Samantha at Saratoga [78]
him up to Troy and let him die. "Wall, Sam took him up to Troy, and he died right away, almost. And Sam bein' a good-hearted chap, thought it would please the old man to he buried down by the spring, that healthy spot. So he took him back there in a wagon he borrowed. And when he got clost to the spring, Sam heard a sithe, and he looked back, and there the old gentleman wuz a settin' up a leanin' his head on his elbo and he sez, in a sort of a sad way, not mad, but melanecolly, `You hadn't ort to don it, Sam. You hadn't ort to. I'm in now for another hundred years.'" I told Josiah I didn't believe that. Sez I, "I believe the waters are good, very good, and the air is healthy here in the extreme, but I don't believe that." But he said it wuz a fact, and the feller said he could prove it. "Why," Josiah sez, "with the minerals there is in that spring, if you only take enough of it, I don't see how anybody can die." And sez Josiah, "I am a goin' to jest live on that water while I am here." "Wall," sez I, "you must do as you are a mind to, with fear and tremblin'." I thought mebby quotin' Scripture to him would kinder quell him down, for he wuz fearfully agitated and wrought up about the Everlastin' spring. And he begun at once to calculate on it, on how much he could drink of it, if he begun early in the mornin' and drinked late at night. But I kep' on megum. I drinked the waters that seemed to help me and made me feel better, but wuz megum in it, and didn't get over excited about any on 'em. But oh! oh! the quantities of that water that Josiah Allen took! Why, it seemed as if he would make a perfect shipwreck of his own body, and wash himself away, till one day he came in fearful excited agin, and sez he, in agitated axents, "I made a mistake, Samantha. The Immortal spring is the one for me." "Why?" sez I. "Oh, I have jest seen a feller that has been a tellin' me about it." "What did he say?" sez I, in calm axents. "Wall, I'll tell you. It has acted on my feelin's dretful." Says he, "I have shed some tears." (I see Josiah Allen had been a cryin' when he came in.) And I sez agin, "What is it?" "Wall," he said, "this man had a dretful sick wife. And he wuz a carryin' her to the Immortal spring jest as fast as he could, for he felt it would save her, if he could get her to it. But she died a mile and a half from the spring. It wuz night, for he had traveled night and day to get her there, and the tarvens wuz all shut up, and he laid her on the spring-house floor, and laid down himself on one of the benches. He took a drink himself, the last thing before he laid down, for he felt that he must have sunthin' to sustain him in his affliction. "Wall, in the night he heard a splashin', and he rousted up, and he see that he had left the water kinder careless the night before, and it had broke loose and covered the floor and riz up round the body, and there she wuz, all bright and hearty, a splashin' and a swimmin' round in the water." He said the man cried like a child when he told him of it. And sez Josiah, "It wuz dretful affectin'. It brought tears from me, to hear on't. I thought what if it had been you, Samantha!" "Wall," sez I, "I don't see no occasion for tears, unless you would have been sorry to had me brung to." "Oh!" sez Josiah, "I didn't think! I guess I have cried in the wrong place." Sez I coldly, "I should think as much." And Josiah put on his hat and hurried out. He meant well. But it is quite a nack for pardners to know jest when to cry, and when to laff. Wall, he follered up that spring, and drinked more, fur more than wuz good for him of that water. And then anon, he would hear of another one, and some dretful big story about it, and he would foller that up, and so it went on, he a follerin' on, and I a bein' megum, and drinkin' stiddy, but moderate. And as it might be expected, I gained in health every day, and every hour. For the waters is good, there haint no doubt of it. But Josiah takin' em as he did, bobbin' round from one to the other, drinkin' 'em at all hours of day and night, and