Samantha at Coney Island Part 12

All the blood that falls in righteous cause, Each crimson drop shall nourish snowy flowers, And quicken golden grain bright sheaves of good, That under happier skies shall yet be reaped.

"For," sez he:

When Right opposes Wrong, shall Evil win?

Nay, never; but the years of G.o.d are long.

And he counseled his hearers to keep on and work--work and follow the leadin' of Him who shall conquer all sin and evil.

It wuz a grand and powerful effort. It wuzn't so flowery as I've hearn, but the strength, the pathos of it wuz wonderful. I didn't wonder as I hearn him talk of what I'd been told that day by different ones of how people flocked to hear him, how he might have the choice of big city churches with big salaries accordin', but he had chosen to stay by the common people. Had elected that he would not have wealth and station, that he would go about tellin' of the love of G.o.d, urgin'

men to accept Him, goin' about doin' good.

As we listened to him, everything seemed possible, the right seemed possible to do, it almost seemed as if we felt the crown restin' on our tired foretops. And he ended the sermon as he had begun it with a few words from the Book, "Now bretheren quit ye like men, be steadfast, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." And then agin he breathed out his very soul in prayer, and we wuz lifted up some distance towards the Better Country. As he ended his words we all heaved some long sithes and seemed to fall down some distance, and found ourselves to our great surprise still on the old earth.

A enthusiastick little woman, who'd shouted out, "Amen!" with the best of 'em sez to me, "Wasn't that sermon a grand one?"

"Yes," sez I, "it come right from his heart, and went to mine. It lifted me up some distance above the earth," sez I.

"Yes," sez she, "the Elder is one of the saints on earth, but we are afraid he hain't long for this world."

"Why?" sez I.

"He don't take any care of himself. He lives alone with an old housekeeper who is dretful slack and don't have any faculty, and he don't have things for his comfort, though he don't complain. He gits no end of money, but gives it all away, or it is wasted to home. I went to his house once on business,--I am from the West," sez she,--"and it wuz so bare and desolate lookin' that I almost cried. He ort to marry," sez she, "I have five daughters myself, and three onmarried nieces and they all say the same thing, that he ought to be married to some woman who would jest wors.h.i.+p him, for no woman could help it, and take care on him. For," sez she with a shrewd look, "the smartest men and the most spiritual ones are the most helpless, come to things of this world."

"Yes," sez I, "our minister to Jonesville could no more make a mess of cream biscuit than he could fly. He is great on the Evidences, and a great Bible expounder, but he couldn't sew on a b.u.t.ton so it wouldn't pucker the cloth, if he should cry like a babe."

"No," sez she, "I presume not, my girls are splendid with the needle, and good cooks, and so religious--it's a sight! and so are my sister's three girls, though they don't quite come up to my five."

Well, there wuz a stir in the crowd. The Elder had come down and wuz shakin' hands right and left with them that crowded up to him. The little woman pressed towards him and I wuz drawed along in her wake by the crowd, some as a stately s.h.i.+p is swep' on by a small tug and the flowin' waves. And anon, after shakin' hands with her, he took my hand in hisen. A emotion swep' through me, a sort of electric current that connects New Jerusalem to Jonesville and Zoar. He bent his full sweet penetratin' look onto me, it seemed to go through my head clear to my back comb, and he sez,

"Have I met you before?"

"Yes," sez I, "in sperit, we have met, I want to thank you for the words you have said this day. It seems to me I shall be good for some time, it seems that I _must_ after hearin' your discourse, and I want to thank you for it, thank you earnest and sincere."

He smiled sort o' sad and yet riz up, and sez, "We are all wayfarers here on a hard journey, and if I can help anyone along the way, it is I who should be thankful, and," sez he, "may G.o.d bless you, sister!"

And he pa.s.sed on.

But he seemed to leave a wake of glory behind him as he went, some like the glow on the water when the sun walks over it, a warmin' life givin' influence that comes from a big soul filled with light and goodness. I seemed to be riz up above the earth all the way back to the hotel, though in body I wuz walkin' afoot by the side of my pardner. He too wuz enthused by the sermon--I had reconized his little treble voice shoutin' out "Amen!" and he said now that it wuz grand, powerful!

"Yes," sez I, "and good and holy and tender!"

"Yes indeed!" sez he. And he added, "Speakin' of tenderness, I do hope the beef will be tenderer than it wuz yesterday. I don't believe they have such beef to Coney Island."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

IN WHICH WE RETURN HOME, AND I PERSWAIDE JOSIAH TO BUILD A COTTAGE FOR TIRZAH ANN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

IN WHICH WE RETURN HOME, AND I PERSWAIDE JOSIAH TO BUILD A COTTAGE FOR TIRZAH ANN

The next afternoon Faith started on her visit to her aunt beyend Kingston. And immegiately after her departure, Josiah said he'd got to go home right away. Sez he, "It hain't right to leave Ury to bear all the brunt of the work alone."

Sez I, "Ury has got over the hardest of the work, and writ so."

"Well," sez he, "I'm a deacon and I can't bear the thought of religious interests languis.h.i.+n' for my help."

Sez I, "Seven folks wuz baptized last Sunday: the meetin' house wuz never so prosperous."

And then he went on and said political ties wuz drawin' him, and he brung up fatherly feelin's for the children, and cuttin' up burdocks, and buildin' stun walls, and etcetery. But bein' met with plain Common Sense in front of all these things, he bust out at last with the true reason: "I hain't no more money to spend here, and I tell you so, Samantha, and I mean it!"

And I sez, "Why didn't you say so in the first place, it would have been more n.o.ble."

And he said a man didn't care much about bein' n.o.ble when they'd got down to their last cent (he's got plenty of money, though I wouldn't want it told on, for rich folks are always imposed upon, and charged higher).

Well, suffice it to say, we concluded to go home the next day and did so. And though I felt bad to leave the horsepitable ruff where I'd enjoyed so much kind and friendly horspitality yet to the true home lover there are always strong onseen ties that bind the heart to the old hearth stun, and they always seem to be drawin' and tuggin' till they draw one clear back to the aforesaid stun and chimbly. Josiah paid for our two boards like a man, and we embarked for Clayton and from thence traveled by cars and mair to our beloved home.

And right here let me dispute another wicked wrong story, we never had to pay a cent for gittin' offen the Thousand Island Park. It is a base fabrication to say folks have to pay to git out. They let us out jest as free and easy as anything, and I thought they acted kinder smilin'

and good feelin'. What a world of fibs and falsehoods we are livin'

in!

We got home in time for supper and at my companion's request I took off the parfenalia of travel, my gray alpacky, and havin' enrobed myself in a domestic gingham of chocklate color and a bib ap.r.o.n, I proceeded to help Philury git a good supper. The neighbors all flocked in to see us and congratulate us on our safe return from the perils and temptations of worldly society. And Josiah wuz indeed in his glory as he told the various deacons and church pillows that gathered round him from time to time, of all his fas.h.i.+onable experiences and dangerous exploits while absent.

Of course my time wuz more took up by my female friends, but anon or oftener I would ketch the sound of figgers in connection with fish that wuz astoundin' in the extreme. But when I would draw nigh the subject would be turned and the attention of the pillows would be drawed off onto yots, summer hotels, Tabernacles, etc., etc. Well such is life. But anon the waves of excitement floatin' out insensibly from the vortex in which we had so lately revolved round in, gradually abated and went down, and the calm placid surface of life in Jonesville wuz all we could see as we looked out of our turret winders--(metafor).

Gradually the daily excitement of seein' the milk cans pa.s.s morning and night, and the school children go whoopin' schoolward and homeward, wuz the most highlarious excitement partic.i.p.ated in. A few calm errents of borryin' tea and spice, now and then a tin peddler and a agent, or a neighborhood tea drinkin', wuz all that interrupted our days serene.

And old Miss Time, that gray headed old weaver, who is never still, but sets up there in that ancient loom of hern a weavin', while her pardner is away mowin' with that sharp scythe of hisen from mornin'

till night, and from night till mornin', jest so stiddy did she keep on weavin'. Noiseless and calm would the quiet days pa.s.s into her old shuttle (which is jest as good to-day as it wuz at the creation).

Silent days, quiet days, in a broad stripe, not glistenin' or s.h.i.+ny, but considerable good-lookin' after all. Then anon variegated with moon lit starry nights, blue skies, golden sunsets, deep dark, moonless midnights, all shaded off into soft shadders.

And then givin' way to a stripe of hit or miss, restless hours, days when the "Fire won't burn the stick and the kid refuses to go," small excitements, frustrated ambitions, etc.

Anon a broad gray stripe, monotony, deadly monotony, and lonesomeness, gray as a rat both on 'em, all loosely twisted together makin' a wide melancholy stripe. Then a more flowery piece, golden moments, mounts of soul transfiguration, full understandin', divine hopes and raptures, heart talks, illuminations, all striped in with images of golden rod, evergreen trees pintin' up into the friendly blue heavens, that leaned down so clost you could almost see into the Sweet Beyond.

Singin' rivulets, soarin' birds, green fields, rosy clouds. Anon a plain piece, some slazy, as the shuttle seemed to go slower and kinder lazy, and then agin quick strong beats that made the web firm as iron.

Mebby that wuz the time that old Mr. Time hung up that old scythe of hisen for a few minutes on the top bars of the loom, and got in and footed it out for his pardner for a spell, while she rested her old feet or wound her bobbins for another stripe. But such idees are futile, futiler than I often mean to be. 'Tennyrate and anyway all the time, all the time the shuttles moved back and forth to and fro, and old Miss Time's tapestry widened out.

That summer my pardner had a oncommon good streak of luck, he sold two colts and a yearlin' heifer for a price that fairly stunted us both, it wuz so big. And his crops turned out dretful well, and he jest laid up money by the handfuls as you may say. And one day we wuz talkin'

about what extreme good luck we'd had for the past year, and we also talked considerable about Tirzah Ann and little Delight, and how they wuz both pimpin' and puny. The older children away to school wuz doin'

first rate both in health and studies, but Tirzah Ann's health wuz such that Whitfield had to keep a girl and pay doctor's bills, and I sez to Josiah: