Part 36 (1/2)
I sithed, and remained a few moments almost lost in thought; and then says I,- ”Now, if you are more composed and gathered together, will you tell your companion how you come to write it? what you did it for?”
”I did it to be populer,” says he, out from under his hand. ”I thought I would branch off, and take a new turn, and not act so fierce and wolfish after office as most of 'em did. I thought I would get up something new and uneek.”
”Wall, you have, uneeker than you probable ever will agin. But, if you wanted to be a senator, why did you refuse to have any thing to do with politics?”
”I did it to be urged,” says he, in the same sad, despairin' tones. ”I made the move to be loved-to be the favorite of the Nation. I thought after they read that, they would be fierce to promote me, fierce as blood- hounds. I thought it would make me the most populer man in Jonesville, and that I should be sought after, and praised up, and follered.”
”What give you that idee?” says I calmly.
”Why, don't you remember Let.i.tia Lanfear? She wrote a article sunthin' like this, only not half so smart and deep, when she was nominated for school-trustee, and it jest lifted her right up. She never had been thought any thing off in Jonesville till she wrote that, and that was the makin' of her. And she hadn't half the reason to write it that I have. She hadn't half nor a quarter the cares that I have got. She was a widder, educated high, without any children, with a comfortable income, and she lived in her brother's family, and didn't have no cares at all.
”And only see how that piece lifted her right up! They all said, what right feelin', what delicacy, what a n.o.ble, heart-stirrin', masterly doc.u.ment hern was! And I hankered, I jest hankered, after bein' praised up as she was. And I thought,” says he with a deep sithe, ”I thought I should get as much agin praise as she did. I thought I should be twice as populer, because it wus sunthin' new for a man to write such a article. I thought I should be all the rage in Jonesville. I thought I should be a lion.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: LEt.i.tIA LANFEAR.]
”Wall, accordin' to your tell, they treat you like one, don't they?”
”Yes,” says he, ”speakin' in a wild animal way.” Says he, growin' excited, ”I wish I wuz a African lion right out of a jungle: I'd teach them Jonesvillians to get out of my way. I'd love, when they was snickerin', and pokin' fun at me, and actin' and jeerin' and sneerin', and callin' me all to nort, I'd love to spring onto 'em, and roar.”
”Hush, Josiah,” says I. ”Be calm! be calm!”
”I won't be calm! I can't see into it,” he hollered. ”Why, what lifted Let.i.tia Lanfear right up, didn't lift me up. Hain't what's sa.s.s for the goose, sa.s.s for the gander?”
”No,” says I sadly. ”It hain't the same sa.s.s. The geese have to get the same strength from it,-strength to swim in the same water, fly over the same fences, from the same pursuers and avengers; and they have to grow the same feathers out of it; but the sa.s.s, the sa.s.s is fur different.
”But,” says I, ”I don't approve of all your piece. A man, as a general thing, has as much time as a woman has. And I'd love to see the time that I couldn't do a job as short as puttin' a letter in the post-office. Why, I never see the time, even when the children was little, and in cleanin' house, or sugarin'-time, but what I could ride into Jonesville every day, to say nothin' of once a year, and lay a vote onto a pole. And you have as much time as I do, unless it is springs and falls and hayin'-time. And if I could do it, you could. I don't approve of such talk.
”And you know very well that you and I had better spend a little of our spare time a studyin' into matters, so as to vote intelligently; study into the laws that govern us both,-that hang us if we break 'em, and protect us if we obey 'em,-than to spend it a whittling s.h.i.+ngles, or wonderin' whether Miss Bobbet's next baby will be a boy or a girl.”
”Wall,” says he, takin' his hand down, and winkin',-a sort of a shrewd, knowin' wink, but a sad and dejected one, too, as I ever see wunk,-
”I didn't have no idee of stoppin' votin'.”
Says I coldly, as cold as Zero, or pretty nigh as coldblooded as the old man,-
”Did you write that article jest for the speech of people? Didn't you have no principle to back it up?”
”Wall,” says he mournfully, ”I wouldn't want it to get out of the family, but I'll tell you the truth. I didn't write it on a single principle, not a darn principle. I wrote it jest for popularity, and to make 'em fierce to promote me.”
I groaned aloud, and he groaned. It wus a sad and groanful time.
Says he, ”I pinned my faith onto Let.i.tia Lanfear. And I can't understand now, why a thing that made Let.i.tia so populer, makes me a perfect outcast. Hain't we both human bein's-human Methodists and Jonesvillians?” Says he, in despairin', agonized tone, ”I can't see through it.”
Says I soothenly, ”Don't worry about that, Josiah, for n.o.body can. It is too deep a conundrum to be seen through: n.o.body has ever seen through it.”
But it seemed as if he couldn't be soothed; and agin he kinder sithed out,-
”I pinned my faith onto Let.i.tia, and it has ondone me;” and he kinder whimpered.