Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition Part 14

Dakota wuz pictured as a lady with precious few clothes on; she looked old in her face, and I told Josiah it wuz a shame to see a woman that age with such a low-necked dress on. It wuz cut down to the bottom of her waist. And lots of the men staters wuz wearin' low necks. I didn't like it, but Josiah remarked that he'd always said:

"A vest and coat cut low neck would make a man look dressy, and he believed he should have one made for best."

I looked coldly at him and said it looked bad enough to see young folks dress in that way without old folks cuttin' up and actin'.

Lots of the statutes would looked as well agin if they'd had me to advise 'em about their clothes, but still take the pictures and statutes of the Fair as a hull they're magnificent and a honor to the nations. There are a thousand statutes, all beautiful and inspirin', to be seen there on the Exposition grounds.

I wuz glad to see the statute of Dr. Jenner, who discovered vaccination, tryin' it first on his own son. When it is the law for doctors to try their medicine first on their own folks, miscelaneous patients will feel safer. Dr. Jenner acted honorable toward humanity at large. I told Josiah I hoped the boy got along well and didn't git hit on the arm while it wuz sore.

And he said, "I wouldn't worry over folks I never neighbored with, and I'd better tend to my own companion, who wuz starvin' slowly by my side."

He couldn't been so very hungry havin' eat so many nut-cakes since breakfast, but I dealt out some more to him.

Well, we stayed in the Art Gallery a long time, so long that Josiah complained bitterly and sez, "If you stay as long in every buildin' when will we git round to see the Pike?" Truly Josiah longed for that place day by day, but as first chaperone of the party I tried to delay him from goin', knowin' that it must come sometime but gladly puttin' off the day.

But I sez soothin'ly, "I shan't want to stay so long at any other place." And it bein' past our lunch time we went and had a good meal, and of course Josiah's crossness subsided with every mouthful he took and his liniment looked like a cosset lamb's in amiability when I proposed we should go to the Fishery Buildin', it wuzn't so very fur from there considerin', though as I have said before every place is a good ways off from anywhere else. You'd have knowed the buildin' by the great fish that wuz sculped over the entrance. It wuz a bigger fish than wuz ever lied about in male fish stories, and that's sayin' enough; connected with this is also an exhibit of forestry and game. We went into the part devoted to forestry first, there are several acres outdoors as well as inside devoted to this display, and what didn't we see there in trees, plants, woods of every kind, forest growth tree planting, all sorts of useful wood, pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar, all the hard woods, and everything made of wood; wood pulp, barrels, baskets, turpentine, alcohol.

In the United States exhibit wuz immense pictures ill.u.s.trating our forests, methods of lumbering, lumber camps, forest fires, etc., etc. There wuz displays of different species of trees and plants, forest botany, structure and anatomy of woods, saw-mills, seeds and plants of all kinds, and all the different woods and products of wood from Egypt to j.a.pan, barks, roots, cork, rubber, gums, oils, quinine, camphor, varnish, wax, dye-woods, lumber, staves, why there wuz over two hundred different kinds of wood from Argentina alone.

Josiah, who wuz real interested here, sez, "I'd love to have brother Gowdey step in here a minute; he's proud as a peac.o.c.k of his strip of woodland, he thought he covered the hull field of forestry with his wood pulp and maple sugar. I guess his pride would be took down a little."

"Well," sez I, "let's look on it as showin' the greatness and wonder of Providence and be humble and admire."

"I shall look at it as I'm a minter!" he sez. But I guess he wuz more reverential for a spell.

And there wuz all the plants and leaves used in medicine, and mushrooms, truffles, seeds and plants and implements for gathering and preserving; drying houses, nurseries, basket work, gra.s.s work. It seemed as if everything that could be known about trees and plants could be learnt here, and though we knowed we hadn't time or convenience to take all the knowledge in, no, our heads wuzn't big enough, but they felt crowded full as we left this buildin'. And that I felt wuz the crownin' glory of this fair, the new idees and knowledge of better ways and things that wuz learnt in all these exhibits, and wuz destined in the future to bear fruit and bless the world.

In the Fishery department we see all the products of the great water world that makes up more than half of our earth. Every kind of fish that ever swum, from a whale to a minnie, salt water and fresh water fish, and them that are half fish and half animal, and aquatic birds and aquatic plants of all kinds, and plants that seem half way between vegetable and animal. Sea gra.s.s, sh.e.l.ls of all kinds, pearls, pearl-sh.e.l.ls, corals, sponges, skins and furs, ill.u.s.trations, paintings and casts ill.u.s.trating water life of all kinds, fishing grounds. All kinds of boats, nets, traps, rods, reels, lines, fish curing establishments, aquariums, and so and so on and so on, and I might write them "so ons," indefinitely but what would be the use?

Jest imagine everything that is discovered and brought to light by them that go down to the sea in ships and there it wuz.

CHAPTER X.

West of the forestry buildin' growin' right out of the ground is a immense map of the United States covering five acres of ground, gravel walks mark the State and coast lines, and each State is sot out in its own native flowers.

There it wuz, you could look right down onto it jest like a map, from the rocky sh.o.r.es of Maine down to Florida.

Josiah wuz simply infatuated with the sight and I myself thought it wuz a great idee and I sez:

"Josiah, this is a plan worthy of Uncle Sam to immortalize what is dearest to him in living colors."

"Yes, indeed!" sez he, and after a minute's thought he added, "Others can foller suit and set them that are dearest to 'em out-doors. If I live till another spring, Samantha," sez he firmly, "I will set you out in the paster. The dooryard would be too small to do justice to you. Ury and I will plant you in the middle of the ten acre lot."

I wuz touched by the tenderness underlyin' the idee, but sez I, "Have you counted the cost, Josiah?"

"I know it will cost, you're hefty and big boneded and I'd want you heroic size, but we needn't have your hull frame made in posies, I could plant you in different seeds and raise you like a crop, and sell you in the fall. Beans would look well in different colors."

He see my look of cold irony as he spoke of sellin' me, and added, "Or I could set you out mostly in pusley if you'd ruther, the garden is full of it."

"I shall never be sot out in pusley, Josiah Allen, I always hated it.

The hull thing is as crazy as anything you ever undertook."

"Crazy or not it will be did; summer squash would look well and be equinomical, I could probable train 'em so you'd seem to be holdin' the squashes in your arms."

"Give up the hull skeem, Josiah Allen; don't try to combine love and economy so clost."

But he vowed he wouldn't give it up, and I spoze I may see trouble weanin' him from the idee.

That night whilst I wuz restin' a little in my room after supper, Josiah havin' stayed down in the parlor a spell talkin' to granpa Huff and Billy, Blandina come into my room. She wuz all f.a.gged out, but under the f.a.g you could see that expression of perennial good nature and love to man.

She said she'd been readin' all day to grandpa Huff and as near as I could make out he'd kep' her right down to them blood-curdlin' chapters where they fried the martyrs in ile and briled 'em on grid-irons. She looked dretful tired and I told her I wouldn't gin in and read such stuff all day.

But she said Mr. Huff wuz anxious to hear it and she wuz perfectly willin' and more than willin' to please him, for sez she smilin' in a queer sort of a way and sort o' bridlin' a little, "I'm anxious to do anything for him I can because I love him devotedly."

I wuz fairly stunted. "Love him?" sez I, "why how long ago wuz it that you loved his grandchild pa.s.sionately? Why," sez I, "Blandina, you seem to rob the cradle and the grave for objects of affection."

"Yes, I did love Billy with perfect devotion till I found that my affection wuz driven back like a dove from the rest it fain would made in his youthful heart, and now it has settled down upon his grandpa's bosom. Mr. Huff needs a companion, Aunt Samantha. He needs a tender female companion to journey by his side over the rough pathway of life. And, oh, I do feel that this world is a cold rough place and my heart, like that wanderin' dove I spoke on, sithes to find rest."

"Well," sez I reasonably, "mebby a dove would be safe to rest on grandpa Huff, but I don't believe he could stand the weight of a hen. Why, he's ninety if he's a day, Blandina."

She didn't reply but sot lookin' mournful but clever, and agin she sez, "This is a cold world."

"Not here it hain't, not in St. Louis," sez I, wipin' my heated forward, but she went on:

"My heart has gone out to him without any will of my own. I feel that he has the makin' of a n.o.ble man in him."

And I sez, "I guess he's made about all he can be on this spear." But seein' her mournful looks I added, "You're a clever critter, Blandina, that's what's the matter with you, you're so good hearted you mistake good nater and pity for love more'n half the time. I don't believe," sez I feelin'ly, "I ever see a cleverer creeter than you are." And I meant it, every word I said.

But she repeated agin, "I love him, Aunt Samantha, with a pure, deep devotion."

"Well," sez I, "if I wuz in your place I would take a little catnip tea and go to bed. I'll steep some for you over my alcohol lamp." I knowed it wuz her good nater and her nerves that wuz wrought up instead of her heart, though catnip is good for the heart for all I know. She'd got all nerved up readin' them dretful things and felt queer, I wuz sorry for Blandina to think she wuz so very sensitive to masculine influence. She refused the catnip tea but took the other half of my advice and went to bed, and I sez to myself, I declare I don't know what the good nater of that creeter will lead her into and I most wished she wuz back in Jonesville where that trait of hern wouldn't have so much room for showin' off and so many objects to practice on, but I felt safe about grandpa Huff, for I knowed that even if he'd been strong enough to stand up to be married, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren wouldn't let him.

Well, the next morning Molly come, havin' arrived on a sleeper. I welcomed her warmly. She's a sweet girl, with big eyes soft and brown as the shallers in our trout brook and a shadder in 'em now some like the dark places where the deep water is. Hair about the same color, done up in a shinin' coil on the top of her head, but where it would git loose a little kinder curlin' and crinklin' about her white forward and round white neck. A sweet sad expression on her lips, cheeks white as snow now but meant to be pink and a pretty plump figger. She wuz very beautiful and called so by good judges.

And I wuzn't surprised that Billy Huff fell immegiately and voylently in love with her to his own discomfiture and the great enrichment of them that sold perfumery and hair-oil. But I knowed it wouldn't hurt him any, it wuz only a new face to hang up for the present in the gallery of a boy's Fancy. Aunt Tryphena fairly worshipped her. She immegiately rose to the top place in her gallery of perfect beings. Nothing wuz too good for her, no service she could render her wuz too hard, she almost soared up to that pinnacle on which her Prince Arthur dwelt. Dotie became her willin' adorer and Miss Huff couldn't do enough for her.

But to resoom backward a little. Molly didn't want to go to the Fair ground that morning, wantin' to rest and recooperate, so Josiah, Blandina and I sot forth a little later than common. There wuz a stoppage of the cars some ways from the gate and we got out and walked thinkin' we'd git there quicker, Josiah started to step off first when Blandina rushed past him, waved him back, and descended herself right into the midst of horses heads and huffs and yells and profanity from two drivers who wuz stoppin' the way and wuz revilin' each other, and after we got safe onto the sidewalk and wuz walkin' along I sez to her:

"You ort to be more careful, Blandina, or you'll find yourself killed some day and trompled on, I wuz skairt for you."

"Oh, I didn't think about myself, I wuz only thinkin' of savin' dear uncle Josiah, it wuzn't so much matter about me. A woman's life you know is not worth anything compared to a man's."

"Oh, shaw!" I sez, I wuz driv to it, and I sez it agin, "Oh, shaw!"

"Why, Aunt Samantha, you know it has been decided that that is so. It has been settled by law that a female's life is worth only half as much as a man's. Don't you remember last spring in Brooklyn it wuz settled once for all that a female child's life wuzn't worth only half as much as a male child?"

Sez I, "I remember a man's saying so, I don't remember it wuz proved; I myself thought it wuz about as hefty a thing as a judge ever undertook to try to set a value on two human lives with all their glorious and terrible possibilities, and," sez I, eppisodin' a little but walkin' along all the time, "how did that man know but the soul of a Florence Nightingale would wake up in that girl and bless the world for all time? And how did he know but the boy would prove a Benedict Arnold or a Guiteau? An evil influence to curse the world forever. It wuz a hefty job, and if Josiah had been judge I wouldn't let him undertook it, or if he had I'd had him set an equal value on what G.o.d and nater and human affection had made equal."