Part 22 (1/2)
The agony I had went through there, and my joy in his recovery wuz such, that I didn't throw Josiah's waywardness in his face (not much of any). But if you'll believe it--and I don't spoze you will--he turned the tables 'round, and blamed me. That is often done by pardners of both sects, when they feel real guilty, to try to draw attention off their own misdoin's, by findin' fault with their pardners. It has been done time and agin, and I spoze will be, as long as man is man, and woman is woman.
When I told him that I rid down there with Deacon Gansey, that man acted jealous and mad as a hen. He never liked him, they fell out years ago about a rail fence, and wuz hurt. But now he acted furious, and his last words to Bildad wuz:
”I want you to have a funeral for Deacon Gansey before I see you agin, and I'll pick out the him I want you to sing at his funeral:
”Believein', we rejoice, To see the cuss removed.”
But I spoke right up and sez, ”Don't you bury him till he is dead, Bildad, no matter who tells you to.”
And Josiah didn't like that, or acted as if he didn't; mebby he wuz subterfugin' to draw off attention. Truly, pardners is a mysterious problem, and it takes sights of wisdom and patience to solve' em, and sometimes you can't git the right answer to 'em then, male or female.
As we left Surf Avenue I looked back on the blackened ruins of what had been the fair City of Dreamland, the broken totterin' remains of that glorious tower, the black tangled ma.s.ses of iron and steel, the ruins of the great animal house mixed with the ashes of a hundred and twenty animals, and I see with my mind's eye that great flat plain of blackened ruins, all cleared away, and green velvety gra.s.s, and trees, and fountains sprayin' over shrubs, and flowers, and white smooth paths windin' through the bloom and verdure clear down to the clean sand of the water's verge. And the high fence of Exclusion that shets them from other fair parks along the sh.o.r.e removed, thousands and thousands and thousands of happy children playin' there in the pure air, takin' in in one summer day enough strength to last 'em through a crowded, suffocatin', weary week. And grown folks, rich and poor, tired of city sights and sounds, strollin' about or settin' on comfortable seats lookin' off on the water, or watchin' the play of their children, the fresh air blowin' some of their cares and troubles away.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WE RETURN TO JONESVILLE AND JOSIAH BUILDS TIRZAH ANN'S COTTAGE WITH STRANGE INVENTIONS AND ADDITIONS
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WE RETURN TO JONESVILLE AND JOSIAH BUILDS TIRZAH ANN'S COTTAGE WITH STRANGE INVENTIONS AND ADDITIONS
I told Josiah I hoped my vision would come true, and they would make an open park of Dreamland, so the millions who visit Coney Island could git a good look at Mom Nater and old Ocean. ”And heaven knows,”
sez I, ”there would be amus.e.m.e.nts enough left in Luny, and Steeple Chase Park, and other resorts all along the sh.o.r.e.” And he said he didn't care a dum what they did with it. Sez he, ”They needn't build it up on my account, for I won't patronize 'em any more!” And I told him, ”I guessed he wouldn't be missed, specially Sundays and holidays.” And he said, ”Miss me or not, they needn't try to git me there agin, and they may jest as well give up hopin' to, first as last.”
Sez I, ”Can't you be megum, Josiah? You wuz all carried away with it, and now you're turned agin it; what makes you turn so _fur_? Can't you see the good side to it?”
”No, I can't, and won't!”
So we went home some like the Baptist and the Methodist who had a public meetin' to argy their two beliefs, on which they wuz dretful sot, and they converted each other, so the Baptist went home a Methodist, and the Methodist a Baptist.
I'd been considerable sot agin it, but I went home with the eye of my spectacles able to look on both sides. The side I didn't like, that it shares with other Pleasure Resorts. And its good side, as a care lightener, and diversion to toil. And a golden Pleasure House to the millions of children who go there every year, many of 'em poor children who get there their only glimpse of rest and light hearted enjoyment.
But my dear pardner can't be megum; that quality wuz left out when he wuz manufactured. And now if anyone sez Coney Island, he starts for the barn.
Serenus come home a few days after we did. He'd been on the Bowery of Coney Island that night, Josiah havin' refused to go to such a lowdown place with him. So as it often is in this strange world, the wrong-doer comes out ahead, for the _present_. He made a night of it with Jim Cobb, a rural cousin, and not a hair of his head wuz scorched, nor the smell of fire on his garments.
But I wuz proud that Josiah withstood temptation, and told him that I would ruther he had got afire, and burned considerable, than had him yield to the tempter.
I myself never sot foot on the Bowery; I wuzn't goin' to nasty up my mind with it, though I hearn there wuz some good things to be seen there. Folks told me I'd ort to gone to Brighton, and Atlantic City, and see the milds of beautiful Pleasure places along the ocean, but I sez, ”I thank you, but I've seen enough,” though there wuz sights there that I would loved to see.
Among 'em wuz that Mother's Camp, where thousands and thousands of poor children and their mas go to spend a day in the bracin'
atmosphere. And the children have pure milk, and their mas good tea, and they can go there day after day all they want to. How the children look forward to it, and their mas too.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”_I myself never sot foot on the Bowery; I wuzn't goin'
to nasty up my mind with it, though I hearn there wuz some good things to be seen there._” (_See page 313_)]