Part 20 (1/2)

”Where would you find 'em?” says Josiah in a gruff tone (I mistrust his toe pained him).

Says I thoughtfully, ”Surely there is one good, reliable man left in every town-that could be found.”

”I don't know about it,” says he, sort o' musin'ly. ”I am gettin' pretty old to begin it, but I don't know but I might get to be a doctor now.”

Says he, brightenin' up, ”It can't take much study to deal out a dose of salts now and then, or count anybody's pult.”

But says I firmly, ”Give up that idee at once, Josiah Allen. I have come out alive, out of all your other plans and progects, and I hain't a goin' to be killed now at my age, by you as a doctor.”

My tone wus so powerful, and even skairful, that he gin up the idee, and wound up the clock, and went to bed.

CHAPTER VI.

Cicely wus some better the next day. And two days before we sot sail for Was.h.i.+ngton, Philury Mesick, the girl Ury was payin' attention to, and who was goin' to keep my house durin' my absence on my tower, come with a small, a very small trunk, ornimented with bra.s.s nails.

Poor little thing! I wus always sorry for her, she is so little, and so freckled, and so awful willin' to do jest as anybody wants her to. She is a girl that Miss Solomon Gowdey kinder took. And I think, if there is any condition that is hard, it is to be ”kinder took.” Why, if I was took at all, I should want to be ”took.”

But Miss Gowdey took Philury jest enough not to pay her any regular wages, and didn't take her enough so Philury could collect any pay from her when she left. She left, because there wus a hardness between 'em, on account of a grindstun. Philury said Miss Gowdey's little boy broke the grindstun, and the boy laid it to Philury. Anyway, the grindstun wus broke, and it made a hardness. And when Philury left Miss Gowdey's, all her worldly wealth wuz held in that poor, pitiful lookin' trunk. Why, the trunk looked like Philury, and Philury looked like the trunk. It looked small, and meek, and well disposed; and the bra.s.s nails looked some like frecks, only larger.

Wall, I felt sorry for her: and I s'posed, that, married or single, she would have to wear stockin's; so I told her, that, besides her wages, she might have all the lamb's-wool yarn she wanted to spin while I was gone, after doin' the house-work.

She wus tickled enough as I told her.

”Why,” says she, ”I can spin enough to last me for years and years.”

”Wall,” says I, ”so much the better. I have mistrusted,” says I, ”that Miss Gowdey wouldn't do much for you on account of that hardness about the grindstun; and knowin' that you hain't got no mother, I have laid out to do middlin' well by you and Ury when you get married.”

And she blushed, and said ”she expected to marry Ury sometime-years and years hence.”

”Wall,” says I, ”you can spin the yarn anyway.”

Philury is a real handy little thing about the house. And so willin' and clever, that I guess, if I had asked her to jump into the oven, and bake herself, she would have done it. And so I told Josiah.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHILURY.]

And he said ”he thought a little more bakin' wouldn't hurt her.” Says he, ”She is pretty soft.”

And says I, ”Soft or not, she's good. And that is more than I can say for some folks, who think they know a little more.”

I will stand up for my sect.

Wall, in three days' time we sot sail for Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., I a feelin' well about Josiah. For Philury and Ury wus clever, and would do well by him. And the cubbard wus full and overflowin' with every thing good to eat. And I felt that I had indeed, in that cubbard, left him a consoler.

Josiah took us to the train about an hour and a half too early. But I wus glad we wus on time, because it would have worked Josiah up dretfully if we hadn't been. For he had spent the most of the latter part of the night in gettin' up and walkin' out to the clock to see if it wus approachin' train time: the train left at a quarter to ten.

I wus glad on his account, and also on my own; for at the last minute, as you may say, who should come a runnin' down to the depot but Sam Shelmadine, a wantin' to send a errent by me to Was.h.i.+ngton.

He kinder wunk me out to one side of the waitin'-room, and asked me ”if I would try to get him a license to steal horses.”