Part 16 (1/2)

Thomas J. come one day while I wus musin' on George; and he says,-

”What are you lookin' so close at that dear old humbug for?”

Says I firmly, and keepin' the same posture, ”I am studyin' the face of the revered and n.o.ble G. Was.h.i.+ngton. I am going shortly to weep on his tomb and the capital he foundered. I am studyin' his face, and Ga.s.s'es 'Journal,' and other works,” says I.

”If you are going to the capital, you had better study Dante.”

Says I, ”Danty who?”

And he says, ”Just plain Dante.” Says he, ”You had better study his inscription on the door of the infern”-

Says I, ”Cease instantly. You are on the very pint of swearin';” and I don't know now what he meant, and don't much care. Thomas J. is full of queer remarks, anyway. But deep. He had a sick spell a few weeks ago; and I went to see him the first thing in the mornin', after I heard of it. He had overworked, the doctor said, and his heart wuz a little weak. He looked real white; and I took holt of his hand, and says I,-

”Thomas J., I am worried about you: your pulse don't beat hardly any.”

”No,” says he. And he laughed with his eyes and his lips too. ”I am glad I am not a newspaper this morning, mother.”

And I says, ”Why?”

And he says, ”If I were a morning paper, mother, I shouldn't be a success, my circulation is so weak.”

A jokin' right there, when he couldn't lift his head. But he got over it: he always did have them sort of sick spells, from a little child.

But a manlier, good-hearteder, level-headeder boy never lived than Thomas Jefferson Allen. He is just right, and always wuz. And though I wouldn't have it get out for the world, I can't help seein' it, that he goes fur ahead of Tirzah Ann in intellect, and n.o.bleness of nater; and though I love 'em both devotedly, I do, and I can't help it, like him jest a little mite the best. But this I wouldn't have get out for a thousand dollars. I tell it in strict confidence, and s'pose it will be kep' as such. Mebby I hadn't ort to tell it at all. Mebby it hain't quite orthodox in me to feel so. But it is truthful, anyway. And sometimes I get to kinder wobblin' round inside of my mind, and a wonderin' which is the best,-to be orthodox, or truthful,-and I sort o' settle down to thinkin' I will tell the truth anyway.

Josiah, I think, likes Tirzah Ann the best.

But I studied deep, and mused. Mused on our 4 fathers, and our 4 mothers, and on Liberty, and Independence, and Truth, and the Eagle. And thinkin' I might jest as well be to work while I was a musin', I had a dress made for the occasion. It wus bran new, and the color wus Bismark Brown.

Josiah wanted me to have Ashes of Moses color.

But I said no. With my mind in the heroic state it was then, I couldn't curb it down onto Ashes of Moses, or roses, or any thing else peacible. I felt that this color, remindin' me of two grand heroes,-Bismark, John Brown,-suited me to a T. There wus two wimmen who stood ready to make it,-Jane Bently and Martha Snyder. I chose Martha because Martha wus the name of the wife of Was.h.i.+ngton.

It wus made with a bask.

When the news got out that I wus goin' to Was.h.i.+ngton on a tower, the neighbors all wanted to send errents by me.

Betsey Bobbet wanted me to go to the Patent Office, and get her two Patent-office books, for sc.r.a.p-books for poetry.

Uncle Jarvis Bently wanted me to go to the Agricultural Bureau, and get him a paper of lettis seed. And Solomon Cypher wanted me to get him a new kind of string-beans, if I could, and some cowc.u.mber seeds.

Uncle Nate Gowdey, who talked of paintin' his house over, wanted me to ask the President what kind of paint he used on the White House, and if he put in any sperits of turpentime. And Ardelia Rumsey, who wuz goin' to be married soon, wanted me, if I see any new kinds of bed-quilt patterns to the White House, or to the senators' housen, to get the patterns for her. She said she wus sick of sunflowers, and blazin' stars, and such. She thought mebby they'd have suthin' new, spread-eagle style, or suthin' of that kind. She said ”her feller was goin' to be connected with the Government, and she thought it would be appropriate.”

And I asked her ”how?” And she said, ”he was goin' to get a patent on a new kind of a jack-knife.”

I told her ”if she wanted a Government quilt, and wanted it appropriate, she ort to have it a crazy-quilt.”

And she said she had jest finished a crazy-quilt, with seven thousand pieces of silk in it, and each piece trimmed with seven hundred st.i.tches of feather st.i.tchin': she counted 'em. And then I remembered seein' it. There wus some talk then about wimmen's rights, and a pet.i.tion wus got up in Jonesville for wimmen to sign; and I remember well that Ardelia couldn't sign it for lack of time. She wanted to, but she hadn't got the quilt more'n half done then. It took the biggest heft of two years to do it. And so, of course, less important things had to be put aside till she got it finished.

And I remember, too, that Ardelia's mother wanted to sign it; but she couldn't, owin' to a bed-spread she wus a makin'. She wuz a quiltin' in Noah's ark, and all the animals, at that time, on a Turkey-red quilt. I remember she wuz a quiltin' the camel that day, and couldn't be disturbed. So we didn't get the names. It took the old lady three years to quilt that quilt. And when it wuz done, it wuz a sight to behold. Though, as I said then, and say now, I wouldn't give much to sleep under so many animals. But folks went from fur and near to see it, and I enjoyed lookin' at it that day. And I see jest how it wuz. I see that she couldn't sign. It wuzn't to be expected that a woman could stop to tend to Justice or Freedom, or any thing else of that kind, right in the midst of a camel.