Samantha at the World's Fair by Marietta Holley (little readers .TXT) đź“–
- Author: Marietta Holley
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Did any hand ever lay on that soft, shinin' hair in caresses? I presoom more than like as not there had. Her mother's, anyway, and mebby a lover's, sence the fashion of love is older than the pyramids enough sight—old as Adam, and before that Love wuz. For Love thought out the World.
By her side wuz a jar with some seeds in it—probable the hand of Love put it there to sustain her on her long journey.
Wall, the centuries have gone by sence she sot out for the Land of Sperits, but the seeds are there yet. She didn't need 'em.
These seeds are in good shape, but they won't sprout. That shows plain how much older these mummies are than the Egyptian ones, for the seeds found by them will sprout and grow, but these are too old—the life in the seeds is gone, as[Pg 379] well as the life in the dead forms by 'em, centuries ago, mebby.
Wall, it wuz a sight—a sight to see that city, and then to see a-windin' up the face of the cliff the windin' trail, and the little burros a-climbin' up slowly from the valley, and the strange four-horned sheep of the Navago herds a-grazin' amongst the high rocks.
It wuz one of the most impressive sights of all the wonderful sights of the Columbus Fair, and so I told Josiah.
Wall, seein' we wuz right there, we thought we would pay attention to the Forestry Buildin'.
And if I ever felt ashamed of myself, and mortified, I did there; of which more anon.
It wuz quite a big buildin', kinder long and low—about two and a half acres big, I should judge.
Every house has its peculiarities, the same as folks do, and the peculiar kink in this house wuz it hadn't a nail or a bit of iron in it anywhere from top to bottom—bolts and pegs made of wood a-holdin' it together.
Wall, I hadn't no idee that there wuz so many kinds of wood in the hull world, from Asia and Greenland to Jonesville, as I see there in five minutes.
Of course I had been round enough in our woods and the swamp to know that there wuz several diff[Pg 380]erent kinds of wood—ellum and butnut, cedar and dog-wood, and so forth.
But good land! to see the hundreds and thousands of kinds that I see here made anybody feel curious, curious as a dog, and made 'em feel, too, how enormous big the world is—and how little he or she is, as the case may be.
The sides of the buildin' are made of slabs, with the bark took off, and the roof is thatched with tan-bark and other barks.
The winder-frames are made in the same rustic, wooden way.
The main entrances are made of different kinds of wood, cut and carved first-rate.
All around this buildin' is a veranda, and supportin' its roof is a long row of columns, each composed of three tree trunks twenty-five feet in length—one big one and the other two smaller.
These wuz contributed by the different States and Territories and by foreign countries, each sendin' specimens of its most noted trees.
And right here wuz when I felt mad at myself, mad as a settin' hen, to think how forgetful I had been, and how lackin' in what belongs to good manners and politeness.
Why hadn't I brung some of our native Jonesville trees, hallowed by the presence of Josiah Allen's wife?
[Pg 381]
Why hadn't I brung some of the maples from our dooryard, that shakes out its green and crimson banners over our heads every spring and fall?
Or why hadn't I brung one of the low-spreadin' apple-trees out of Mother Smith's orchard, where I used to climb in search of robins' nests in June mornin's?
Or one of the pale green willers that bent over my head as I sot on the low plank foot-bridge, with my bare feet a-swingin' off into the water as I fished for minnies with a pin-hook—
The summer sky overhead, and summer in my heart.
Oh, happy summer days gone by—gone by, fur back you lay in the past, and the June skies now have lost that old light and freshness.
But poor children that we are, we still keep on a-fishin' with our bent pin-hooks; we still drop our weak lines down into the depths, a-fishin' for happiness, for rest, for ambition, for Heaven knows what all—and now, as in the past, our hooks break or our lines float away on the eddies, and we don't catch what we are after.
Poor children! poor creeters!
But I am eppisodin', and to resoom.
[Pg 382]
As I said to Josiah, what a oversight that wuz my not thinkin' of it!
Sez I, "How the nations would have prized them trees!" And sez I,
"What would Christopher Columbus say if he knew on't?"
And Josiah sez, "He guessed he would have got along without 'em."
"Wall," sez I, "what will America and the World's Fair think on't, my makin' such a oversight?"
And he sez, "He guessed they would worry along somehow without 'em."
"Wall," sez I, "I am mortified—as mortified as a dog."
And I wuz.
There wuzn't any need of makin' any mistake about the trees, for there wuz a little metal plate fastened to each tree, with the name marked on it—the common name and the high-learnt botanical name.
But Josiah, who always has a hankerin' after fashion and show, he talked a sight to me about the "Abusex-celsa," and the "Genus-salix," and the "Fycus-sycamorus," and the "Atractylus-gummifera."
He boasted in particular about the rarity of them trees. He said they grew in Hindoostan and on the highest peaks of the Uriah M[Pg 383]ountains; and he sez, "How strange that he should ever live to see 'em."
He talked proud and high-learnt about 'em, till I got tired out, and pinted him to the other names of 'em.
He talked proud and high learnt about 'em.
Then his feathers drooped, and sez he, "A Norway spruce, a willer, a sycamore, and a pine. Dum it all, what do they want to put on such names as them onto trees that grow right in our dooryard?"
"To show off," sez I, coldly, "and to make other folks show off who have a hankerin' after fashion and display."
[Pg 384]
He did not frame a reply to me—he had no frame.
CHAPTER XIV.I told Josiah this mornin' I wanted to go to the place where they had flowers, and plants, and roses, and things—I felt that duty wuz a-drawin' me.
For, as I told him, old Miss Mahew wanted me to get her a slip of monthly rose if they had 'em to spare—she said, "If they seemed to have quite a few, I might tackle 'em about it, and if they seemed to be kinder scrimped for varieties, she stood willin' to swap one of her best kinds for one of theirn—she said she spozed they would have as many as ten or a dozen plants of each kind."
And I thought mebby I could get a tulip bulb—I had had such poor luck with mine the year before.
But sez I, "Mebby they won't have none to spare—I d'no how well they be off for 'em," but I spozed mebby I would see as many as a dozen or fifteen tulips, and as many roses.
He kinder wanted to go and see the plows and horse-rakes that mornin', but I capitulated with him by sayin' if he would g[Pg 385]o there first with me, anon we would go together to the horse-rake house.
So we sot out the first thing for the Horticultural Buildin', and good land! good land! when we got to it I wuz jest browbeat and frustrated with the size on't—it is the biggest buildin' that wuz ever built in the world for plants and flowers.
And when you jest think how big the world is, and how long it has stood, and how many houses has been built for posies from Persia and Ingy, down to Chicago and Jonesville, then you will mebby get it into your head the immense bigness on't—yes, that buildin' is two hundred and sixty thousand square feet, and every foot all filled up with beauty, and bloom, and perfume. It faces the risin' sun, as any place for flowers and plants ort to. Like all the rest of the Exposition buildin's, it has sights of ornaments and statutes. One of the most impressive statutes I see there wuz Spring Asleep. It struck so deep a blow onto my fancy that I thought on't the last thing at night, and I waked up in the night and thought on't.
There never wuz a better-lookin' creeter than Spring wuz, awful big too—riz way up lofty and grand, and hantin' as our own dreams of Spring are as we set shiverin' in the Winter.
Her noble face wuz perfect in its beauty, and she sot there with her arms outstret[Pg 386]ched; and grouped all round her wuz beautiful forms—lovely wimmen, and babies, and children, all bound in slumber, but, as I should imagine, jest on the pint of wakin' up.
I guess they wuz all a-dreamin' about the song of birds a-comin' back from the south land, and silky, pale green willers a-bendin' low over gurglin' brooks, and pink and white may-flowers a-hidin' under the leafy hollows of Northern hills, and the golden glow of cowslips down in the dusky brown shallows in green swamps, and white clouds a-sailin' over blue skies, and soft winds a-blowin' up from the South.
They wuz asleep, but the cookoo's notes would wake 'em in a minute or two; and then I could see by their clothes that they wuz expectin' warmer weather. It wuz a very impressive statute. Mr. Tafft done his very best—I couldn't have done as well myself—not nigh. Wall, to go through that buildin' wuz like walkin' through fairyland, if fairyland had jest blown all out full of beauty and greenness.
Right in the centre overhead, way up, way up, is a crystal ruff made to represent the sky, and it seems to be a-glitterin' in its crystal beauty way up in the clouds; underneath wuz the most beautiful pictures you ever see, or Jos[Pg 387]iah, or anybody. They wuz painted in Paris—not Paris in the upper end of Lyme County, but Paris in France, way over the billowy Atlantic; and under this magnificent dome wuz all kinds of the most beautiful palms, bamboos and tree ferns, with their shiny, feathery foliage, and big leaves. Why some of them long, feathery leaves wuz so big, if the tree wuz in the middle of our dooryard the ends of 'em would go over into the orchard—one leaf; the idee! Why, you would almost fancy you wuz in a tropical forest, as you looked up into the great feathery masses and leaves as big as a hull tree almost; and risin' right in the centre wuz a mountain sixty feet high all covered with tropical verdure; leadin' into it wuz a shady, cool grotto, where wuz all kinds of ferns, and exquisite plants, that love to grow in such spots.
And way in through, a-flashin' through the cool darkness of the spot, you could see the wonderful rays of that strange light that has a soul.
And if you will believe it—I don't spoze you will—but there is plants here grown by that artificial light—the idee!
I sez to Josiah, "Did you ever see anything like the idee of growin' plants by lamplight?" and he sez—
"It is a new thing, but a crackin' good one," and he added—
[Pg 388]
"What can be done in one place can in another," and he got all excited up, and took his old account-book out of his pocket and went to calculatin' on how many cowcumbers he could raise in the winter down suller by the light of his old lantern.
I discouraged him, and sez I, "You can't raise plants by the light of that old karsene lantern, and there hain't no room, anyway, in our suller."
And he said, "He wuz bound to spade up round the pork barrel and try a few hills, anyway;" and sez he, dreamily, "We might raise a few string-beans and have 'em run up on the soap tub."
But I made him put up his book, for we wuz attractin' attention, and I told him agin that we hadn't got the conveniences to home that they had here.
He put up his book and we wended on, but he had a look on his
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