondered out loud if the iron wuz now dug out of the sile that would make jest sech a horrible instrument for America. I groaned deep as I wondered it. And Josiah sez, " You talk like a fool, Saman- tha!" And I sez, " I hope I do, Josiah I hope so ! " But what hammered this piece of iron out to its terrible use wuz, the fiery hammers of jealousy, and fury, and hunger, and want, and the gay multitude went on in its gayety and extravagancies, and didn t heed the sullen hammerin s onto that iron, and laughed at em that called attention to it jest as you are a-doin now, Josiah Allen." Sez he, "You can talk about my extravagancies if you want to, Samantha Allen, but I hain t half the A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 475 clothes you have, and they hain t trimmed off any where nigh as high as yourn are." But I went on, not heedin .his triflin words. Sez I, " The same furies are loose in the streets of our American cities to-day foolish suspicion driv by mistaken zeal, jealousy, heartburnin , honest want, and need on one side ; injestice, wrong, op pressions, extravagance, indifference, anger, con tempt, etc., etc., etc., on the other side, all a-flamin up and a-holdin up a light for jest sech a axe to be ground out. How long will I hear the sullen thun- derin of the silent hammerin s on the forge of igno rant malice and hatred and jest anger how long?" And I sithed deep and heavey. And Josiah sez, " What you hear is the thud of folks a-walkin through the Chamber of Hor- rows." And sez he agin, " You talk like a fool ! America is good to the poor. Look at So-and-so, and So-and- so, and So-and-so," sez he, a-bringin my attention to some of the most shinin lights in the field of philanthropy and jestice. Sez I, a-drawin his attention to the good philan thropic works in France sez I, " Paris had also her So-and-so, and So-and-so, and So-and-so before the Rain of Terror." And agin I gin several sithes and a few groans. SAMANTHA IX EUROPE. But my pardner looked cross as a hear, and dog tired. So, as allegorin and eppisodin must yield to the powers of affection, I mekanically follered him in silence through the halls, Martin and the chil dren hein in another part of the huildin and Al Faizi somewhere a-lookin or a-takin notes in a noble way I hain t a doubt of it. But we all rejoined each other, and sot off home to dinner amid Josiah s great rejoicin . Wall, Martin took us to the Zoological Garden, where we see all the dumb creeters that ever wuz made, it seemed to me ; and all used so first-rate that it wuz a comfort to me to see em. Great big cages, where they could roam round some and enjoy themselves. And wuzn t it a pleasure to see all the beauti ful birds, of every color and plume, from every country from Eden down, a-playin round in the trees and in the ^ambient air ? The cages as big as a door-yard, with trees in em, where they can fly round in the branches. And water birds with their own ponds to float in ; and sea birds with real sea-shores fixed up for em. And so it wuz with every animal from a elephant down, wild or tame. And I should have took a sight of comfort here if I had had a pair of iron ear JOSIAH AT THE LONDON " ZOO." 478 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. pans, or even gutty-perchy. But bein but flesh and blood, them pans ached with the fearful noise the animals made. Josiah wanted the worst way to go to the Parlia ment of Cogers, whieh wuz established over two hundred years ago, and still meets in Fleet Street. Sez Josiah, "A public man in America naterly depends on cogers and sech for his election." " Yes," sez I ; " Heaven knows that is so. Saloon-keepers and whiskey and beer and cider manafacturers, and whiskey drinkers, and the raw foreign element, and other cogers, elect more poli ticians to office, specially in our big towns, than any other element ; and pure men and Christian wimmen have to stand back and be ruled by em." " Yes," sez he, blandly ; u and so it stands any body in hand who has political aspirations and wants to be popular with the masses to ingrashiate himself with all the cogers he can. I would love to see what means these men take to endear them selves to the cogers, besides buyin em, and makin em drunk, and sech other ways as I m familar with." "Wall," sez I, "you ll go alone for all of me ; I see cogers enough in my own country without huntin em up here, and I d advise you to keep away from em." Sez I, " Your head hain t strong A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 479 enough, ^osiah, to hold only jest so much, and I d advise you to fill it up with the noble and grand objects we see here on every side, and let cogers alone." " But," sez he, " my futer depends on em ; I must keep up with other statesmen if I m ever to amount to anything." But I wouldn t listen to any more of his argu ments, and \vaved off the subject almost hautily. But I found out afterwards that the Parliament wuzn t cogers as Josiah looked on em, and they wuz particular to be called r^gers, with the empha sis on the co. I found they wuz a sort of mock debates patronized by lawyers, political men, newspaper men, clerks, etc., where they de"bate on every subject, and drink beer and smoke pipes and talk, talk, talk. Daniel O Connell and Curran and John Wilkes and many others eminent in debate wuz members of this club. I had always pictered the Tower of London as a tall tower a-shootin up, some like a steeple, only more of a size all the way up ; more, mebby, like a very tall pillow. But, anyway, I d always depictered it in my mind as steeple or pillow shaped. But, to my surprise, I found that what is called the 480 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Tower of London is a hull lot of buildin s that cover nigh upon fourteen acres of ground, though there are, of course, a number of towers throwed in thirteen of em in all Bloody Tower, Bell Tower, Jewel Tower, etc., etc. They date back to the time of Caesar. There wuz a Roman fortress on this spot when the Romans held London. One tower is called Caesar s Tower now. William the Conqueror founded the Tower of London as we see it. When he wuz alive it wuz a great palace, with thick walls for safety or defence ; it wuz used as a prison for prisoners of state mostly, and now it is used as an arsenal. Piles of rifles and cannons are kep here in some of the buildin s. The principal entrance is the Lion s Gate, but there are three other gates. The Traitor s Gate wuz the one through which prisoners wuz took into the Tower. I don t spoze they recognized the way they wuz took out. Then there is the Water Gate and the Iron Gate. One of the most interestin sights there wuz the guards who had charge of the place. They had on velvet hats, with a kind of a wreath on em, some like Tirzah Ann s last winter s hat, and a deep ruffle round their necks, and a blue sort of a polenay or overskirt, with a belt all embroidered with roses A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 481 and thistles and shamrocks and crowns, and, etc., and short pantoloons, with stockin s comin up to the knee, and rosettes on their knees and rosettes on their shues. Josiah sez to me, " Never before sence I wuz born have I seen a man dressed up as he ort to be to carry out my idees. You can see for yourself, Samantha, jest how perfectly beautiful, and how dressy and stylish a man can be if he sets out ; why," sez he, " a dress like that would take twenty years offen my age, and I d no but twenty- one, and I m bound to have one jest exactly like it if I ever live to git home. What a sensation it will create in Jonesville ! " sez he dreamily. I gin a deep sithe, but before I could reply the company started on their rounds of observation, led by one of them gay-dressed individuals. They go the rounds every half hour. Wall, we got some guide-books, and payed our sixpence apiece for our tickets, some as if we wuz goin into a menagerie, and follered the guide over the moat bridge into the different towers. Martin and Josiah wuz dretful interested in the place where the weepons wuz kep , bayonets and swords and rifles and pistols enough to equip all the armies of the earth, it seemed to me. But I wuz more interested, a dretful heart-sick- 482 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. enin interest in the place where the wretched captives wuz imprisoned and wore the long hours away (jest as long hours as we have now) in vain dreams of the happy and brilliant past. A-lookin forred to the sure approach of a awful death, or, perhaps, in ellusive hopes of escape and flight to other shores. But the shores they reached, poor things ! wuz up a steep the livin has never climbed. We see on the walls of these prisons words they carved in the hours they waited execution. Arthur Poole, who tried to help Mary up onto the English throne, left these words " I. II. S. A passage perillus makethc a port pleasant 1568. A. Poole." I wonder jest how he felt when he writ them words jest what a heartache and heartbreak spoke through em. I dare presoom to say he thought too much of Mary, but I can t help that now ; it s three hundred years too late. There wuz elaborate carvin s of flowers, leaves, figgers, etc., and the names of their unhappy de signers, \vho seemin ly tried to light up their captivity by formin the shapes of the flowers they would never see a-growin in freedom agin poseys without perfume, cold stun rosys, indeed. And then in one room wuz jest that one word : A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 483 " Jane." * That touched, me more n the more elaborate ones. That wuz spozed to mean Lady Jane Grey, and wuz carved by her pardner, Lord Dudley. It seemed as if Love wuz a-callin out to her " Jane !" jest that one cry acrost the silences of death and eternity. Then there wuz the autograph of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who had his head cut off in 1572 for wantin to marry Mary Queen of Scots. What a havock that woman did make amongst the men ! Then in the White Tower we see the place where Essex wuz killed and the rooms occupied by Sir Walter Raleigh, and in the Brick To\ver we see the prison where Walter spent the last days of his life. I wondered if through the long, dreary hours them real good words of hisen wuz any comfort to him : "Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My staffe of faith to walk upon ; My scrip of joye immortal diet My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope s true gage ; And thus I take my pilgrimage. " Blood must be my body s balmer, While my soul, like peaceful palmer, Travelleth toward the land of Heaven. 484 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "There will I kiss The bowle of blisse, And drink mine everlasting fill Upon every milken-hill ; My soul will be a-dry before ; But after that will thirst no more." Them lines ort to have been a comfort to him mebby they wuz. But lines writ in a pleasant room to home, with the door shet up, don t mebby sound jest the same on the scaffold or to the stake dret- ful echoes sound all round em, loud voices that mebby drown out the words. I spoze he thought sometimes durin them long days of his friends Shakespeare and Bacon. Meb by if there wuz any secrets between them two about the plays, he knew it. I wish I knew what it wuz I d give fifty cents freely if it could be made known to me. I wonder what he thought of Elizabeth in them days. I wonder if he wuz sorry he throwed his cloak down for her to walk over. He tried to keep her from jest dampenin her feet a little, and she willin to cut his head off. I ll bet if he d had his way them last ten days here, he would have let her sloshed right through the mud, and not offered to throw his cloak down for her. A VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 485 Poor, capricious, jealous creeter, Lib wuz ; but I believe that big collar she always wore choked her and kinder rasped her neck, and made her ugly. It would make me cross as a bear, it seems to me. But I d no what his feelin s wuz, nor what hern wuz, when she knew the man who wuz once her lover, and beloved by her, wuz spendin the long days alone with despair and death. CHAPTER XXVI. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. WALL, Martin felt and sed that France must be took in by him. He sed that a full knowledge of the French character, the country and the customs and habits of the people, wuz positively imperative to any one who laid any claims to fashion, and so he laid out to go to France and give it a exhaustive study. He laid out, he sed, to stay in the coun try not less than three days, and he might possi bly stay four. Thinkses I, with a deep inward sithe, I guess it will be a exhaustive study ; CALF-O-LAY ! i HAIN T A CALF OR A ox !" HE SHOUTED. J exhausted me even to think of bein raced so through a country, whirled on by the influence of Fashion and Martin. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 487 But he wuz the conductor of the enterprise, so to speak, and we had to r foller his rules blindly, as it wuz. Wall, travellin at the rate of speed we did, my memories are apt to run together, some like the colors of a calico dress after it is washed the blacks and reds are apt to mingle, dark eppisodes and lighter complected ones but some memories stand out vividly, too deeply printed to fade out. One is my Josiah s feelin s at not havin his break fast till leven o clock. In vain the waiter told him that at any time he could have his " calf-o-lay" (French). " Lay !" sez he ; u that s jest what I want to get rid on lay ! Do you spoze that after gittin up at five o clock all my life, I m a-goin to lay abed till noon ?" And then the waiter murmured sunthin agin about " calf-o-lay." And that madded Josiah agin, and sez he, " What of it what if calves do lay ! I hain t a calf or a ox !" he shouted. " You think," sez he, " that be cause I come from the country that you can go on with your insultin talk about calves, and intimate that I m a calf. But I ll let you know that you ve got holt of the wrong individual to impose upon. Keep your dum breakfast till noon if you want to and starve a man to death, but you shall not call me a calf." 488 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. I interrupted him and told him that he meant coffee with milk. 4< Coffee and milk !" he hollered ; " what is that to feed a starvin man ?" Sez he, " I want pork and beans and potaters and slap-jacks." Wall, the waiter wuz skairt most to death, but I quieted my pardner down, and the next time I had a chance I bought two paper bags of cookies and sech, to appease the worst cravin s of hunger, and administered cm to him as I had need. Another memory is seein the bathers goin in at Havre, and the trials I had with my pardner a-keep- in him out of the briny surf. Sez he, " Samantha, I will go in a-bathin ; jest see," sez he, " how gayly they swim and float through the water, all dressed up in bright colors ; how stylish it would look, what a air it would gin us to see you and me a-floatin and a-bobbin 1 up and down in that element ! It would be sunthin so uneek to tell to Deacon Gowdey and Ury. "And then," sez he, " we could lead the fashion to home, we could turn the buzz saw-mill dam into a perfect carnival of delight." I looked coldly at him, and sez I, " You re not goin to make a fool of yourself at your age by bath- in and foolin round in the water." "Why," sez he, " you re always preachin up bath- PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 489 in to me ; you ve lectered me more times than I ve got fingers and toes about bathin ; and now that I m willin to foller it up, you draw me back." And agin he looked longin ly at the dancin surf and the gay-robed bathers and the funny bathin housen. But I sez, "A big pail of water and some soap and towels and the seclusion of your bedroom are very different from makin a spec tacle of yourself here in this hant of display." I broke it up. And then at Trouville, though I spoze nobody would believe it, and he denies it now, yet sech is the force of custom and fashion on the mind of my beloved pardner that I d no but that man would have played cards and won money mebby up as high as 25 cents, if I d allowed it. He denies the awful charge, and mebby he s right. But he talked strange, strange for a deacon and a grandfather, But while engaged in these purile thoughts while journeyin through France his pardner wuz thinkin HOW STYLISH I WOULD LOOK. 490 SAM ANT 1 1 A IN EUROPE. of what we owed the eountry, and how it sent the flower of its youth and bravery to help us in our troublous time. I thought of the young Marquis De Lafayette leavin his fair France, his ease, his luxury, and his sweetheart, to sail out fur away into the midst of privations and dangers to help a strugglin colony to independence. And then I thought of how another Frenchman, Jacques Carder, \vuz the first white man to navigate our king of rivers, the St. Lawrence. Why, my thoughts soared and sailed along as I thought of them idees, most as surgin and deep as that noble river at its widest pint, and my pride and glory in my native land stood up above that sweepin current some like its Thousand Islands, only mebby not ornamented off so much as they be with palaces, bridges, cupalos, torchlights, etc., etc. But I felt dretful riz up. And a-musin on Lafay ette and the debt we owed France, I wondered if they got in a tussel with England or Russia or etc. if Uncle Sam would lay to and help her in return. But I d no as there is any danger of our havin the job, seein she has got about six millions of de fenders in her army and navy ; and we about 20 or 30 thousand. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 491 Queer, hain t it, when the United States is so much bigger than she is ? But the fact speaks well for our republic and all the law-makers, from its President and Governors down to its Pathmasters and School Trustees. In Havre, Alice wuz some interested in seein the birthplace of Sara Bernhardt. She had seen her act, and they do say, though she is considerable bony in figger and gittin along in years, she is a marvel of grace, and acts out all sorts of lives, and dies so nateral that you d almost appint the day for her funeral and pick out her barriers. I don t spoze I could ever git to be nigh so graceful as she is, and Josiah don t think I can ; he wuz real sot on it when we talked it over. Al Faizi wuz interested in seein the birthplace of Alphonse Karr he had read his works. Wall, there wuz one place I wanted to see dret- fully on our journey to Paris, and Al Faizi and Alice wanted to see it too. And that wuz the place where the Maid of Orleans wuz executed in 1431. I mentioned to Martin our desires. And he sez, "Joan of Ark ? What Ark," sez he, " is that ? I am not familiar with any such person age," sez he. Sez I, " You can call her that, or you can call her Jennie Dark ; you can call it either way." I DON T SPOZE I COULD EVER GIT TO BE NIGH so GRACEFUL AS SHE is. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 493 " I don t know any Ark or Dark," sez he. " Was*she a woman of any note? Was her calling a high one ?" sez he. " About as high as you git here below," sez I. " She heard voices from above ; angels talked with her and guided her on her way." And I went on and related her history, brief though impressive, comin to me through Thomas J. Sez Martin, " I don t approve of following up any such impostors ; I don t believe in any such doings. Common sense don t bear them out." Sez I mildly, " Mebby Oncommon Sense is needed to comprehend it, Martin." But he wuz obdurate, till Alice told him in her sweet way that she would really love to go there. And then he gin in to once. And we did go to the Place De Pucelle, where she wuz burned to death for bein more speritual and riz up than her burners. I had a sight of emotions as I stood on that spot sights on em. You see, I had her story at my tongue s end, Thomas J. had read it to me so much. She wuz a common country girl, whose parents wuz day laborers. She herself couldn t read or write. Into this sile, prepared, as you may say speakin from the 494 SAMAXTHA IX EUROPE. laws of heredity for only coarse labor, coarse thoughts, common desires and hopes In this sile sprung up the consummit flower of speritual communion. Angels talked with her. She held communion with the Exalted One. From her thirteenth year she heard voices speakin to her. They did not tell her to go forth to labor like her brothers and sisters ; no, they told her to free France from the English, put her young king on the throne. The onseen one that talked with her enabled her to know her troubled young king, amidst a crowd of his own age and dressed jest as he wuz. She had hard work to even see him to tell her mission, so sure wuz the Common Sense about her that the Oncommon Sense she had wuz only im- poster. But she headed the army, made that wicked, dis solute body of soldiers some like Christian En- deavorers, so ardent and sincere \vuz her piety. She won the battle. Agin and agin she defeated the enemy. She saw her young king crowned. Then she wanted to go back into her quiet home into the garden where in the cool of the evenin she heard the heavenly message. She said her work wuz done. But they wouldn t let her go. And wuz it because she didn t foller the Voice that told PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 495 her to go back to her old home did a little per sonal pride, gratified ambition, ozze in and flavor the human mandate to make her stay ? I d no, nor Josiah don t. But she begun to make mistakes after this lost battles, and at last her own countrymen, though allies of the English, called her a sorceress. The Common Sense found her guilty ; the same C. S. burnt her up root and branch. But the Oncommon Sense didn t desert her. The heavenly influence that the multitude wuz blind as a bat to, and as deef as a adder, made her say in them last supreme moments " I did hear the voices." Wall, the feelin s I had as I stood in that spot couldn t be counted no, not on a typewriter. The Common Sense felt that a statute to her ort to be useful, as well as ornamental, so they made it into a sort of a waterin trough. And the statute hain t what it ort to be, but my imagination filled out the details, and I see as I look at it the rapt face of the little maiden of thirteen a-lookin up with illumined eyes as she received the message ; I see her a noble conqueror, clad in armor, stand by her young king as she see him crowned ; I see her noble face uplifted to Heaven as the flames mounted about her ; I hearn her say 496 SAMANTHA IX EUROPE. " I did hear the voices." But my reflections wuz cut short by the words : " Well, I believe tourists usually make a short stay here ; it is comparatively uninteresting. This combination of trough and monument is remarkably uninteresting, and not to be copied by Americans. "Though considering the small water power France possesses, compared with our own great water-courses, I can t perhaps criticise their methods so much." This I heard on the right of me, then on the left of me Josiah s voice "This has put a crackin good idee into my head, Samantha. You know the trough out east of the horse barn, Ury might kinder chop out a statute of me and nail it on top of it ; it would be highly esteemed by my fellow-townsmen. He could put on it, you know, " Deacon and salesman in the cheese factory." They d praise the trough highly, and I ll have Ury begin it jest as quick as I git home ; I ve got a good block of hickory over to the saw-mill." I sithed deep and turned away, and I see Al Faizi s rapt face a-lookin beyend the statute fur beyend, on sunthin that Martin and Josiah couldn t see if they lived to be as old as Metheuseleah. Alice looked real sweet and dreamy, too. Adrian wuz playin in the water. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 497 And so each one on us wuz pursuin our own peticular fantcMns, some on em as thin shadders as the materials dreams are made of, and some on em as real and practical as horse-blocks and anvils. Martin sed he should make only a brief visit to France, as he had studied the country so exhaust ively when he brung Alice over here to school and went after her (in all, he wuz in France about 48 hours) ; he sed he could spend but very little time there. But he sed that he felt that the proper thing to do would be to visit Paris, so he could say on our return that we had come straight from Paris. I d no why he felt so, but I spoze he did. But we did, indeed, find Paris a beautiful city. Martin put up at a first-class tarvern, as he always did. But I hearn him tell Josiah that they cheat ed him on every side. It madded Martin, for though he always duz things on a large, noble scale, and is willin to pay large, yet he don t want to be cheated nobody duz. I found that they spoke English at the tarvern, so my worst fears wuz squenched ; for how I wuz goin to git along and feed Josiah in a land where bread wuz "pain" and water wuz "oh" wuz more than I could tell. Besides, other things accordin , what wuz I to do ? I wildly questioned my soul. 49 8 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. % How could I git my pardner dressed, and warm ed, and git him from place to place wuz more than I could tell ; but my fears wuz vain, for though jabberin s wuz on every side on us, and rapid vocifira- tion in senseless brogue wuz in voge, yet plenty wuz found who spoke our good, honest, Jonesville tongue. How clean Paris is ! how gay and bright the streets look ! what pretty wimmen, and what neat, smart-lookin men, and pretty children, too, with their smart nurse-maids ! elegant carriages, splendid housen, magnificent buildin s, and arches, and tow ers, and monuments, and meetin -housen, and around everything and over everything the gay, bright at mosphere of good feelin and politeness. No wonder folks love to come here, and don t want to go away. Why, I enjoyed myself first- rate in Paris, and Paris enjoyed my bein there, so fur as I know ; they acted as if they did, anyway ; most always a-smilin at me and my pardner in a most agreeable manner. Yes, they wuz glad we had lanched out and come, I hain t a doubt on t. Alice had lots of school friends here, and wuz out a good deal a-seein em, and Martin and Al Faizi wuz each on em a-pursuin their own favorite fantoms as different as any two fantoms ever wuz, from first to last. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 499 But Josiah and me shacked round quite a good deal, Adrian a-goin with us quite considerable. About the first thing that strikes you as you ven ter out-doors is the wideness and beauty of the streets, with their double row of trees and their ele gant housen, lookin so sort o finished not put in anyhow, like a palace and a hovel, but all kinder of the same style and make, handsome as picters, and the sidewalk is as wide as from our house to the barn, and I d no but wider. They are twice as wide as the main street in Zoar, some on em, where they have the most gay and beautiful stores of different kinds ; and, if you ll believe it, they have tables set out-doors in the most hand some style, and folks a-eatin at em, all dressed up and a-jabberin away, and a-laughin , and havin a first-rate time. Josiah wuz dretful impressed by it all. Sez he, as if he wuz a-usin real big words, sez he- " France is impressive and edifyin in many ways. What improvements we can witness and inaugerate to home ! One thing I shall immegiately proceed to arrange ; henceforth, Samantha, we shall always partake of our food out by the side of the road." I looked real cold at the idee, and he went on " Jest think of the gayety, the life it will bring JOSIAH, "CULTERED AND TRAVELLED," SCHEMES FOR JONESVILL1AN OUT-DOOR DINNER PARTIES, A LA PARIS, AND HOW SAMANTHA FORESEES THE RESULT. PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 50! to Jonesville to have all the neighbors a-eatin out by the highway, for of eourse they will foller the example of those who are cultered and travelled ; imagine," sez he, a-wavin his hand and enjoyin himself first-rate in futer retrospects ahead on him " Imagine Deacon Henzy and Drusilly, and she that wuz Submit Tewksbury and her husband, Si mon Slimpsey and Betsy, all on em a-eatin out doors, a-minglin their voices with ourn as we set to our table ; I with my dressin -gown on, and you, if you wanted to, a-playin on a accordeon in a gay, light manner befittin the happy occasion." Sez I, " It would be a lot of fun to set down in a lot of burdocks and mullin full of dirt ; and what would happen when Deacon Small driv his big herd of cows by ? You know they always will go a-pranc- in and a-kickin up the dust and a-actin because he wants em to eat the grass along the side of the road. " How would you like to have the table over turned by his critters, and you prostrated by a kick in the stumick as you tried vainly to protect the teapot ? How would you like to have that Jersey entangle his huffs in the tossels of your dressin -gown, and drag you at his heels ?" sez I. " And who d bring the food out there and bear it 502 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. in agin ? And if you think I m a-goin to learn the accordeon at my age and with my rumatiz, you re mistakened." He see it wuzn t feasible, hut he wouldn t gin in. He drawed my attention off by pin tin down the magnificent vista of broad avenues, three hundred feet wide, smooth as glass, and full of gay vehicles, and beyend, risin up like a dream of beauty and grandeur and strength, the great Arch d Etoile. This can never be described by Josiah or me ; it must be seen to be appreciated. It is the grandest monument Napoleon has left, and cost over two millions of dollars. But as you go on you see fountains and columns and gardens and arches and booths and groves and singers and amusements of all kinds for the people, and everything else that is beautiful and impressive and etc., etc., etc., etc. The Place Vendome, where memories of the great king-maker hover round the tall columns that picters out his grand, melancholy career ; the Tuileries and the Louvre. How be I a-goin to make the public and Betsy Slimpsey git any idee of them palaces, adorned with all that is most beautiful in art and sculpter, and that cover sixty acres of ground ! Mebby I could gin Drusilly Henzy a little idee PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 503 on t, for that is jest the number of acres of solid ground that fell onto em from her father. It jest about crushed em the wealth seemed to em ovenvhelmin . Imagine a big farm all risin up into palaces, beautiful as you ever see rise up into the cloudy Heavens. The Gallery of the Louvre wall, if Drusilly and I should undertake to pick up every little grain of dirt that goes to make up them sixty acres of hern, and have each separate one branch out into some beautiful, be-a-u-tiful form, some delicate, exquisite fancy, or some exalted rigger of impressive beauty why, wouldn t we be tuckered out before we got through ? though at the same time so riz up and inspired, that we wouldn t know, some of the time, whether we wuz in the body or out on t. Wall, that may gin the public and Betsy some idee of what everybody must make up their mind to go through when they tackle the Louvre. From the beginnin of time till now every land has contributed its choicest treasures to this hal lowed place, from Nineveh and Egypt to Jones- ville (for was not Jonesville s choicest treasures of humanity represented there when Josiah Allen and I stood there, some like statutes, only more com fortably dressed, and lookin round us more ?). 504 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. What poems in marble bust onto our visions, and what sights on em ! What marvels of ancient art ! What picters ! what pieters ! Oh, dear me ! it lifts me up, and tuckers me out to think on em now. Some of the galleries wuz a quarter of a mild long. Jest think of it here, as fur as from our house over to Old Grout Nickleson s ; and I never ust to think, when his mother-in-law was bed-rid, that I could walk it ; no, I always had Josiah hitch up. And then think of that im mense distance full on each side of the best of the world. Picters by-Guido, Murillo, Titian, Rembrandt, Vandyke, Leonardo da Vinci, Wouverman, etc., etc., etc. picters that them immortal old masters had their own hands on, and bent their own glosvin inspired eyes on. My soul, jest think on t ! Relicks of all the sovereigns spurs of the old conquerors (and how they did spur things up and make em fly !). Relicks of kings without number and queens, too, and princes. Marie Antoinette s shues I m glad I didn t have to walk in em, for though they trod through pleas- PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 505 ant, luxurious places at first, they had to climb up the scaffold. Poor creeter ! The Napoleon Room gin me a sight of emotions, and I didn t care who see em. I jest about cried when I looked on that old flag he kissed in a sad hour. There wuz the clothes he wore that he ust to button over that restless, ambitious heart. Yes, and there wuz some of the hair that riz up over that ambitious brain, that wuz the terror and admiration of all Europe. He used Josephine mean- mean as a dog, and he wuz too high-sperited and ambitious ; but yet what a man, what a man he wuz ! Sunthin good and noble must have been in him to make his soldiers love him so. How they totter up to-day to lay wreaths on the railin round his statute layin at his marble feet the poseys of their hearts devo tion, their highest love, and their deepest sorrer. THERE wuz THE CLOTHES HE WORE THAT HE UST TO BUTTON OVER THAT RESTLESS, AMBITIOUS HEART. 506 SAMAXTHA IN EUROPE. No man not naterally noble could call forth sech affection in his dependents. I have wished a hundred times I could have been there, and neighbored with him and Josephine, and kinder kep em together, and quelled him down some in his ambitious views things would have been different, no doubt ; I presoom she wouldn t have died of a broken heart years in dyin , but so much the harder. He wouldn t have had to be shet up in a lone some island a prisoner, and all Europe would have fared better. But it wuzn t to be it wuzn t to be. Pa Smith at that time wuzn t married, and I wuz wall, I don t really know where I wuz at that time, nor Josiah don t know ; it looked kinder dubersome and vague about my ever bein born at all, and things had to go on jest as they did. Wall, as I have said heretofore, that gallery of the Louvre is full, full to , overflowin of the rich est treasures of art, as my riz-up brain and my four weary legs testify my own two extremities and my Josiah s pair on em. Hisen ached like the toothache, so he sed. He didn t bear his weariness silently and oncom- plainin ly, as I tried to no, with groanin s that PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 507 couldn t be uttered hardly he kep by my side through them interminable galleries. Adrian asked a sight of questions a sight on em. And when I proposed to go to the Bois de Boulogne, my poor pardner asked me feelin ly if in the name of the gracious Peter I wanted another boy a-traipsin at our heels a-askin enough questions to tire out a regiment of soldiers. But I explained it all out to him, and we took considerable comfort there. The place wuz more beautiful than tongue could tell. Jest as a French woman always looks better dressed up than an American or an Eng lish woman, and their cities more brilliant and beautiful, jest so are these woods fur more beauti ful than Jonesville or New York woods. Why, jest compare our sugar bush and the woods between Zoar and Jonesville with these woods of Boulogne where be they ? Further off than the golden sunset is to the vision of Josiah. And the Elysian Fields tongue would fail to give any idee of \vhat we see there. Notre Dame, perfect indeed duz it look, a-risin up with its two towers a-dwarfin the housen about it, though they are sizable ones. The Egyptian Obelisk of Luxor, that rises up in the air one hundred feet, all full of strange 5O8 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. writin , I wish it could speak and tell what it had seen all through the past centuries what its old red face must have looked down on from first to last. Curous to even think on. I presoom it must have looked down on Cleopatra and seen her a-cut- tin up and a-actin , a-liirtin and a-carryin matters altogether too fur with Antony, Caesar, etc., etc. I wonder if the old obelisk sees any sech doin s now in Paris in 1894? I dare presoom to say she duz. Human nater has always capered sence the days of Adam and Eve. It hain t never talked on much, but I always blamed Antony jest as much as I did Cleopatra and Caesar too ; they all ort to been ashamed of them selves and sech good wives as they had, too. Aurelia and Calpurnia wuz real good wimmen, so fur as I ever hearn on. Wall, the big fountain, which stood not fur off, are a sight to see and are ornamented beautifully, besides havin immense water priveliges, and they ort to have, for right here on this spot stood that dretful thing, the guillotine. Oh, what doin s, what doin s took place right here ! Angels must have veiled their faces with their feather wings as they flew over the spot in PARIS AND ITS BEAUTIES. 509 them dretful days of the French Revolution. Twenty- eight hundred wuz killed here had their heads cut right off trompled on by men risin aginst tyrants, killin em off ; and then they, too, turned into tyrants, wuz overthrown and killed off like sheep. Louis XVI., Charlotte Corday, Marie Antoinette, Danton, Robespierre oh, what dretful things to think on ! But the murmur of the water as it spouted up and fell back in murmurs whispered of happier, more peaceful times. In a place where stood the old prison of Bas tille, a sile steeped with the tears and blood of the thousand and thousands of prisoners and victims, stands Liberty, a-standin upon a monument one hundred and fifty feet high. She always had to wade through blood, and always will, for all I know. She had a broken chain in one hand the past is behind her, the chains are broke. She lifts up a torch in the other hand, its light streams into the futer. She don t lay out to have any more sech deeds of darkness done if she can possibly help it you can see that by the looks of her. CHAPTER XXVII. NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. ONE day I told Josiah that I must go to see the Invalides. And he sez, " You better keep away, Samantha ; you may ketch sunthin ." But I explained that I wanted to see the tomb of Napoleon, so he gin in, and we went there and stayed some time. The big gilded dome of this meetin -house towers up three hundred and fifty feet, and can be seen all over the city, and would be apt to keep Napoleon in memory if France wuz inclined to forgit him, which it hain t. Here he lays, jest as he wanted to, by the banks of the waters he thought so much on, and with the French people he loved. As you go in, you see under a gold and white can opy the form of our Lord upon the cross lookin down, down into a splendid tomb surrounded by a great lau rel crown and twelve giant statutes of Victories a-tow- erin up all about it you see the grave of the Great Conqueror. My emotions wuz a sight to behold ; I couldn t count em, nor did Josiah. NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. 511 All the thoughts I had ever had about the Hero and they d been soarin ones and a endless variety on em seemin ly all seemed to be crystallized and run together as I stood in that spot. But how could I tell my feelin s ? I couldn t no more n them twelve marble riggers could, who lifted their grand colossial riggers all round his coffin ; their great noble faces expressed a sight, and so I spoze mine did, but it would have been jest as vain for me to have told my emotions as it would for them to open their marble lips and told theirn. You might probble thought that they had their own idees about Napoleon, and so had I. He waded through seas of blood and sufferin , personal sufferin as well, up from obscurity to the topmost pinnacle of worldly glory. He left achin , bleedin hearts on all sides on him, from Josephine s down to the widdersand sweethearts of dead soldiers, as he stalked along with his arms folded, and that old hat of hisen on, and his inscrutable eyes fixed on the heights, so I spoze ; but he loved his country, and there wuz sunthin about the man that drew hearts to him, that turned grizzled old soldiers into babies when they spoke on him, that made em willin to live for him, to die for him. 1 d no, I spoze some of that resistless charm rested WlTH HIS ARMS FOLDED, AND THAT OLD HAT OF HISEN ON, AND HIS INSCRUTABLE EYES FIXED ON THE HEIGHTS. NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. 513 on the sublime magnificence of that place, and always will, so fur as I kn< \v. y: I felt queer. But Martin could not pause long even in this place, and for all I know all the while we wuz there he wuz a-pricein in his mind the marble and porphry and all the matchless splendor of the tomb, and a-calculatin on how much the money invested there would bring if he had the handlin of it. Anyway, we wuz probble milds and milds apart in our minds, though the left tab of my man t illy brushed aginst him] Josiah observed as we turned away that he wuz 11 hungry and dog tired." Al Faizi wuz deep in thought, and Alice and Adrian took up in lookin about em, and wonderin at the grand and solemn magnificence of the in terior. One day we went to the cemetery of Pere La Chaise. Alice and Al Faizi and Adrian went with us that day ; Martin had got to go to see some big man or other, who owned a ranch in Montana, in the neighborhood of some of Martin s friends. Wall, what a quiet, lovely spot that cemetery is, what a sweet place to rest in when our little life here is rounded by a sleep ! Over two hundred acres of graves what glowin 5 14 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. hopes and joys, what miseries and despairs found a rest here ! Wealth and Poverty, Ambition and Love, all asleep. Rothschild a-droppin his money bags as the sleep come on, as well as the baby who reposes under the simple stun marked " Our Own Darling Baby." Hearts ached when he dropped to sleep. The Countess Demidoff rests under the costly Mausoleum built above her. And Rachel, the great actress, wonderful creeter, how she moved the hearts of the world ! But at last the curtain fell and she retired. No encore from friend or lover can call her before the World s footlights agin no, she has got through actin ; has gone from the Make- Believe into the Real. Talma, too, has gone to sleep in that quiet place, and Bcranger and Racine and Bernardin St. Pierre. It seemed almost as though Paul and Virginia ort to be here by him. And La Place and Arago. I wonder if they hain t havin a good time up amongst the stars ; I presoom they have discovered lots of new worlds hosts of em. And General Massena, Marshal Davoust, and Marshal Ney, the bravest soldier. And Chopin, what music that man must have hearn by NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. 515 this time more melogious than he ever dreamt on here ! And Alice wanted to visit the graves of Abelard and Heloise. They are restin under a canopy, havin got past all the tribulations that beset em here below. Alice wanted to see em for Love s sake so I spoze. Poor creeters that thought so much of each other and seemed to be so clost to each other that nothin earthly could separate em, and then he a-dyin in a monastery and she a-passin away in a nunnery ; separated in body, but united in sperit so I spoze. Wall, their memories are close linked together, anyway, and will walk down the ages together. Al Faizi s dark eyes dwelt on Alice, and the mar ble forms of the lovers, at about the same time and for quite a long spell. His look seemed to take em all in Alice s sweet young beauty and the idee of the sad fate of the lovers. The hull sad story seemed to be writ out in his melancholy, but glowin eyes. Poor creeter ! Wall, Martin and Alice went to lots of places that I hadn t no idee of wantin to go to receptions and parties and theatres ana sech. And Martin 516 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. come home from the theatre with his big feelin s kinder trompled down for once, I guess. They wouldn t let him in. He probble could have bought out the hull the atre, root and branch, and not felt it a mite ; and to home they would have strewed flowers in his path up the aisle, if he had jest hinted at it. But he wuz turned out here, neck and crop, be cause he hadn t a dress-suit on. He felt meachin about it, I believe, though he wouldn t say much. But the next night they went agin. He put on a coat with pintcd tails and kinder low necked in front, and they let him in quick as a wink. Josiah said, when I told him about it, that if he had known it he would have gin Martin the loan of his dressin -gown. Sez he, " Of course that would ve opened the doors to once. "The French love beauty, and that dressin -gown, when the tossels are combed out and looped up as they ort to be, would set off any buildin and orna ment it." Sez he, " I wouldn t lend it on any com mon occasion, but Martin has done so much for us I would make the venter." It wouldn t have been let in, but it showed Josiah s good sperit, anyway. But, if you ll believe it, Alice had to leave her NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. 517 bunnet out in the anty-room and go in bare headed. I wouldn t have done it for nothin in the world- no, you wouldn t have ketched me a-reskin my bun- net by leavin it out-doors. Why, the ribbin on that bunnet cost twenty-five cents per yard, besides the bunnet itself, and that wuz only four years old, a-goin on five. When Alice told me on it I sez, " It is a shame to make wimmen go in bareheaded, and," sez I, " what would Paul say ? He said it wuz a shame for wimmen to appear in public without bunnets on." "But I thought," sez Josiah, "that you always thought Paul wuz a-meddlin with what didn t con cern him, and he d better kep to morals and let mil linery business alone. You d never let me bring up them texts." "Wall," sez I impressively, "there is a time to quote and a time not to quote. " I should have argued with that doorkeeper, any way, and, if necessary, brung up the Bible to him." And Alice bought lots of fine things while we were there her Pa wanted her to. He bought a lot, too. He said that he could git the same things through a dealer he knew in New York considerable cheap- SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. A- \\I1-IN MY FACE ON SECH GF.NTEEL TOWELS. er, "but," sez he, "it doesn t have the same name. Anything brought from Paris is so dreadful dis tinguished." And I spozed that he wuz in the right on t, and I felt that I too would love to branch out and buy sunthin that I could tell the neighbors come right from Paris, France. And I beset Josiah to buy me a sum mer shawl, but he said that he d seen my summer shawl for so many years wropped round the form he loved so, that the idee of seein me in any other shawl wuz re pugnant to him. \\ all, then I laid to and tried to git him to buy me a handkerchief pin ; but he said that old cameo that I had on looked so beautiful. He said so many memories hung round that shell face on it that he couldn t bear to see me with any other on. And so it wuz with my winter bunnet. Sez he, " Oh, the times I have seen that bunnet a-frontin up to me when I ve stood by the meetin -house door a-waitin for you, and it looked so perfectly lovely to me, as I stood there with cold legs and I ketched sight on it a-hallowin your face round as I see it a-comin towards me ! No other bunnet could ever look to me as that did." NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. 519 And so with my shues, and my gloves, and every other article ; they wuz all so dear to him, and he showed his affection to em and me so plain that I couldn t bear to hurt his feelin s by gittin any new ones. But I sez, " I need some towels, and have got to have em." So he give a reluctant consent, and I swung out and bought two new huckabuck towels, and I spoze Miss Gowdey and Sister Ganzey will be surprised and sort of envious to see me a-wipin my face on sech genteel towels, brung from sech a fashionable place, for I lay out to use em and not lay em up for, as the Sammist sez, slightly changed " You may lay up towels, but how do you know who shall gather em ?" Wall, when the time come forme to leave France I felt bad, for besides all the reasons I have named, lots of thoughts hovered over the land and made it dretful interestin to me. Victor Hugo, brave old exile, trompled on, but like a rich flower, the tromplin brought out their rarest odor. Who knows whether we should ever had u Les Miserables" if he had stayed to home and been made much on ? Mebby the sentences of that incomparable book, 520 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. that stun our minds and hearts, like the quick, sharp echoes of artillery at sea mebby they would have been longer drawed out, and less apt to strike the mark, if he hadn t been sent into exile. And Josephine, and Napoleon, and Louis, and Eugenie, and the poor young Prince Louis mem ories of all on em jest walked up and down the bright, beautiful streets with me, and cast a sort of a melancholy shadder on the brightness, some like the soft, deep shadders of a cypress-tree on a clean flower-bed. Yes, I had emotions enough while I wuz in France, if that wuz all I didn t suffer for them not at all. Martin, from the first to the last, through every country we visited, drawed up comparisons be tween em and America to the great advantage to America. He boasted over our country on our tower as eloquent as a Fourth of July oriter ever did from the wilds back of Loontown. I hated to hear him callin every other country all to nort, and told him so. And in the cause of Duty I told him of several things these countries went ahead of ourn in ; but he waved em off, and sez he, with a dignified sort of scorn : " Bring up one, if you can." NAPOLEON AND OTHER GREAT FRENCHMEN. 521 "Wall,"sez I, a-lookin round on the inside of *> my mind, and takin tip the first idee that happened to be in sight " look at that great society, that seems like the mission of angels, to help relieve the wants of the wounded and dyin on the battle field the Red Cross, the gleam of which, a-fallin on the dyin soldier, lights up his face with hope and courage. The foreign nations protect that insigna they keep it sacred to this sacred cause ; while the Goverment of the United States allows it to be used on liquor casks, and cigar boxes, and etc., etc., a-trailin its glorious beams in the mud and dirt for a little money. "Why, the noble woman who stands a-holdin up the Red Cross, a-tryin to have its pure rays fall only on the victims of war, pestilence, famine, and other national calamities she has to see it a-shinin jest as bright on the causes of national crime and shame. How must she feel to see it go on ? " Uncle Sam has been urged year after year to protect this insigna, and I should think that he would feel a good deal as if somebody wuz a-urgin him to not stun meetin -housen, and whip grandmas and babies I should think that he would sink down with shame for permittin sech things to go on. " I declare I d no what that old creeter will 522 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. do next. I believe he d sell the steelyards that Jestice weighs things in, if he could git a few cents for em ; and I d no but he ll use that bandage of hern that she wears over her eyes to stop up bung-holes in whiskey barrels ; he seems to be bendin his hull mind on helpin the liquor traffic. " He tries me dretfully. But mebby he ll brace up and do right in this matter of the Red Cross. I mean to tackle him about it, anyway, when I git a good chance. "And then," sez I, "our country is jest as much behind these European countries in beauty and art as Josiah s new wood lot is that he is jest a-clearin off, with stumps and brushwood a-lyin on every side, compared with what that lot would be after centuries of improvements and culter had smoothed the ground off into velvet lawns, with posey beds, like rainbows and fountains a-sparklin on it, etc., etc. " America, to foller out the metafor, has only jest got her giant trees chopped down the stumps stand thick, the brushwood lays round in fallers." Sez I, "It will take years and years and years to give America the beauty and perfection these countries have been growin gradual for centuries. "We ll do it, Martin," sez I; "we ll git even with em, and then go ahead on em as fur ahead I BELIEVE HE D SELL THE STEELYARDS THAT JESTICE WEIGHS THINGS IN, IF HE COULD GIT A FEW CENTS FOR EM. 524 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. as Lake Superior is bigger than their inland lakes" " Lakes !" sez Martin scornfully " ponds, you mean." But I went on in not mindin him. " Or the St. Lawrence is bigger than the Rhine, but it will take a long, long time. And then in a lot of other things these countries are superior to ourn. They train their children better in some of these countries. Their children have as much agin reverence and respect for parents and gar- deens, and them who are in authority, as American children have. Why, a English or a German mother would faint away with borrow to see a lot of American children behave, and boss round their folks, and act. And then look at I wuz jest on the pint of bringin up a lot more of things in which these countries excelled ourn, when Martin looked at his watch, and sed that he must be in a distant part of the city in ten minutes by the clock ; so he went out. I presoom he hated to lose my eloquent and instructive remarks ; but he had to go. CHAPTER XXVIII. GERMANY AND BELGIUM. MARTIN sed he shouldn t think of travellin in Germany, as he had made a very exhaustive study of the country on a visit he d paid it some years be fore. I knew Alice had been there two years, a-stay- in with a Miss Ponsione, a music-teacher, as nigh as I could make out, a kind of foreign creeter, I guess. Sez he, " I gave more exhaustive attention to Ger many than to any other country in Europe, and I would not wish to make a needless expenditure of time there." Sez I, " Martin, how long a time did you stay in Germany ?" " Over a week," sez he. Wall, thinkses I, accordin to his idees that is considerable of a time. Alice, of course, didn t care to stay there long, as she had stayed there all durin her vacations, and took excursions all over the country with that Miss Ponsione and her folks ; there seemed to be a hull lot of em, all girls, as nigh as I could make out. 5 26 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. And it wuz from her that I learnt that her Pa had fell and sprained his ankle and hurt his head, and wuz bed-sick all the time he wuz in Germany ; he wuzn t able to lift his head from the piller, and so I guess it wuz ruther ex- haustin study he gin to it. But I \vanted to see the Rhine I wanted to see " Fair Bin- gen on the Rhine," I wanted to like a dog, and I told Alice so. But she said Bingen looked jest about like any other city. And come to think on t, I spoze it wuz the homesick for his own country that made the " Soldier of the Legion" want to see it so bad, and made its scenery seem fairer and lovelier, and made its moonlight fairer and brighter than that which looked down on that fur-off battle-field, where his body lay, and his homesick sperit a-wanderin off to " Fair Bingen on the Rhine." I eppisoded this to Josiah, and he sez with a sad look on his face he wuz awful beat out, and his No ATTENTION PAID TO RUMATIZ, OR MEAL TIMES, OR CORNS." GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 527 corns ached fearful " Yes, that is it, I feel jest so ; I could tall? jest as melogious and affectin this min ute about Fair Jonesville on the Lyme. Sez I, " You may feel jest as bad, Josiah, but you can t write sech poetry as that." " Whattle you bet ?" sez he, a-settin the bottle of liniment on the stand ; he d been tryin to irrigate them corns of hisen and quell em down some. "Whattle you bet I can t?" Sez I mildly, "That Soldier of the Legion wuz dyin in Algiers." " Wall," sez he, " I m a-dyin in France ; what s the difference ?" Sez I, " His talk about his distant home is enough to make anybody weep." " Home !" sez he. " Can t I talk about home ? Why," sez he, " if I should swing right out into poetry and describe my feelin s, nobody would look at that soldier s verses agin, if I should let myself out and tell the beauties of Jonesville, and what we ve been through sence we left its blessed presinks ; why that soldier didn t begin to know what trouble wuz. He wuz a single man," sez he. I looked coldly at him, and he hastened to add with a deep groan, " Oh, what hain t we been through, in verse or out on t what hain t we been through ! two old folks snaked through Europe by 528 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. a Martin and Fashion ; no attention paid to rumatiz, or meal times, or corns, or anything, and one of them dum old fools," sez he impressively, and in a kind of a rhymin axent, "wuz born in Jonesville fair Jonesville on the Lyrne. " I wuz born myself pretty nigh the town of Lyme, jest over the line, but I wouldn t contend. Sez he, " I could make up hull books of poetry on our tower better than hisen, enough sight." " No you can t, Josiah," sez I ; "jest think of them beautiful messages he sent back to them dis tant friends of hisen ; it hain t in you to write like that." " Wall, it is in me, mom ; and messages ! Gracious Peter ! couldn t I send messages back ? Couldn t I send heart-breakin messages to the children, and Ury, and Philury, and Deacon Henzy, and Uncle Sime Bentley, and the rest of the meetin -house bretheren couldn t I send word to em " When they meet and crowd around The horse-block by the meetin -house, that dear old talkin ground ? " Couldn t I warn the hull caboodle on em to stay where they be, in that beautiful, beautiful place ; to never traipse a million milds from home on a tower ? Let em hear my dyin words to stay where GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 529 they be. Oh, what volumes I could say to them companioifs and friends if I could git holt of their ears once ! I wouldn t want em to think I wuz rambelous and back slid no, I would want em to know I felt like sayin in these last hours that " I am a married man and not afraid to die. I looked dretful cold at him ; I hain t no idee what he meant, if he meant anything, and he has tened to add " If they hain t dum loonaticks and crazy as loons they ll stay where they be," sez he, in that same rhymin axent " They ll stay right there in Jonesville, fair Jones- ville on the Lyme." Sez I, " That hain t poetry, Josiah." " Wall, it s good solid horse sense, the hull of it, and the last line is poetry." Sez I, " One line don t make poetry." I wuz sorry I said it, for he turned his eyes up towards the ceil- in in deep thought a minute, and then he kinder recited out in blank verse, or considerable blank, though it rhymed some " A leadin man of Jonesville lay dyin in He hesitated for a minute, and seemed to be look- in round the room for a word, and finally his eye 530 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. fell onto his feet he had jest drawed his boot on agin, and I spoze the pain wuz fearful, but it seemed to gin him an idee and he begun agin "A leadin man of Jonesville lay dyin 1 in his boots, There wuz dearth of rest and intment, or food, or heaHn roots ; But his pardner sot beside him Here he gin me a witherin look ; I spoze I wuz a-smilin some. He can t write poetry, that man can t, and mebby I showed my knowledge of the fact in my mean. " His pardner sot beside him, a-jeerin at his woe, And unto her he faintly sed, in axents wan and low, I ve a message and a groan or two, to send most any time, To distant friends in Jonesville, fair Jonesville on the Lyme. " Yes, I wuz sorry enough I mentioned that poem, for before night that man had a hull string of verses writ off, and he recited em to me anon, or oftener. They went on a-recountin all the peace and beauty of Jonesville, and the delights of stayin there and takin solid comfort and happiness, and the tribulations two old folks went through away from that blissful spot, with their bodies moved round from place to place on a tower, and the verses most GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 531 all on em ended with these lines, some like the mel ancholy accompaniment of a trombone "And one old fool wuz born in Jonesville, Fair Jonesville on the Lyme." And some on em wuz stronger " And one dum old fool wuz born in Jonesville, Fair Jonesville on the Lyme." His axents on these last words wuz affectin in the extreme, and he seemed to think I ort to shed tears when he said em, and I didn t know but I had ort to, but I wuz in sunthin of a hurry a new bindin a petticoat, and I thought I wouldn t. One verse wuz as follers, and I presoom his feel- in s about the delights of our home wuz powerful as he writ it : " Tell Ury and Philury to joyous wash the pan, To worship all the barn chores, adore the milky can, The Jerseys, oh, in happier hours I driv em through the crick, Oh, angel calves, oh, did I e er hit one on em with a stick ? The lovely, sweet young critters might kick me time and time, If I wuz back in Jonesville, fair Jonesville on the Lyme." And there wuz one to Thomas J., and one to Tirzah 532 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " Tell Tirzah Ann that other Pars must comfort her young age," etc., etc., etc., all put down jest as if he wuz in a dyin state ; no regularity or symetry in the lines, but powerful in feelin s. There wuz more n twenty- one on em. I didn t hear all on em I wouldn t, and we had some words. Wall, Martin wuz sot on not goin to Germany, till Adrian sed he would love to see the Rhine. That settled it the Rhine wuz seen. That man would go through fire and water if his little pard- ner jest motioned him that \v r ay. And that very fact, I felt, shed a perfect halo round Martin Smith. It showed that deep down in the nater of the man, all covered up by layers of pride, worldiness, fashion, ambition, etc., there wuz a fount of pure water a-springin ; but few in deed could pierce down to it. Alice can, and Adrian can, but nobody else, so fur as I know ; but that love permeates everything he sez and duz. As wuz nateral on French sile, we got to talkin about poor young Prince Louis, the pride of the third Napoleon the very heart and soul of his beautiful Ma. His sad fate seemed to impress Adrian dretfully. He wuz dretful sorry for him, and sed he wuz. Good little creeter ! Any tale of sadness and sorrer found a ready sympathy in his GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 533 tender, generous young breast. But Martin seem ed to draw a different moral from it, and sez he, when I wuz a-tellin how sorry I wuz for his poor Ma, sez he " She ought to have looked ahead, she never ought to have allowed him to go into such danger, she ought to do as I do. I always surround my boy with safeguards to keep him out of danger s way entirely, and therefore he is safe." But I sez, " Martin, in this world it is hard to tell always where danger is, and who is really safe." " But I know," sez he, "because I am right with him. If he was a child of poor parentage, now, one of the masses, why, then, I grant you I could not surround him with such safeguards, but as it is Adrian is perfectly safe." I felt that here it wuz a good place to gin a little hint. Sez I, " Speakin of safeguards, Martin, have you ever put them fenders on that line of cars of yourn that they wanted you to ?" " No !" sez he, speakin up pretty sharp. Sez I, " Don t you feel that you ort to, for the sake of children whose Mas and Pas love them jest as well as you do Adrian ?" But he waived off that idee, sayin , as usual, that it wuzn t expected that he wuz a-goin to spend his life and fortune for the sake of the children of the 534 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. masses, who, two thirds on em, wuz better off dead than alive. I hate sech talk. But he went on to prove by statisticks how they grew up to be criminals, and paupers, and Coxey- ites, and the world wuz well rid on em if they died in childhood. I hate sech talk. He see my feelin s, and he went on jest as if nothin had been sed, and repeated that Adrian wuz perfectly safe, and that his futer wuz assured. " Wall," sez I, " I hope so, for he is a dretful good little boy, and smart, and I hope he will make a useful man." " There is no other child in the world like him," sez Martin, " and he will have a great and success ful future. I shall attend to that." " Wall," I sez agin, " I hope so," and I truly did. But I felt dubersome about thinkin that Martin had it all in his own hands this is sech a queer world, and so kinder surprisin and changeable. Wall, Martin wuz as good as his word, we didn t stay long in Germany, but seeiri that Adrian wanted to see the Rhine, we sot out for it. We went through Valenciennes on the night train, which Jo- siah sed wuz indeed a blessin , and he sed that Mar tin, in some things, did show great tax. GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 535 Sez I, " What do you mean ?" "Why, you d been a-wantin to git some of that lace of theirn for a nightcap, or sunthin , if you hadn t been sound asleep and a-snorin ." I never snore, and he knows it. He is the one. I may sometimes breathe a little hard, that s all. And I sez, willin to give him a woond for the on- merited snore eppisode, sez I " I can git some in Brussels ; their lace wears like iron." He wuz earnest in a minute, deeply earnest. Sez he " If you knew, Samantha, how becomin your nightcaps are, and how perfectly sweet you look with the plain muslin ruffles round your dear face, you wouldn t speak of lace." That " dear" touched my heart. He hadn t used the adjective in some time. But I wouldn t prom ise not to git any. I think he worried all the time we wuz in Brussels, but he needn t. I am a good economizer, I didn t lay out to git any I had above a yard of good Torchon to home. I didn t need any lace. Godfrey D. Bouillon stood up in plain sight jest as he has been a-standin for a number of years, a-holdin up the banner of the Cross. Good, deter mined creeter he wuz. 536 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Wail, we went to see public buildin s and towers, from them one to three or four hundred feet high to more megum ones, and galleries of paintin s, and parks and statutes ; and one little statute rigged up as a kind of a fountain, I won t say nothin about the least sed the soonest mended. But it wuz a shame and a disgrace, and if I d had my way the poor little creeter would have had at least a shirt put onto him, or I would know the reason why. A perfect shame to behold ! In the Museum of Paintings Josiah got real skairt. He wuz kinder prowlin round, and he hap pened to see a door partly open, and it wuz nateral, so he sez, to kinder look in. But he shrunk back in extreme perterbation, and sez he " By Jehoshaphat, what have I done ?" Sez I, " What is it, Josiah ?" Sez he, his face as red as anything, " A woman jest dressin herself she seems all broke up." "Wall," sez I, " you keep out of there ; you stay right by me." " Wall, I lay out to !" he snapped out. Wall, I looked in myself. I had no curosity, but I felt that I had better see if my pardner had done any harm. And I see a young woman all kinder crouched together a-holdin her clothes round her, and I sez GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 537 " Mom, you needn t be afraid, my pardner wouldn t hurt a hair of your head." She didn t move a mite, but jest held her clothes, what she had on, round her, and 1 ooked at me kinder skairt. And I spoke up some louder, think- in mebby she wuz deef ; sez I " He is a deacon in the Jones- ville meetin -house, mom, and though fraxious a good deal of the time, a likely man." But jest at this junkter Martin come up behind me, and told me that it wuz a picter. I wuz dumb- foundered, but so it wuz. The ar tist, Wiertz by name, made quite a number considerable like it ; dret- ful curous and surprising but it is a sight to see em. The meetin -house of St. Gudale, with its stained glass winders, wuz extremely interestin to see ; it is most a thousand years old, but no one would mis trust it. It looks fur better than our meetin -house, that hain t over fourteen years old, if it is that. But, then, it cost more. Martin and Josiah and Al Faizi driv out to see the battlefield of Waterloo, only about six milds A WOMAN JEST DRESSIN HERSELF- SHE SEEMS ALL BROKE UP." 538 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. away. They went in a English coach with a half a dozen horses, and a bugle a-caracolin high and clear. I never see Josiah in better sperits. I would have gone, too, but Alice wuzn t well, nor Adrian nuther, and I stayed with em ; and I wuz glad of a chance to rest my lower legs. I spoze they had a number of emotions as they stood on that field where the Star of Austerlitz sot. I did, \vhere I wuz a-layin down or a-settin to home. Truly to a feelin heart, who contemplates what high ambitions tottled over that day, and what powerful interests wuz involved, they may say truly that they carry the battlefield of Waterloo in their hearts. I thought on t a sight. I had read what Victor Hugo said about that battle, and Alfred Tennyson and others had said about the Duke of Wellington, a-praisin him up, and I had numerous feelin s and emotions, very powerful ones, indeed, very ; but I took good care of the children all the same. There wuz one place in Brussels that I wanted to see as much as any other place I could look on offen my tower, and that \vuz where Charlotte Bronte had spent those years, those quiet but dret- ful tragic years of her life. So one day, when we wuz en our way home from some big palace or monument Martin wanted to GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 539 show off before us I persuaded him to go a little out of our way to that quiet street, to the kinder old-fashioned house where the Professor ust to teach school, and some of his folks live now and keep a small school. They let us in when they found out that we wuz Americans ; truly that name opens all sorts of foreign doors. It wuz a half holiday, and they let us walk through the room where she ust to set and study, and the old-fashioned garden where she ust to walk and dream them strange dreams of hern, that after wards charmed the world. Though the folks here didn t seem to think of her as I did no, indeed ! They seemed to kinder blame her for reflectin on em in her books. Still they must respect to a certain degree the memory of one that leads so many from distant lands to their out-of-the-way home, jest to stand on the floor she trod on ; jest to look on the walls that rared up around that great soul. What emotions Charlotte did have here ! She had more to bear than most folks knew of yes, indeed ! What wuz that hantin grief that rung her soul so that year in Brussels, that drove her, a devout Protestant, into a Catholic church, to pour out her agony in confession ? Longin to give vent to the 540 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. sorrer that without that relief wuz mebby a-urgin her to forgit it all in the long quiet. Why, a pint bottle full of sweet turned bitter, must have vent gin to it or else bust. Poor creeter ! poor, little, lonesome creeter ! with her intense power of lovin , and her intenser tenderness of conscience. Gray old city, never did one tread your streets with more need of heart pity than she who wuz swept along by her emotions that day into an alien temple, a strange altar, and a strange worship, seekin for rest, for help to live, which is so much harder than to die. I know what the matter wuz it come to me straight, but I sha n t tell it, it has got to be kep . Wall, I had a large white handker- I SHOULD BE MELTED INTO chief \vitli me, I took it a purpose, for I T F A R S thought more n as likely as not I should be melted into tears a-meditatin on her life and all she had done to delight the world, and how after her life-long struggles and her brief wedded happi ness she passed away. But no, this last thought kinder boyed me up I wuz glad to know that she lay asleep by the lonely moors of Haworth. Its long purple wastes hanted I THOUGHT MORE N LIKELY GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 541 by her shade forever, a sleep never to be distracted agin by her brother Patrick s actin and behavin , or her pa s morbid idees and ways, or her own private heartache. Little, small-boneded, great-minded creeter ! how often I ve pictered her lonesome life in that little village, shet up in oncongenial surroimdin s, her noble sperit beatin agin the bars of her environ ment ; a-settin on lonesome evenin s in a bare, silent room, a-pinin mebby for a word of sympathy, and the clasp of a comprehendin hand, and the great world a-praisin her fur off too fiir. Or else a-walkin ? up and down in the twilight with her sisters a-plannin them strange stories of theirn. And then I come back to the bare walls of the school-room at Brussels, and I presoomed that on these very bare walls we wuz a-lookin on Charlotte had seen stand out vivid the strong, dark face of Rochester, and the elfin figger of Jane, Shirley, Caroline, Louis and Robert Moore, the Professor- yes, indeed, she see him, I hain t a doubt on t and all these wonderful characters of hern, who seemed more real friends and neighbors to me than them who live under the chimblys I can see from my own winders to home. Good, little, bashful creeter ! sech genius as you 54 2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. had the world will seek a good while for before it finds agin. While these thoughts wuz a-goin on under my best bunnet, Martin looked round sort o indifferent, and sez he " Who wuz she, anyway some kind of a writer ?" And I sez, " Yes." 11 Historical or poetical ?" sez he. And I sez, " Both." I couldn t bring my emotions down in that place to explain, and I told the truth, anyway. Historys she wrote that always will be true as long as hearts beat and suffer. Poetry wuz in em, whose great rythm Hants the hearts of em whose ears are tuned to understand the strange melodies. For no two people can ever find the same things in a book what inspires you, and thrills your heart almost to bustin , will slip over the head and heart of some body else, and make no impression. Curous, hain t it ? Wall, we looked round for a long time Josiah not enjoyin himself a bit, so fur as I could see, but a-leadin Adrian and a-plannin sunthin with him re- latin to a whistle he could make out of a stick. Alice s soft eyes held sweetness and compassion, but she owned that she d never read the books. Al Faizi, too, wuz a stranger to em. But he GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 543 would have enjoyed em if he had he s made in jest the righf way. Wall, Martin wuz in haste, and we left the sacred spot, leavin a little gift, too, in the hands of the old servant who showed us round. Antwerp, Dlisseldorf, Co logne, how they kinder swim along in my mind as I think of em picters, picters, church towers, bells, gardens, steeples, music, stained-glass winders, quiet scenery, grand, impressive ditto, big carriages, dorgs harnessed up as horses. As we noticed the num ber of these latter, my com panion begun to lay on plans agin. Sez he " Take our brindle, and she that wuz Submit Tewks- bury s yeller dorg and she d lend her in a minute and what a team I could rig up with a little of Ury s help. I could take you to meetin to Jonesville as easy as nothin , and how uneek we would look drawed along by a brindle and yeller dorg-team. A-LEADIN ADRIAN AND A-PLANNIN SUNTHIN* w HIM RELATIN TO A WHISTLE. 544 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. It will, perchance, inaugerate a new era in naviga tion in Jonesville, and dorg-teams will be in voge. "What a sensation we will create amongst the Jonesvillians : you in your parasol and I in my dressin -gown, mebby. What a uneek spectacle !" " Yes," sez I, coldly, "when you ketch me a-ridin in that way, Josiah Allen, it will indeed create a sensation, for I shall be no more. It will be when my corse is senseless and cold." " Oh, shaw ! What comfort could I take then, Samantha ? It wouldn t look very well for me to be a-enjoyin myself a-swingin out in fashion then, and I couldn t wear the dressin -gown or the tossels, anyway. It beats all how you love to break up all my plans for astonishin the Jonesvillians. You know well enough that folks when they git back from European towers always act different more riz up like, and reminescent, and astonishin , and every thing. And you frown down all my plans, every one on em ; and he sithed bitterly. But I wouldn t gin in to him, for I felt that Samantha and a dorg- team wuz not synonomous terms ; no, fur from it. Wall, in Cologne I d been glad to bought a hull bottle of cologne, but Josiah said to his mind there wuz nothin on earth so sweet as the smell of cara way. I most always do up a little sprig on t in my GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 545 handkerchief when I go to meetin , to kinder chirk 4 me up in my head some as the minister and my mind are a-wanderin up from the i2thlies to the " Finally, my dear hearers." " But," sez I, attacktin the weakest jint in his armor, " cologne is so stylish." O J " But," sez he, and I couldn t scold himforsayin it sez he, "don t you remember how the caraway grew amongst the roses in the old front yard to Mother Smith s?" Sez he, You had a sprig of caraway in your hand the very minute I asked you to be my bride I had a little snip on t in my pocket when I led you to the altar, and a big vase of the white blows kinder riz up above the June roses like a halo, right there on the altar." He meant the cherry stand that we stood by, with curly maple draws. Sez he, " Oh, them beautiful, holy memories ! And then," sez he, with a look of deep content, "to think of the cookies you ve garnished with it durin the beautiful years of our union." Sez he, " Nothin like the scent of caraway to me." I wuz deeply moved by the sweet and tender memories he invoked. Oh, summer hours ! oh, old front garden, lit by the settin sun a-shinin through the maples ! I see it agin, I almost feel the shadders of the tall lilock 546 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. bushes ; I see the June roses a-shinin like rosy stars above the deep lush grass, and the delicate white tracery of the caraway a-hoverin over em like a snowy mist. Oh, summer garden ! oh, summer hours of life ! oh, beauty and bloom, divine sadness and rapter, and rich promise of the glowin futer a-layin fur off in the distance, like the sun in the glowin west. My Josiah had brung em all back to me. What wuz cologne or bergamot in them rapt hours ? Men are deep. The cathedral is a sight to see. It is called one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe, and they don t lie about it when they say it is. It wuz begun eight or nine hundred years ago, and two hundred men wuz to work at it. I \vonder if they are slack. Anyway, I don t have any idee when they lay out to finish it. I guess they are to work by the day. I know jest how they acted when they wuz to work at Josiah s horse-barn. I believe it is better to let barns, or cathedrals, or anything else out by the job. Wall, if I should describe jest that one enormous old meetin -house, and what we see in it and about it, it would take a book bigger than Foxe s " Book of Martyrs." GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 547 k try, but it wuz a sight, a sight to see carvin s, statutes, picters, towers, canopies, arches, altars, relicks, etc., etc., etc. Among the most interestin of the relicks wuz the skulls of the three Wise Men who came to worship the infant Christ. Here their old skulls wuz shown they sed they wuz theirn. I d no, nor Josiah don t, whether they wuz the Wise Men or not, and of course it wuz eighteen hundred years too late to ask em. No, wise as they wuz, their bones wuz on a par with the bones of the leven thousand vir gins that we see there in another meetin -house. I d no as they wuz virgins or not, or wuz mas- sacreed, as they sed. Martin sed it wuz a perfect fraud. But I d no either way. Anyway, there the bones wuz, a real lot of em. Wall, I guess the hull on us wuz glad to git onto the little steamer that wuz to take us up the beautiful Rhine. And we found that it wuz indeed beautiful, though after bein on sech inti mate terms as I had been with the St. Lawrence and the Hudson, I wuzn t a-goin to say I had never seen any river so grand no, indeed ! CHAPTER XXIX. SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIG11I. OUR noble St. Lawrence could have took the Rhine in if she had been in need and adopted her, and let her run along with her, a-murmurin and a-babblin as children will, and nobody would have been the wiser only the old Saint herself. And the Hudson is jest as beautiful. No old castles on the Rhine tower up so grand as Nater s old homesteads, the Palisades, where she has dwelt, with Majesty, and Strength, and Sublimity, and Beauty for hired help, for so many centuries, and is a-livin there still in the same old place with the same help. Them who have eyes to see, can see her there right along day by day, and night by night, with her help all round her. Sometimes the risin and settin sun a-gildin their calm brows. And some times the big, serene moon a-standin over em as if lovin to linger with em. Their serene forwards a-shinin with the love they have for him or her (I d no whether to call the moon a him or a her. It is so kinder changeable, my first thought wuz to call it a him). SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHT. 549 But to resoom. Yes, we found the Rhine beau tiful. It runs along in my memory now like a beautiful paneramy right \vhen I m round the house a-doin up my mornin s work, or night-times when I wake up ever or anon or oftener that fair picter enfolds in front of me the ripplin waters, the shores sometimes smooth and grassy, \vith orchards and vineyards ; fields of grain, with wimmen a-work- in in em, as well as men ; high rocky shores, with grim old castles perched up on the cliffs, tree-em bowered ; anon a \vayside shrine, with the image of the Virgin a-lookin calmly on us tired voyagers, or the face of our Lord hallowin the spot, or the baby Christ in his Ma s arms. It made the spots where \ve see em more lifted up, and made me feel kinder safer, though I knew it wuz only some wood and paint and glass it wuz made of. I spoze it wuz the memories and thoughts they invoked that seemed to hover over us some like wings. How it sweeps onward in my mind high cliffs three or four hundred feet high, with a picteresque old castle perched on it ; anon a bridge of boats more n a thousand feet long ! Then I see, a-lookin onto the paneramy, dog- teams, peasants, soldiers, beautiful towns, queer lit tle villages, lovely villas, humble cottages, green grass, wavin trees, blue murmurin river. Ah, how 55O SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. it floats along in front of my foretop ! Coblentz Thurnberg then the high el iff where the Siren ust to set and sing. I wonder if she sets there now ? I mistrusted she d kinder moved down into the vine yards. She sings there a sight, lurin the wine lovers right along to destruction. Obervvesel, Castle Schonberg, and right acrost, like a faithful old pardner who has kep company for centuries, the towerin old walls of Gutenfels. Right under my head-dress or nightcap the seen moves along. Anon I see the splendid old castle of Rheinstem way up above the river. Ehrenfel, vineyards, vineyards, with Lurlei hid amongst em, whether they believe it or not, and on the other, fur up, the Mouse Tower, where selfishness got its pay if it ever did. Bingen we found, jest as Alice sed, a quiet little town, its marvellous beauty born in the homesick longin of the soldier who lay dyin in Algiers. Johannesburg Castle would be dretful interesting standin up as it duz three or four hundred feet high, but the sights and sights of vineyards all round it made me feel bad, dretful. But I ve had my say about that sirens, etc., etc. What crazy acts would the wine make these surroundin folks do ! That wuz a question I couldn t answer, nor Josiah. I wish they wouldn t make so much ; I wish they SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHI. 551 would stop the mouth of Lurlei with good water, or cold tea, or sunthin or other she d act like another creeter if they did. But truly I couldn t make em stop by eppisodin or allegorin 1 . On, on we went by islands, fortifications, palaces, villages. I didn t want to see Wiesbaden, I didn t want to see card-playin and gamblin goin on no, indeed. But I did want to stop at Frankfort-on-the-Main, the birthplace of Goethe. And in thinkin on t, I mekanically repeated over the words I d heard Thomas J. rehearse a number of times the home sick words of Mignon " Knowest thou the land where citron apples bloom, And oranges like gold in leafy bloom ?" She wanted to go back home, Mignon did, she wanted to like a dog. But Martin sed he didn t know as anybody had ever made a specialty of visitin the birthplace of Goethe. " And as for citron apples," sez he, "your friend evidently made a mistake in writing about them ; citrons grow on a vine; but," sez he, " perhaps Goethe was in the grocer line and was recommend ing some new fruit." 552 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. And I let it go so. Truly the author of " Wilhelm Meister" would have advised me to let it pass and go by. But when Martin learned that Rothschild wuz born there, he sed that if he had had time he would have loved to visit that hallowed spot. Martin thought he would stop and take a kind of a rest at Heidelberg, and my two legs and my pard- ner wuz glad enough of the rest yes, indeed ! Martin secf that any traveller of note made a pint of visitin that spot, so it wuz on that ac count, I spoze, that we stopped. He sed he had seen a number of engravin s of the place, and I told him I had too. % We stayed all night to a comfortable tarvern, and had a good supper and breakfust. Josiah ad mitted we had, though he sed " Samantha, it don t taste like your breakfusts; oh, shall I ever partake of em agin in that blessed, blessed home ?" He suffers dretfully, that man duz. But I told him that we should soon be to home agin now, and to bear up. Wall, Heidelberg Castle is a sight, a sight to see. All the picters we see of it in chromos and al manacks and sech don t give you any idee of how grand, how vast it is. SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHI. 553 Why, imagine a buildin all covered with carvin s, and towers, and pinnakles, and with moats, and drawbridges, and dungeons, and court yards, and banquet-halls, and decorations of all kinds, as big as from our house over to Dea con Henzy s, and back round by Solomon Bob- bettses, and acrost to Seth Shelmadine s, and so on around the two cross-roads ^and back to our house. Wall, reader, whether you believe it or not, it covers as much ground as that, and you well know how much ground that covers. Good land ! it is enough to make anybody s back ache to think of the days work it took to build it. But, then, it wuzn t all done all in one job it wuz begun a good many hundred years ago. They didn t shirk their work, them old carpenters didn t ; the makers of summer hotels could take lessons of em in the matter of walls. It would make one of them paper wall makers swoon away to think of buildin a wall twenty feet thick. I wish I had one of them rooms to take round with me summers on my tow ers. It would be impossible for the sound of snorers to penetrate A HOGSIT AS BIG AS THE JONES- VILLE TARVERN. 554 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. into the apartment where one wuz vainly tryin to woo the Goddess of Sleep. And midnight snick- erers would be futile to kill that Goddess with their giggle-pinted arrers. Of course, a big part of this immense buildin is in ruins. A handsome old stone platform or piazza that them old builders made half way up the castle walls I did want to see. It had everything it needed in the way of sculpters, vases, carved seats, etc. And the view, oh ! my poor head-dress, it almost rises now as the paneramy sweeps through my foretop, it gives sech elevatin thoughts and emotions. How fur off, how fur off you could see towns, country, the blue Rhine, the mountains oh, my soul ! wuz it not a fair seen, a fair seen ! But the barrel, or, ruther, hogsit, to hold wine in, it jest madded me to see it. Would you believe it that the very worst old drunkard you ever see or hearn on would make a hogsit as big as the Jones- ville tarvern to hold his liquor in ? Wall, it is, sir, full as big as Seth Widrigses tarvern. I won t compare it to a meetin -house, no, you can t make me ; the idee would be too sacrilegious to me. It wuz as big as Seth Widrigses tarvern, bar rooms, parlor, dinin -room, bedrooms, ruff and all SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHT. 555 It holds two hundred and thirty-six thousand bot tles of win*. The idee ! it s a burnin shame ! How many fights can be shet up in it at one time broken hearts, broken heads, murders, etc., etc., etc. ! I won t talk about it another minute. Wall, Martin sed that he spozed that it would be expected of him to go and see the Righi. (I spozed that he thought that in his high, prom inent position in society he ort to see some of the most riz-up places, so he settled on that.) Mont Blanc he sed he should not endeavor to ascend, which wuz, indeed, a comfort to me ; for how I wuz a-goin to git up on that steep, icy pinnakle with my heft and my rumatiz, to say nothin of my umbrell and my pardner, wuz more n I knew. But if Martin had put his ultima tum on that we must go, I knew that we should have to make the venter. But he gin up the idee. He is a-gittin kinder short-winded himself, though he don t own up to it. So we dumb the Righi. We rid up on that. Josiah wuz all carried away with the idee of goin up that mountain, because the engine that took us up, instead of bein hitched on ahead to pull us up, wuz tackled on behind a-pushin us. Sez he, " Samantha, it will be sech a uneek ride. y^nr O SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHT. 557 What will Uncle Sime Bentley say to it, and the other Jonesvillians, when they hear on t ?" There it wuz fashion, fashion and display. From different standpints, he and Martin wuz jest alike. But I knew that Josiah had some reason to be sot up by it, for that way of goin up mountains wuz a American idee at first. Josiah took considerable comfort a-goin up (owin to the feelin s I have depictered). But bein of sech a restless temperament, he soon an nounced that he wuz a-goin to git out and walk up. " For," sez he, " I want to git there some time to-day, and I hain t a-goin to creep along like a snail." But I seized him by his vest, and sez I " Do you set still ; it will tucker you all out to walk up six thousand feet !" " Wall," sez he, " I want to git there some time or ruther." We did indeed go slow, but sure ; for in two hours time we arrove on the summit, and wuz enscons- ed in a comfortable tarvern, from which, after Jo siah had satisfied his yearnin s for food, and the rest on us had refreshed ourselves with some refresh ments, we sallied forth to see the grandeur as well as beauty of Nater ; to behold what she can do 558 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. when she humps herself, so to speak, and makes glory. Wall, the view from the top of that mountain I can t never describe. I stood perfectly spell bound ed, and looked fur off down the mountain-side, and see cities, and villages, and farm-housen, and spark- lin streams, and, fur down below, beautiful Lucerne and eight other lakes. And on the off side the chain of snowy Alps a-meltin upwards into the blue of the summer sky, twelve thousand feet high, and on the nigh side forests, hills, mountains. Oh, wuz it not a fair seen a fair seen ! I stood perfectly lost and by the side of myself. The grandeur and beauty of the seen wuz so over- whelmin that, entirely onbeknown to myself, my bunnet had fell backward on my neck, and I stood bareheaded, jest as men do before a great heroine or hero. (I spoze it is jest as proper to call the Righi a female as a male ; anyway, she stood up so dretful calm and serene it didn t seem as if a male could hold that poster and calmness so early in the mornin . You know, males are dretful restless and oneasy early in the mornin . The work of the day kinder takes the tuck out of em, and they grow more sedater.) But, anyway, I stood there bareheaded, jest as SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE KIGHI. 559 anybody ort to before the great Presence. The on- matchable grandeur of the seen -the sun a-beatin down onnoticed on my gray " crown of glory," when I hearn a voice clost beside me, and the words kind er brung me back, for I had been quite a distance away from the real world of trouble and tourists and things. The voice said " For the land s sake ! I wouldn t run the risk you do of tanning myself all up, for anything in the world." I wuz brung clear down, and I looked round, and I see standin clost to me a female, jedgin from her matronly form and her gray hair, that kinder meandered down on the neck of her ulster behind, of about my own age, or a little older, mebby. Yes, she wuz probble a number of years older, and though our hefts wuz jest about alike, she hadn t got nigh so noble a figger. She had two veils over her face besides a lace one two braize veils, a green and a brown one, and carried a big umbrell, histed up to its full height, the umbrell a-lookin firm and decided, as if it cal culated to shet off all the grandeur the braize veils didn t make out to. Sez she, as I slowly turned round and brung my spectacles to bear on her with a gray flame of won der and surprise a-shinin through each one on em 560 SAMANTHA IX EUROPE. Sez she, " I wouldn t tan my nose as you re tan ning yours for worlds like this." I sez mekanically, " Why, why not tan your nose ?" "Why, it would detract so from my looks; a nose adds so much to the looks of a human face," sez she. That sounded reasonable, and I sez, " Yes, that is so ; a nose is necessary, both for beauty and for use ; but," sez I, " at our age a nose or two more or less, or a little tan on some on em hain t a-goin to either make or break us they won t draw much attention," sez I. " And even if they did, I expect to enjoy the society of my nose for quite a number of years yet, on towers and off on em, but this seen of grandeur I m a-biddin good-bye to," sez I, sadly "It is hail, and fanvell, to me I never expect to see it agin with these mortal eyes." And I looked off on the lovely seen agin with all the rap- ter and sadness sech thoughts carry with em, when agin my rapt emotions wuz brung downward by the voice " Well, I know I wouldn t run the risk you do of spoiling my complexion for thousands of worlds like this." I felt that she needed roustin up and improvin upon, and I sez THEY HAVE EMULATIVE MAS, WHO ARE BOUND THAT THEY SHAN T BE OUT-TRAVELLED." 562 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " Mom, I believe you d enjoy Nater as much agin, if not more, if you d forgit your complexion. Let your nose retire into the background, so to speak, and open the winders of your soul to the divine influences look about and soar away, so to speak. And how you can do that under three veils and that umbrell is more n I can tell." Sez she, confidentially, " I am dead tired of seeing things, anyway I love to rest my eyeballs." " Then," sez I, pityin ly, " what be you up here on the Rigi for ? What made you climb up so fur ?" " Well," sez she, " I came with a party of Cook tourists, and you know just what they are for boast ing; I m not going to have them crow over me be cause they have been where I haven t. Three of them are bed-sick at the hotel, but they can say with truth that they have been here. Two of the girls have to wear bandages over their eyes, and can t see a thing, but they both have emulative Mas, who are bound that they shan t be out-travelled by the rest of the girls, and so they are leading them round through Europe ; blind as bats, but full of the true Cook fervor of travel." "Oh, dear me !" sez I, "how bad it is for em!" " No ; they enjoy it. The doctor says all they need is quiet and rest to restore their eyesight, and they will have it when this cruel war is over and SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHI. 563 they get home. One of them is my own girl," sez she, in a burst of confidence, " and I m out here unknown to the rest ; so my girl has outdone them, so to speak, for of course it is just the same as if she stood here where her Ma stands, in this be-a-u- ti-ful place, looking at this mag nificent scenery." And she turned her wropped- up face towards the tarvern door, and faced round towards Josiah. But truly she wuzn t to blame, she couldn t see through that envelopin drapery. The tarvern might have been a waterfall, and my Josiah a Alp for all she knew. I felt quite curous, but consol ed myself a-thinkin they wuz a-follerin their own goles, and Would all Set O11 em when they YE-O-LO-LEO-LEO-LEO THE MELOGIOUS CRY OF THE ALPINE SHEPHERDS. got home. Wall, it wuz that very afternoon that I heard my first yodellin the melogious cry of the Alpine shepherds to one another. Clear and sweet it rung through the still air Ye-o-lo-leo-leoleo Melogious as any music you ever hearn, only sort o bell-like, and pecular. And while you stand 564 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. spellbound and wantin to hear it agin the answer comes, sweet, fur away, clear Ye-a-oo-ye-ho-oo It wuz like nothin I ever hearn in my life, and yet seemed sort o familar to me, after all, as all true beauty in sight and sound duz seem to its devo tees, he or she. Wall, I wuz so lost in my own feelin s of delight, and so carried away some distance by em, that I clean forgot that I wuz still in the flesh and still had a earthly pardner by the name of "Josiah." But I wuz too soon fetched back to a realizin sense on t. For even as the sweet echoes wuz a-floatin back from peak to peak lingerin ly, as if they wuz loth to let go on em, a voice spoke beside me " You ll hear yodellin when we git home, Samantha Allen. Hereafter I shall never say co- boss, co-boss to cows, or * co-day, co-day to sheep ; after this I shall always yodel to em. Why," sez he, what a stir it will make in Jonesville ! how the inhabitants will gather round me as I stand on the blackberry hill and yodel acrost to the creek paster ! Why," sez he, all carried away with the subject, as his nater is, " mebby I can learn Uncle Sime Bent- ley, so he can yodel back to me ; mebby," sez he, growin ambitious, " I shall yodel to Sister Bob- bett and she that wuz Submit Tewksbury." SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHI. 565 Sez I coldly " Do you confine your yodellin to dumb brutes, Josiah, who hain t got sensibilities nor feelin s to be woonded." " Mebby you hain t willin I should yodel to Ury ; but I ll let you know I shall anyway, mom !" " Wall," sez I, " he is used to your performances ; he won t mind em so much." I knew it wuzn t best to draw the string too tight ; I knew I couldn t break up his yodellin out to the barn, or round, when I wuzn t in sight, and I felt that I would be glad to confine it to dumb brutes, and Ury, and sech. Wall, anon, after passin through lovely seens lovely ones, we found ourselves on beautiful Lake Lucerne, the most beautiful lake in Switzerland, or the hull world, for all I know beautiful, beautiful for situation it is. You could spend weeks a-admir- in the lovely views, and then begin agin and keep it up for years. And before long we found ourselves, much to my pardner s relief, in a good tarvern with a long Swiss name, that I always forgit, and called it to myself "The Swizzler," which wuz jest as good so fur as I wuz concerned. We didn t stay here long, owin to Martin s pecul- ar views. But we hearn the organ in the old cathedral, and I wuz carried fur away from myself 5 66 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. LISTENING TO THE ORGAN S GRAND, MELANCHOLY VOICE. into the land of happiness, love, and peace, into the realm where is it; ? that lays so nigh to us, that a burst of glorious music will sweep us right into its gates, but so fur off that we hain t never ketched a glimpse of its glorified mountains with our nateral eyes. Al Faizi wuz carried into that same realm, too, I could see by his mean, and the rest on em wuz carried off wherever their nateral bent lay Alice into the land of Love and Hope, Martin into the Stock Exchange mebby, where the roar of its bulls and bears drownded out the sound of the organ s grand, melancholy voice. And Josiah, wall, mebby he wuz a-settin agin to a full dinner table in Jonesville, with Deacon Sypher and Drusilly and some of the other breth- eren and sistern a-hangin breathless onto his adventers. I d no, I ve only guessed at their emotions, but mine wuz a sight to see as the liquid waves of mel ody swep round me, and swep me along with it. And then we see the Lion of Lucerne, a-layin there carved out of solid rock, in memory of the Swiss Guard, who fell defendin the Tuilleries in SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHT. 567 1792. It wuz carved by Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, and is a noble and impressive sight. There it lay in a beautiful grotto, with water trick- lin all round it, some as if the hull country wuz a-sheddin tears over them poor young men that perished in their prime. It lay stretched out, its hull length of twenty-eight feet, a-holdin in its paws the shield of France and some flower de luce France is jest sot on them poseys, and I always liked them myself ; I ve got a big root of em under my bedroom winder at home in Jonesville. I thought considerable in our short sojourn at Lucerne about William Tell, whose exploits with Gessler, apples, etc., took place in that vicinity (though I ve hearn tell that Tell hain t the creeter they tell on). But I always loved to read about him, and I always did kinder love to believe in things that ort to be true, if they hain t about liberty, freedom, and sech. Anyhow, he has got a high chapel built to him mebby like some other popular idees, that haint got no greater foundation in solid truth. Though, agin, what is truth ? Hard question. Wall, our way on to Lake Geneva wuz like a dream of glory and grandeur, full of mountain peaks, green and snow-clad, and flashin waterfalls, with I THOUGHT CONSIDERABLE ABOUT WlLLIAM TELL AND HIS EXPLOITS WITH GESSLER, APPLES, ETC. SAMAXTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHI. 569 little side jireams of sweet green valleys " sweet fields arrayed in livin green" quaint villages, cosey little housen, swift dashin waterways, and gently flowin rivers. Interlaken, Freiburg, Lausanne, how they look out of the paneramy at me when I shet my eyes in the Jonesville meetin -house or anywhere, and onto the blue lake that Byron writ so much about. Alice had beset her Pa to take her to Castle Chillon. And I had strange feelin s, I can tell you, as I walked down the road with Josiah Allen by my side from Jonesville meetin -house to the Castle of Chillon what a leap ! Could Fancy cut up any stranger ? I spozed we should have to take a boat to reach it, and so they did in old times, but now the \vater has filled in so, that, like the Israel ites, we passed over dry shod. The castle is over a thousand years old. Some say the Lake Dwellers built it, and in talkin about them queer creeters, who dwelt a thousand years ago in housen built up on posts stuck in the water, I had another trouble with my too ardent and sus ceptible pardner. Sez he " Samantha, what a beautiful way of livin that would be how cool and pleasant in summer weather, and so handy ; no luggin in water to fill 5/0 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. the tank, no pumpin , jest lean right out of the but tery winder and draw in a pailful, and then how easy to lower the milk in the water to cool. Why, we could have the milk-room built jest below the surface, and set the milk pans right into the lake, as it were. What butter \ve could make, how it would be sought for ! And then the idee of settin in your own back door and fishin for pike and sturgeons, draw em right up and land em on the kitchen table, not a foot off from the briler. How con venient ! And bathin now, you re always a-tewin at me about it washin my feet, it s always a job- but now jest cut a little hole in the bedroom floor, and with a towel there you are. I ll commence a house out on our pond the minute I git home for a summer retreat, no mowin door-yards, no fences to keep up, no gates to be onhingin ; why, I d re new my age there, Samantha. And then think of the profit in the extra butter, etc." " How would it be about milkin the cows?" sez I. I see he hadn t thought of that or anythin else practical, but he d been jest carried away by the novel and the new. But he wouldn t give in, men have such doggy obstinacy. Sez he " Why, learn em to swim ; begin when they re yearlin s, learn em to strike right out and swim up SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHI. 5/1 to the milk-house, hitch em to the post, and jest set in the back door and milk em." " Under water ?" sez I ; " milk under water ?" I see he wuz gittin sick of the idee sick as a dog, but he sez * Yes, milk em under the water in rubber bags, jest as Ezekiel did, and Malachi, and all the rest on em." "Wall," sez I, " you ll keep bachelder s hall then, and cook your own vittles and make your own butter for all of me. I hain t a-goin into any sech enterprise." "Wall," sez he, "that don t surprise me at all ; I never yet got up a uneek idee but what you back- ened it all you could." Wall, we hung round here for some time, and I meditated on how the prisoners must have felt, condemned to " Fetters and the damp vault s dayless gloom." And as I see how they had wore the very stuns away, a-pacin back and forth in their narrer bounds like caged lions, I felt like sayin with Byron : " May none these marks efface, For they appeal from tyranny to God." And it wuz with quite saddened emotions that we wended our way back to the tarvern Byron. I see Al Faizi wuz dretful mournful-lookin . It 5/2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. always affected that good creeter to see how Truth and Liberty and Jestice have always been trompled on by Error and Ignorance all through the ages and in all countries, and always would, so fur as I could tell. Geneva ! Chamouni, how they glide past the roused eye of my mind, that don t need spectacles- no, indeed ! For never on earth, it seems to me, was there sech grandeur of scenery as wuz here in Chamouni. And the hull world seemed to have found it out, for folks from all the countries of the earth seemed to be represented here. Here we wuz set down like little grains of sand in a high pine forest, and that don t carry out my idee at all, for what is a pine-tree compared to Mont Blanc grand old giant standin up there lookin down on the hull world, and seemin to be kinder guardin it. I believe that even Martin s pride wuz kinder crumpled down a-beholdin that wonder and glory. On, on we went by wild and magnificent scenery, by sweet sheltered spots, castles, farm-housen, bridges, waterfalls, valleys, towerin hills, lofty mountains, etc., etc. Martigny the wonderful Rhone valley, the magnificence of the Simplon Road, straight up the mountain-side, under waterfalls, over wild waters, SAMANTHA CLIMBS THE RIGHT. 5/3 along abysses, through tunnels seemin ly milds long, openm oift into new seens of beauty oh, what a time, what a time ! How many bridges did we cross ? Josiah said, groanin , " Over ten thousand " But I believe there wuz only six hundred odd ; but what would Miss Gowdey and Sister Bobbett think of that, who have always looked with some or at the thought of goin to North Loontown, because they had to pass over three bridges to git there, and go up a con siderable steep hill ? What would these sistern do under the circumstances that I wuz placed in ? So my almost crazed but riz-up brain would wildly question me anon or oftener. CHAPTER XXX. MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. WALL, at last, under the fosterin eare of Martin, we wuz conveyed along into Italy and put up to a place called Milan. But one memory of our way thither stands out as plain in my mind as our centre-table duz in my parlor ; it is of beautiful Lake Maggiore. A more beautiful piece of water I don t believe moistens this old earth. Them sweet blue waters, with lovely I sola Bella terraced into hite after hite of verdure and beauty, and other islands a-standin out like clear blue stars in a clear blue sky, and the Italians in their picter- esque dress, priests, peasants, etc., etc., wuz a seen of enchantment, and even Martin looked kindly on it, and admitted that it looked well. " But," sez he- "What is it compared to our own Thousand Islands ? Why, nothing at all. Our own St. Lawrence would take in the whole of Lake Mag giore at one mouthful, and not know the difference." Sez I, "Martin, don t run down the beauty of an other country a-praisin up your own." . MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 575 " Well," sez he, " do you find such perfection here as in Cur own country ?" Sez I reminescently, " I find better telegraph poles." Sez I, "Think of the clear granite shafts, good enough for monuments, and then think of the humbly, crooked wooden poles that disfigger our American landscape." " Well," sez he, "you don t often find them here." Josiah sed if I wuz so bent on havin stun telegraph poles, he and Ury could build up one out of loose stuns in front of the house. Sez he, "We might make it sort of a monument shape, and Ury might kinder block out my figger on top." Sez I, " I guess it would be a work of art if Ury did it." " Wall, sez he, " I might have a tin-type or sunthin fixed on, or a lock of my hair. It would be real uneek, and my fellow-townsmen would think the world on t." Mebby he ll forgit the idee, and mebby I ll see trouble out on t yet. Wall, in Milan our first move wuz, of course, to see the cathedral. I d seen so many picters on t that it looked as familar as Betsey Bobbettses liniment, only fur grander and more impressive lookin . 5/6 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Yes, after lookin at that wonderful buildin on the outside and inside, I felt as if I \vuz a heathen creeter who had never seen a cathedral or a meet- in -house in my life. Why, to make it clear to everybody jest how grand and extensive it is, I will say that if the pine woods on the hill back of Dea con Henzy s \vuz all turned into pinnakles and monuments and arches, and every pine needle on em wuz ornaments of delicate tracery and carvin and beautiful design, it could not be more impres sive, and to anybody who has seen them woods that is sufficient. It is a dream to remember in still nights when you lay on your piller and can t sleep. I think on t time and time agin. Why, it is so big that you could carry on a Stock Exchange meetin at one end and a funeral at the other, and not interfere with each other in the least ; you couldn t hear the bulls and bears yellin or the mourners a-weepin and wailin , not at all. And you climb up five hundred steps to the top, and look down on all the beauty and glory of the world it is a sight, a sight. Wall, Martin sed that he must make all haste possible a-travellin through Italy, as business wuz a-callin him home, but he must go to Genoa, the birthplace of Columbus. Sez he, " Of course, con sidering what he discovered and where he was of MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 577 late celebrated, that is by far the most important place in Europe." Wall, I wuz glad enough to visit the birthplace of that good, misused creeter. So we anon found ourselves in Genoa, the Superb, as some call it, and in good rooms in a big, comfortable tarvern. The first thing we went to visit wuz the statute of Columbus. It towers up, a poem in white mar ble ; and in a settin poster, on the four sides on t, are Religion, Gography, Strength, and Wisdom, and all round em- and between em are carved the leadin events of Columbuses life. Every one of them symbols carved out there Religion, Strength, etc. Christopher had, and the world realizes it at last. I should think the world would have been ashamed of itself after picterin out his grand doin s, his discoveries in the New World, to have sculped him out in chains ; it wuz a burnin shame, but his memory is a-walkin down through the ages now free and soarin , no chains on it no, indeed ! But, poor creeter ! how he would have enjoyed bein made sunthin on, and used well while he wuz here in the body ! How he would have enjoyed havin enough to eat, and hull clothes ! But sech is life. Wall, Martin renewed his strength a-lookin on 578 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Columbuses statute and a-realizin what it wuz he discovered and how his discovery is a-branchin out and spreadin itself. He felt well. Right acrost from the statute stands a big house, which has writ on it, " Christopher Columbus Dis covered America." Martin didn t need to be told on t no, indeed ! As nigh as we could make out, Columbus wux born in that house. They showed us the very room where he wux born ; but my lofty emotions in viewin the spot wuz quelled down with the thought that he wux born in seven or eight other places. Poor creeter ! what a time he did have from first to last ! In the Municipal Palace, among other curous and valuable relicks, we see lots of relicks of Colum bus amongst em some autograph letters that he had his own hand on. Josiah sez, " He s some like you, Samantha ducks tracks is plain readin compared to em." I looked coldly at him, but did not dane to argy. In a glass case, amongst lots of other things, we see the violin of Paganini, the greatest violinist that ever lived. He, too, wuz a discoverer ; divine realms of mel ody wux brung to view by his heavenly vision. He wafted his hearers into that realm on the flood of MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 579 melody. I took sights of comfort a-lookin at that old fiddle* When my thoughts git started back to Italy, as thoughts will, no matter where your body is a-set- tin in the meetin -house or out to the barn or any wherethey always linger sort o lovin ly on Venice -Venice that stands out in my mind all by itself amongst cities, jest as prominent as Thomas J. duz amongst boys. My Josiah wuz dumbfoundered when we emerged from the depot to think that he had got to go to our tarvern in a boat ; but so it wuz. Then he demurred agin about the convenience we wuz a-goin in. He sez, " Dum it all, I hain t a-goin to be drawed by a hearse whilst I am alive !" But I soothed him down by pintin out that the boats wuz all painted black. But wuzn t it a curous sensation to drive along on streets of water, instead of good, honest dirt. Bein kinder skairy of water, I whispered to Jo siah " As bad as our roads in Jonesville be durin the worst of Spring mud, I d ruther navigate em with DlVIXE REALMS OF MELODY \VU2 BRUNG TO VIEW BY HIS HEAV ENLY VISION. 5 So SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. our wheels up to the hubs in mud than to ride down these water streets." Sez he, " Samantha, we didn t realize our prive- liges then, we made light on em." "Yes," sez I, "you used language on them roads that you wouldn t use now if you wuz set back on em." " I didn t talk any worse than the rest of the Jonesvillians !" he snapped out. " And how these streets smell dead cats and pollywogs !" sez he, turnin up his nose real high. "Wall," sez I, "less count over our blessin s. We can hold our noses while we are a-countin ," sez I. " Look at them towerin marble palaces ; see the carvin on them tall pinnakles and the arched winders and the fretted ruffs," sez I. " The ruffs don t fret no worse than my mind duz !" sez he. " Oh," he whispered with a low groan, " shall w r e ever see the cliffs of Jonesville once more !" " Don t give up, Josiah," sez I, " here right in the dream of the world, Venice, the beautiful." Sez Josiah, " I hearn there wuz a sayin , See Venice and die, and I can tell em that if this smell keeps on, and if the dum muskeeters keeps on a-bitin , there s one man who will foller their advice." "Sez I, "They hain t muskeeters, they re nats, $82 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. and it wuz Naples that wuz said on ; and," sez I, wantin to roust him up, " they say Venice is per fectly beautiful by moonlight." That kinder nerved him up, bad as he felt he seemed to look forrered to it, and after a good meal and a good rest, when we did set off by moonlight, hirin a gondola jest as we would a express wagon to home, he admitted the beauty of the seen. And it wuz like a journey through fairyland. The long, glassy streets, all lit up by lights from the tall, white palaces on each side on us, and by the lanterns of the pussin gondoliers ; the soft, sweet voices of the gondoliers as they called out to each other in their melogious Southern tongue ; the glidin boats movin past us like shudder craft, with the handsome, graceful forms of the gondoliers a-drivin em, and anon or oftener the sweet strains of a guitar, and some divine voice in song ; and the admirin surprise when you d turn a corner and look down another street of beauty, differin inform of glory. Oh, it wuz a seen to be remembered as long as Memory sets up on her high-chair under my fore- top ! And what hantin thoughts kep company with me and filled the gondola to overflowing I seemed to see Titian with his artist s eyes and inspired pen cil the old Doges with their embroidered and MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 583 jewelled robes sad-eyed Beatrice Cenci, Antonio, Shylock, Wise-eyed Portia I seemed to hear her say in , " The quality of mercy is not strained, It clroppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven. . . . It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." The gondola wuz crowded by the fantom crowds that set round me onheeded by my Josiah, jest as sperit crowds may be cramped all round onbeknown to us. Wall, I expected that about the most interestin thing in Venice to me would be the Bridge of Sighs, that stands, as Byron so eloquently observes, with a palace on the nigh side, and a prison on the off side (I may not have got the exact words, but it is the same meanin ). And I had more emotions there than I could count, as I looked at it. Al Faizi wuz dretful interested in the old prison and dungeons and in the relicks of the infamous Council of Ten. He writ pages in that book of hisen, and didn t come no more nigh depicterin all their atrocities and abominations than one drop of water would to exhaustin the ocean. In the palaces we see the height of luxury and richness of beauty. In the prisons and dungeons 584 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. we can see the black depths of terror and cruelty of the time when the Council of Ten ruled Venice. The Doge s palace is a dream of magnificence. You look up the Giant s Staircase, way up up to the great statutes of Mars and Neptune, where them mean creeters wuz crowned the Doges, I mean. And then you can t help meditatin that whilst they dumb to the very top of magnificence, they didn t do well, they didn t die peaceable in their beds, none on em. No, they wuz pizened, or had their heads cut off, or sunthin or other, that interfered with their com fort. I wouldn t want Josiah to be a Doge not if he could be jest as well as not. No, Dogein seemed to be resky business in them days, and I presoom that it would be now. And then they wuz so awful mean some on em- jest read what they done, it s enough toskairyou to death almost. I had dretful emotions as I looked at that long table where the Ten ust to set in silence, and condemn men and wimmen to death. They ort to be ashamed of themselves. And then the Lion s Mouth, where the papers accusin folks wuz dropped by the people. The paper dropped down into a chest so s the wicked old Ten could git ho-lt of em. MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 585 Miserable creeters ! I d love to gin em a piece of 4 my mind But Josiah wuz all took up with the idee ; sez he- " How convenient, how charmin it would be to have a complainin box rigged up in the barn over the manger or by the side of the haymow, so when I wanted to complain of Ury I wouldn t have to jaw him and have him sass back ! How much easier it would be than jawin ! He d like it better, too. And you can have one, Samantha, to complain of Philury ; you could jest drop em in. and then you wouldn t have to tell em over to me when she wuz wasteful or slack, or acted. Jest put em down on paper, drop em into the box, and nobody but Philury would be the wiser." Sez I, " Do you spoze I m a-goin to be feelin round writin complaints while a batch of cookies are bein spilte, or a lot of good vittles throwed to the hens ? No, indeed ! My tongue is good yet, and active." " Yes, indeed, it is !" sez he with a deep groan (I d no what he meant by it). " But/ sez he, "it would be good for it to rest a spell, and it would be a good thing for me, anyway, specially nights when I wuz sleepy," and agin he sighed (he acted like a fool). 586 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " And if you say so," sez he, "we could have one rigged up together for both on us we ort to be able to complain of our hired man and woman in one complainin box. We might have it over our back door, or on the smoke-house." But I waived off his idee, and mebby he gin it up, and mebby, agin, he ll try to rig up some contrivance that won t do no good, and take time and money. Another one of the queer things them old Doges ust to do wuz to marry the Adriatic to the city at a certain time every year. What did they want to marry water for ? But Josiah wuz all worked up with the idee, when he hearn us a-talkin about it, and about the magni ficent ceremonies they went through with at the weddin . Sez he, " How uneek it would be for me to marry the creek to Jonesville and perform the cere mony out to our mill-dam ! It would be beautiful, and it would be as cheap as dirt, too ; Ury could fix up a raft, and I could take one of the curtain rings out of the spare bedroom to wed it with." "What do you want to be weddin the creek for ?" sez I coldly. " Oh, for fashion," sez he u style. Old-fashioned things are so stylish now," sez he. " You know how them old, long, black clocks, humbly things in MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 587 the first on t as they could be you know how they re set up in the boodores of luxury now, a-lookin like a coffin on end. And spinnin -wheels and sech that our grandmas ust to hustle out of the room, if o company come, now they re sot up on velvet car pets, and made sights on. And this manoover would be dretful stylish. Oh, how the Jonesville bridge would be crowded ! how the Jonesvillians would look on in admiration to see the sight ! " Of course I should wear my dressin -gown. The public has never had a chance to see it on me yet, you have always been so sot on keepin me to home in it. This would be a very agreeable treat to have on Fourth of Julys, or any national holiday, and I could carry it out perfectly and dog cheap, with a little of Ury s help." But I sot my foot right down on the idee to once. Sez I, "It looks silly as anything in them wicked old Doges, and you hain t a-goin to import any of their tricks into Jonesville. Next thing I d know you d have a inquisition a-goin on, and a se cret tribunal of Ten." " Fd like it first-rate," sez he, "if I could be the 10. Fd like to shake some of the sins and foolish ness out of Brother Gowdey and Deacon Henzy," sez he, "and bring em into my way of thinkin ." " There it is !" sez I. " Intolerance, bigotry, perse- MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 589 cution, how fresh they be to-day in the human heart ! Jest as ready to spring up and act in 1895 as a thousand years ago." " Wall, I hain t %aid I wuz a-goin to start it up agin," sez he, kinder cross like ; " I only spoke on t." I expected trials when I sot out to take my pard- ner through Europe, and I wuzn t dissapinted in it. But if it hadn t been for his ambition for display, and his bein carried away by novelties, and his ap petite, he would have acted real well. But, anyway, act or not, he s the one man in the world for me, and visey versey. But, as I wuz a-sayin , the palaces of them old Doges rousted lots of emotions in my brain, and the fantoms of their victims seemed to hover round them old palaces as thick as the pigeons that come with a rush of wing down into the great square of St. Mark at jest two o clock, where they are fed by order of the goverment. The grand old Church of St. Mark interested me dretfully. It is built in the form of a Greek cross, with a big dome in the centre, and full, full to overflowin with glory of mosaic, precious stuns, picters, monuments, altars, pillars, colenades, gold, silver, and splendor of all sorts. Josiah sez to me, " Our Jonesville meetin -house wouldn t show off much compared to this." 590 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. But I wuz some consoled in this by thinkin that if our meetin -house wuzn t so gorgeous, there wuz jest as big a laek of beggars and poor people of all kinds a-hoverin on the outside n t, and sez I " If they should sell off some of their costly things and try to improve the condition of these poor beggars, they would raise themselves as much as twenty-five cents in my estimation, and I d no but more." And Josiah sez, " It is hard to make a rotten string stand up straight it is hard to brace up laziness, and dissipation, and improvidence, and make anything on t." I couldn t dispute him, nor didn t try to. But I did love to prowl round in those old meetin - housen and see the wealth of interestin things in em. In the Church of Santa Maria d Frari, the beau tiful monument to Titian took my admirin inter est. It has angels, lions, all sorts of sculptered fig- gers in elegant carvin , and beautiful bas-reliefs of his greatest works "The Assumption," "Martyr dom of St. Lawrence," and " Peter Martyr." Then the monument to Canova is a sight to see in its beauty. Wall, he ort to had it ; he did enough work to make the world more beautiful. In the Academy of Fine Arts we see sech sights MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 59! of beautiful picters that my brain almost reels now, a-tryin to recall em. But Titian s " Assumption of the Virgin" is one that you can t forgit, no matter how clost other idees press around it and squooze aginst it. Great picters by Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, and other great masters the walls are jest seens of beauty. I wouldn t want it told on it ort to be kep , but Josiah told me right there in that sacred spot, that he wuz sick of Madonnas sick as a snipe. But I told him that I wouldn t own up to it, if I wuz. And he said he didn t care who hearn him. I wuz kinder sick on em myself, but didn t want to own up to it right there in a meetin -house. But, truly, anybody will see enough Holy Families, Virgins, Madonnas, etc., to last em a long life, un less they re extravagantly fond of em. And every artist seems to have painted his own idees of the Holy Mother mebby from his own sweetheart ; anyway, no two of em are alike. Most of em are real fat and healthy lookin . I never spozed she enjoyed sech good health as they depicter ; I thought she wuz more kinder spindlin lookin . And then I imagined there wuz a ineffible look to the face of the Mother of our Lord, sech, as 592 SAMANTHA IN EURO PH. it seems to me, they hain t none of em ketched. The Mother of our Lord ! What a face she ort to have to fit my idees of her ! It s resky work, paintin divine things. I wouldn t want to under take it, or have Josiah. Now I see the picter of the Deity once painted with a hat on. I didn t love to see it. Why, even to Moses the Great Presence wuz surrounded by a flame of fire ; and St. Paul fell to the ground, struck by the blindin glory on t, and he wuz never able to put in mortal words the sights he see " Whether in the body or out of the body, God knoweth." He wuz reverent. And it don t seem quite the thing to try to paint ineffible glories with chrome yeller and madder. Howsumever, I spoze they meant well. And, indeed, some of the picters we see as we journeyed through the Italian cities are all placed in rows around the inside of my brain, and can t never be moved from there no, the strings must break down first that they hang up on. In Florence the Beautiful, oh, the acres and acres and acres of beauty that I walked through, full to overflowin with beauty and glorious con ceptions and the white splendor of marble poems ! The works of Michael Angelo I hain t a-goin to MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 593 forgit them no, indeed ! nor Lorenzo Ghiberti, nor the picters by Titian, Raphael, Rembrandt, Tintoretto, Veronese, Van Dyke, Rubens, etc., etc., etc., and so forth, and so forth, and so on, and so on. I walked through the long picter galleries with my brain and heart all rousted up, and enjoyin themselves the best that ever wuz, and my legs all wore out and achin bad. And Josiah groanin audibly by my side. And Martin patronizin the marvels of ancient and modern art, and havin a good time. Al Faizi with his hat off, reverent and devout in the presence of so much divine beauty. And Alice, I spoze, thinkin of the past and the futer, and Adrian eatin candy, etc. Time fails to tell what we see. It seems to me it would be easier to tell what we didn t see ; I guess it wouldn t take so long, but I will desist. But a few memories stand out shinin amidst the bewilderin maze. One of em is standin in the cell of Savonarola, that noble creeter, raised up to the pinnakle of saintship by the fickle populace, who knelt and worshipped him, and then so soon cruci fied him. And he all the time a-keepin on stiddy, jest as good and noble and riz up as he could be. Yes, his last words to his persecutors gin a good idee on him "You can turn me out of earthly meeting- 594 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. houses, but you can t keep me out of the Heavenly one. 5 I may not have used the same words he did, but it wuz to that effect. I had a sight of emotions as I stood in that narrer place that once confined the form of that kingly creeter. And then the tomb of Galileo. I always liked him the best that ever wuz. Fie wuz also perse cuted for knowin things that them round him didn t know, and thinkin thoughts and seein sights o o that they didn t. And in order to git along with em round him, he had to promise to stop teachhl the truth. The Majority had to be appeased by the old Ignorance. It has to now, time and agin. But he kep on a-sayin to himself, and out loud, when he got a chance to " The world duz move." Men and wimmen to-day, who feel some as Galileo about men s and wimmen s rights licenses, the higher spiritual knowledge they keep on a-sayin all the time, every time that they can git a chance to edge a word in between Ignorance and Bigotry and shaky-kneed Custom, who stand all shackled together with mouldy old chains of prejudice, every time they can git a openin between these tattlin , but hard-lived old creeters, they keep on a-sayin - " The world duz move." Folks will fall in with em after a time, jest as MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 595 they fell in with the idees of Galileo ; now they per secute em. But more interestin to me than the glories and marvels of the Medician Chapel, the Pitti and Uffizi galleries, the Boboli Gardens, the monu ment to Dante (smart creeter he wuz, and went through a sight from first to last ; he and she both Beatrice, I mean) But of fur more interest to me it wuz to stand in the house where the slender little English woman dwelt while her soul was slightly imprisoned in her frail body, while she held " The poet s star-tuned harp to sweep." And where at last " God struck a silence through it all, and gave to His beloved sleep." " Sleep, sweet beloved, we sometimes say, Yet have no tune to charm away Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep ; But never doleful dream again Shall break their happy slumber when He giveth His beloved sleep." Yes, she sleeps well now. All the melancholy and charm of Italy, all its magnificence, all of its splendor, its ruins all seem to be centred in that one little room. I had emotions there that it hain t no use dwellin on. Figgers seemed to start up and bagon to me 596 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. from every side. Aurora Leigh, with her sad, sweet smile, stood in front of me with that lover of hern ; the Portuguese lovers, with hearts of fire and dew too ; the " Poet Mother" holdin her two hoys to her heart, knit to that heart by ties of iron ; Nino and Guido, little babies, teaching em to " Say first the word country," after that mother and love. Then I see her alone in the house alone. " God, how the house feels !" While Guido and Nino lay dead, shot down by the balls of the enemy " One by the East Sea and by the West" then she remembered that she had learnt cm to say first the word "country," puttin it before "mother and home." She wux kinder sorry she d done it at first, I guess. She forgot Glory and Patriotism, for this woman this "Who was agonixcd here, the East Sea and West Sea rhymed on in her head, for ever instead." She couldn t think of anything else, only the mightiness of human love and grief. I don t blame her ; I should felt jest so myself if it had been Thomas Jefferson shot down. What would the glory of Jonesville be to me, if his bright, understandin , affectionate eyes wuz closed in death ? I, too, should think that everything else wuz "im becile, hewin out roads to a wall." MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 597 How black that wall would look to me ! And then the cry of the Human, how it rung in my ears " Be pitiful, O God !" Yes, indeed, in how many crysises have I felt the hite and the depth of that cry ! I had powerful emotions, powerful, and sights of em so did Al Faizi. He jest doted on Mrs. Browning s poetry, and he sot a good deal of store by the poetry of her relict her widderer. And Robert duz write first-rate, but pretty deep, some on em. I ve grown real riz up and breathless a-hearin Thomas J. read about " How they brought the good news from Ghent to Aix." And I love to hear Thomas J. read about the " Lost Leader," and beautiful " Evelyn Hope," and etc., etc. But, on the hull, I sot more store by the poems of his wife. But, as I say, I always respected and admired Elizabeth s widderer. He insisted on marryin the woman he loved, no matter how poor health she enjoyed. I presoom his folks objected and thought that Robert would do better to marry a woman that wuz enjoyin better health. But he never thought of doctors bills or poultices things that fill up littler minds no, indeed ! nor she didn t either. They felt only the supreme joy of con genial minds and hearts, and love that lifts the soul 598 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. up to the divinest hites mortals can ever stand up on. She says, and it seems almost like liftin a veil before the Holy of Holys, and as if I ortn t to speak of it, but I will venter- She sez : " First time he kissed me, he but kissed This hand wherewith I write, And ever since it grew more fair and white, Slow to world greetings, quick with its Oh, list ! When the angels speak." How the words fell from her innocent soul, and how they must always reach the same place in em who hear em, if they have got souls ! Yes, in readin her poetry you can see that, as she sed about the dead baby and its sorrerin ma, that " The crystal bars shine ifeint between the souls of child and mother." You can see that the veil wuz but thin indeed between her soul and the Heaven she writes of yes, you can almost see its light a-shinin through the words, and its music almost throbs through her sweet thoughts. But to resoom. It seems almost like a beautiful dream to look back on t, with, of course, some shadders to make the brightness seem more bright, the time we spent in Florence. One day while we MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 599 wuz there we rid out to see the Tower of Pisa- Martin sed ft would be expected of him to see it. We found that Pisa wuz a dretful noisy place dretful, and, somehow, yellin in a foreign language seems worse than the same yellin in Yankee. Howsumever, I spoze these yellers and jabberers knew their own business. Josiah sed, as we looked up at the tower, sez he- u You ve always took me to task, Samantha, about my corn-house bein built kinder tippin and tottlin . Now what do you think ? This tips as much agin, and folks can t think too much on t, so it seems." " Wall," sez I, "it has a different look to it from your edifice. I believe that will fall on you some day, Josiah Allen, and be the death on you." " Wall, they hain t either on em fell yet ; they both stand kinder tippin , but I don t worry about either on em we knew what we wuz about when we built em." He ranked em both right in together, I see that he did. But this tower goes fur ahead of his edifice fur, though it is some seven hundred years older. It is perfectly round, the sides all fixed off in rows of pillows, and the hull thing most two hun dred feet high. I didn t hanker for goin up to the top on t no, 600 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. indeed ! It tuckers me enough to go up into our wood-house chamber, about twenty odd steps. I wuzn t goin to trail up three hundred steps no, indeed ! But Martin sed that he would like to say that he had been there. So he toiled up the ascent, and so did Alice. And she sed that the view from the top wuz perfectly wonderful, takin in the beautiful country all round cities, picteresque villages, and the blue waters of the Mediterranean twelve milds away. And Martin sed that if that tower wuz in Chicago, with a outside elevator let down from the top to take folks up, and a cigar-stand and saloon on top, a man ort to clear five thousand dollars a year from it. . And he sed the white marble it s built on would make splendid mantle- pieces, and he told how many it would make I can t remember, but a immense lot on em. He d figgered em up on the tower ; he took his pencil out and figgered it up on the pinnakle, so, for all he realized, the entrancin view below might have been our four-acre paster or a huckleberry patch. We didn t stay here long. Of course, we had to see the cathedral and Baptistery, great buildin s built of white marble, and all ornamented off on the outside to as great an extent as I ever MILAN, GENOA, VENICE. 6oi see, or ever expect to, and the Campo Santa has got frescoes Tn it that are beautiful beyend any tell- in on. There is lots of other things there that is worth seem the Museum, the University, the Aqueduct, etc. but we didn t stay to see em all, Martin, as usual, a-bein in a great hurry ; but he sed that he wanted to say, of course, that he had paid proper attention to this city, which wuz one of the oldest in Europe. Before John the Baptist came preach- in in the Wilderness this wuz a Roman town. It beats all ! No wonder it s a noisy old place it has seen lots of trouble. In goin out of it we went through so many tun nels, it skairt me most to death, and Josiah wuz skairt, too, though he wouldn t own up to it, but I heard him sithe repeatedly ; otherwise I wuz glad to go. Wall, as I say, what I see in beautiful Florence can t be told, and the enchantin scenery in the Valley of the Arno. The beautiful Casino, which even Martin admitted come almost up to Central Park (it is fur bigger and handsomer, though I wouldn t want the Central Park folks to know I sed it, for it would be apt to mad em. It made Martin mad as a hen when I suggested it). CHAPTER XXXI. COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS. IT wuz jest as beautiful in Rome magnificent palaces, cathedrals, picters, statutes, tapestry, mo saics, articles of virtue of all kinds, and immense gateways leadin into ne\v seens of beauty, foun tains, monuments, tombs, parks, wells, etc., etc., etc. My head-dress almost rises up on my head now as I contemplate the seens. But specially the Col osseum almost, lifts up the ribbins on it now, when I meditate on t. Why, when the Loontown Opera House wuz finished, we Jonesvillians hung our heads consid erable before the Loontowners, they wuz so hauty over it. Two hundred could set down in it all to one time. It danted us. We envied em. But what would them proud Loontowners think of a theatre that would seat eighty thousand, and probble twenty or thirty thousand more could have squoze in while they wuz a-performin . One hundred thousand all assembled, COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS. 603 rnebby to look down on the dretful sight of seem men kill each other. That wuz, the thought that riz up my head-dress, and almost busted my bask waist. To think that men and wimmen could meet for amusement, and witness sech agony and suffering and probble laugh at it. Why, in one of their meetin s, twelve hundred men wuz killed, wimmen lookin on, too, jest as well as men, and probble snickerin over it. I would be ashamed of myself if I wuz in their places heartless creeters ! If I d been there at the time nobody could kep me from givin em a piece of my mind. But I wuz eighteen hundred years too young ; they kep right at it. Al Faizi wuz dretful interested in this pjace. He writ down lots in that book of hisen. He see sights here he never see in his own land religion or no religion. Christians throwed round to let lions and tigers devour em ! The idee ! He looked curous as a dog while he talked with me about it. Martin wuz kinder calculatin on how many grain elevators the stun would build if they wuz landed in Chicago. And Josiah and the children weie wanderin round, and he acted tired and fagged out. He wuz, as usual, hungry. He sed prowlin round amongst 604 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. them stun heaps gin him a appetite. And I spoze it did. But, then, I ve known settin still to whet up his appetite, and barn chores, and everything. But we prowled round here for some time, and there is one big, vivid memory that I brung away from Rome ; it stands up in my fore-top some as in Naples Mount Vesuvius stands, with the Bay of Naples a-layin plaeid and fair at its treacherous old feet. The treasures of the Vatican (which makes my brain reel and my feet kinder ache to this day when I think of em), the biggest palace in the world, so I^spoze. And then St. Peter s Church, more n five times as big as the big Catholic Cathedral in New York two hundred and twelve thousand feet ; we can t hardly understand it, it is so big. But Martin kep us there more n half an hour ; for, as he sed, he wanted to git a thorough idee of it, so that he wouldn t have to come agin. Sez he : " I travel as I do everything else ; I do it labo riously and thoroughly." Wall, mebby he did, but I carried away from St. Peter s and the Vatican, which is jest by the side on t, a sort of a dizzy, achin memory of pillows and picters and statutes and illimitable space, and picters and carvin s and statutes, and statutes and carvin s and picters a few of which stands out prominent COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS. 605 the Laocoon, the Apollo Belvidere (he wuz as handsome as Thomas Jefferson, and that is sayin all I can say), and the Annunciation, and the Trans figuration by Raphael, and great picters by Da Vinci and Murillo. Picters, statutes, mosaics, car- vin s, chapels, altars, picters, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., and I might go on so all day, but I won t. Why, the treasures of art in the Vatican is the finest collection in the world, and when you realize how big the world is take it from Jonesville to Chicago, and so by New York to Ingy, and back agin by the North Pole to Loontown and Zoar, you can git a faint idee on t. There is everything in it besides the glorious pic ters and statutes made by the greatest artists and sculpters that ever lived. There are ancient coins and household utensils of every age, tapestry, mosaics, jewels, embroideries, carvin s, etc., etc. Why, imagine what treasures of art could be put into these ten thousand rooms by onlimited wealth and power through hundreds of years, and then see if you expect anybody is a-goin to describe em ; spe cially if they are hurried on by a Martin, and goaded on the right and the left by the hungry groanin s of a Josiah, and the endless questions of a child of eight. Al Faizi got considerable good out on t, I guess. 606 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. He writ down a lot, I see, in that delicate, small handwritin of hisen I d no but it is shorthand. Alice, I spoze, see on every side a face, jest as young eyes will, when young hearts are full of love and hope. Wall, Martin sed he must see the catacombs, and I felt, too, that I must go, although I knew it wuz resky. I felt that with his ardent temperament and his eager search after ontried paths ; I more n mistrusted that I should lose Josiah Allen for good in them catacombs. But I ventered, after layin stringent rules onto that small, but ambitious man. Sez I, " Don t you lose sight of me through the day, Josiah Allen !" " How can I see you in the dark ?" sez he. " Foller my voice !" sez I. " That s an easy job," sez he ; " I could foller that for years and years, and not lose a minute." I d no what he meant ; he wuz excited and kinder wanderin in his mind, I believe. Wall, when we descended into the bowels of the earth, I felt queer, queer as a dog. The guides went ahead, with flarin lights held up to guide us, and as we proceeded onwards through what seemed to be milds and milds of underground rooms and halls and windin ways, the thought come, and I couldn t keep it out of my mind THE GUIDES WENT AHEAD WITH FLARIN* LIGHTS." 608 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " What if the light should blow out, as I ve seen so many lights do in my day, and we should be doomed to forever more wander here, and die at last fur from Jonesville, and the light of day. But as I whispered to Josiah " We shall die together at least, which will be a comfort." He, too, felt the pathos and danger of the seen, and sez he " Hurry up, or the guide will be out of sight !" and he added almost tenderly, " You re too fat, Samantha, to take many sech trips." And I sez, " Wall, I don t expect to travel habit ually under the ground." And we had some words. It madded me consid erable to be twitted of my heft both on top of the ground and in the bowels of the earth, till I rec ollected where I wuz and what had once gone on here ; then a deep or took holt on me, and I sez to myself "What must the Christians have felt who fled here for safety from persecution and death ! What did the saints and martyrs think on as they jined in their hymns of praise and victory ? A few pounds of flesh, more or less, what would they have thought on t, or the teasin words of their pardners ? No, lions and tigers and the headsman s axe wuz what COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS. 609 wuz before their eyes, and, what wuz worse, before the eyes of em they loved best. Endless rooms, so it seemed to me, we went through, narrer passages and chambers, arched over head, and the walls lined, some on em with dead bodies. Mummies, tombs, picters, windin ways, Josiah, Martin, torches them wuz the idees that come back to me as I think on t now. Wall, Josiah wuz dretful impressed with the Holy Staircase, up which the members of the meetin - house went on their knees, a-sayin their prayers as they went, and it wuz a impressive sight to look way up the stairs and see the bretheren and sistern a-creepin up and a-fingerm their strings of beads and a-prayin to the Virgin Mary or some other saint or postle, mebby. And here I had another trial with my dear, but too ardent and impressible pardner. He looked on in deep thought for anon or a little longer, and then he sez " Samantha, wouldn t it be uneek for you and me to climb up the steps of the Jonesville meet- in -house a-sayin over some hymn, or one of the Sams? And you could take your mother s gold string of beads, and I could buy a string of glass ones for two or three cents, or I could make a string with a little of Ury s help whittle em out 6lO SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. of wood. And how impressive it would be ! how it would attract attention to us ! how foreign it would look, and show plain how travelled and cul tivated we wuz ! You know, folks that come home from Europe always bring lots of strange ways with em and airs ; and this would be one of the most uneekest and impressive that wuz ever brung into Jonesville or America." Sez I, "Gin up that idee to once, Josiah Allen, for I will never jinc in with it in the world. The idee !" sez I, "that you and me, with our age and our rumatiz, should go a-creepin up on our knees into the meetin -house. Why, to say nothin of spilein our clothes, our knee-pans wouldn t be good for nothin after one venter." Sez I, " The pans would be perfectly useless forever afterwards, and," sez I, "what good would it do 5 The aid we invoke o hain t bought with beads. The God we worship hain t reached by creepin up a pair of stairs ; He is right with us to the foot of the stairs or anywhere. Give up the idee immegiately and to once." He acted real fraxious, but I drawed his attention off, and mebby he ll forgit it. The beauty of Naples has been sed and sung in so many different words and tunes that it don t need the pen or voice of a Samantha, specially as I hain t much of a singer, nor wuzn t even in my young COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS. 6l I days, so I will be content with singin to myself at times a rapt^ort of a soul song, as I look back on the enchantin beauty of the Bay of Naples. Beautiful for situation indeed is Naples ! cluster- in round the clear, blue waters, that sweep round in a sort of a crescent. The city occupies the centre the inside on t, little villages and tree-embowered castles and villas a-linin the shores on each side, and on the off side, addin the one touch of mystery that gives a vivid but dark charm to the picter, rises Mount Vesuvius, a-stand- in there all the time as if protestin aginst the poor wisdom of the ages. Who knows what s a-goin on in her insides ? Who knows what she s mad about ? Who knows what makes her act so puggicky, and every no\v t and then bust out into blood-red indignation, that carries death and ruin all round her ? Queer, hain t it ? Queer, that havin in mind jest what she s done and is liable to do any time agin, that men and wimmen go on, gay and happy, and lean up aginst her old feet, and nestle down in her shadder, and build homes of love there, liable any minute to be swep away by her red-hot wrath ! Passin strange ! jest as singular as it is to think all of us in Jonesville and the world at large will build fair homes of love and content, and anchor 6l2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE." em to livin hearts alone, in the same world where Death is. But to resoom. My recollections of this city, like so many others, is one vast paneramy, framed in by the blue Mediterranean, and ornamented on top by Vesuvius, of picter galleries, tall palaces, broad avenues, narrer streets, in which we see many seens that in Jonesville is kep under cover, and stately castles sights and sights of castles, and im mense ones ; seems as if they wuz immenser and more numerous than in any other city I see on my tower, and fountains, and aqueducts, and churches, and colleges, and theatres, and operas, etc., etc., etc. Plenty of chances for bein good, and plenty of modes of recreations, the Neapolitans have, and they seem to take advantage on em all. But it seemed as if I couldn t never forgit that tall, warn- in rigger that looms up forever in the background. But, then, agin, mebby I should ; I forgit the grave yard in Jonesville lots of times, though I ride by it every Sunday to meetin . The guide wanted us to go up Vesuvius. He said she wuz lookin very mild and pleasant, and it would be perfectly safe. But I didn t like her looks, or that is, I thought I d ruther admire her at a distance, some as I would a striped tiger right out of the jungle. But Vesu- COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS. 613 vius did indeed look beautiful, a-risin up above the incomparable Bay of Naples. But I felt for all her good looks I didn t want to tackle her. I knew what she d done in the past to em that trusted her too much. Pompey won t forgit her no, indeed ! After eighteen hundred years have gone don t memories hant the House of Pansa and the hull of that devoted city of what Vesuvius can do when it gits to actin ? Yes, indeed, indeed ! No, I didn t want to venter. But I did want to visit that city that has lain buried up in the earth for so many years. And Martin sed that most all of his inflooential friends made a practice of goin there. So we all sot off one pleasant mornin my Josiah in pretty good sperits, for we had had an oncommon good breakfust, and Alice lookin sweet as a flower, and Al Faizi a-know- in she did, a-realizin her sweetness through all his bein , as I could see from his big, dark, sad eyes, that wuz bent on her all the way, and her heart all filled up with another s image and drawin her radiant looks from that sun of her heart. O human hearts ; O glory and sadness and rapter that fills em ! How many jest sech gay young sperits, sech souls, full of the glowin rapter of love, the divine sadness of love, went out in darkness on that dretful day, a thousand and a half years ago ! 6.14 SAMANTHA IN EUROI K. I had fearful riz-up emotions before I got to Pompey, jest a-thinkin on t, and so what could they have been when I at last stood in the city on which fell sech a sudden doom. To see the silent forms struck down, jest as full of life and love and happiness as Alice and Adrian wuz to-day. There wuz a woman clingin to a bag of gold gold couldn t help her. A young man and young girl clasped in each others arms love couldn t save em. A priest of Isis, who knew all the secrets of the Mystic Religion his wisdom couldn t save him, or what he called his wisdom. A giant form full of courage and defiance strength couldn t save him, nor courage. A high-born lady covered with jewels wealth and high station couldn t save her. They all had to bear the common fate, as well as the little maid who died runnin away from death, and had covered her face with her garments, she wuz so fraid. Poor little creeter ! what if it had been Babe ? No ; the prisoners shet up in jail, riveted to the rock, the dogs, horses, goats, even the poor little dove, that wouldn t leave her nest, pretty, little affec tionate thing ! all, all had to bear the doom that come down upon em on that dretful day. All on em a-doin their usual work, jest as if the COLOSSEUM AND CATACOMBS. 615 Heavens should open and pour down a avalanche of ashes and bury us up in our home in Jonesville -Josiah a-doin his barn chores, and I a-washin dishes, and both on us full of life and joy of livin . Besides Ury and Philury. Oh, dear me ! oh, dear me suz ! Wall, I went through them streets, so many cen turies buried and forgot, in a state of mind I can t describe. It seemed some like goin through any city. The streets wuz middlin narrer, but the housen stood on each side ; good roads were down by the steps of the multitude. So wuz the fountains that stood on every hand ; you could see where the lips of the public had wore em away. Palaces, little housen, shops, temples, amphitheatres. One house we went through looked as though it had been built yesterday for some rich American ; it wuz over three hundred feet long and over a hundred feet broad, and all ornamented off beautiful with statutes and mosaics and things good enough for a Vanderbilt. In some things the old inhabitants did better than they do now. They had sidewalks pretty narrer, but fur better than none and more facil ities for gittin water. I wish the Italians used more now they would feel as well agin for it, jest as Josiah duz when I can git him to use it free. CHAPTER XXXII. FASHIONABLE WATERING-PLACES. WALL, in the streets of Naples Martin met a man that he knew at home a man most as rich as Martin a Mr. Goldwind, a sort of a rival in busi ness, I guess, and he had jest been travellin through Spain. And what should P. Martyn Smythe do but proclaim it to us that evenin that we wuz to go to Spain. I hearn him say to Alice " It will be asked of me if we have been there. Gertrude Goldwind will ask you if you have been there. Alice, we must be able to say Yes/ So we will start immegiately. I have got to go back to Paris anyway on important busi ness." So the next day we started for Paris. As I have sed heretofore, Martin wuz a very enthusiastick and ambitious traveller ; that is, he wanted to tell what he d seen in foreign lands, whether he d seen em or not ; but he wuz ambi- MR. GOLDWIND, ONK OK MARTIN S BUSINESS RIVALS. FASHIONABLE WATERING-PLACES. 617 tious to have^his body trailed through em. And it made it very good and instructive for me, though wearisome, for, of course, the more you see, the more you know, and he had to take the hull circus with him wherever he went. And when he pro mulgated the wild idee that we wuz to go to Spain, I acquiesced immegiately and to once, and after a private interview I held with Josiah, he did. Sez Martin "We won t make a long stay there ; but we will go over the Pyrenees anyway, and step onto the soil ; and when we go back to America it can t be said by any one that we did not see Spain." Oh, how different folkses key-notes is ! Now, the key-note to his character wuz what would folks say ? the outside of the platter ; while, as for me, my key-note wuz what I could see and learn, and what wuz inside of the platter. And that wuz Al Faizi s key-note, only his key wuz stronger and deeper even than mine. Josiah and the children had their own keys and notes, which it is needless to peticularize. Wall, I had become some acquainted with Spain through .my friend, Washington Irving, and Mr. Bancroft, and then I wuz quite familar with its literature. I had learned at a early age one of its poems, runnin thus : 6l8 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " When it rains, Do as tljey do in Spain Let it rain." I had often hearn and repeated this national epick to my relief and consolation on stormy days. And though I felt that our trip bid fair to be a hasty and sweepin one, yet I felt that if I eould jest stand on the top of the Pyrenees, and look down into the land, I would like it, even if I did not step my foot into it. So, after stayin a short time in Paris for Martin to do his errents there, I spoze we sot sail for Spain, and the first night come to the river Garonne, and acrost the long bridge into Bor deaux. We stayed all night there, and the next mornin bright and early sot out agin. A little after noon we come to Pau. The train stopped down by the river Gave, a river that rushes right out of the mountains. Above that, a hundred feet high, on a terrace lookin south, stands the city. And what a view busted onto my vision as I looked out of the winder at the hotel ! Them gleamin , silent peaks of snow are camped round Pau like tall, silent, white-robed pickets a-guardin Pau from danger. What a sight ! what a sight ! FASHIONABLE WATERING-PLACES. 619 But Martin^ anxious to see everything that could be seen, sot off most the first thing to see the eastle one of the grandest in France where Henry IV. wuz born, and I spoze they enjoyed it, for Jo- siah went with him. But what I wanted to see wuz the fountain of Lourdes. And though Martin and Josiah kinder made light of me, they seemed willin enough to go with me the next day. It is only a two hours ride from Pau to this most famous place of pilgrimage in Europe. And we sot off in good sperits. It lays down at the foot of the mountain, in a deep valley. At one end of the village is a grotto where a young girl, years ago, received a visit from the Virgin Mary, or she sez that she did. She told the story to her folks and to all the neighbors, and she stuck to the same story all her life till she died. Of course em that went to the same place and didn t see nothin they didn t believe her. I d no as Abraham s folks believed him when he sed that he had had a visit from angels. I dare presoom to say some of his relations didn t his cousins now, and his mother-in-law s folks ; I dare say they sed they wuz a-lookin right that way at the very time and didn t see a thing Abraham must have been mistaken ; and they would add most prob- 620 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Abraham s eyes are a-failin ; he ort to wear stronger specs." Not a-thinkin that their stronger specs could never give em a glimpse of the things that he see ; for speritual things are speritually discerned, and we all have gifts differin . Why should a prophey- sier try to dream dreams and see visions ? Wall, finally the priests gin out that the story wuz true, but whether their consciences wuz good in ginin it out I d no I don t keep their consciences in a box in my bureau draw. But tenny rate, the first six months one hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims visited the spot and par took of the healin water of the spring that flowed out of the grotto. And pretty soon a lofty meetin -house riz up over that grotto. The grounds round it are laid out like a immense waterin -place that must prepare for the comin of a multitude without number. In the sea son of pilgrimage the meetin -house is crowded all day and way into the night, and round it the way is blocked with the pilgrims, and way up onto the hillside their kneelin forms are massed. What a seen it must be in still nights, that im mense kneelin throng and vast procession a-movin up the hill and a-carryin torches and a-singin thrill- in hymns ! FASHIONABLE WATERING-PLACES. 621 Inside, the meetin -house wuz richly decorated, its high arcKes festooned with banners, and the walls covered with memorials of gratitude for cures performed there. Martin walked round with his hands in his pock ets and his head up. I don t believe he sensed any thing of the sperit of the place, nor Josiah. Nor down in the grotto either, as we stood by that miracolous fountain and see a-hangin all round us the crutches of the paryaletics and cripples who had been cured here and walked off with no use for em any more. I don t believe them two men took any more real- izin sense of what they wuz a-seein*. Josiah drinked a cup of the water, and sez he in a pert tone " That is the best water I ve drinked sence I left Jonesville. I wish I could take a kag with me it tastes like the spring down by the Beaver Medder in Jonesville." And Martin drinked his cupful, and sed he pre ferred Apollinaris water. Neither of them men realized its virtues. But I sez to my pardner "Josiah Allen, don t you know that this water heals the sick, makes the lame walk, and the blind see ? Don t you realize it as you ort to, Josiah Allen ?" 622 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. "Oh," sez he, " I don t feel any peticular differ ence in my feelin s ; I feel jest about the same." And Martin sed he thought it wuz imagination mostly. Sez he, " You know in sudden danger cripples have been known to walk off ; it is the power of their religious fervor that performs the cure." "Wall," sez I, " you can call it what you please, but it is a good thing anyway that cures em." Sez I, "I dare presoom to say that they feel like say in as they walk off and look round One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see, and they feel like leapin and praisin the power that has healed em." Martin kep his hands in his pockets and looked onbelievin , but I see that my talk wuz impressin my beloved companion, and he whispered to me while Martin s back wuz turned " Do you spoze, Samantha, that it would be apt to cure that corn of mine ? I m most tempted to try it." I sez, " Have you the faith, Josiah Allen ?" And he sez, " I have faith that it aches like the old Harry this minute." Sez I, " Do you believe that the water could heal it ? If you hain t got faith I. wouldn t take off my shue ;" for my ardent companion wuz even then a-onbuttonin the top button. FASHIONABLE WATERING-PLACES. 623 He paused. " But," sez he, "would I have to leave my shue here if I got cured would it be fash ionable and stylish to do so, and go home bare footed ?" And I swep right by him, and sez I, " Come on, Josiah Allen ; all the water of Lourdes can t cure a soul whose highest aim is to be stylish." And he come on a-mutterin , " You complain if I don t look ahead, and you complain if I do. How did I know whether it would be expected of me to go home in my stockin feet or not, and you d com plain if I got a hole in my stockin ." Sez he, " If I hain t healed you complain, and if I be healed you find fault with me." Sez I soothin ly, "Dear Josiah, you might git cold in your stockin feet it is all for the best, and I d no its power over corns anyway," sez I. "Wall," sez he, "it would look queer to Pau to see me mount the hotel steps with one shue and one red stockin on." For he had worn his dressiest pair that mornin . And he murmured, " If I had my dressin -gown on, it would droop down over my feet some." Al Faizi had been all this time a-look- in round and notin down things in his I HAVE FAITH THAT IT ACHES LIKE THE OLD HARRY." 624 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. note-book, and seein everything with his deep, strange eyes, but sayin little about it, and a-thinkin a lot, as wuz his general way. The next mornin we left Pau, and in the after noon we found ourselves in the " Bay of Biscay, Oh !" That is a quotation from a poem in eommon talk the " Oh" can be omitted. We had to wait a spell at Bayonne for the train to take us into Spain, though Martin proposed that we should take a carriage and drive out to Biarritz. For Martin sed that so many of his acquaint ances went there for the winter that it would sound better for us to say that we had passed some time there it would be far more stylish and fashion able to say it. " How long a time can you pass there," sez I, " to git back to ketch the train ?" " Wall," sez he, " we shall have time to stay three fourths of an hour ample time to see everything of interest there." Good land ! ! ! ! ! But Martin wuz the head of the procession, as you may say, and we had to foller on where he went and halt when he halted. And I felt that one thing wuz favorable to me, I FASHIONABLE WATERING-PLACES. 625 * always had a faculty for seein a good deal in a short space of time by the clock. Biarritz is a pleasant place in the winter, and you could see that a good many have discovered it by the number of big hotels perched up on the bluffs, their open winders lookin south. Of course Martin had to drive by the Villa Eugenia, occupied by her who once had a empire to command, and beauty, youth, and love, and now sits and looks over the tombs and the ruins of the hull on em. Poor creeter ! I always felt onreconciled to that bright young boy of hern bein struck down as he wuz by a savage in a savage place, fur from a mother s love. Oh, dear me ! But here Napoleon came often in the mild Sep tember, and happiness rained in the beautiful villa, with its gay pleasure grounds. Wall, Martin see a sight, I spoze, and as he sed a-goin back : " I am so glad we stayed here some time, for I know a lot of men who bring their families here winters, and it will be interesting to converse with them about the beauties of the place ; I m glad I brought all my family with me," sez he, lookin complacently at Alice and Adrian. 626 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " But, papa, we never sat down at all," sed Adrian. " Never mind, my boy you have been there, and it is a great watering-place. And when Mr. Goldwind s boy talks about Biarritz, you can men tion to him that you have been there and stayed for some time." " But Billy Goldwind stays there all winter, papa." " Well, we do not want to stay so long ; we want to get back home before winter. We merely wanted to go there and stay some time, and we have." Wall, I don t spoze it wuz a real lie we had been there and had stayed some time. Josiah sed he had stayed as long as he wanted to, and he should be glad to git into Spain with his dressin -gown on, and set down a spell. CHAPTER XXXIII. . CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN. I wuz not sorry to be on the train agin on our way to Irun, which wuz the first town of Spain we entered, and here we wuz ushered into the Custom House. Our baggage wuz all took into the station and spread out on long counters and examined. Politer creeters- I don t want to see than them Spaniards wuz. And the language they spoke amongst themselves wuz as soft as silk and as kinder soothin and sweet. And they didn t hurt our baggage a speck, though Josiah s anxiety as they opened his satchel wuz extreme. He sez to me, u Like as not they ll spile that dressin -gown." " How could they spile it ?" I whispered back. " Why," sez he, "them tossels could be hurt easy. I shall have to comb em out agin as quick as we stop." He had a awful coarse comb with him, and he did spend hours a-combin out them red tossels that he ort to spend on his own head, or on his Bible. 628 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. So, as I say, he jest hovered over that satchel and heaved 2 or 3 deep sithes of relief as the Custom House officer released it from his hand. And, oh ! how lovin ly he folded the rep folds, and laid the tossels down caressin ly. My baggage was soon and hur- ridly gone through in the words of a old adage concernin a horse, changed to suit the occasion " A short satchel is soon hurried." The Spaniards are a lazy set I guess they would have examined our things closter, if they wuzn t so slow and slack. I see one of the officials take up one of my sheep s-head nightcaps that lay on top so s to not muss i SEE ONE OF THE OFFICIALS TAKE UP MY SHEEP S-HEAD NIGHTCAP. the agin he took it up, and a A SMILE OF AU SWEP VISAGE. Qf admirat i On swe p QVCr his dark visage. I believe, if he hadn t been so lazy, he would have asked me for the pat tern on t. More n as likely as not, so lackin is Spain in some of the first elements of the ingre- giencies of civilization, I shouldn t wonder a mite if them two wuz the only sheep s-head nightcaps in Spain. CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN, 629 But tUis last fact (his laziness) conquered his gropin s after sunthin new and better than he and his companion had known in the way of nightcaps. He laid it down with another smile of admiration, and closed up my satchel. Wall, after we got on the cars agin, bag and baggage, and I thought, my soul, owin to the utter shiftlessness and slowness, that we never should git fairly to goin . After Josiah wuz set at rest agin concernin his dressin -gown, and I settled down about my night cap, little did I think that we should have to go through the hull performance agin in a few hours. But we did the hull seen was enacted agin, my pardner s anxiety and all. Only these new officials hadn t the sense to appreciate my nightcaps they turned em over as if they wuz common apparel. Martin and Alice took everything of the sort with composure and good nater ; they wuz ust to it, I spoze, travellin round all the time. And Al Faizi looked on the faces of the men with that searchin , enquirin gaze of hisen, and didn t say nothin . Adrian wuz tired, I could see, and when we got into the carnage to take us to our hotel, he kinder laid down in my lap and went to sleep. Good, pretty little creeter ! San Sebastian is situated on sech a beautiful little 630 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. bay that they have named it the Concha, or shell, as we would call it. It is a noted waterin -place, and Queen Isabella ust to come here summers and water herself, and bathe, and act. If I d been here I should have gin her a talkin to , I dare presoom to say I could have got her to turn right round in her tracts and got her to behavin ; I presoom, in all the crowds around her, there wuzn t one well- wisher to walk up and tell her what wuz what. No ; praise to her face and back-bitein to her back. I d ort to been there ! She had a hard time all her life, and I m real sorry for her, and she would have read it in my nlean, and took my advice as it wuz meant to be took. Wall, we stayed here two days, and I wuz glad, indeed, of the rest. I wuz williiV to spend my time with St. Sebastian, while the rest spent their time a-meanderin . Martin and Josiah and the rest made lots of excursions to all the castles and cathedrals in the vicinity, but I felt middlin satisfied to see the most on em from the outside. The ruffs of em, viewed from my bedroom winder, seemed to satisfy my mind as I looked out on em dreamily, as I applied arnaky to my knee jints. I wuz real lame, but recooperated a good deal while here. CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN. 63 1 I did take one or two drives, when I wuz charmed with the strange and picteresque seenery. In some places to see the mountains a-standin up all round us in the fur blue distance, and the queer little hamlets nestled down in the deep green valleys. HEAVEY, ROUGH CARTS, DRAWED BY AN ox AND A cow LASHED TOGETHER BY ROPES WOUND ROUND THEIR HORNS. We went to Pasages, less than a hour s drive, to see the very place where Lafayette sot sail to help us git our freedom. I had so many emotions here, as I viewed this spot, that I breathed hard, and had to restrain my self to keep a composure on the outside. 632 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. On the way back we met lots of their heavey, rough carts, d rawed by an ox and a cow lashed together by ropes wound round their horns, and then hitched to the cart. As Josiah see this, he sez, "There, Samantha, you can see the practical workin s of wimmen s rights." Sez he, "I say a cow has done all she ort to when she s gin a good pail of milk ; she ortn t to plough and reap too." That speech kinder dumbfoundered me for a spell. It wuz the smartest thing my pardner had sed for over a year and a half. But, after con- siderin on t for a spell, I sez "Josiah, that hain t so deep a speech as you d think it wuz from considerin it from jest on the outside. The cases are different," sez I. "The cow helps draw the cart, both equal ; but the cow don t have to pay taxes and the ox can t make laws that hang her and rob her, etc." But still, in my own mind, I did admire my pard- ner s observation, and admired him considerable for thinkin on t. It showed high gallantry, too, and devotion to females ; I felt quite proud on him for pretty nigh half a day. On one excursion that Martin wanted to make I wuz more n willin to accompany and go with him that wuz to Azpeitia, a little village 25 miles CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN. 633 from Sai> Sebastian ; but its bein a mountain road, it took us about all day to go and come, But Martin didn t begrech the time. "For," sez he, "I want to see the spot where the man was born who has exerted the greatest power of any man on earth Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of Jesuits." Sez he " I shall be asked if I went there, and I want to be able to say yes." How different I felt on the subject, and how dif ferent Al Faizi felt ! I see in that heathen s rapt eyes as we talked about it on the way the same emotions I felt a deep admiration for the grand, heroic character of Loyola, a deep horrow of the power he sot to goin , not knowin how fur it wuz a-goin to move, nor how much blood it wuz a-goin to wade through. I d hearn his history rehearsed a number of times by Thomas Jefferson, and I knew all about it. He wuz a favorite at court, with beauty and wit and good sense, a brave warrior, brought down to death s door by the enemy s sword. When he wuz thirty years old, as you can see by the inscription over his front door, " He gave himself to God/ In that same hour he wuz converted, there hain t a doubt of that ; nobody ever had more faith than he had. Why, he see for himself the water and the 634 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. wine changed right before his eyes into the blood and body of our Lord. Some say it wuz a vision caused by his religious ecstasy. But he saw it, and forevermore he doubted not he knew what he believed, and with all the ardor of his immortal faith, with all the brave generalship learnt by his warlike trainin , he led on his countless troops aginst the Wrong as he see it. Nobody can doubt the sincerity and single- mindedness of Loyola ; he give proof of it in his life of self-denial and fastin and prayer. He changed his clothes with a beggar, eat the most loathsome food, and to mortify his pride begged from door to door. Why, he who wuz ust to the soft couches of a court dwelt a hull year in a cave in plain sight of a convent built to the Virgin Mary. He lay here on the ground a hull year, three hundred and sixty-five nights, so that he could show that he wuz indeed a worm of the dust in sight of his Maker. Havin prepared himself thus, he went to the shrine of the Virgin Mary and spent a hull night in prayer before the altar, then laid his sword upon it to show that he laid aside all dreams of earthly honor. And here he took his vows to give his heart s deepest love, and his hull life s devotion. CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN. 635 These ^vows he kep to the last minute of his life. In a church built to his honor are those words that ruled him : "To the Greater Glory of God." There can be no doubt of his sincerity and no doubt of the fatal power he wielded and wields yet For that strong, inexecrable hand holds empires in its grasp, blood drippin through the firm, cast-iron fingers. A well-meanin grasp in the first place, no body doubts, and as time has passed, a-snatchin many savages from their barbarous lives and savage beliefs into better ways of livin , and bririgin em into the shelter of the Cross. Good and evil, evil and good. Loyola is not the only Leader who has waded through seas of blood, and all to " The Greater Glory of God." And what will be the end ? Onlimited power is a dangerous weepon to han dle. Believin as he did firmly, onalterably, that his way wuz the only right way, he proceeded to make people walk .in it. He went to work jest as the Puritans did when they hung witches and whipped Baptists. Only as his power reached by powerful organizations into all the countries of the earth, so the streams of bloodshed flowed down all the mountains of the earth, and reddened all the valleys. 636 SAMANTIIA IN EUROPE. And he, shet up to home a-fastin and a-prayin and a-seein visions of his Lord, and heads a-bein cut off and flames a-cracklin round the martyrs that he caused to be put to death in the name of his religion. And St. Francis Xavier, the best and sweetest soul that ever lived, he too become a gen eral in this great army. By its swift, silent, myste rious power Kings wuz put to death, a Pope wuz poisoned, and some say that the Massacree of St. Bartholomew wuz caused by it. By its power Queen Isabella, the sweet, tender-hearted soul who sold her own carrin s and things to help Columbus discover us jest think of her, for what she wuz made to think wuz for " The Greater Glory of God," she give her consent to have the dretful In quisition established in Spain, causin half a million of Christians to be tortured and put to death. Curous, hain t it, what actin and behavin mortals will take on themselves to do in the name of Religion ! And she, so sweet, so peaceable, so holy rejoic- in not in Iniquity, but rejoicin in the Truth ; forgivin her enemies, blessin em that persecute her, lovin all men and wimmen, blessin the world. Queer, hain t it ! Wall, from San Sebastian we went to Bruges and put up at a hotel built in honor of a Emperor. CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN. 637 But I flruz dissapinted ; a hotel in honor of a tramp ort to have more conveniences and smell sweeter. But I got a chance to set down and rest, anyway, which wuz indeed a panaky to my legs and to me. I d been quite rousted up about comin to Bruges, for here Cid wuz born, as I told Josiah. " Syd who ?" sez he. "Why, the Cid," sez I, "who led the armies aginst the Moors and freed Spain." "Wall," sez Josiah, " I should think if he done all that it would look better for you not to nick name him and call him Syd. You never wuz inti mate with Sydney," sez he. Sez I, "That hain t his name; it is C-i-d, Cid. Hain t you hearn Thomas J. read about him- all the great things he did, and how after he wuz dead he rode into Bruges clad in armor ? And when a Jew approached his dead body to offer it some in sult his mailed hand come up and knocked him down." Sez Josiah, " I don t approve of Syds doin that anyway I should go aginst it ; it would be apt to make queer funerals if sech things wuz encouraged." " Wall," sez I, " I don t say it is so, but I ve hearn tell it wuz." Anyway, we found in the town-hall his bones wuz 638 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. nothin but dust. Josiah kinder sheered away from the box where they wuz kep , but nothin took place and ensued. The cathedral is a sight a sight. I felt a good deal as I stood under its walls as a ant would feel if she wuz sot down under Bunker Hill Monument. And inside the buildin my emotions wuz still more various and lofty. The interior is exquisite, grand beyend any idee almost, and the proportions are so perfect, the harmony of it affects one a good deal as the most melogious music would, and the colorin is jest as perfect as the architecture. Take it all in all, it is a sight a sight. Even Josiah wuz affected by it ; his local pride wuz lowered imperceptibly, and sez he " I ve cracked up the Jonesville meetin -house everywhere I ve been, and it is a comogious struc ture, but this goes ahead on t, and I will own up that it duz." Martin sed, " I m glad I ve been here ; a good many of my friends have spoken of it to me. I shall be glad to say that I have studied this much-talked- of cathedral at length." We wuz there about half a. hour. Al Faizi showed in his ardent face, lifted in rev erence and admirin or, jest how he felt about it. The lights from the stained-glass winder gleamed CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN. 639 on t, and ftiade it look almost inspired. He nor I didn t seem to want to talk much about it. I never do when I see Niagara. No, I m willin to let that do the talkin to my rapt soul. It wuz so here. When I stood in these cathedrals, the grandeur and might of their silent oratory preached to me so loud that I wuz almost over whelmed and by the side of myself, and carried some distance by the power of the sperit that carried out these grand results. But anon, when I got outside, other emotions got into my sperit ; they come in onbid, and I had to use em well. I thought how on great days the congregation who meet here would worship God all day and wave banners and anon fire cannons in honor of some saint or other, and then end up with a bull- fight. Jest as if Josiah and Deacon Bobbett should pass the Holy Communion, bread and \vine, and then withdraw into the horse-shed, and have a dog or rooster fight. It took off a number of my soarin emotions to think on t, probble as many as 80 or 85. I had had over a hundred right along I know I had. CHAPTER XXXIV. JOSIAH S DEVOTION. WALL, another day we went to see the Carthusian Monastery, founded four hundred years ago by Queen Isabella Christopher Columbuses Isabella the intimate friend of America (owin to jewelry, discovery, etc.). Josiah and I thought we would branch out this day and go alone, so he secured the gayest-lookin rig he could find, drawed by three mules hitched side by side. It attracted all the beggars in town, so they follered us as a dog with a bone is follered by other dogs. But Josiah took it as a tribute to our style, and he leaned back in perfect delight, and sez he, a-wav- in his hand with a kind of hauty wave 44 Drive by Alameda !" Come to find out the reasons he gin his orders wuz he d heard Alameda talked about, and .he thought she wuz a woman, and mebby a American, and he wanted to show off before her. But it wuzn t a woman. It wuz a pretty park, and we driv along and crost the river, and went JOSIAIl S DEVOTION. 641 through a*long avenue of ellum trees each side on t, and anon we found ourselves on top of a noble hill in front of a Monastery. Here we rung the bell at a gate for admission, and a small grated winder wuz opened and a man s face appeared with a dark-colored nightcap on. He asked if there wuz wimmen in the party. If there wuz we couldn t come in. I guess he wuz fraxious, bein waked up sudden. I jedged from his nightcap. But little did I think it would have sech a effect on my pardner. He could not at first comprehend the indignity offered to his beloved pardner. But the driver re peated it ; sez he " The Friar says you can come in, but no woman could be admitted." Then I see the power of cast-iron devotion made harder by the hammers of Joy and Sorrer a-ham- merin down on the anvil of Time. That noble but too hasty man riz right up in the vehicle and shook his fist at the man with the nightcap, and hollered out " I ll give that fryer a piece of my mind !" and before I interfered he yelled out : " You may keep right on with your fryin ; I won t stir a step inside if Samantha can t come too. I ll let you know that any place that s too good for 642 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. her is too good for me. Keep right on with your fryin , your bull beef will probble spile if it hain t cooked !" I ketched him by his vest, and sez I : " Pause, Josiah Allen. He hain t a cook ; it is a F-r-i-a-r." " How do you spoze I care how you spell it? You can spell their bull-fights b-o-u-1 if you want to ; that don t hender em from havin to take care of their fresh beef. Keep right on a-fryin !" sez he in bitter mockery. " My Samantha hain t probble good enough to see a little beef a-fryin ; but," sez he, waxin eloquent, as, animated by the power of love, he stood up nobly for me "You can fry all day and think you go ahead of any woman, and be too proud to let em see you at it ; but Samantha s cookin is as fur ahead of yours as the United States is bigger than Spain. And I d ruther have one of Samantha s steaks that she cooks than all the beef that you ever killed at your dum bull-fights. And don t you forgit it !" he hol lered, as the driver drove away by my almost frenzied directions. He sunk back exhausted on his seat as we swep on. And you can jedge of his agitation when I say that he threw out three copper cents all to one time to the swarm of ragged beggars that run along by the side of the carriage. He threw em JOSIAH S DEVOTION. 643 out mek?mically, and as if he didn t know what he wuz about. Ah ! the insult to me rankled deep in his noble but small-sized frame. He didn t git over it all that night. I always knew he loved me deeply I knew it in Jonesville, and I knew it in Spain. But oh ! how touchin the proof wuz that he gin to me as his voice rung out in the vast, lonesome bareness of our chamber in Bruges, Spain, as he lifted his hand in mockery, and cried out : " Keep right on with your fryin ; you won t git me to eat a mou ful while Samantha is hungry !" Oh, the power of love ! How it gilds with its rosy rays the quiet ways of Jonesville ! How it still shone on and shed its ambient light in a foreign land ! But I gently hunched him and woke him up, for I see it wuz endin in nightmair. I wuz too overcome by a deep sense of his no bility of sentiment in my behaff to argy with him that day. I felt that it would be ongrateful in me ; and then, agin, I felt that he wuz too over come by the greatness of his emotions I knew his frame wuz but small, and his devoted affection and his righteous anger mighty. I dassent add another single emotion to them he wuz already a-carryin no, I dassent venter. But I talked soothin ly all the evenin , and said not a upbraid- 644 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. in word when his nightmair snorted and waked me up with its prancin huffs. No ; I, too, am a devoted pardner, and know when to talk and when to keep silence. That is a great nack for pardners to learn one of the greatest and most neccessary. But the next mornin , when all wuz calm, and a not knowin how fur his emotions might lead him agin into twittin them Spaniards about their national custom of bull-fights, etc., and fearin he might git into serous trouble by it when I wuz not near to soothe and assuage the ragin tumult, I sez "Josiah, you made a mistake yesterday; that man in the nightcap wuzn t a-fryin the beef slaugh tered in their bull-fights. They don t eat that ; why," sez I, " sech mad beef wouldn t be fit to eat it would make em sick." "Wall, don t they look sick?" sez he; "a little, under-sized, sailer set, caused almost entirely," sez he, "by eatin that beef." Wall, I see that I couldn t change his mind, and I sez " Wall, anyway, they re about the politest creeters I ever see, and how soft and melogious their voices are ! Their words seem as soft as velvet and silk." " Yes, sez he ; " if they wuz a-goin to spell cat JOSIAH S DEVOTION. 645 or dog, they would pronounce it c-a-t, cattah, or d-o-g, doggah," sez he. " I m kinder sick on t, but most probble they can t help it it is caused by their diet ; and," sez he, lookin wise " That bull beef hain t the worst on t. Don t history tell of that Diet of Worms that they wanted Martin Luther to partake on and he wouldn t ?" Sez I, " Josiah, that wuz the name of the meetin he wuz dragged before." Sez he, " I take history or the Bible as it reads, and I know I have read a sight of that Diet they couldn t git Martin to jine in with em and partake of." Mekanically I disputed him, for my thoughts wuzn t there. No, as I thought on t, the form of my companion a-tyin his necktie before the small lookin -glass, and a-tryin to edify me, faded away, and I seemed to look back through the centuries and see that brave Monk a-standin up for the Holy Truth, revealed to him in his cloister, as it has been through all time revealed to chosen, prophetic souls. I seemed to see the angry-faced assemblage sur- roundin him. The cold, gloomy face of Charles V., King of Spain and Emperor of Germany, a-lookin frownin ly on him as he pleaded for liberty and conscience. And I seemed to hear Luther s voice say the words that have echoed down through all these centuries and are a-echoin still : 646 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. " Here I take my stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me !" But anon the voice of my pardner drawed me back down the long aisle of the years wet with blood, black with the Inquisition, with little oases of Peace scattered along, shinin through the lurid battle clouds. His voice rousted me as it sed, " Hain t you never goin to git that nightcap off, Samantha ? I m almost starved to death, though what I m goin to eat, goodness knows." And as I hastily took off my nightcap and wadded up my back hair, he resoomed " I never wux any case to eat clear pepper and ginger for any length of time, or allspice." Sex he, " I am slowly wastin away, Samantha ; I ll bet I weigh five or six ounces less than I did when I left home." Sez he, pitifully, " It seems to me, Saman tha, if I could set down once more quiet in our own home and eat one of your good breakfusts, I would be willin to die." " Wall," sez I, " less try to bear up and lot on gittin back home agin." Sez I, "One of the noblest fruits of travel, Josiah, is the longin it gives us to be back home agin and settle down and rest." He assented with a deep sithe, and at my request hooked up my dress skirt in the back. JOSIAH S DEVOTION. 647 Wall, knowin Martin s pecular, but, as I found out afterwards, popular idees of travel, I didn t ex pect to remain long in Spain ; but we did stay there several days, for, as Martin sed, after comin so fur he wanted to make a exhaustive study of the country ; so ive stayed most a week. Wall, so far as ex haustion wuz concerned I felt that we wuz hav- in a success, for I wuz as tired as a dog from day to day, and tireder than any dogs I ever see from all appearance. But Martin sed that we would visit Madrid before we left the coun try, for he sed that he wouldn t want to be asked if he had been to the capital of Spain and be obliged to say no. Al Faizi spoke of wantin to see the Alhambra, and I myself, havin been introduced to it by Washington Irving and my boy, had a sort of a longin to explore its wonders. But Martin sed that he had studied the AT MY REQUEST HE HOOKED UP MY DRESS SKIRT IN Tl BACK. 648 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Alhambra exhaustively at Chicago, and he felt, seein he had got all the information that could be got on the subject, it wuz useless to prolong our trip by goin there. Sez he, "If there was anything new to learn I would go, for it is my way to go to the very bottom of things in exploration or discovery ; but," sez he, " I spent over half an hour in the Alhambra in Chicago, and I have no more to learn." I had been in that place myself, and had got lost, and felt like a fool there. I remembered well how I roamed through them curous labrinths, and had been brought up standin in front of myself repeat edly, and had bowed to myself real polite, thinkin that I recognized some familar form from Jones- ville. And there it wuz myself, in one of them count less lookin -glasses. I felt cheaper than dirt. Sometimes I would think it wuz two or three somebody elses, and I d wonder how so many other wimmen could look so much like me as these several ones did, a-appearin right up in front and on both sides of me. Only I would always give up every time that there didn t none on em look nigh so well as I did. They didn t somehow have sech a noble look to em, and their clothes didn t hang so well as mine JOSIAH S DEVOTION. 649 did, and their bunnet strings wuz more rumpled up, and their front hair wuzn t so smooth, and they looked fur more tired out than I ever looked, and bewildered like, and kinder wan. Yes, I d been through them labrinths. I had enough of Moorish palaces by the time I got out, a plenty. And if, as Martin sed, there wuz nothin more to see in Grenada, I didn t care a cent to go. And I thought more n as like as not I should lose Josiah in a labrinth lose him for good and all. So I gin a willin consent to proceed onwards to Madrid. The children wuz willin to go anywhere, and so wuz Al Faizi, for, as he sed to me : "Truth makes her home in all lands. I seek the light of her face under every sky." And, poor creeter ! not findin it time and agin, I m afraid. Though in our long talks about this country, which in tryin to stomp out Protestant ism, had stomped out her own life ; and in tryin to drownd out Religion in the blood of her saints, had drownded out her own civilization and prog ress Al Faizi and I talked this all over, but took com fort in thinkin , after all, that good can be found in every country by them that seek her benine face. We took sights of comfort in talkin back and forth 650 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. about the Archbishop of Grenada, and his self- sacrificin , heroic doin s in the great cholera plague of 1885. No Methodist could have done any better than he did, no deacon or minister or anybody. I d no as John Wesley could have come up to it. Wall, as I sed, I felt well to think that we had saved a journey to Grenada, though I had kinder lotted on walkin under the Gate of Jestice that I knew had to be gone through to visit the Alham- bra. But I sort o comforted myself by the thought that mebby it wuz only a name, after all. I got real soothed for my dissapintment in not walkin through it by thinkin of our own Halls of Jestice, and a-meditatin that Jestice never sot her foot in em from one year s end to the other, as nigh as I could find out. CHAPTER XXXV. THE QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. WALL, we had a very fatiguin journey, durin which I will pass over the sufferin s of my pardner from the hot, dry climate, the ever-present pangs of hunger, that wuz always with him, and the fraxious- ness, that, alas ! always overcomes him at sech tuck- erin times. I will draw a curtain of cretonne over the inci dents of our tegus, tegus journey, and only draw it back agin, on its hot, dry, brass rings, when we are once more settled down in a middlin good tarvern at Madrid I a-settin by the winder and Josiah a-layin on the bed fast asleep, the dressin -gown folded lovin ly round his small-boneded figger. Martin and the children and Al Faizi went out a good deal to see all the strange, new sights of the Spanish capitol. But I took considerable comfort a-settin still in as comfortable a chair as I could find, a-lookin down on the Spaniards and their kinder queer-lookin housen, and the strange costooms and ways of another country 652 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. The tall, hauty-lookin Dons a-walkin along as if the ground wuzn t quite good enough for em to walk on, and the dark-eyed wimmen, and the children, and the beggars, and the splendid carnages, some on em drawed by six horses apiece, and their harnesses all glitterin with gold, and the humbler vehicles drawed by mules, and these mules trimmed off beau tiful, too, and, etc., etc., etc. Wall, it wuz on the third day after we arrov in Madrid, and I wuz a-walkin in the Public Garden with little Adrian and my Josiah, when, on turnin the corner of a leafy avenue, who should I see, right face to face a-comin towards me, but my intimate friend, Ulaley. I wuz tickled most to death. It is always happi- fyin in a strange and foreign country to meet any body you re intimate with, and when that friend is a Infanty, and one you ve advised and neighbored with, your happiness is still greater. I advanced and held out my hand, my Josiah and Adrian a-bringin up my rear. She knowed me to once a happy smile curved her pretty lips, and sez she " Madam, I m pleased to meet you. I remember seein you in your own country." "Yes," sez I, "we met in Chicago, 111., and had a first-rate visit there." Sez I, " How have you THE QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. 653 been ever-sence I see you, and how is all your folks ? How is Antonio ?" Sez I, " Did he git through the winter all right ? Sickness and the grip has been round lots, and if it has spared our two pardners we ort to be thankful. And that makes me think," sez I, " let me in troduce my pardner, Jo- siah Allen. "Josiah," sez I, "this is the Infanty Ulaley, you ve hearn me speak on." Josiah made his best and lowest bow, and murmured sunthin about havin read about her in the World. "Yes," sez I, "and you ve hearn me talk about her a sight." But he had a sort of a obstinate streak come over him, sech as pardners will have in the strangest and most onconvenient times, and he never assented to that at all, but sed agin that he had read about her in the World. And I had to let it go. Truly, pardners, though SHE KNOWED ME TO ONCE A HAPPY SMILE CURVED HER PRETTY LIPS. 654 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. agreeable at times, yet how clost do they clip off the wings of your pride and ambition at other and more various times ! Ulaley see it. Wimmen know only too well how often sech contrarytemps occurs, and she helped me out, as I ve helped many a woman out of the mud-puddle of embarrassment a pardner s words have throwed her into. Sez she, " I have such warm recollections of your country it is so great a country," sez she. " Yes," sez I, " our country is a middlin big one, but I thought I wouldn t speak of the size on t to you, Ulaley, thinkin that you might think mebby that I d come over here to kinder twit you of the smallness of yourn." And wantin to be real polite, sez I "The value of anything don t always depend on its size." " No, indeed !" sez Josiah. He wuz alludin to his own small weight by the steelyards. But I waved off his speech I felt quite cool towards him, about as cool as rain-water, and I wouldn t fall in with his hint and gin him my usual compliment. Wall, jest as the Infanty and I wuz a-talkin back and forth, a woman and a little boy, who had been a-lingerin a little behind, come up, and I see in a THE^QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. 655 minute wtio they wuz ; and though I m bashful by nater very, yet knowin that I had the honor and politeness of my own country and Jonesville to up hold, I advanced towards her in a very admirin , respectful way. Yes, I see it wuz the Queen Regent and little Alfonso himself. I wuz tickled, and still hampered, by the duties that devolved onto me, but above all of my emotions riz the thought of how glad I wuz to meet em, and how glad they would be afterwards a-thinkin it over to think that they had a chance to meet me. Ulaley didn t make no move to introduce us. And I see in a minute how it wuz. There wuz the Queen pardnerless and alone, there wuz I with my livin pardner ; it would roust up too many sad memories to bring us all closter to each other. But she d no need to hesitated on that account ; I could have told the Queen that though a pardner less state had its trials, havin a pardner brings afflic tions also Heaven knows it duz ! But I see how it wuz, and havin the sole glory of Jonesville and America in my eyes, I advanced forwards with quite a lot of dignity and made a deep curchy. I took holt of each side of my brown alpaca dress and held out the skirt a very little. They wuz 656 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. good curchys, and I made about three on em- two to the Queen Regent and one to Alfonso. I thought one wuz about right for him, considerin his age. I then advanced and held out my hand, and sez I " I am glad to meet you, Julia, and tell you how well I think on you." Sez I, " A young woman who has done as well as you have with what you have had to do with deserves to be encouraged, and I m glad to encourage you." She looked awful surprised at my good manners and politeness ; she bowed her head in almost dumb- founder, as I could see, and I went on " You ve had a hard time on t, Julia real hard. It s always hard to leave your own folks when you re married and go and live with his folks, and I presoom you ve had days when you thought his folks didn t treat you well it is nateral. And I presoom he cut up more or less pardners will. And you, fur away from your own folks, made the cuttin up and actin seem worse. I persoom you ve had days \vhen you would have willin ly swapped off five or six Spanish palaces for one free, onfettered hour beyend the Alps. And you would have willin ly swapped the most flatterin words addressed to you in a strange tongue to listen to the swashin waves of the blue Danube, the ripplin THE QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. 657 waves that J3eat up agin the shores of home you had a real hard time. " And then, to cap all, your pardner wuz took from you, before even the catnip wuz put to steepin before his baby s eyes could look any comfort into yours. Poor creeter ! what a hard time on t you did have. " But when the baby wuz born, he brung a new life to you you see your dead-and-gone pardner s first tender love a-shinin through the little face, all the passion and dross and dissapintment of a pard ner s love filtered through the divine and satisfyin sweetness of a child s love. " Oh, he has made life and Spain different things to you, and you ve sprunted up and done well you ve done first rate ! You are a-bringin up little Alfonso jest as well as I could, and I d no but better, for, bein younger, you can git round spryer and find out new things to teach him. His little hands, too, have drawed you and Spain nigher to each other ; you think as much agin of each other as you ust to, and I m glad on t. "And how do you do?" sez I, a-holdin out my hand to little Alfonso. Sez I, "Are you pretty well, Bub?" He answered real pretty, and I then and there introduced little Adrian to him, and I sez 658 SAMANTHA IN EUROPP:. " I wish I had both of you children to Jonesville for a month in strawberry time or blackberry time it would do you both lots of good." And I sez to his ma " It seems to me he looks ruther pimpin ; have you gin him any smartweed lately?" Sez I, "A syrup of smartweed and catnip, half and half, sweetened with honey, would set him right up agin, and if you d like to try it, I will write and have Philury send you over a bundle of the herbs." She hesitated I see she felt a delicacy about makin me so much trouble. But I sez, " It won t be no trouble at all we ve got more n a floursack full up in the woodhouse chamber." She didn t reply, but still looked sort o wonderin and queer. And I sez " I will write to-day to Philury to send you a paper bag full of the herbs, and a hand ful of spignut that is dretful good for a cold, if he happens to git one, and boys will, goin barefooted and actin ." Sez I, " Pour bilein water on em, and let em stand, and be sure the water biles." But at this minute their carriage driv up they d been a-walkin for exercise, I guess. And though I presoom they hated to leave me hated to like dogs, they had to tear themselves away. THE QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. 659 But they bowed real polite to me, and Ulaley held out her hand and shook hands. The Queen wuz busy with the little boy, but they both bowed real polite after they got into the carriage. And then they driv off. The carriage wuzn t nigh so showy as some we see, and the Queen Regent wuz dressed real plain. I believe she s a real likely woman, and if any thing happens to her, and she should lose her prop erty, I d love to have her come and settle down in Jonesville I d love to neighbor with her first rate. But I truly hope she won t never have to make the move I hope the little King will have his Pa s good nater, and his Ma s good sense and Christian sperit, and that Spain and he- won t have no fallin out, but do well by each other. Wall, Martin and Alice went to a bull-fight. I waved off coldly Martin s request to accompany and go with em, though Josiah wuz, for a minute, rampant to go. But I didn t encourage him in it. He sez it would be sunthin to talk over with Ury and Deacon Bobbett when I got home. This wuz his best argument, and I sez, " If I couldn t talk over anything but this I wouldn t talk at all. The idee," sez I, "of human bein s with hearts in their bosoms a-settin to see a wild 660 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. animal kill a human bein , and visey versey." Sez I, " If I should see it goin on I should be so shamed on t that I shouldn t want to speak agin at all for some time." But sez Josiah, " It s a national recreation ; it s fascinatin ; probble you d like it." " Mebby," sez I ; " mebby my heart would git so hard that I could enjoy it I, that in days of pig and beef killin have always run into the parlor bed room and put my fingers in my ears to escape the sounds of agony the poor brutes make." Sez I, " Spozen if in them days I should invite the minister and his folks and the Jonesvillians, and have high seats built up aginst the side of the barn, and let em witness the gory spectacle ?" Josiah sot a minute in deep thought. " Wall," sez he, " I ll be hanged if it wouldn t be stylish. You could drape some turkey-red calico over the top, kinder canopy style, and I and Ury could dress like them Spanish Matadors with knee-breeches and a long sash, and some feathers in our hats." Sez he, growin enthused with the new idee, "We could use our winter scarfs they re very gay colored ; and I could take that long feather out of your winter bunnet, and have it hang down grace fully over my left shoulder, and I guess Tirzah Ann would lend me a couple to stand up in front. I THE QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. 66l declare, 1t would be sunthin new and uneek, and we ll have it next fall." I glared at him with a stuny look, and sez I " And while you re all dressed up and enjoyin yourself, what of the poor dumb brutes who are made to suffer the agony of death?" Sez I, "What happiness could come to you built up on a cus tom of pain and sufferin , bloodshed and terrer ? Let me hear no more about sech a seen." " But," sez he, "it would make talk ; it would be the topic in all the genteel circles of Jonesville and Loontown." " If you should brain me with a tommyhawk it would make talk," sez I. " The idee of your follerin sech a custom as this. I scorn and despise sech doin s, and I don t see what a nation can be thinkin on to allow it to go on." Al Faizi writ down quite a lot in that book of hisen about the bull-fightin , and he seemed to be lookin for a peticular page to jot down his notes. THE MATADOR. 662 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. And Josiah sez (he hain t no scruples about questionin the noble heathen), sez he, " What are you lookin for, Fazer ?" He sez calmly, " I am looking for the page where I wrote down the doings of John Sullivan and other American prize-fighters. I wish to put public exhibitions of this nature together." His tone wuz as calm and serene as a cool after noon in June. He hadn t a shade of sarcasm or irony in his axent ; no, he simply grouped similar occurrences together. And where wuz my feathers that had stood up hautily on my foretop as I condemned another country s doin s and cuttin s up ? Where wuz they ? They wuz droopin and hangin down limp on my foretop as I sot and meditated how we in America allowed prize-fighters to knock and bruise and maim each other in public for the de light of the throngin multitude. Then fill hull sides of our American newspapers with minute de tails of their punchin and knockin down and actin , for the eyes of our youth to peruse and emulate. Deeds of religion and science and philanthropy all pushed into the background, amongst the adver tisements, while the papers were flooded with the deeds of men fighters and men killers. The idee ! What wuz I, to talk about the doin s THE QUEEN, ULALEY, AND A BULL-FIGHT. 663 of Spaip or the doin s of a Josiah, and look down on em ? Truly, folks who live in glass housen mustn t throw stuns ; how many, many times I realized this deep truth when I witnessed doin s I didn t like in foreign countries ! CHAPTER XXXVI. A SPANISH FUNERAL AND A JONESVILLE ONE. WHILE we wuz in Madrid we felt that we ort to anyway visit the Escuriel, that immense palace and monastery built by Philip II. He got skairt, so I wuz told, and made a vow to St. Lawrence (it wuz on that saint s day) that if Lawrence would help him git the victory, he would build a monas tery and name it after him. So havin won the victory, he did as he agreed. He built this im mense structure ; it took him twenty-one years to do it. Out of compliment to Lawrence, who per ished on a gridiron, it wuz built in that form. I hearn Josiah a-explainin it that day. Sez he, " It wuz built in the form of a gridiron because that is the best way of cookin beef." Sez he, " After their bull-fights they have immense quanti ties of beef, so this takes its shape from that national characterestick." But it hain t no sech thing he gits things wrong. Wall, it wouldn t took us but a little while to git to the Escuriel if the train had sprunted up and gone as fast as an American hand-car. A SPANISH FUNERAL AND A JONESVILLE ONE. 665 But we^crept along so slow that it took us three hours. Before we got there we see the buildin loomin up so vast, so gloomy, that it looked like a mountain itself a low, big mountain without much of a peak to it. We had to approach it with some dignity, it bein a royal palace, so we got into a big covered omnibus, drawed by four mules and two horses. Though what peticular dignity there is in a mule I never see before, unless it is in their ears. But we got there all right, the driver a-yellin and whippin the mules as if he wuz crazy. If you want beauty, you won t git it in the Escuriel, but if you want size, there you are suited. It takes up as much room as one of the pyramids ; it has two thousand rooms in it and five thousand winders, and the win ders wuzn t very thick together, neither. There is a big meetin -house in it, a palace and a monastery and a Pantheon, where the dead kings and mothers of kings sleep and forgit the trouble some days \vhen they sot on thrones, and worried about their children who wuz settin . This meetin -house is grand and imposin ; you can look down inside a long, clear space of four hundred feet. Then there is a library, one of the finest in Spain, and picters that are dretful impres sive in number and beauty. We wanted to see the 666 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. private room of Philip II., and so we wuz led up grand staircases and through apartment after apart ment hung with the costliest tapestry. And havin seen sech glory on the outside, what did we imagine must be the* splendor of the inner room, sacred to his majesty, where he sat alone and sent out orders that ruled half or three quarters of the world. Wall, I d no as you ll believe me when I say the floor wuz brick not even a strip of rag carpet on t, sech as I spread down often in my back kitchen. Poor creeter ! I d gin him a breadth of my best hit-or-miss carpet in welcome if I d lived in his day, and known how cold his feet must have been as he stepped out of bed How COLD HIS FEET MUST HAVE BEEN cold morniii s onto that hard brick floor. And there wuzn t a picter on the walls not one, only a picter of the Virgin. I d a-gin him one of my chromos in welcome. I had two thro wed in at Jonesville with the last chocolate calico dress I bought. He should have had one on em, and I d a-gin em both to him if it would a-rnade that gloomy, COLD MORNIN S. A SPANISH FUNERAL AND A JONESVILLE ONE. 667 mysterious^creeter any happier ; and most probble they would have had their influence they wuz very bright colored. One hard wood chair and two stools wuz the only settin accommodations he had. I d made him a barrell chair, if I d been there ; if he d wanted to go in for cheapness, that would have suited him. Saw a seat out of an old salt barrell and cushion it with a old bed-quilt and cover it with cretonne. He could a-sot easy in it. Poor creeter ! it made me feel bad to think he always sot on that hard board chair not a sign of a cushion in it. I could have made a good cushion for it anyway out of hens feathers. And mebby he wouldn t been so hard on the nations if he d sot easier it makes a sight of difference. Josiah wuz as hard agin on Ury when he had a bile on his back, and couldn t set easy. I didn t know but Ury would leave. Wall, Philip lived here fourteen years, and when he come to die, he died hard, so they say. Mebby the oceans of blood he had caused to be shed kinder swashed up aginst his con science ; if it did, I hope the prayers he had knelt on the hard floor and prayed all night long sort o lifted him up some. Queer creeter ! strange and mysterious doin s ! 668 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. A-prayin and a-fastin and a-killin , a-prayin and a-killin and a-fastin ! I am glad I hain t got to straighten out the dark and tangled skein of his life and git the threads a-runnin even, and sort out the black threads and the lighter ones and count em. No, it takes a bigger hand than mine to hold em, and a eye that looks deeper into the soul of things. Wall, when he wuz dead at last they laid him in the Pantheon. We visited the spot. We went down first into the big, eight-sided room, a sort of annex, where princes and princesses lay, and then we went down a long flight of steps with walls of jasper, into the room where kings and queens lay asleep. This is a smaller room, but eight-sided, like the other. The dead lay in black marble coffins, piled up on top of the other, the kings to the right, the queens to the left. Wimmen have to take the second-best place even down there in the grave, but then they wuz in a condition where they couldn t argy about it, and where it wouldn t hurt their feelin s. It must have been a sight to see a king buried. No funeral in Jonesville ever approached it in solemnity or mystery. A SPANISH FUNERAL AND A JONESVILLE ONE. 669 You knuw they don t give up that a king is dead till they go through with certain performances, but they treat the dead body with all the honor that they would give the livin monarch. When the procession gits up to the door, the ne\v-comer has to be announced. A voice sez, "Who would enter here?" They reply, " King Philip." Then the door is thrown open, and all the long, illustrious procession of the noblest in the land en ter, and they lay the body of the king on a table, for he has got to give his own consent, as it were, before they will admit that he is dead silence gives consent, they say. So after all are gone the Lord Chamberlain lifts the heavey, gold-embroidered pall, and kneelin down by the side of his royal master, looks long in his face to see if he recognizes him. But he don t. He lays cold and still as marble. Then he cries, " Senor ! Senor ! Senor !" and waits for a reply. But as no answer comes, he sez " His Majesty does not answer ! then indeed the king is dead !" So he takes the wand of office the septer, I spoze and breaks it over the coffin in token of a power that has ceased to be. Then he locks the marble coffin, hands the key to the Prior of the 6/0 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Monastery, and they go up the long steps and leave the king to sleep with his own folks. It must have been a sight to see it go on. Why, a mourner who undertook sech doin s in Jonesville or Loon town would find himself lugged off to the loonatick asylum, or have threats on t. But the ways of countries differ I didn t make any moves to break it up. I am very liberal minded, and then I meditated that it wuzn t my funeral. What made me say that a mourner in Jonesville couldn t do sech a thing wuz owin to a incident that came under my own observation. A man that lived in the outskirts of Jonesville, havin moved down there from Zoar, got it into his head that he wuz goin to die on a certain day at two o clock in the afternoon. So what should that creeter do but write his own funeral sermon, and gin out the word that he would preach it at one o clock sharp. Because he wuz to die at two precisely. He got his coffin made, his wife got her mournin clothes all done, for he wuz so dead sure of the re sult that he had converted her to his belief. So at one o clock exactly the crowd gathered to see the corpse, as you may say, preach its own funeral sermon. The coffin wuz in the parlor, the mourners come A SPANISH FUNERAL AND A JONESVILLE ONE. 671 down from* upstairs, some on em weepin bitterly, and headed by the body, dressed in its shroud, bearin its own funeral sermon. The mourners wuz arranged in orderly rows round the room (he wuz wide connected), and the body stood by the head of the coffin and preached a long sermon. He touched on the sins of his hearers, and of course they couldn t resent it in him, bein a corpse s last thoughts, as you may say. He bore down hard on em, specially his rela tions the more distant ones, cousins and sech, and kinder rubbed up his bretheren and sistern some. But to his wife he spoke words of tenderness, and in a touchin and fervent manner spoke of what she had lost. He praised himself up to the highest notch, and his wife sobbed out loud, and she had to be fanned on both sides by a circuit minister and his wife, who wuz present ; and she sed to em that she had never mistrusted before what a prize she had in her pardner. He then warned his children to grow up as nigh like their father as they could conveniently, and he got em to sniffin and wipin their noses. He then addressed the community, tellin em of their sinful ways, and exhorted em to turn round and do better, 6/2 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. and sed to em a few words of consolation about the great blessin they had lost. And then he folded his shroud around him with one hand, and with quite a lot of dignity he stepped up into a chair, and so into his coffin. Then he laid down, arranged the folds of his shroud and crossed his hands on his bosom and shet his eyes up. As he did so the clock struck two. He laid a minute, while a dumbfoundered look swep over his lini ment, and anon a sheepish one. And then he lifted up his head and looked round, and sez he "There must be some mistake." And one of the cousins, one he had rasped down the hardest (they wuz at swords pints anyway, caused by line fences), he hollered out " Yes, I should think there wuz, you dum fool you ! gittin us all here right in hayin time to hear your dum funeral sermon." And another one he had reviled yelled out "Why didn t you do as you agreed, you con- sarned loonatick, you !" And still another cried " We ll have the law on you for this ! You agreed to die, and we all got together for that purpose, and we ll see if we re goin to be bamboozled and fooled in this way. It is all a contrived plan to abuse us and make fun on us. But I ll see if I can t make you sick of sech dum A SPANISH FUNERAL AND A JONESVILLE ONE. 673 nonsense," ez he. And he rushed for the live body with sech vengeance in his eyes and a wooden stool in his hand that the body s wife precipitated herself onto the coffin, and sez she " I will perish with this noble man, if die he must" (you see he d worked her all up about his worth). Wall, suffice it to say, the cousin wuz overmas tered, and etiket prevailed, and decorum wuz estab lished, and the crowd dispersed, leavin him still in his coffin, for he sed he wuz tired, and would lay there for a spell. I believe he wuz fraid to git out. It kinder pro tected his lims and body. But then mebby he told the truth ; the sermon wuz a powerful one, and de livered loud it must have used up considerable wind. Wall, they talked hard of sendin Jake Bilhorn to the asylum. He escaped it jest by the skin of his teeth, as the sayin is. His wife testified to the last minute that his mind wuz weak, and he couldn t help it. But she would watch him, she sed, and take care on him. So it wuz agreed that he should be let off on the Idiot Act, and she promised to let him go to the loonatick asylum if he ever tried to git up any sech performance agin. But I am a-eppisodin , and a-eppisodin too fur, too fur. CHAPTER XXXVII. AL P^AIZI SAYS GOOD-BYE. WALL, the very next day, follerin and ensuin after our visit to the Escuriel, Martin gin orders for the march. We wuz to git back to London at the rapidest rate possible, and from thence embark for home. Home ! sweet sound ! No word ever did, or ever can, sound so sweet as that word " home" duz hearn on a foreign shore. And though the journey seemed long and perilous and full of fatigue and danger, yet Josiah and I hearn it with joy. So after a journey that seems, to look back on t, like a confused dream of w r onderful sights, and strange ones, rumatiz, car whistles, big hotels, cold beds, dyspeptic food, groans, sithes, beautiful views seen from fly in trains, talk in a strange language goin on round me, murmured words from a pardner, better left onsaid, dreams of home sot in a frame of foreign scenery, tired eyes and lims, dizzy flyin through space, headache, etc., etc., etc., after this dream we found ourselves in London. We parted with Al Faizi in London. It wuz on AL FAIZI SAYS GOOD-BYE. 6 75 the eve of our departure. Our tickets reposed in Martin s vest-pocket, so I spoze, and our ship wuz to sail on the morrer. The lamps wuz lit in our room, and their meller glow lit up the form of my companion, clad in his dressin -gown and lay- in outstretched on the couch. I myself wuz a-rubbin my spectacles with sham my-skin. I see the minute that Al Faizi come in that he looked sort o agitated and riz up like. And anon I understood the reason he had come to bid us good-bye. I felt mean mean as a dog. I hated to have him go, though Common Sense told me, and, of course, I didn t spoze that I could in the common nater of things lug round a heathen with me every where I went all my life ; but still I felt bad. After the first compliments wuz spoke, and he told us that he wuz a-goin , and we told him I GO BACK TO MY OWN COUNTRY I HAVE MANY THIN TO TEACH MY PEOPLE TO AVOID." 676 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. that we hated to have him go, and, etc., he sez : " I have sought for the ways of love and truth all through these Western lands and now He paused, and only his dark, sad eyes spoke for quite a spell. Finally I sez : " And now ?" " I go back to my own country I have many things to teach my people." "Then you have learnt some good things in my country and on our tower ?" sez I, glad and proud to hear him say so. But his soft voice resoomed " I have to teach them many things to avoid." I felt deprested agin. " But," sez I, wantin to git some closter view of his mind wantin to like a dog, for I hadn t had, I can truly say, any more clear view on t than if we had lived some milds apart, sez I, "you must have seen some things in this land worthy your approvin of these lofty cathedrals built to the honor of the Lord. To be sure," sez I, "the poor are a-flockin round em like a herd of freezin and starvin animals. But look at the free schools and the great charities, mighty and fur reachin in their influence." " Yes," sez Al Faizi, " I have seen some things in your land that I will teach them to do, I have AL FAIZI SAYS GOOD-BYE. 6/7 seen sweft chanties the sick and unfortunate cared for ; great free schools ; crowds of little children helped to better lives." " Yes," sez I, " a great many rich men and wimmen give their money like water to help the poor and unfortunate. To be sure," sez I, " the poverty and the crime is caused, most of it, by our selves, and Uncle Sam bein so sot on that license business of hisen." Sez I, "We cause the evils we relieve in a great measure but then I see that Al Faizi wuz a-lookin at me with that same calm, sweet smile, and I ll be hanged if it seemed as if I could go on a-drivin them metafors right in front of it. It made me feel curous as a dog, and curouser to think on t. There it wuz, he a-settin right by me, and I couldn t git a full, clear view of what wuz a-goin on in his mind, his idees and emotions, no more n I can see the high trees in our orchard in a heavey snow-storm. I spoze I showed my deep chagrin in my face, for he hastened to add : " Everywhere I see strivings after the Good the Perfect Life. The nations are feeling after God. But I see His truth covered up by a network of man-made lies ; and shadows of darkness, cast from human comprehension, veil and shadow the sweet, 678 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. just face of the Good. But evermore my heart burns within me, and I long for the perfect way." Right here my Josiah spoke up in this unappropos moment, and sez : " I hate to say good-bye, Fazer, but if you ever come up our way from Hindoostan, or Egypt, or Africa, or wherever you are a-stayin , you must be sure to stop and stay overnight with us." Adrian come in at that minute, and when I told him that Al Faizi was a-biddin us good-bye, and wuz a-goin away, he put both arms around his neck and nestled his head aginst him. Al Faizi pressed him clost to his heart and bent his head low over him, and when he let him go, sunthin bright shone amongst the curls and waves of Adrian s gold-brown locks, that Alice loved so well. Custom and pride makes folks reticent and keep their griefs to themselves, but as long as human hearts are made as they be now, they will ache. Love s arrers are sharp winged ; when they fly they don t take any note of where they are a-goin , and the pain is keen and sharp when they hit bitter sweet at any time, and sometimes bitter without the sweet. The good Lord go with Al Faizi and com fort him, so I sez to myself. He took both of my hands in his little brown ones, and it seemed as if he would never let em go. AL FAIZI SAYS GOOD-BYE. 6/9 " I wili never forget you !" he cried ; "you have had for me the kind heart and kind deeds of a mother." I thought to myself that he might jest as well sed a "sister" while he wuz about it, but then I laid it to the excitement of the occasion I wuz ex cited myself and felt bad. I hated to have him go, and when he wuz a-goin to let go of my hands I didn t know. I wuz a-thinkin that if he offered to kiss me I didn t know what I should do it wuzn t nothin I wanted, leavin Josiah out of the question, but I didn t know what he would take it into his head to do. But he didn t offer nothin of the kind, which I wuz glad enough on. But he gin my hands a long, hard clasp, and sez he : "Farewell !" And then he let go. He looked bad, sorrerful as death. And I sez, onbeknovvn to me : " Won t you wait and bid good-bye to Alice ?" " No," sez he ; "I leave with you my farewell to her. May heaven bless her ! " sez he. " Amen ! " sez I. It wuz some as if we wuz to protracted meetin , only more strange-like, and mebby not quite so protracted, but curouser. Sez I, with a real good axent " My heart will go with you, Al Faizi ; I shall think of you when 680 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. you re fur away, some as I do of my own boy knowin that you are doin your best for your own soul, and for everybody round you." " I go to my own people," sez he sadly. " For- evermore will I work to help them to the right way help them to understand the teachings of the Lord Christ. Nowhere else do I find such a pure religion as His. In my own home, far away beyond the dark waters" and he made that gester of his towards the East " I will work till I die to bring my people to know this great love, this mighty King. And there also I will pray that your people, too, may follow His teachings, and the people in the great countries I have visited with you, that these lands may renounce their false ways, and follow His gentle and lovely guidance, and be led into His truth. I will give my life for this," sez he. His tone wuz sweet and tender. It sounded to me sunthin like the autumn winds a-rustlin the leaves over the grave of the one you love. I wuz almost a-cryin , and sez I : " Shan t we ever see you agin ?" He pinted upwards, his eyes wuz full of the love and passion of devotion, of Christian feelin . " We will meet in that great land," sez he. AL FAIZI SAYS GOOD-BYE. 68 1 I wuz*dretful riz up and glad and deprested and sorry all to one time. I felt queer. But Josiah had to holler most the last minute. Sez he, " What are you a-goin to do with that book of yourn, Fazer ?" " I will use it to help teach my people to avoid the mistakes of civilization." Josiah sez, " Good for you, Fazer !" And I sez, " I always felt that we ort to have missionaries come over here to teach us how to be have." But his face had no triumph in it no look of reproach, only that sweet smile rested on it that made his face look better than any face I ever see, or ever expect to see. And agin he took my hand in his little brown one ; agin he said " Farewell," and he wuz indeed gone. I didn t git over it all day. I felt some as if the meetin -house to Jonesville should dissapear mysteriously, as if sunthin good had vanished, and some as if my boy Thomas J. should go off out of my sight for some time. Adrian mourned for him several hours. Alice wuz writin a letter home, and didn t hardly seem to know that he wuz gone, and Martin wuz glad, I believe. He had never took to him for a minute. 682 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Wall, I will hang up a thick moreen curtain be tween my readers and the voyage homewards. It needs a thick curtain to hide the fraxious, querilous complaints and the actin s of my pardner, the howlin s of the wind and waves, and the usual discomforts of a sea voyage. There are times when Heaven knows I wuz glad to hide behind it myself. Yes, I will cower down behind the thick folds, knowin that I am doin the best I can for myself and the world at large. Yes, I will let em droop down over our voyage through the wild waves, our arrival in our own dear native land, our feelin s when we see the shore we loved dawn on us out of the mist, and when we sot our feet on the sile of the Continent that wears Jonesville like a pearl of great price on its tawny old bosom. I will also let its thick folds screen us in our partin from Martin and the children, and our lonely but short journey by our two selves. And I will only loop that curtain back in graceful folds as we draw nigh to Jonesville Mecca of our hearts hopes and love. CHAPTER XXXVIII. HOME AGAIN, FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. JONESVILLE wuz bathed in the rosy hue of sunset when Ury let down the bars and we passed up into the lane leadin to our dear home that sweet, rest ful haven, into which Josiah and me truthfully felt that our barks would sail in and be moored for ever and ever. Yes, we both felt that nothin , nothin could tempt us agin to spread our sails and float out of that blessed Home Harbor. How soft the light fell onto the white curtains with lace agin ! How sweet the rosy glow illumined the piaza and front yard, and how it played round the red chimblys and Philury s collar, as she stood in the front stoop to welcome us home ! Inside the house wuz all lit up, and when we entered, there wuz the children all come to surprise us, and wel come us home. They had sent Philury out, like the dove, on the front doorstep, while they stayed in the ark to surprise Ma and Pa when we come. Oh, how glad they wuz to see us, and visey HOME AGAIN, FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 685 versey. Ves, indeed, I guess it wuz visey versey the children and grandchildren almost eat us up, and we them. A beautiful supper wuz awaitin the tired-out travellers. The girls had laid to and helped, and it wuz a supper long to be remembered, and the chil dren s and the grandchildren s demeanors to us wuz as tender as the briled chicken and cream biscuit, and the ties of love that united us all together wuz as strong as the coffee, and stronger, too, and mellered down by our happiness, jest as that wuz with lump-sugar and rich cream. And, oh, how good ! how good it did feel to be to home ! Josiah the first thing pulled off his boots and went round in his stockin feet. I sez, " Why do you do that, Josiah ?" " Oh, for no reason, only to swing out and do jest as I m a-mind to. After bein cramped and hampered for months, I m a-goin to act and feel to home, and I m a-goin barefoot for a spell," sez he, " as soon as the children go." And, sure enough, he did, for all I could do and say, and he sung several pieces while I wuz on- dressin he sung em loud. I remember he sung the hull of " Robert Kidd " and "Andre s Lament," besides some hymns. Sez he, " I ve been pent up and bound down so 686 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. long that I m a-goin to swing right out and act all I want to." And happy why, happy is no name for the feelin s of that man, and I felt the same yes, indeed ! Only, as my nater is, I acted more megum, though I did kinder jine in with him in the chorus " My name is Robert Kidd, As I sailed, as I sailed." I wuz so perfectly happy that I had to. And when he struck into the hymns I jined in strong, right there in my nightgown " On Canaan s happy banks I stand," and " Long time I have wandered," and etcetery. Why, Josiah sung the most of the time for days and days. When Deacon Henzy come to see him, instead of advancin and shakin . hands dignified, as a foreign traveller ort to, he jest advanced onto him, a-singin loud " Home agin, Deacon, home agin, from a foreign shore. And, oh ! it fills my soul with joy To greet Deacon Henzy and the rest of the Jonesvillians once more." ********** It spilte the meter, but he didn t care. He acted fairly crazed with joy to be home. The first thing he done the next mornin when HOME AGAIN, FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 687 he got up wuz to throw his best clothes in a sort of a scornful heap behind his closet door. He throwed em some as if he hated the very sight on em. When I found em afterwards, all tumbled in together, we had a number of words. But, as I say, he throwed his best clothes there, and specially his stiff collars and cuffs them looked some as if they d been trompled on. And then that man got on the worst-lookin pair of pantaloons and vest you ever see holes in the knees, and the vest ripped up in the back, and the pockets hangin outside. I d been a-savin em for carpet rags. And he went down suller and took a old coat offen the apple-ben. We had used it for two winters to cover up the apples in extra cold nights. And the land knows where he got o the hat he put on a old straw, the rim a-hangin half off, and the crown all jammed in. I guess he found it woodhouse chamber. But, anyway, his looks wuz sech, so onbecomin to a deacon and a pathmaster, let alone a cultered His LOOKS wuz so ONBE COMIN TO A DEACON AND A PATHMASTER. up in the 688 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. gentleman of foreign travel, that I took him to do sharply about it. Sez I, " I won t have you a-goin round lookin worse than any old scarecrow, Josiah Allen." He took up a position in front of me, where his rags showed off to the most plainest advantage, and sez he " As you see me now, Samantha, you will see me henceforth. I shall never, never be dressed up agin as long as I retain my conscientiousness." He spoke so firm, I felt some browbeat and skairt. Sez I faintly, " Do you expect to go through your life a-lookin as you do now ?" "Always, always, Samantha; only worse, if I can manage it." Sez he bitterly, " I am a man that has been dressed up too long ; the iron has entered too deep into my soul the worm has turned," sez he. " I calculate to go in rags the rest of my life. And I wish," sez he in a pleadin axent, " I wish that you would promise that you would bury me in this suit that you would take a vow that I shall not be dressed up." I wuz at my wits end ; he looked as determined as any old hen turkey ever did on her nest. But by a happy inspiration I sez "Wouldn t you ruther lay in your dressin - HOME AGAIN, FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 689 gown, Josigh ? Think of them beautiful tossels," sez I. I see a change come over his mean ; he wavered and turned onto his heel, and went out-doors. And I may as well tell the end on t. It wuz that dressin -gown that gradual won him back into decenter clothin . I lured him into that at first, and then gradual into pepper-and-salt, and so on to broadcloth ; but it wuz a hard tussle ! Collars and cuffs wuz my worst battle-field, but I got the victory over em at last. Oh, dear me, dear me, suz ! what hard times fe male pardners do have anon or oftener ; but yet I believe that pardners pay, after all. And it did seem so good to walk round the house, free and ontrammelled, and see the old bureaus and tables once more, and sasspans and things ; and go out into the garden and see the garden-truck, and walk out to the barn and gather the eggs, and count the chickens. And plunge into all the sweet delights that make home a perfect Eden. Yes, we both felt that we should never want to move a inch from our own fireside. But how little how little we can tell what is ahead on us in the onseen futer. 690 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. In this case Alice wuz ahead. We hadn t been to home more n several weeks when that sweet creeter wrote to me, urgin me hard to come and see her. She didn t make no open complaints, but all through the letter I could read between the lines, as it wuz, the echoes of a sad heart. I felt, as I read it, that I ort to go right away and see her. But I hated to leave home agin I hated to like a dog. So I writ her back as lovin a letter as I could, and I kinder waved off the subject of my comin , sayin I d come jest as soon as I could. A week or more passed, then come a letter from Martin, sayin Alice wuzn t very well, and had sot her heart on seein me wouldn t I come ? I went. Alice wuz dretful glad to see me, and in my lov in sympathy her white face seemed to git a little more color and brightness into it. Good land ! I see what ailed her jest as well as though I had took our big parlor lamp and walked through her mind. Her father wuz jest as determined as ever that she should have nothin to do or say to Richard Noble. HOME AGAIN, FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 691 4t And bein right here by his side, as it were, and forbid to see him or speak to him made it fur worse than it wuz when they wuz seperated by a ocean. Her Pa had planned in his own mind that this trip should ween her from him. But how mistook he wuz ! She had carried a faithful, lovin heart over the Atlantic, and had brung it back with her. Distance had only drawed the ends of the love- knot, unitin their souls all the tighter. They couldn t be ontwisted now by the hands of a Martin no, indeed ! Martin wuz dretful good to me. He see that Alice loved me and brightened up considerable in my presence. And that would have made Miss Belzebub welcome. And Adrian, how he did hang round me, sweet little creeter that he wuz ! Yes, Alice wuz the same, and Martin wuz the same as before his trip. He kep right on in the same old roteen of money-makin , and money-savin , and obstinacy, and sotness, and ambition, and etcetery. I found that out only a few mornin s after I got there. I happened to take up a daily paper, and I read a piece in it about a horrible axident that had took 692 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. place right there in the city a few days before two children killed, and the driver of the car had died from the effects of the horrow and remorse he had experienced in causin the death of the two children. Died / when the poor creeter wuz no more guilty than a babe for it. He wuzn t no more guilty than the spokes in the wheels. They all wuz run by another s orders. As I sed, I wuz so horrified by it, that I felt that mad him or not, I must tackle Martin about the matter. And I found that he wuz as stiffnecked and ram- bellous as a iron-clad about it. And we had a number of words. And in the course of our conversation I atted Martin agin about Alice s lover. For her big, sad eyes had follered me all the time I d been there, and I had vowed in my heart that I would help her to her happiness if I could. As I sed, the pretty creeter had took her faithful heart over the Atlantic, and carried it round with her all the time she wuz there, and had brung it back with her. Movin the body round don t change the soul. CHAPTER XXXIX. MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON. WALL, I found that Martin wuz as immovable and sot as a rock. " As for Alice," sez he, " I told you six months ago what I should do, and I never change my mind." And agin I sez, " Sometimes folks are made to change their minds when they don t mean to or want to." But before I could multiply any more words with him a servant come in to say that a paintin had come that Martin had ordered while he wuz abroad. And he asked me quite polite to go in and see it. He wuz glad of the interruption. He wanted to change the subject he wanted to like a dog. The picter had been onpacked, and wuz standin in the big hall, waitin for Martin to decide where to hang it. It wuz called " The Mother s Sacrifice," and wuz the picter of a Eastern mother, who wuz a-throwin her child under the wheels of a juggernaut to insure its everlastin salvation. 694 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Her face wuz torn with love and duty. It wuz a impressive picter. He gin twenty thousand dol lars for it, for he told me so. Sez Martin as we looked at it, full of the rich Oriental glow of forest and landscape, and the dark, frenzied beauty of the mother s face and the inno cent beauty of the child, who trusts to her love and care and don t mistrust its impendin doom Sez Martin, " What a struggle is going on in that woman s breast ! how her heart is torn between her love for the child and her religious belief ! What a masterly handling of the subject !" sez he. " Yes," sez I ; " but what of the hearts of the mothers who see their children crushed down under jest as murderous wheels, and don t have her re ligious zeal to hold em up ? That Eastern mother thinks that this will insure her child s eternal well- bein she thinks the wheels move on in the cause of eternal good. What would she think if she wuz a American mother, and knew these wheels mur dered her child jest to save a little money jest out of wicked, graspin avarice ?" Sez Martin coldly, " I don t know what you mean." Sez I, " Yes you do, Martin ; I mean your trolley cars, that move on and crush down childhood and age, when a little bit of money you spend MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON. 695 for this ficticious woe would relieve the real agony which is goin on right before your front gate through your own neglect." I would gin him some sech little delicate hints, whether he liked it or lumped it, as the savin is. Agin he sez in that dretful dignified way of hisen, " I don t know what you mean," and turned away. But jest as I wuz withdrawin myself from the seen, for I felt that these little blind hits I gin him wuz enough for the present, Adrian come in, and Martin called out "Well, dear little Partner, what do you want?" And Adrian sez, " Alice and I are going out driving, and I wanted to say good-bye to you." Martin kissed the pretty face, with his adorin love for the child a-showin plain in him. And then Adrian come and kissed me, his gold curls fallin back from his little, earnest face, and his black velvet cap a-settin em off first rate, and he sez to me, "Good-bye;" and I hadn t any way of knowin that that good-bye would echo through the long futer and die out only at the Dark Portal. Martin took out his purse and took out a roll of bills and handed em to Adrian, and sez he, " Hand that to your sister ; I was going to give it to her last night it is for a necklace she wanted. 696 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Be careful of it," sez Martin as Adrian took it ; "it is five thousand dollars, and that is worth taking care of, little partner." Wall, they sot off, and I went back into a little settin -room acrost the hall from Martin s study and took up a book and went to readin . It wuz a interestin book, and I wuz carried away some distance away from the big city and trolley cars. When I heard a hum of a good many voices in Martin s room, and the door bein open, I couldn t help hearin what they wuz a-sayin . It seemed to be a deputation of some kind a-askin Martin for some favor or other. For I heard him say out loud, " I am sick of these complaints." His tone wuz cold cold as a iceberg. There wuz one man amongst em who seemed to be the speaker ; he sez, " We are workingmen ; we have homes and families. We work hard every day. We leave our children, that we may go away and earn food and clothing for them ; our houses are the best that we can afford, but the best that we can pay for lay in the populous region where so many lives are lost by these cars. I know you are the owner of that line, and we have come to appeal to you." MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON. 697 Sez Martin agin, " I am sick to death of these everlasting complaints." His tone wuz cold cold as a frog, and I see from his voice that he wuz mad mad as a wet hen. The man that answered him I could see from where I sot wuz evidently jest a plain workin - man, jest like em that you meet in droves at 7 o clock in the mornin and six at night. But I liked his looks he looked rugged and honest, and his voice had a uncultured ring of common sense and honesty, and at times a deep sorrer and sense of wrong touched it to a rude eloquence. Martin sez, and his tone wuz cold and smooth as a icesuckle in a January mornin " What is it that you want me to do, anyway tell me as briefly as you can, for my time is valuable." Sez the man agin, " We are workingmen and poor, and we do not expect to have many things that rich people have, but we do want our children to be educated. They must go out alone to their schools while their mothers are at home working to make a decent home for them, and they can not follow them only with their thoughts and prayers. " These cars going with the swiftness of lightning SEZ MARTIN AGIN, I AM SICK TO DEATH OF THESE EVERLASTING COMPLAINTS." MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON. 699 through these thronged streets, with no safeguard to protect them, are the means of making fathers and mothers hearts ache with fear and dread. " One of my own children, a bright little lad, my only son, dear to me as my own life, was crushed down by them on his way to school" The man s voice broke here, for a rush of feeling swep up agin his voice, and stopped it. " Another of these men lost a child, another saw an old mother crushed down before his eyes as she tried to cross the street, another " There is no need of repeating all this to me. What do you want me to do?" I see by Martin s voice that he wuz madder than that wet hen a-settin , and obstinate. " We want to have you give orders to go more slowly through crowded places and put fenders on the cars, so as to lessen the peril as much as may be, so we poor people, who have to live and labor in these dangerous places, can carry a lighter heart to our hard daily toil." " Leave me your address," sez Martin sharp and cold, "and I will communicate with you." Then sez he, " James, show these men to the door. Good- morning," sez he. The door closed on the men, and Martin crossed the hall with a quick step, and come right into the room where I sot. In his haste to 700 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. git out of their sight he had, as the sayin is, "jumped from the fryin -pan into the fire." For I sez, and tears wuz in my eyes as I sed it " You will grant their request, Martin ?" "No, I will not grant their request;" and he went on sarcastically, " I don t know what you people want. Do you want to do away with cars and railroads and go back to ox-teams and pil lions ? Here a few men take a big risk, put all their capital into an enterprise, doing the public an incalculable good, and then they have to be bad gered night and day by the very ones they have benefited, and by a set of philanthropic fools." I guess he meant me by that last term, but I didn t care ; I wouldn t have cared if he d called me a plain fool I knew I wuzn t. When you are out a-ketch- in a tiger you don t care for a muskeeter s bite ; no, your mind is sot on the tiger. I sez, " The cost is but trifiin to one of your means. Why not do it ?" " Because I am capable of attending to my own business, and I am not to be bossed by a lot of workingmen and wild-eyed reformers and senti mental idiots I ll do what I please." Sez I, " Mebby you will, Martin, and mebby you won t." Jest as I said these words a cry come up from MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON. 701 the streets^*-" A child run over ! a lady killed ! a child and a lady killed !" There," sez Martin, actin impatient and mad as anything " there is another text for you, Cousin Samantha ; and probably the whole car full of people, who have rode all over the city for five cents, will HE FELL DOWN JEST LIKE A LOCI AT MY FEET. all join in and shriek at me as a murderer and a vil lain, because a couple of fools have started to cross the track just in front of a car ; in nine cases out of ten the fault is their own." But the cries outside grew louder and louder, and finally Martin went to the winder, kinder flingin 702 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. himself along in a sort of a impatient way ; and he had been nagged considerable I had to ad mit it. He went to the winder, which looked down onto the broad street below. He looked a minute ; then shriekin out "My God! my God!" He fell down jest like a log at my feet. And what wuz the sight that struck him down like a arrer ? Two men of the very deputation that had jest left the house wuz bearin between em the crushed form of a little boy gold curls wuz hangin back from the velvet cap. A kind hand had covered the little disfiggered face with a handkerchief. Behind, two more of the men and a policeman wuz carryin the crushed, senseless form of Alice. I hearn all about it afterwards. There wuz a florist jest acrost from Martin s, where a little bend in the road made it impossible to stop. Little Adrian had jumped out of the carriage and run to choose a bokay of flowers to gin to me. They wuz the English voyalets he loved so well One of em wuz in the buttonhole of the little velvet coat. Dear little creetur ! And as he ran back the rlo\vers fell ; he stopped to pick em up, and the car swep down on him. MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON, 703 Alice see his danger, she jumped to save him, only to be struck down herself. Wall, what tongue of men or angels shall de scribe the seen that follered and ensued. Martin layin in a dead faint, like death to all ap pearance and it is blood relation to it. Little Adrian layin white and cold on a couch in the re ception-hall, where the men had reverently laid him, right under the picter of that Eastern mother. The agony in her dark face seemed to be for him, too the fair-haired child of the race who condemn their barbarity, and practise worse. And Alice a-layin white and onconscious, but breathin still, in her own room. One round, white arm a-hangin broken by her side, and blood stream- in from a cruel gash in her head. Wall, the best doctors in the city wuz there in a few minutes. But all their genius and wisdom and learnin could not bring back the spark of life that had flown away from little Adrian s body. And then afterwards the clergyman come and whispered consolin words to Martin in his dark ened chamber. But not all the preachin since Adam can make death other than death. Martin didn t want the clergyman he wanted to be alone. He wouldn t see anybody, and he lay 704 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. still and cold after his senses come back so still and cold that the doctors feared for his sanity, and even for his life. The first glimpse of interest he showed wuz when they told him that there wuz a chance for Alice to live. He turned his face towards the wall (so the nurse told me, a good, faithful creeter with a strong breath, caused by stimulants, I be lieve). Sez she, " I went to the foot of the bed and looked up, and see tears a-streamin down his white face. But I dare not speak to him," sez she " no, I dare not." Sez she, " His face had that look on it that it frightened me, and it gave me such a turn that I iCCl WCftK yet. 1 gUCSS, S6Z SllC, ,,j ^ ^^ & 4 ^ ^^ me up. Don t you want a drop of stimulant, too ?" sez she. " No, indeed," sez I, " I don t !" "But," sez I, "poor creeter, do everything you can for him, for the hand of the Lord has dealt sorely with him. And," sez I, " I would gladly A FAITHFUL CREETER WITH A STRONG BREATH, CAUSED BY STIMULANTS, I BELIEVE. r MARTIN S TERRIBLE LESSON. 705 help him iM could, but I can do nothin but pray for him." Wall, there wuz a big funeral in the church where little Adrian had been baptized when he wuz a baby. The minister, a very eloquent and high-priced one, preached a beautiful sermon about the in scrutable mysteries of our lives, and the mys tery of the Providence who should take, in sech a onforeseen and onheard-of way the child of sech a man, who had spent his hull life for the good of the people that angelic man, who wuz a-layin now in his palatial home at the pint of death. These last words affected the congregation dret- fully. A maiden jest behind Martin s pew and a widder jest in front (who both had hopes) sallied away and partially fainted, and the widder had to be borne out by the sexton. And as she wuz heavey, it bore hard on him. The old maid revived in time to see the widder carried out. Widders always will go further and resk more than the more single ones. And the maiden wuz wroth for fear that Martin should hear of it that she didn t go so fur herself as the widder did. I myself didn t faint nor shed tears. I sot up 706 SAMAXTHA IN EUROPE. straight in that luxurious pew and kep a-sayin in my heart " Oh, God help that wretched man ! God help and comfort him, for nothin else can !" CHAPTER XL. GOOD-NIGHT, LITTLE PARDNER. WALL, that night after the funeral I wuz called down into the parlor to see a stranger a good deal devolved on me in that awful time ; I kep calm, or tried to, and that calmness wuz like a paneky to em round me, and they didn t see the tumult of pity and grief that wuz a-goin on inside of my heart onbeknown to ; em. I went down into the hall, and there I found a handsome, noble-lookin young man, whose face wuz so white with anguish and dread that I knew before he spoke who he wuz, and sez I right out the first thing, a-holdin out both my hands " Alice is better." He grasped holt of my hands as if he wouldn t never let go. Sez he, " God bless you for saying that !" He wouldn t go into the parlor, nor set down, or noth- in . But it got to be my stiddy practice to go down into that hall two or three times a day to gin him news, and as the news grew brighter every day, jest so his face grew brighter, till it got luminous with 708 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. joy and gratitude the day I told him that Alice vvuz out of danger. Wall, there come a day, long to be remembered, when Martin sent for me. I wuz the first one he asked to see. He couldn t talk much, and I jest grasped his hand and sez " I have been prayin for you, Martin." " I knew it," he whispered, " I knew you would." And that wuz about all I could say. But I spoze he felt the pity and sympathy that oozed out of my sperit onbeknown to me as I looked down onto that broken-hearted man, and he seemed to like to have me round his room. Wall, it wuz weeks before I could go home, Josiah a-bearin up nobly, aided by Philury, and a-bravely eatin pancakes in her hours of too bur dened haste, and a-writin to me to stay if I could be of any comfort to em. Noble man that he is, though small boneded I am proud of him a good deal of the time I am. Wall, there come a time when Martin, a-settin up in his study and a-lookin over his papers, sent for me, and spoke to me for the first time of Adrian. He didn t cry. His speechless grief wuz beyend that relief, but he gin me to understand that his life wuz a blank to him now. "GOOD-NIGHT, LITTLE PARDNER. 709 Sez I, """Martin, remember that Alice is left to you you have one child left." " Yes," sez he, " but I want my boy ! !" and he busted right out into tears, and buried his face in his hands. Sez I, " Martin, do you remember what the dear little boy said hewuz a-goin to be your pardner ?" He groaned, " Why do you speak of that ? Do you want to kill me ?" " I want to help you, Martin." " Do you ever think that Adrian can be your pardner now, better than he ever could if he wuz on earth as much bet ter as the glorified sperit is above our common HE BUSTED OUT INTO TEARS AND BURIED HIS FACE I HIS HANDS. humanity ?" But agin he groaned out, " I want my boy !" " It is hard, Martin," sez I, a-layin my hand on his bowed-down shoulders. " It is hard to know that the sweet little voice is silent on earth, but he can hear you he is a-hearin you this minute ; he hears the language of your sperit as you vow to ondo the past so fur as you 710 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. can to go on in the futer and work for the poor, as he wanted to. " You can t go agin these strong desires of your little pardner, Martin you ve got to hear to em. He is your pardner now jest as much as he ever wuz, and more, only he has gone over the deep waters into another country to tend to the interests of the firm there. It is a country where the Right is always done, where things that are wrong here are made right he will help you, Martin. He wanted to work for the poor ; why not let him ?" He lifted his white face, tears a-streamin down it, but as my meanin dawned on him his mean grew a little mite brighter. Sez I, He is a-workin now for em. Sez I, " I see in the new look in your eyes the divine work of your pardner. " He is helpin you this minute to think softer thoughts. He is helpin you to remember that you are to spend your money and his for you told him that it belonged to you both equally in helpin the poor, in helpin to surround their lives with safe guards," sez I, a-wantin to strike while the iron wuz hot. " You are a-goin to git some fenders right off, Martin." " GOOD-NIGHT, LITTLE PARDNER." /I I "Orde* five hundred of them right off send for a thousand of them." "No," sez I, "Martin, be megum. You ve got to be megum in fenders as well as any other good ness. Why order a thousand fenders for one hun dred cars ? "But," sez I, "Martin, I will send for em." And I did, that very day, not knowin but he would be some like Pharaoh, and his heart would be hardened before night. I told his secretary within a hour, and he ordered em before sundown on my word. Oh, they think high on me all on em ! He dassent refuse to take my orders. But I d no need to have worried no, indeed ! I felt ashamed to think I had let my mind sally back to that old Egyptian Pharaoh. Martin s repentance didn t prove to be short-lived and evanescent no, indeed ! He divided his property equally between himself and his little pardner. He invested his pardner s money to the best of his knowledge, and every cent of the interest of that money, and it is a immense sum millions of dollars. He uses it only as the steward of his pardner. It all goes to help the poor to try to defend em from dangers, tem poral and speritual, from want, and from the worst of all dangers Ignorance and Crime. 712 SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. Dear little Silent Pardner ! I wonder if you know it ? I wonder if, when grateful hearts rise in prayer, callin you the saviour of their lives and happiness I wonder if them prayers and grateful thoughts bloom out in some divine way, as they reach the Heavenly country, so you can see the desire of your little heart, and know that it is granted ? Are you ever permitted to come down in the stillness of a Summer evenin and stand clost by the side of that white-haired old man, who grew old so fast after you left him, whose heart yearns for you, and who is a-tryin so faithfully to carry out his lit tle pardner s wishes? He sez that sometimes he feels that you are so near to him that he almost ex pects to see your face blossom out of the dark, like the evenin star out of the misty twilight. And so he can live, he sez. Did you stand in the church when Alice wuz married to the man she loved ? A ray of gold light shone out sudden and luminous and lit her sweet face as she took her solemn vows. Wuz it you, little Pardner ? wuz the joy and glory in your face permitted to shine for a moment on the one you loved, in the supreme hour of her life? We can t tell this, little Adrian, but we see "GOOD-NIGHT, LITTLE PARDNER." 713 your work goin on from day to day, and we bless you for it. We see it in the safety and protection thrown around the masses, protectin em from physical and moral ills ; in the great free school which bears your name ; in the Adrian Home, where sick and poor children find a home and tender care ; in the University, where your picter hangs over the door way a doorway where any poor, ignorant boy may enter, and go out a scholar ; in the large, plain church, whose best ornament is the stained-glass winder bearin your name in gold letters, where a pure Christianity is taught to all, rich and poor, and the Blessed Master is brought near to sad lives by the anointed lips of consecrated genius where rich and poor worship the God man together. The poor givin their strength and good-will, the rich givin their wealth and learnin , and so be- comin a strong bulwark, protectin society from the high flood of undisciplined passions Ignorance and Crime. Do you see it all, little Pardner ? Sometimes I think you do. I am writin this at the open winder you looked out of as you sed you would work for the poor. And as I think how you have worked for em, and are still a-workin , my heart is as full of the SAMANTHA IN EUROPE. thought of you, little Adrian, as the voyalets you loved are filled with their strong, onseen perfume. And as I set askin these questions, the twilight shades are fallin , the evenin star shines bright above the golden west. And wuz that the odor of English voyalets that svvep by the open \vinder on the night breeze? There s a bed of em down in the garden. Did the soft breeze eome from that way or further off ? But I stop and lean out of the winder and say " Good-night, little Adrian good-night, little Pardner till mornin ." And wuz that a soft, fur-off echo, or wuz it my own thoughts that repeated "Till mornin "? Otter Works by Josiah Allen s Wife. Poems. A Charming Volume of Poetry. By " JOSIAH ALLEN S WIFE." Beautifully Illustrated by W. H. GIBSON and other Ar tists. Beautifully bound. Square 121110, 216 pp. Cloth, $2.00. " Will win for her an honorable place among American poets." Chicago Standard. Samantha Among the Brethren. By "JosiAH ALLEN S WIFE." 100 Illustrations. Square I2ino, 452 pp. Cloth, $2.50. "It is irresistibly humorous and true." Bisliop John P. Newman. "It is full of meat as an egg. . . . Calculated to do immense good in that department of women s rights which relates to her participation in the great work of the Church of Christ, beyond the scrubbing and papering of the meeting house. 1 Ex-Judge Noah Davis. Sweet Cicely; Or, Josiah Allen as a Politician. A Fascinating Story. Square 121110, 390 pp. 100 Illustrations. Cloth, $2.00. "The interest of the book is immense. . . . Never was such a defender of women s rights, never was such an exponent of women s wrongs ! In Samantha s pithy, pointed, scornful utterances we have in very truth the expression of feelings common to most thoughtful women, well understood among them, but rarely finding voice except in confidential intercourses and for sympathetic ears. . . . Alongside of the fun are genuine eloquence and profound pathos ; we scarcely know which is-the more delightful." The Literary World, London , Eng. Samantha at the World s Fair. By JOSIAH ALLEN S WIFE. Over 100 Illustrations by C. DE GRIMM. 8vo, 700 pp. Elegantly Bound. Cloth, $2.50; Half Russia, $4.00. " There is no brighter literary outgrowth of the great event of 1893 than this volume (. Samantha at the World s Fair ) from the pen of one of America s hap piest humorist." The Union Signal, Chicago, III. " Aside from the fun of the book, it recites multitudes of facts of positive value." The Daily Inter-Ocean, Chicago, 111. FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY PUBLISHERS LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO THIS BOOK IS DUB ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. APR 19 1941 M ... : ? /. _ ^r 2 9 1981 LD 21-lOOm- ^.BERKELEY LIBRARIES M69939 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY