I myself think that Mother Nater might smooth herself out a little there with no hurt to herself or her children.I don't believe in Mas goin' round with their dresses onhooked, and slip-shod, and their hair all stragglin' out of their combs.(Isay this in metafor.I don't spose Ma Nater ever wore a back comb or had hooks and eyes on her gown; I say it for oritory, and would wish to be took in a oritorius way.
And I don't say right out, that the reeson I have named is the one why they keep that place a lookin' so like furey, I said, MEBBY.But I will say this, that it is a wild-lookin' spot, and hombly.
Wall, on the upper end on't, standin' up on the top of a sort of a hill, the Indian Encampment is encamped.There is a hull row of little stores, and there is swings, and public diversions of different kinds, krokay grounds, etc., etc., etc.
Wall, Ardelia stopped at one of these stores kep' by a Injun, not a West, but a East one, and began to price some wooden bracelets, and try 'em on, and Josiah and me wandered on.
And anon, we came to a tent with some good verses of Scripter on it; good solid Bible it wuz; and so I see it wuz a good creeter in there anyway.And I asked a bystander a standin' by, Who wuz in there, and Why, and When?
And he said it wuz a fortune-teller who would look in the pamm of my hand, and tell me all my fortune that wuz a passin' by.And Isaid I guessed I would go in, for I would love to know how the children wuz that mornin' and whether the baby had got over her cold.I hadn't heerd from 'em in over two days.
Josiah kinder hung 'round outside though he wuz willin' to have me go in.He jest worships the children and the baby.And he sees the texts from Job on it, with his own eyes.
So I bid him a affectionate farewell, and we see the woman a lookin' out of the tent and witnessin' on't.But I didn't care.
If a pair of companions and a pair of grandparents can't act affectionate, who can? And the world and the Social Science meetin' might try in vain to bring up any reeson why they shouldn't.
So I went in, with my mind all took up with the grandchildern.
But the first words she sez to me wuz, as she looked close at the pamm of my hand, "Keep up good spirits, Mom; you will get him in spite of all opposition.""Get who?" sez I, "And what?"
"A man you want to marry.A small baldheaded man, a amiable-lookin', slender man.His heart is sot on you.And all the efferts of the light-complected woman in the blue hat will be in vain to break it up.Keep up good courage, you will marry him in spite of all," sez she, porin' over my pamm and studyin' it as if it wuz a jography.
"For the land's sake!" sez I, bein' fairly stunted with the idees she promulgated.
"Yes, you will marry him, and be happy.But you have had a sickness in the past and your line of happiness has been broken once or twice."Sez I, "I should think as much; let a woman live with a man, the best man in the world for 20 years, and if her line of happiness haint broke more than once or twice, why it speaks well for the line, that is all.It is a good, strong line.""Then you have been married?" says she.
"Yes, Mom," sez I.
"Oh, I see, down in the corner of your hand is a coffin, you are a widow, you have seen trouble.But you will be happy.The mild, bald gentleman will make you happy.He will lead you to the altar in spite of the light-complected woman with the blue bat on."Ardelia Tutt had on a blue hat, the idee! But I let her go on.
Thinkses I, "I have paid my money and now it stands me in hand to get the worth on't." So she comferted me up with the hope of gettin' my Josiah for quite a spell.
Gettin' my pardner! Gettin' the father of my childern, and the grandparent of my grandchildren! Jest think on't, will you?
But then she branched off and told me things that wuz truly wonderful.Where and how she got 'em wuz and is a mistery to me.
True things, and strange.
Why it seemed same as if them tall pines, that wuz a whisperin'
together over the Encampment wuz a peerin' over into my past, and a whisperin' it down to her.Or, in some way or other, the truth wuz a bein' filtered down to her comprehension through some avenue beyond our sense or sight.
It is a curious thing, so I think, and so Josiah thinks.We talked it over after I came out, and we wuz a wanderin' on about the Encampment.I told him some of the wonderful things she had told me and he didn't believe it."For," sez he, "I'll be hanged if I can understand and I won't believe anything that I can't understand!"And I pointed with the top of my umberel at a weed growin' by the side of the road, and sez I, "When you tell me jest how that weed draws out of the back ground jest the ingredients she needs to make her blue foretop, and her green gown, then I'll tell you all about this secret that Nater holds back from us a spell, but will reveel to us when the time comes.""Oh shave!" sez Josiah, "I guess I know all about a jimson weed.
Why they groin; that is all there is about them.They grow, dumb 'em.I guess if you'd broke your back as many times as I have a pullin' 'em up, yon would know all about' em.Dumb their dumb picters," sez he, a scowlin' at 'em.
It wuz the same kind of weed that growed in our onion beds.Irecognized it.Them and white daisies, our garden wuz overrun by 'em both.
But I sez, "Can you tell how the little seed of this weed goes down into the earth and selects jest what she wants out of the great storehouse below? She never comes out in a pink head-dress or a yellow gown.No, she always selects what will make the blue.
It shows that it has life, intelligence, or else it couldn't think, way down under the ground, and grope in the dark, but always gropin' jest right, always a thinkin' the right thing, never, never in the hundreds and thousands of years makin' a mistake.Why, you couldn't do it, Josiah Allen, nor I couldn't.
