Samantha at Saratoga [61]
his fist at that pale mariner, "I tell you to bring out -- " At that very minute he turned his eyes onto Ardelia, who stood with a kind of a fur-away look in her eyes in front of him with the paper in her hand, and sez he to me, "What is she doin'?" "She is composin' some poetry onto you, Josiah Allen," sez I, in tremblin' axents; for I felt that if that skeme failed, I wuz undone, for I knew I had no ingredients there to get him a extra good meal. No, I felt that my tried and true weepon wuz fur away, and this wuz my last hope. But as I thought these thoughts with almost a heatlightnin' rapidety, I see a change in his liniment. It did not look so thick and dark; it began to look more natural and clear. And sez he in the same old way I have heerd him say it so many times, "Dumb it all! What duz she want to write poetry on me for? It is time to go home." And so sayin', he almost tore us from the seen. I gin Ardelia that night 2 yards of lute-string ribbon, a light pink, and didn't begrech it. But I have never dast, not in his most placid and serene moments - I have never dast, to say the word "Mermaid' to him. Truly there is something that the boldest female pardner dassent do. Mermaids is one of the things I don' dast to bring up. No! no, fur be it from me to say "Mermaid" to Josiah Allen.
XII. A DRIVE TO SARATOGA LAKE.
Josiah and me took a short drive this afternoon, he hirin' a buggy for the occasion. He called it "goin' in his own conveniance," and I didn't say nothin' aginst his callin' it so. I didn't break it up for this reasun, thinkses I it is a conveniance for us to ride in it, for us 2 tried and true souls to get off for a minute by ourselves. Wall, Josiah wuz dretful good behaved this afternoon. He helped me in a good deal politer than usual and tucked the bright lap-robe almost tenderly round my form. Men do have sech spells. They are dretful good actin' at times. Why they act better and more subdueder and mellerer at sometimes than at others, is a deep subject which we mortals cannot as yet fully understand. Also visey versey, their cross, up headeder times, over bearin' and actin'. It is a deep subject and one freighted with a great deal of freight. But Josiah's goodness on this afternoon almost reached the Scripteral and he sez, when we first sot out, and I see that the horse's head wuz turned towards the Lake. Sez he, "I guess we'll go to the Lake, but where do you want to go, Samantha? I will go anywhere you want to go." And he still drove almost recklessly on lakewards. And sez he, "We had better go straight on, but say the word, and you can go jest where you want to." And he urged the horse on to still greater speed. And he sez agin, "Do you want to go any particular place, Samantha?" "Yes," sez I, "I had jest as leves go there as not." "Wall, I knew there would be where you would want to go." And he drove on at a good jog. But no better jog than we had been a goin' on. Wall the weather wuz delightful. It wuz soft and balmy. And my feelin's towered my pardner (owin' to his linement) wuz soft and balmy as the air. And so we moved onwards, past the home of one who wuz true to his country, when all round him wuz false, who governed his state wisely and well, held the lines firm, when she wuz balky, and would have been glad to take the lines in her teeth and run away onto ruin; past the big grand house of him who carried a piece of our American justice way off into Egypt and carried it firm and square too right there in the dark. I s'pose it is dark. I have always hearn about its bein' as dark as Egypt. Wall, anyway he is a good lookin' man. They both on 'em are and Josiah admitted it - after some words. Wall anon, or perhaps a little after, we came to where we could see the face of Beautiful Saratoga Lake, layin' a smilin' up into the skies. A little white cloud wuz a restin' up on the top of the tree-covered mountain that riz up on one side of the lake, and I felt that it might be the shadow form of the sacred dove Saderrosseros a broodin' down over the waters she loved.
XII. A DRIVE TO SARATOGA LAKE.
Josiah and me took a short drive this afternoon, he hirin' a buggy for the occasion. He called it "goin' in his own conveniance," and I didn't say nothin' aginst his callin' it so. I didn't break it up for this reasun, thinkses I it is a conveniance for us to ride in it, for us 2 tried and true souls to get off for a minute by ourselves. Wall, Josiah wuz dretful good behaved this afternoon. He helped me in a good deal politer than usual and tucked the bright lap-robe almost tenderly round my form. Men do have sech spells. They are dretful good actin' at times. Why they act better and more subdueder and mellerer at sometimes than at others, is a deep subject which we mortals cannot as yet fully understand. Also visey versey, their cross, up headeder times, over bearin' and actin'. It is a deep subject and one freighted with a great deal of freight. But Josiah's goodness on this afternoon almost reached the Scripteral and he sez, when we first sot out, and I see that the horse's head wuz turned towards the Lake. Sez he, "I guess we'll go to the Lake, but where do you want to go, Samantha? I will go anywhere you want to go." And he still drove almost recklessly on lakewards. And sez he, "We had better go straight on, but say the word, and you can go jest where you want to." And he urged the horse on to still greater speed. And he sez agin, "Do you want to go any particular place, Samantha?" "Yes," sez I, "I had jest as leves go there as not." "Wall, I knew there would be where you would want to go." And he drove on at a good jog. But no better jog than we had been a goin' on. Wall the weather wuz delightful. It wuz soft and balmy. And my feelin's towered my pardner (owin' to his linement) wuz soft and balmy as the air. And so we moved onwards, past the home of one who wuz true to his country, when all round him wuz false, who governed his state wisely and well, held the lines firm, when she wuz balky, and would have been glad to take the lines in her teeth and run away onto ruin; past the big grand house of him who carried a piece of our American justice way off into Egypt and carried it firm and square too right there in the dark. I s'pose it is dark. I have always hearn about its bein' as dark as Egypt. Wall, anyway he is a good lookin' man. They both on 'em are and Josiah admitted it - after some words. Wall anon, or perhaps a little after, we came to where we could see the face of Beautiful Saratoga Lake, layin' a smilin' up into the skies. A little white cloud wuz a restin' up on the top of the tree-covered mountain that riz up on one side of the lake, and I felt that it might be the shadow form of the sacred dove Saderrosseros a broodin' down over the waters she loved.