Part 16 (2/2)

Zebulin c.o.o.n wanted me to carry a new hen-coop of hisen to get it patented. And I thought to myself, I wonder if they'll ask me to carry a cow.

And sure enough, Josiah wanted me to d.i.c.ker, if I could, for a calf from Mount Vernon,-swop one of our yearlin's for it if I couldn't do no better.

But I told him right out and out, that I couldn't go into a calf-trade with my mind wrought up as I knew it would be.

Wall, it wuzn't more'n 2 or 3 days after I begun my preparations, that Dorlesky Burpy, a vegetable widow, come to see me; and the errents she sent by me wuz fur more hefty and momentous than all the rest put together, calves, hen-coop, and all.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MOTHER'S BED-QUILT.]

And when she told 'em over to me, and I meditated on her reasons for sendin' 'em, and her need of havin' 'em done, I felt that I would do the errents for her if a breath was left in my body. I felt that I would bear them 2 errents of hern on my tower side by side with my own private, hefty mission for Josiah.

She come for a all day's visit; and though she is a vegetable widow, and very humbly, I wuz middlin' glad to see her. But thinks'es I to myself as I carried away her things into the bedroom, ”She'll want to send some errent by me;” and I wondered what it wouldn't be.

And so it didn't surprise me any when she asked me the first thing when I got back ”if I would lobby a little for her in Was.h.i.+ngton.”

And I looked agreeable to the idee; for I s'posed it wuz some new kind of tattin', mebby, or fancy work. And I told her ”I shouldn't have much time, but I would try to buy her some if I could.”

And she said ”she wanted me to lobby, myself.”

And then I thought mebby it wus some new kind of waltz; and I told her ”I was too old to lobby, I hadn't lobbied a step since I was married.”

And then she said ”she wanted me to canva.s.s some of the senators.”

And I hung back, and asked her in a cautius tone ”how many she wanted canva.s.sed, and how much canva.s.s it would take?”

I knew I had a good many things to buy for my tower; and, though I wanted to obleege Dorlesky, I didn't feel like runnin' into any great expense for canva.s.s.

And then she broke off from that subject, and said ”she wanted her rights, and wanted the Whiskey Ring broke up.”

And then she says, going back to the old subject agin, ”I hear that Josiah Allen has political hopes: can I canva.s.s him?”

And I says, ”Yes, you can for all me.” But I mentioned cautiously, for I believe in bein' straightforward, and not holdin' out no false hopes,-I said ”she must furnish her own canva.s.s, for I hadn't a mite in the house.”

But Josiah didn't get home till after her folks come after her. So he wuzn't canva.s.sed.

But she talked a sight about her children, and how bad she felt to be parted from 'em, and how much she used to think of her husband, and how her hull life wus ruined, and how the Whiskey Ring had done it,-that, and wimmen's helpless condition under the law. And she cried, and wept, and cried about her children, and her sufferin's she had suffered; and I did. I cried onto my ap.r.o.n, and couldn't help it. A new ap.r.o.n too. And right while I wus cryin' onto that gingham ap.r.o.n, she made me promise to carry them two errents of hern to the President, and to get 'em done for her if I possibly could.

”She wanted the Whiskey Ring destroyed, and she wanted her rights; and she wanted 'em both in less than 2 weeks.”

I wiped my eyes off, and told her I didn't believe she could get 'em done in that length of time, but I would tell the President about it, and ”I thought more'n as likely as not he would want to do right by her.” And says I, ”If he sets out to, he can haul them babys of yourn out of that Ring pretty sudden.”

And then, to kinder get her mind off of her sufferin's, I asked her how her sister Susan wus a gettin' along. I hadn't heard from her for years- she married Philemon Clapsaddle; and Dorlesky spoke out as bitter as a bitter walnut-a green one. And says she,-

”She is in the poorhouse.”

”Why, Dorlesky Burpy!” says I. ”What do you mean?”

”I mean what I say. My sister, Susan Clapsaddle, is in the poorhouse.”

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