Samantha at Saratoga [71]
it wuz a red gown she had on. A red flash a dartin' through the air, and a disappearin' down the long glitterin' lane of light. You could see her a goin' back, so they said, a laughin' and a jokin' with somebody, if so be she walked back, but there wuz long sleighs to carry 'em back, them and their Toboggens, if they wanted to ride, at the small expenditure of 10 cents apiece. They go, in the fastest time anybody can make till they go on the lightnin', a way in which they will go before long, I think, and Josiah duz too. "They said there wuzn't nothin' like it. And I said, "Like as not." I believed 'em. And then the woman said, "This long room we wuz a standin' in," for we had gone back into the house, durin' our interview, this long room wuz all warm and light for 'em to come into and get warm, and she said as many as 600 in a night would come in there and have supper there. And then she showed us the model of a Toboggen, all sculped out, with a man and a woman on it. The girl wuz ahead sort a drawin' the Toboggen, as you may say, and her lover. (I know he wuz, from his looks.) He wuz behind her, with his face right clost to her shoulder. And I'll bet that when they started down that gleamin' slide, they felt as if they 2 wuz alone under the stars and the heavens, and wuz a glidin' down into a dazzlin' way of glory. You could see it in their faces. I liked their faces real well. But the sight on 'em made Josiah Allen crazier'n ever to go too, and he sez, "I feel as if I must Toboggen, Samantha!" Sez I, "Be calm! Josiah, you can't slide down hill in July." "How do you know?" sez he, "I'm bound to enquire." And he asked the woman if they ever Toboggened in the summer. "No, never!" sez she. And I sez, "You see it can't be done." "She never see it tried," sez he. "How can you tell what you can do without tryin'?" sez he lookin' shrewdly, and longingly, up the slide. I trembled, for I knew not what the next move of his would be. But I bethought me of a powerful weepon I had by me. And I sez, "The driver will ask pay for every minute we are here." And as I sez this, Josiah turned and almost flew down the steps and into the buggy. I had skairt him. Truly I felt relieved, and sez I to myself, "What would wimmen do if it wuzn't for these little weepons they hold in their hands, to control their pardners with." I felt happy. But the next words of Josiah knocked down all that palace of Peace, that my soul had betook herself to. Sez he, "Samantha Allen, before I leave Saratoga I shall Toboggen." Wall, I immegetly turned the subject round and talked wildly and almost incoherently on politicks. I praised the tariff amost beyond its deserts. I brung up our foreign relations, and spoke well on 'em. I tackled revenues and taxation, and hurried him from one to the other on 'em, almost wildly, to get the idee out of his head. And I congratulated myself on havin' succeeded. Alas! how futile is our hopes, sometimes futiler than we have any idee on! By night all thoughts of danger had left me, and I slept sweetly and peacefully. But early in the mornin' I had a strange dream. I dreamed I wuz in the woods with my head a layin' on a log, and the ground felt cold that I wuz a layin' on. And then the log gin way with me, and my head came down onto the ground. And then I slept peaceful agin, but chilly, till anon, or about that time, I beard a strange sound and I waked up with a start. It wuz in the first faint glow of mornin' twilight. But as faint as the light wuz, for the eye of love is keen, I missed my beloved pardner's head from the opposite pillow, and I riz up in wild agitation and thinkses I, "Has rapine took place here; has Josiah Allen been abducted away from me? Is he a kidnapped Josiah?" At that fearful thought my heart begun to beat so voyalently as to almost stop my breath, and I felt I wuz growin' pale and wan, wanner, fur wanner than I had been sense I came to Saratoga. I love Josiah Allen, he is dear to me. And I riz up feelin' that I would find that dear man and rescue him or perish in the attempt.