Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife Part 8

I thought that I should never git that man here alive. He has wep' and wailed the hull durin' time for fear we shouldn't ketch you."

"Oh, no, Arvilly!" sez the joyous-lookin' Josiah.

"I can prove it!" sez she, catchin' out his red and yeller bandanna handkerchief from his hat, where he always carries it: "Look at that, wet as sop!" sez she, as she held it up. It wuz proof, Josiah said no more.

"I knew we should ketch you, for I knew you would stop on the way. I thought I would meet you at the deepo to surprise you. But I had to bank my house; I wuzn't goin' to leave it to no underlin' and have my stuff freeze. But when I hern that Josiah wuz comin' I jest dropped my spade--I had jest got done--ketched up my book and threw my things into my grip, my trunk wuz all packed, and here I am, safe and sound, though the cars broke down once and we wuz belated. We have just traipsed along a day or two behind you all the way from Chicago, I not knowin' whether I could keep him alive or not."

Sez I fondly, "What devoted love!"

"What a natural fool!" sez Arvilly. "Did it make it any better for him to cry and take on? That day we broke down and had to stop at a tarven I wuz jest mad enough, and writ myself another chapter on 'The Wild Deeds of Men,' and am in hopes that the publisher will print it. It will help the book enormously I know. How you've stood it with that man all these years, I don't see; rampin' round, tearin' and groanin'

and actin'. He didn't act no more like a perfessor than--than Captain Kidd would if he had been travelin' with a neighborin' female, pursuin' his wife, and that female doin' the best she could for him. I kep' tellin' him that he would overtake you, but I might as well have talked to the wind--a equinoctial gale," sez she. Josiah wuz so happy her words slipped offen him without his sensin' 'em and I wuz too happy to dispute or lay anything up, when she went on and sez:

"I spoze that folks thought from our jawin' so much that we wuz man and wife; and he a yellin' out acrost the sleeper and kinder cryin', and I a hollerin' back to him to 'shet up and go to sleep!' It is the last time I will ever try to carry a man to his wife; but I spozed when I started with him, he bein' a perfessor, he would act different!"

"Well," sez I, in a kind of a soothin' tone, "I'm real glad you've come, Arvilly; it will make the ship seem more like Jonesville, and I know what you have went through."

"Well," sez she, "no other livin' woman duz unless it is you." She kep' on thinkin' of Josiah, but I waved off that idee; I meant her tribulations in the army. And I sez, "You may as well spend your money travelin' as in any other way."

"Yes, I love to travel when I can travel with human creeters, and I might as well spend my money for myself as to leave it for my cousins to fight over, and I can pay my way mostly sellin' my book; and I've left my stuff so it won't spile."

"Where is Waitstill Webb?" sez I.

"Oh, Waitstill has gone back to be a nurse--she's gone to the Philippines."

Sez I gladly, "Then we shall see her, Arvilly."

"Yes," sez she, "and that wuz one reason that I wanted to go, though she's acted like a fool, startin' off agin to help the govermunt. I've done my last work for it, and I told her so; I sez, if see the govermunt sinkin' in a mud hole I wouldn't lift a finger to help it out. I always wanted to see China and j.a.pan, but never spozed I should."

"It is a strange Providence, indeed, Arvilly, that has started us both from Jonesville to China. But," sez I, "let me make you acquainted with the rest of our party," and I introduced 'em. Josiah wuz embracin' Tommy and bein' embraced, and he had seen 'em all but Robert Strong.

CHAPTER VII

In a few minutes the great ship begun to breathe hard, as if tryin' to git up strength for the move, and kinder shook itself, and gin a few hoa.r.s.e yells, and sot off, seemin' to kinder tremble all over with eagerness to be gone. And so we sot sail, but ship and sh.o.r.e and boundless water all looked beautiful and gay to me. What a change, what a change from the feelin's I had felt; then the cold spectral moonlight of loneliness rested on sh.o.r.e and Golden Gate, now the bright sun of love and happiness gilded 'em with their glorious rays, and I felt well. Well might Mr. Drummond say, "Love is the greatest thing in the world." And as I looked on my precious pardner I bethought fondly, no matter how little a man may weigh by the steelyards, or how much a Arvilly may make light on him, if Love is enthroned in his person he towers up bigger than the hull universe.

And so, filled with joy radiatin' from the presence of the best beloved, and under the cloudless sunshine of that glorious day, I set out on my Trip Abroad. Yes, I wuz once more embarked on that great watery world that lays all round us and the continents, and we can't help ourselves.

And the days follered one another along in Injin file, trampin'

silently and stiddily on, no matter where we be or what we do. So we sailed on and on, the ship dashin' along at I don't know how many knots an hour. Probably the knots would be enough if straightened out to make a hull hank of yarn, and mebby more. Part of the time the waves dashin' high. Mebby the Pacific waves are a little less tumultous and high sweepin' than the Atlantic, a little more pacific as it were, but they sway out dretful long, and dash up dretful high, bearin' us along with 'em every time, up and down, down and up, and part of the time our furniture and our stomachs would foller 'em and sway, too, and act. The wind would soar along, chasin' after us, but never quite ketchin' us; sometimes abaft, sometimes in the fo'castle, whatever that may be.

And under uz wuz the great silent graveyard, the solemn, green aisles, still and quiet, and no knowin' how soon we should be there, too, surrounded by the riches of that lost world of them that go down in ships, but not doin' us any good. Only a board or two and some paint between us and destruction (but then I don't know as we are seperated any time very fur from danger, earthquakes, tornados and such). And good land! I would tell myself and Josiah, for that matter I've known wimmen to fall right out of their chairs and break themselves all up more or less, and fall often back steps and suller stairs and such.

But 'tennyrate I felt real riz up as I looked off on the heavin'

billers, and Faith sez to me, "Why should I fear since I sailed with G.o.d." The seas, I am journeying, I told myself with Duty on one side of me and on the other side Josiah, and the sun of Love over all. I got along without any seasickness to speak of, but my pardner suffered ontold agonies--or no, they wuzn't ontold, he told 'em all to me--yes, indeed!

Tommy "wonnered" what made the big vessel sail on so fast, and what made so much water, where it all come from, and where it wuz all goin'

to. And at night he would lay on his little shelf and "wonner" what the wind wuz sayin'; one night he spoke out kinder in rhyme, sez he: "Grandma, do you know what the wind is sayin?" And I sez:

"No, dear lamb; what is it sayin'?" It has sounded dretful, kinder wild and skairful to me, and so it had to Josiah, I knew by the sithes he had gin. Sez Tommy, it sez:

"Don't be afraid my little child, G.o.d will take care of you all the while."

And I sez, "Thank you, Tommy, you've done me good." And I noticed that Josiah seemed more contented and dropped off to sleep real sweet, though he snored some. Sometimes Tommy would "wonner" what seasickness wuz like, if it wuz any like measles, but didn't find out, for he wuzn't sick a day, but wandered about the great ship, happy as a king, making friends everywhere, though Robert Strong remained his chief friend and helper. Dorothy wuz more beautiful than ever it seemed to me, a shadow of paleness over her sweet face peeping out from the white fur of her cunning little pink hood, makin' her look sweeter than ever. There wuz two or three handsome young men on board who appreciated her beauty, and I spoze the gold setting of her charming youth. But Miss Meechim called on Robert Strong to help protect her, which he did willingly enough, so fur as I could see, by payin' the most devoted attention to her himself, supplying every real or fancied want, reading to and with her, and walking up and down the deck with her, she leanin' on his arm in slippery times.

"Dear boy!" said Miss Meechim, "how lovely he is to me. He would much rather spend his time with the men in the smoking and reading room, but he has always been just so; let me express a wish and he flies to execute it. He knows that I wouldn't have Dorothy marry for all the world, and had it not been for his invaluable help I fear that she would have fallen a prey to some man before this."

"She is a pretty girl," sez I, "pretty as a pink rosy."

"Yes," sez she, "she is a sweet girl and as good as she is beautiful."

[Ill.u.s.tration: There wuz the usual variety of people on the ship.--Page 84.]

There was the usual variety of people on the ship. The rich family travelin' with children and servants and unlimited baggage; the party of school girls with the slim talkative teacher in spectacles, tellin'

'em all the pints of interest, and stuffin' 'em with knowledge gradual but constant; the stiddy goin' business men and the fashionable ones; the married flirt and the newly married bride and husband, sheepish lookin' but happy; old wimmen and young ones; young men and old ones; the sick pa.s.senger confined to his bed, but devourin' more food than any two well ones--seven meals a day have I seen carried into that room by the steward, while a voice weak but onwaverin' would call for more. There wuz a opera singer, a evangelist, an English n.o.bleman, and a party of colored singers who made the night beautiful sometimes with their weird pathetic melodies.

There wuz two missionaries on board, one the Rev. Dr. Wessel, real dignified actin' and lookin'--he wuz goin' out as a missionary to China, and a young lady going out as a missionary to Africa, Evangeline n.o.ble--she wuz a member of some kind of a sisterhood, so she wuz called Sister Evangeline. I sot a sight of store by her the first time I laid eyes on her. Anybody could see that she wuz one of the Lord's anointed, and like our cousin John Richard, who went out as a missionary to Africa several years ago, she only wanted the Lord's will pinted out to her to foller it to the death if necessary. Livin'

so nigh to the Kingdom as she did she couldn't help its breezes fannin' her tired forehead occasionally, and the angels' songs and the sound of the still waters from reachin' her soul. She had left a luxurious home, all her loved ones, a host of friends, and wuz goin'

out to face certain hardships, and probable sickness and death amongst a strange half savage people, and yet she had about the happiest face I ever saw. His peace wuz writ down on her brow. Her Lord journeyed with her and told her from day to day what he wanted her to do. After we got well acquainted she told me that ever since her conversion there were times when she became unconscious to things on earth, but her soul seemed to be ketched up to some other realm, where He, who wuz her constant helper and guide, told her what to do. I told Josiah about it, and he sez:

"I'd ruther see that than hear on't. How can she be ketched up, weighin' pretty nigh two hundred?"

Sez I, "Your views are material, Josiah. I said her soul wuz ketched up."

"Oh, well, my soul and body has ginerally gone together where I've went."

"I don't doubt that," sez I, "not at all. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned."

"Well," sez he, "I've hearn a sight about such things as that, but I'd ruther see 'em myself."

Well, it wuzn't but a day or two after that that he had a chance to see if he had eyes. Sister Evangeline wuz settin' with Josiah and me on the deck, and all of a sudden while she wuz talkin' to us about her future life and work in Africa, her face took on a look as yourn would if your attention had been suddenly arrested by a voice calling you.

She looked off over the water as if it wuzn't there, and I felt that someone wuz talkin' to her we couldn't see--her face had jest that look, and at last I hearn her murmur in a low voice:

"Yes, Master, I will go."

And most immegiately her soul seemed to come back from somewhere, and she sez to me:

"I am told that there is a poor woman amongst the steerage pa.s.sengers that needs me." And she riz right up and started, like Paul, not disobedient to the Heavenly vision, not for a minute. She told me afterward that she found a woman with a newly-born child almost dying for want of help. She was alone and friendless, and if Sister Evangeline hadn't reached her just as she did they would both have died. She wuz a trained nurse, and saved both their lives, and she wuz as good as she could be to 'em till we reached port, where the woman's husband wuz to meet her.

Josiah acted stunted when I told him, but sez weakly, "I believe she hearn the woman holler."

And I sez, "She wuz fainted away, how could she holler?"

And he sez, "It must be a heavy faint that will keep a woman from talkin'."

The other missionary, Elder Wessel, I didn't set quite so much store by. His only child Lucia wuz on board going out to China with a rich tea merchant's family as a governess for their little daughter, and some one told me that one reason that Elder Wessel hearn such a loud call to go as a missionary to China was because Lucia wuz goin'

there.

Now, there wuz a young chap over in Loontown who had tried doctorin'