第48章 A DRIVE TO SARATOGA LAKE(1)

Josiah and me took a short drive this afternoon, he hirin' a buggy for the occasion.He called it "goin' in his own conveniance,"and I didn't say nothin' aginst his callin' it so.I didn't break it up for this reasun, thinkses I it is a conveniance for us to ride in it, for us 2 tried and true souls to get off for a minute by ourselves.

Wall, Josiah wuz dretful good behaved this afternoon.He helped me in a good deal politer than usual and tucked the bright lap-robe almost tenderly round my form.

Men do have sech spells.They are dretful good actin' at times.

Why they act better and more subdueder and mellerer at sometimes than at others, is a deep subject which we mortals cannot as yet fully understand.Also visey versey, their cross, up headeder times, over bearin' and actin'.It is a deep subject and one freighted with a great deal of freight.

But Josiah's goodness on this afternoon almost reached the Scripteral and he sez, when we first sot out, and I see that the horse's head wuz turned towards the Lake.Sez he, "I guess we'll go to the Lake, but where do you want to go, Samantha? I will go anywhere you want to go."And he still drove almost recklessly on lakewards.And sez he, "We had better go straight on, but say the word, and you can go jest where you want to." And he urged the horse on to still greater speed.And he sez agin, "Do you want to go any particular place, Samantha?""Yes," sez I, "I had jest as leves go there as not.""Wall, I knew there would be where you would want to go." And he drove on at a good jog.But no better jog than we had been a goin' on.

Wall the weather wuz delightful.It wuz soft and balmy.And my feelin's towered my pardner (owin' to his linement) wuz soft and balmy as the air.And so we moved onwards, past the home of one who wuz true to his country, when all round him wuz false, who governed his state wisely and well, held the lines firm, when she wuz balky, and would have been glad to take the lines in her teeth and run away onto ruin; past the big grand house of him who carried a piece of our American justice way off into Egypt and carried it firm and square too right there in the dark.I s'pose it is dark.I have always hearn about its bein' as dark as Egypt.Wall, anyway he is a good lookin' man.They both on 'em are and Josiah admitted it - after some words.

Wall anon, or perhaps a little after, we came to where we could see the face of Beautiful Saratoga Lake, layin' a smilin' up into the skies.A little white cloud wuz a restin' up on the top of the tree-covered mountain that riz up on one side of the lake, and I felt that it might be the shadow form of the sacred dove Saderrosseros a broodin' down over the waters she loved.

That she loved still, though another race wuz a bathin' their weary forwards in the tide.And I wondered as I looked down on it, whether the great heart of the water wuz constant; if it ever heaved up into deep sithes a thinkin' of the one who had passed away, of them who once rested lightly on her bosem, bathed their dark forwards and read the meanin' of the heavens, in the moon and stars reflected there.

I don't know as she remembered 'em, and Josiah don't.But I know as we stood there, a lookin' down on her, the lake seemed to give a sort of a sithe and a shiver kind a run over her, not a cold shiver exactly, but a sort of a shinin', glorified shiver.I see it a comin' from way out on the lake and it swept and sort a shivered on clean to the shore and melted away there at our feet.

Mebby it wuz a sort o' sithe, and mebby agin it wuzn't.

I guess it felt that it wuz all right, that a fairer race had brought fairer customs and habits of thoughts, and the change wuz not a bad one.I guess she looked forward to the time when a still grander race should look down into her shinin' face, a race of free men, and free wimmen; sons and daughters of God, who should hold their birthright so grandly and nobly that they will look back upon the people of to-day, as we look back upon the dark sons and daughters of the forest, in pity and dolor.

I guess she thought it wuz all right.Any way she acted as if she did.She looked real sort o' serene and calm as we left her, and sort o' prophetic too, and glowin'.

Wall, we went by a long first rate lookin' sort of a tarven, Iguess.It wuz a kind of a dark red color, and dretfully flowered off in wood - red wood.And there we see standin' near the house, a great big round sort of a buildin', and my Josiah sez, "There! that is a buildin' I like the looks on.That is a barn Ilike; built perfectly round.That is sunthin' uneek.I'll have a barn like that if I live.I fairly love that barn." And he stopped the horse stun still to look at it.

And I sez in sort o' cool tones, not entirely cold, but coolish:

"What under the sun do you want with a round barn? And you don't need another one.""Wall, I don't exactly need it, Samantha, but it would be a comfert to me to own one.I should dearly love a round barn."And he went on pensively, - "I wonder how much it would cost.Iwouldn't have it quite so big as this is.I'd have it for a horse barn, Samantha.It would look so fashionable, and genteel.

Think what it would be, Samantha, to keep our old mair in a round barn, why the mair would renew her age.""She wouldn't pay no attention to it," sez I."She knows too much." And I added in cooler, more dignifieder tones, but dretful meanin' ones, "The old mair, Josiah Allen, don't run after every new fancy she hears on.She don't try to be fashionable, and she haint high-headed, except," sez I, reasenably, "when you check her up too much.""Wall," sez he, "I am bound to make some enquiries.Hello!" says he to a bystander a comin' by."Have you any idee what such a barn as that would cost? A little smaller one, I don't need so big a one.How many feet of lumber do you s'pose it would take for it? I ask you," sez he, "as between man and man."I nudged him there, for as I have said, I didn't believe then, and I don't believe now, that he or any other man ever knew or mistrusted what they meant by that term "as between man and man."I think it sounds kind o' flat, and I always oppose Josiah's usin' it; he loves it.