第61章 ADVENTURES AT VARIOUS SPRINGS(1)

A few days after this, Josiah Allen came in, and sez he, "The Everlastin' spring is the one for me, Samantha! I believe it will keep me alive for hundreds and hundreds of years."Sez I, "I don't believe that, Josiah Allen.""Wall, it is so, whether you believe it or not.Why, I see a feller just now who sez he don't believe anybody would ever die at all, if they kep' themselves' kind a wet through all the time with this water."Sez I, "Josiah Allen, you are not talkin' Bible.The Bible sez, 'all flesh is as grass.'""Wall, that is what he meant; if the grass wuz watered with that water all the time, it would never wilt.""Oh, shaw!" sez I.(I seldom say shaw, but this seemed to me a time for shawin'.)But Josiah kep' on, for he wuz fearfully excited.Sez he, "Why, the feller said, there wuz a old man who lived right by the side of this spring, and felt the effects of it inside and out all the time, it wuz so healthy there.Why the old man kep' on a livin', and a livin' till he got to be a hundred.And he wuz kinder lazy naturally and he got tired of livin'.He said he wuz tired of gettin' up mornin's and dressin' of him, tired of pullin' on his boots and drawin' on his trowsers, and he told his grandson Sam to take him up to Troy and let him die.

"Wall, Sam took him up to Troy, and he died right away, almost.

And Sam bein' a good-hearted chap, thought it would please the old man to he buried down by the spring, that healthy spot.So he took him back there in a wagon he borrowed.And when he got clost to the spring, Sam heard a sithe, and he looked back, and there the old gentleman wuz a settin' up a leanin' his head on his elbo and he sez, in a sort of a sad way, not mad, but melanecolly, `You hadn't ort to don it, Sam.You hadn't ort to.

I'm in now for another hundred years.'"

I told Josiah I didn't believe that.Sez I, "I believe the waters are good, very good, and the air is healthy here in the extreme, but I don't believe that."But he said it wuz a fact, and the feller said he could prove it.

"Why," Josiah sez, "with the minerals there is in that spring, if you only take enough of it, I don't see how anybody can die."And sez Josiah, "I am a goin' to jest live on that water while Iam here."

"Wall," sez I, "you must do as you are a mind to, with fear and tremblin'."I thought mebby quotin' Scripture to him would kinder quell him down, for he wuz fearfully agitated and wrought up about the Everlastin' spring.And he begun at once to calculate on it, on how much he could drink of it, if he begun early in the mornin'

and drinked late at night.

But I kep' on megum.I drinked the waters that seemed to help me and made me feel better, but wuz megum in it, and didn't get over excited about any on 'em.But oh! oh! the quantities of that water that Josiah Allen took! Why, it seemed as if he would make a perfect shipwreck of his own body, and wash himself away, till one day he came in fearful excited agin, and sez he, in agitated axents, "I made a mistake, Samantha.The Immortal spring is the one for me.""Why?" sez I.

"Oh, I have jest seen a feller that has been a tellin' me about it.""What did he say?" sez I, in calm axents.

"Wall, I'll tell you.It has acted on my feelin's dretful." Says he, "I have shed some tears." (I see Josiah Allen had been a cryin' when he came in.)And I sez agin, "What is it?"

"Wall," he said, "this man had a dretful sick wife.And he wuz a carryin' her to the Immortal spring jest as fast as he could, for he felt it would save her, if he could get her to it.But she died a mile and a half from the spring.It wuz night, for he had traveled night and day to get her there, and the tarvens wuz all shut up, and he laid her on the spring-house floor, and laid down himself on one of the benches.He took a drink himself, the last thing before he laid down, for he felt that he must have sunthin'

to sustain him in his affliction.

"Wall, in the night he heard a splashin', and he rousted up, and he see that he had left the water kinder careless the night before, and it had broke loose and covered the floor and riz up round the body, and there she wuz, all bright and hearty, a splashin' and a swimmin' round in the water." He said the man cried like a child when he told him of it.

And sez Josiah, "It wuz dretful affectin'.It brought tears from me, to hear on't.I thought what if it had been you, Samantha!""Wall," sez I, "I don't see no occasion for tears, unless you would have been sorry to had me brung to.""Oh!" sez Josiah, "I didn't think! I guess I have cried in the wrong place."Sez I coldly, "I should think as much."