第19章 ARDELIA AND ABRAM GEE(3)

unreasonable, though whether I could get her there and back without her mashin' all down on my hands, like a over ripe peach, she wuz that soft, wuz a question that hanted me, and so I told Josiah.

But Josiah kinder likes young girls (nothin' light; a calm meetin'-house affection), it is kinder nater that he should, and he sez: "Better let her go, she won't make much trouble.""No," sez I, "not to you, but if you had to set for hours and hours and hear her verses read to you on every subject -- on heaven, and earth, and the seas, and see her a measurin' of it with a stick to get the lines the right length; if you had to go through all this, mebby you would meditate on the subject before you took it for a summer's job."" Wall," sez he, "mebby she won't write so much when she gets started; she will be kinder jogged round and stirred up in body and mebby her feelins' will kinder rest.I shouldn't wonder a mite if they did," sez he."And then she can take a good many steps for you, and I love to see you favored," sez he.

He wanted her to go, I see that, and I see that it wuz natur that he should, and so I consented in my mind -- after a parlay.

She found his specks a sight and his hat.Nothin' seemed to please her better than to be gropin' round after things to please somebody; her disposition wuz such.So it wuz settled that she should accompany and go with us.And the mornin' we started she met us at the Jonesville Depot in good sperits and a barege delaine dress, cream color, and a hat of the same.

I hadn't seen her for some weeks, and she seemed softly tickled to see Josiah and me, and asked a good many questions about Jonesville, kinder turnin' the conversation gradually round onto bread, as I could see.So I branched right out, knowin' what she wanted of me, and told her plain, that "Abram Gee wuz a lookin'

kinder mauger.But doin' his duty stiddy," sez I, lookin' keenly at her, "a doin' his duty by everybody, and beloved by everybody, him and his bread too."She turned her head away and kinder sithed, and I guess it wuz as much as a quarter of a hour after that, that I see her take out a pencil and a piece of paper out of her portmonny, and a little stick, and she went to makin' some verses, a measurin' 'em careful as she wrote 'em, and when she handed 'em to me they wuz named"A LAY ON A CAR;"or "THE LESSON OF A LOCOMOTIVE."

After I had read it and handed it back to her, she sez, "Don't you think I improve on the melody and rhythm of my poetry? Itake this little stick with me now wherever I go, and measure my lines by it.They are jest of a length, I am very particular;you know you advised me to be."

"Yes," sez I mechaniklly, "but I didn't mean jest that." Sez I, "the poetry I wuz a thinkin' on, is measured by the soul, the enraptured throb of heart and brain; it don't need takin' a stick to it.Howsumever," sez I, for I see she looked sort a disapinted, "howsumever, if you have measured 'em, they are probable about the same length: it is a good sound stick, Ihaint no doubt;" and I kinder sithed.

And she sez, "What do you think of the first verse? Haint that verse as true as fate, or sadness, or anything else you know of?""Oh yes," sez I candidly, "yes; if the cars run backwards we shouldn't go on; that is true as anything can be.But if I wuz in your place, Ardelia," sez I, "I wouldn't write any more to-day.It is a kind of muggy damp day.It is a awfully bad day for poetry to-day.And," sez I, to get her mind offen it, "Have you seen anything of my companion's specks?"And that took her mind offen poetry and she went a huntin' for 'em, on the seat and under the seat.She hunted truly high and low and at last she found 'em on my pardner's foretop, the last place any of us thought of lookin'.And she never said another word about poetry, or any other trouble, nor I nuther.