Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife by Marietta Holley (ebook reader android txt) 📖

We stayed there for some time, and on our way home a dretful thing happened to me. After we all got started, sunthin’ happened to one of the poles of my chair, and with as much motionin’ and jabberin’ as a presidential election would call for, they at last got it fixed agin. By that time the party had all disappeared, and the bearers of my vehicle started off at their highest speed right acrost ploughed land and springin’ crops and everything, not stoppin’ for anything.

Where wuz they takin’ me? Wuz I to perish in these wilds? Wuz they carryin’ me off for booty? I had on my cameo pin and I trembled. It wuz my pride in Jonesville; wuz I to lose my life for it? Or wuz it my good looks that wuz ondoin’ of me? Did they want to make me their brides? I sez to them in agonizin’ axents, “Take me back instantly to my pardner! He is the choice of my youth! I will never wed another! You hain’t congenial to me anyway! It is vain for you to elope with me for I will never be your brides!”

But they jabbered and motioned and acted and paid no attention only to rush along faster than ever.

I then tried a new tact with ’em. With tremblin’ fingers I onpinned the cameo pin, and with a noble jester that would have become Jeptha as he gin his only daughter for a sacrifice, I handed it out to ’em. And sez I, “If that is what you want, take it, and then bear me back safely to my beloved pardner agin.”

But they never touched it. They only jabbered away 280 louder and more fierce like and yanked me along faster than ever.

Oh, the agony of that time! Dear Josiah, should I never see thee agin? and the children and the grandchildren? Hills and dells of lovely Jonesville! Would they never dawn on my vision more! Would the old mair never whinner joyfully at my appearance, or Snip bark a welcome?

I thought of all the unfortunate Hebrew wimmen who would have been neighbors to me then if I had been born soon enough. Ruth, Esther, Hagar, they all had suffered, they had all most likely looked off onto the desert, even as I wuz lookin’ for help, and it didn’t come to some on ’em. And by this time to add to my sufferin’s, the mantilly of night was descendin’ over the seen, the tropical night that comes so swift, so fast, oh, what should I do? Every move I made, every despairin’ jester only seemed to make ’em go faster, so it wuz plain to be seen that my help wuz not in man. I thought of that pillar of fire that had lighted that sad procession of Hebrews acrost that very desert. And, like a cool, firm hand, laid on a feverish, restless foretop, come agin the thought of them three wise men that had trod that desert waste. No path, no guide to lead ’em, only the Star, and I sez in my inmost heart:

“That Star hain’t lost its light; it remains jest as bright and clear to-day as it did then to light true believers acrost the darkness in the hour of their need.” And jest as plain as though they wuz spoke to me come these beautiful words: “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help.”

And I lifted my streamin’ eyes accordin’, for by this time I wuz cryin’ and sheddin’ tears. I could see by the faint light in the west that there wuz considerable of a hill on the east of me, and as my weepin’ eyes wuz lifted in that direction my heart almost stood still as I beheld all of a sudden a glowin’ star of light shine out of the darkness right on the top of that hill and rapidly desend in my direction nearer and nearer.

Oh, joy! oh, bliss! it wuz my own pardner with a lantern. His devoted love had bore him back. Settin’ on a donkey bearin’ a lantern, he looked to me like an angel. It wuz the star of love, indeed it wuz! the brightest star of earth come to light my dark pathway. And I bust out:

“Oh, Josiah Allen! you are not one of the wise men, but you look better to me than any of ’em could.”

And he sez, “It don’t look very pretty for you, after hangin’ out till this time o’ night, to run the one who has come way back after you with a lantern, and talk about his not knowin’ anything.”

“Run you, Josiah,” sez I, “you look more beautiful to me than words can tell.”

That mollified him and he sez with a modest smile, “I spoze I am very pretty lookin’, but I worried about you a sight.”

It seems that they had went on a pretty good jog, and seein’ my bearers had got belated with me they had took a short cut acrost the fields to overtake ’em. But it was a eppisode not to be forgot, and I told Josiah not to be separated away from me a minute after this. Sez I, “I almost feel like purchasin’ a rope and tyin’ myself to you for the rest of the tower.”

Sez he, “That would make talk, Samantha, but I will keep my eye on you and not let you git carried off agin; for the feelin’s I felt when I missed you I would not go through agin for a dollar bill.”

Well, we soon come up with the rest of the party. It seemed that they had been talkin’ and havin’ such a good time they hadn’t missed me for quite a while. But when they did, Arvilly said Josiah acted some as he did when she and he pursued me acrost the continent; sez she, “He acted like a fool; I knew you couldn’t be fur behind.”

And I sez, “Arvilly, spiritual things are spiritually discerned; love is spiritual and love has to interpret it.”

“Well,” sez she, “I am glad he found you so soon, for, to tell the truth, I wuz beginnin’ to worry a little myself.”

Miss Meechim said she thought I had gone into some shrine to worship.

That was a great idee! off with four Arabs huntin’ a shrine at that time of night!

The next day we started for Jerusalem by way of Joppa and Ismalia. It wuz on a fair evenin’, as the settin’ sun made strange reflections on earthly things, we entered through the gate into Jerusalem, city of our God. Nineteen centimes since, the Star moved along through the December night and stood over the lonely manger in Bethlehem where a Babe wuz born. The three wise men wuz the first visitors to that Child. Now fifteen thousand visitors come yearly from every part of the world to look upon this sacred place where the Man of Sorrows lived his sorrowful life of good to all, suffered and died, and the heavenly King burst the bonds of the tomb and ascended into heaven.

In these streets did sad-eyed prophets walk to and fro, carrying the message of the coming of the King. They were stunned by the gain-sayin’ world, jest as it stuns its prophets to-day, only with different kinds of stuns mebby, but hard ones. Here they wuz afflicted, tormented, beaten, sawn asunder for uttering the truth as God made it known to them, jest as they are to-day, of whom the world wuz not worthy. Just like to-day. Here after centuries had gone by, the truth they had foretold become manifest in the flesh. Jest as it shall be. After hundreds of years had gone by, he whom the prophets had foretold wuz born in Bethlehem, and the three wise men, fur apart, knowin’ nothin’ of each other, wuz warned of his birth and wuz told to foller the Star. They obeyed the heavenly vision and met on the pathless desert, as the soul’s and heart’s desires of all good men and wimmen meet who follow the Star!

Oh, sacred place! to be thus honored. What emotions I 283 felt as my own feet trod these roads, my own eyes looked on these sacred places.

The next morning after our arrival we went up to the Mount of Olives, and from a tower two hundred feet high looked down on Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is a long, low ridge on the east of the city. The Garden of Gethsemane is down on the foot of Olivet near the brook Kedron. Here eight great olive trees much larger than the rest form a sacred grove from whose melancholy shadows might well come that agonizing cry to his disciples for human sympathy and love:

“Could ye not watch with me one hour?”

Here did Judas come over the brook Kedron with the hungry, cruel mob and betray Him with a kiss. It wuz in this place that our Lord give that glorious promise that lightens life and death:

“After I be risen I will go before you.”

Every leaf of the old olive trees seemed trembling and full of memories of that hour. To the west was the valley of Jehosiphet, beyend is the city of the King. Back of you is Bethany, the home of the friends of Jesus where he tasted sometimes the human sweets of friendship, in the home of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. A beautiful soul Mary wuz, and Martha, poor creeter! I’ve always been sorry for her, workin’ away doin’ the housework when she would much rather, no doubt, set and listen as Mary did, but somebody had to be cookin’. So she jest drouged round the house.

You can see the Dead Sea and the river Jordan, where our Lord wuz baptized and the Dove descended out of the gardens of heaven and lit on him, whilst the voice of the father God spoke, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Not far away from there is Jericho. On the southwest rises the Hill of Zion, one of the four hills on which Jerusalem stands. As I looked on it I spoke to my pardner almost 284 onbeknown to me, “Oh, Josiah! how many times we’ve sung together: