Samantha at Saratoga [53]
pocket, and Josiah said he had left his (mebby he had). But Miss Flamm would have bought 'em in a minute, I knew, the child's face looked so mournful and appealin'; she would have bought 'em, but she wuz so engrossed by the dog; she wuz a holdin' him up in front of her a admirin' and carressin' of him, so's she never ketched sight of the lame child. No body, not the best natured creeter in the world, can see through a dog when it is held clost up to the eye, closer than anything else. Wall, we drove down to what they called Vichy Spring and there on a pretty pond clost to the springhouse, we see a boat with a bycycle on it, and a boy a ridin' it. The boat wuz rigged out to look like a swan with its wings a comin' up each side of the boy. And down on the water, a sailin' along closely and silently wuz another swan, a shadow swan, a follerin' it right along. It wuz a fair seen. And Josiah sez to me, "He should ride that boat before he left Saratoga; he said that wuz a undertakin' that a man might be proud to accomplish." Sez I, "Josiah Allen, don't you do anything of the kind." "I MUST, Samantha," sez he. And then he got all animated about fixin' up a boat like it at home. Sez he, "Don't you think it would be splendid to have one on the canal jest beyond the orchard?" And sez he, "Mebby, bein' on a farm, it would be more appropriate to have a big goose sculptured out on it; don't you think so?" Sez I, "Yes, it would be fur more appropriate, and a goose a ridin' on it. But," sez I, "you will never go into that undertakin' with my consent, Josiah Allen." "Why," sez he, "it would be a beautiful recreation; so uneek." But at that minute Miss Flamm gin the order to turn round and start for the Moon, or that is how I understood her, and I whispered to Josiah and sez, "She means to go in the buggy, for the land's sake!" And Josiah sez, "Wall, I haint a goin' and you haint. I won't let you go into anythin' so dangerus. She will probably drive into a baloon before long, and go up in that way, but jest before she drives in, you and I will get out, Samantha, if we have to walk back." "I never heard of anybody goin' up in a baloon with two horses and a buggy," sez I. "Wall, new things are a happenin' all the time, Samantha. And I heard a feller a talkin' about it yesterday. You know they are a havin' the big political convention here, and he said, (he wuz a real cute chap too,) he said, 'if the wind wasted in that convention could be utilized by pipes goin' up out of the ruff of that buildin' where it is held,' he said, 'it would take a man up to the moon.' I heerd him say it. And now, who knows but they have got it all fixed. There wuz dretful windy speeches there this mornin'. I hearn 'em, and I'll bet that is her idee, of bein' the first one to try it; she is so fashionable. But I haint a goin' up in no sech a way." "No," sez I. "Nor I nuther. It would be fur from my wishes to be carried up to the skies on the wind of a political convention. "Though," sez I reasonably, "I haint a doubt that there wuz sights, and sights of it used there." But jest at this minute Miss Flamm got through talkin' with her relatives about the road, and settled down to caressin' the dog ag'in, and Josiah hadn't time to remark any further, only to say, "Watch me, Samantha, and when I say jump, jump." And then we sot still but watchful. And Miss Flamm kissed the dog several times and pressed him to her heart that throbbed full of such a boundless love for him. And he lifted his head and snapped at a fly, and barked at my companion with a renewed energy, and showed his intellect and delightful qualities in sech remarkable ways, that filled Miss Flamm's soul deep with a proud joy in him. And then he went to sleep a layin, down in her lap, a mashin' down the delicate lace and embroidery and beads. He had been a eating the beads, I see him gnaw off more than two dozen of 'em, and I called her attention to it, but she said, "The dear little darlin' had to have some such recreation." And she let him go on with it, a mowin' 'em down, as long