Samantha at Saratoga [103]
by Deacon Tutt's request. They are willin'. Wall, we disembarked from the cars, and we found the old mair and the "Democrat" a waitin' for us. Thomas J. wuz a comin' for us, but had spraint his wrist and couldn't drive. Wall, Josia lifted our saddul bags in, and my umbrell, and the band box. But when he went to lift my trunk he faltered. It wuz heavy. I had got relicts from Mount McGregor, from the Battlefield, from the various springs, minerals, stuns, and things, and Josiah couldn't lift it. What added to the hardness of the job, the handles had broken offen it, and he had to grip hold on it, by the might of his finger nails. It wuz a hard job, and Josiah's face got red and I felt, as well as see, that his temper wuz a risin'. And I sez, instinctively, "Josiah, be calm!" For I knew not what unguarded word he might drop as he vainly tried to grip hold on't, and it eluded his efferts and came down on the ground every time, a carryin' with it, I s'pose, portions of his fingernails, broke off in the fray. Wall, he wuz a strugglin' with it and with his feelin's, for I kep' on a sayin', "Josiah, do be calm! Do be careful about usin' a profane word so nigh home and at this time of day, and you jest home from a tower." And he kep' his feelin's nobly under control, and never said a word, only to wonder "what under the High Heavens a woman wanted to lug round a ton of stuns in her trunk for." And anon sayin' that he would be dumbed if he didn't leave it right there on the platform. Savin' these few slight remarks that man nobly restrained himself, and lugged and lifted till the blood almost gushed through his bald head. And right in the midst of the fray, a porter came up and went to liftin' the trunk in the usual highheaded, haughty way Railroad officials have. But anon a change came over his linement. And as it fell back from his fingers to the platform for the 3d time, he broke out in a torrent of swearin' words dretful to hear. I felt as if I should sink through the "Democrat". But Josiah listened to the awful words with a warm glow of pleasure and satisfaction a beamin' from his face. I never saw him look more complacent. And as the man moistened his hands and with another frightful burst of profanity histed it into the end of the buggy. Wall, I gin the man a few warnin' words aginst profanity, and Josiah gin him a quarter for liftin' in the trunk, he said, and we drove off in the meller glow of the summer sunset. But it wuz duskish before we got to the turn of the road, and considerable dark before we got to the Corners. But we went on tbgough the shadows, a feelin' we could bear 'em, for we wuz together, and we wuz a goin' home. And pretty soon we got there! The door wuz open, the warm light wuz a streamin' out from doors and windows, and there stood the children! There they all wuz, all we loved best, a waitin' to welcome us. Love, which is the light of Heaven, wuz a shinin' on their faces, and we had got home.
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