Samantha at Saratoga [16]
the Smedley family well -- dretful well -- and hoped I would get lots of things for 'em. But she didn't really feel as if it would be safe for her to promise'em a pound of anything, though mebby she might, by a great effort, raise a pound of flour for 'em, or meal. Says I dryly (dry as meal ever wuz in its dryest times), "I wouldn't give too much. Though," says I, "A pound of flour would go a good ways if it is used right." And I thought to myself that she had better keep it to make a paste to smooth over things. Wall, I went from that to Miss Jacob Hess'es, and Miss Jacob Hess wouldn't give anything because the old lady wuz disagreeable, old Grandma Smedley, and I said to Miss Jacob Hess that if the Lord didn't send His rain and dew onto anybody only the perfectly agreeable, I guessed there would be pretty dry times. It wuz my opinion there would be considerable of a drouth. There wuz a woman there a visitin' Miss Hess -- she wuz a stranger to me and I didn't ask her for anything, but she spoke up of her own accord and said she would give, and give liberal, only she wuz hampered. She didn't say why, or who, or when, but she only sez this that "she wuz hampered," and I don't know to this day what her hamper wuz, or who hampered her. And then I went to Ebin Garven'ses, and Miss Ebin Garven wouldn't help any because she said "Joe Smedley had been right down lazy, and she couldn't call him anything else." "But," says I, "Joe is dead, and why should his children starve because their pa wasn't over and above smart when he wuz alive?" But she wouldn't give. Wall, Miss Whymper said she didn't approve of the manner of giving. Her face wuz all drawed down into a curious sort of a long expression that she called religus and I called somethin' that begins with "h-y-p-o" -- and I don't mean hypoey, either. No, she couldn't give, she said, because she always made a practise of not lettin' her right hand know what her left hand give. And I said, for I wuz kinder took aback, and didn't think, I said to her, a glancin' at her hands which wuz crossed in front of her, that I didn't see how she managed it, unless she give when her right hand was asleep. And she said she always gave secret. And I said, "So I have always s'posed -- very secret." I s'pose my tone was some sarcastic, for she says, "Don't the Scripter command us to do so?" Says I firmly, "I don't believe the Scripter means to have us stand round talkin' Bible, and let the Smedleys starve," says I. "I s'pose it means not to boast of our good deeds." Says she, "I believe in takin' the Scripter literal, and if I can't git my stuff there entirely unbeknown to my right hand I sha'n't give." "Wall," says I, gettin' up and movin' towards the door, "you must do as you're a mind to with fear and tremblin'." I said it pretty impressive, for I thought I would let her see I could quote Scripter as well as she could, if I sot out. But good land! I knew it wuz a excuse. I knew she wouldn't give nothin' not if her right hand had the num palsy, and you could stick a pin into it -- no, she wouldn't give, not if her right hand was cut off and throwed away. Wall, Miss Bombus, old Dr. Bombus'es widow, wouldn't give -- and for all the world -- I went right there from Miss Whymper'ses. Miss Bombus wouldn't give because I didn't put the names in the Jonesville Augur or Gimlet, for she said, "Let your good deeds so shine." "Why," says I, "Miss Whymper wouldn't give because she wanted to give secreter, and you won't give because you want to give publicker, and you both quote Scripter, but it don't seem to help the Smedleys much." She said that probably Miss Whymper was wrestin' the Scripter to her own destruction." "Wall," says I, "while you and Miss Whymper are a wrestin' the Scripter, what will become of the Smedleys? It don't seem right to let them 'freeze to death, and starve to death, while we are a debatin' on the ways of Providence." But she didn't tell, and she wouldn't give. A woman wuz there a visitin', Miss Bombus'es aunt, I think, and she spoke up and said that she fully approved of