Part 23 (1/2)

”Pumpin' water!” sez I coldly, ”what for?”

”Oh, for drinkin', for irrigatin', or for any use that water is used for, puttin' out fires, or anything.”

Sez I coldly, ”Do you spoze that Tirzah Ann with her health, is goin'

to set at her sewin' machine and do fine sewin', and at the same time pump water from hour to hour?”

”Yes,” sez he, ”and hain't it a beautiful thought, how it will add to her sweet content and happiness as she sets sewin' on Whitfield's s.h.i.+rts, and thinkin' at the same time she is benefittin' the world at large, quietly and unostentatiously sewin' on gussets, and makin' the desert blossom like a rosy all round her; how happy she will be,” sez he.

Sez I, ”It is a crazy idee! crazy as a loon! What under the sun would she want to pump hundreds and hundreds of barrels of water for? Half a barrel would last 'em a day for all their work.”

He murmured sunthin' about a fountain, that might be sprayin' up in the front yard, and how beautiful it would be, and enjoyable.

And I sez, ”Could you set and enjoy yourself lookin' on a fountain risin' up and das.h.i.+n' jewels of spray all round you, and thinkin' that every drop wuz bein' pumped up by the weary feet of your own girl by your first wife? That poor delicate little creeter's tired feet, toilin' on hour by hour and day by day.”

He looked real bad, he hadn't thought so fur, and I went on, ”Don't you know it would make the sewin' machine go so hard that no woman could run it a minute, let alone for days and weeks?” His linement fell two or three inches. I see he gin up it needed more strength to run it. ”And it looks like furiation too,” sez I.

”Look!” He snapped out, ”What do you spoze I care for looks!”

But I see his idees wuz all broke up, as well they might be, Tirzah Ann pumpin' water all day with her feet! the idee!

Well, out on one side of the house I see a great pile of bricks, they seemed to be divided in two piles, one wuz good sound bricks, and one wuz broken some, and I sez, ”What are these bricks divided off so fur?”

”That,” sez he, ”is a sample of how men see into things.”

”How?” sez I.

”Well, I'll tell you.” And he went on proudly, as if glad to git a chance to show off how fur seem' and eqinomical he wuz, and to recover from the machinness that had settled down on him like a dark mantilly, while we discussed the suller and pump attachment.

”I got them bricks at a bargain. I hain't got enough good bricks for the hull chimbly, and so I'm goin' to have 'em begin the chimbly on top instead of the usual way of beginin' at the bottom, and then I can see jest how fur my good bricks will go.”

”How be you goin' to make the top bricks stay up?” sez I, ”a layin' up on nothin'?”

”That is a man's work,” sez he, ”a woman couldn't understand it if I should explain it.”

”No,” sez I, ”Heaven knows no woman on earth would ever understand that idee!”

Well, all I could do he would go that very afternoon and engage a mason to do the work, build the chimbly after his views, beginin' on top instead of the bottom. But though deeply mortified at it, that wuz jest the move that sot me free from my anxieties about the house, for the mason, who wuz a great case for a joke, made so much fun of the idee, and of the hull structure, that my companion threw up the hull job and told me that the house might go to----for anything he cared. I will never tell the place he said the house might go to, it is too wicked to even think on calmly, it begun with an H and that is all that I will ever tell to anybody.

Well, when Whitfield and Tirzah Ann come back from Maine and went to Shadow Island to see that strange queer lookin' buildin, I spoze Whitfield laughed till his sides ached. Tirzah cried, they say; cried partly out of sentiment to think her Pa had showed such affection for her as to build the cottage, and partly because it looked so awful, it made her hystericky.

But Whitfield sobered down, and when he come back to Jonesville acted good to Josiah, he seemed to be real thankful to Josiah and me for buildin' it, and his grateful, affectionate ways kinder took the edge offen Josiah's humiliation, but then he would probable have sprunted up anyway--mortification never prayed on him for more'n a short time.

Well, the end on't wuz, Whitfield hired a good carpenter to oversee the work, and some strong workmen who wuz able to lift and lug, there wuz plenty of lumber, and in four weeks the house wuz transmogrified into a good lookin' cottage. They built on a L, I believe they called it, which they're to use as a store room, and under that Tirzah Ann is to have her suller, Whitfield wuzn't the man to deprive her of that comfort. And in some way they straightened up the house, and put in a winder here and there, tore off lots of the ornaments, but left on some of the piazzas, and balconies, and things, and it wuz a pretty and commogious lookin' cottage. They painted the hull concern a soft buff color, with red ruffs that looked real picturesque settin' back aginst the dark green of the trees.

And sure enough the first week in September we had our party there. It wuzn't a surprise--no, Heaven knows the surprise wuz when we first laid eyes on the house as Josiah left it--but it wuz a very agreable party. Tirzah Ann did well by us in cookin' (of course we helped her) and we all stayed three days and two nights; Thomas J. and Maggie and the children, and Josiah and me. Tirzah Ann and Whitfield stayed longer, so's to leave everything in first rate order for another year.

They sot out some pretty shrubs and made some posy beds under the winders, and planted bulbs in 'em, that they spozed would rise up and break out in sunny smiles when they met 'em another summer. They lay out to take sights of comfort in that house--yes indeed!