第55章 VISITS TO NOTABLE PLACES(4)

"Walk back!" sez I, in deep amaze."Do they walk from way out there, and cleer up that mountain agin?""Yes," sez she."Don't you see the place at the side for 'em to draw the Toboggen up, and the little flights of steps for 'em to go up the hill?""Wall," sez I, in deep amaze, and auxins as ever to get information on deep subjects, "where duz the fun come in, is it in walkin' way over the plain and up the hills, or is it in comin' down?"And she said she didn't know exactly where the fun lay, but she s'posed it wuz comin' down.Anyway, they seemed to enjoy it first rate.And she said it wuz a pretty sight to see 'em all on a bright clear night, when the sky wuz blue and full of stars, and the earth white and glistenin' underneath to see 7 or 800, all dressed up in to gayest way, suits of white blankets, gay borders and bright tasseled caps of every color, and suits of every other pretty color all trimmed with fur and embroideries, to see 'em all a laughin' and a talkin', with their cheeks and eyes bright and glowin', to see 'em a comin' down the slide like flashes of every colored light, and away out over the white glistenin' plains; and then to see the long line of happy laughin'

creeters a walkin' back agin' drawin' the gay Toboggens.She said it wuz a sight worth seein'.

"Do they come down alone?" sez Josiah.

"Oh no!" sez she."Boys and their sweethearts, men and wives, fathers and mothers and children, sometimes 4 on a Toboggan."Sez Josiah, lookin' anamated and clever, "I'd love to take you on one on 'em, Samantha.'

"Oh no!" sez I, "I wouldn't want to be took."But a bystander a standin' by said it wuz a sight to behold to stand up on top and start off.He said the swiftness of the motion, the brightness of the electric lights ahead, the gleam of the snow made it seem like plungin' down a dazzlin' Niagara of whiteness and glitterin' light; and some, like bein' shot out of a cannon.Why, he said they went with such lightnin' speed, that if you stood clost by the slide a waitin' to see a friend go by, you might stand so near as to touch her, but you couldn't no more see her to recognize her, than you could recognize one spoke from another in the wheel of a runaway carriage.You would jest see a red flash go by, if so be it wuz a red gown she had on.A red flash a dartin' through the air, and a disappearin' down the long glitterin' lane of light.

You could see her a goin' back, so they said, a laughin' and a jokin' with somebody, if so be she walked back, but there wuz long sleighs to carry 'em back, them and their Toboggens, if they wanted to ride, at the small expenditure of 10 cents apiece.

They go, in the fastest time anybody can make till they go on the lightnin', a way in which they will go before long, I think, and Josiah duz too.

"They said there wuzn't nothin' like it.And I said, "Like as not." I believed 'em.And then the woman said, "This long room we wuz a standin' in," for we had gone back into the house, durin' our interview, this long room wuz all warm and light for 'em to come into and get warm, and she said as many as 600 in a night would come in there and have supper there.

And then she showed us the model of a Toboggen, all sculped out, with a man and a woman on it.The girl wuz ahead sort a drawin'

the Toboggen, as you may say, and her lover.(I know he wuz, from his looks.) He wuz behind her, with his face right clost to her shoulder.

And I'll bet that when they started down that gleamin' slide, they felt as if they 2 wuz alone under the stars and the heavens, and wuz a glidin' down into a dazzlin' way of glory.You could see it in their faces.I liked their faces real well.

But the sight on 'em made Josiah Allen crazier'n ever to go too, and he sez, "I feel as if I must Toboggen, Samantha!"Sez I, "Be calm! Josiah, you can't slide down hill in July.""How do you know?" sez he, "I'm bound to enquire." And he asked the woman if they ever Toboggened in the summer.

"No, never!" sez she.

And I sez, "You see it can't be done."

"She never see it tried," sez he."How can you tell what you can do without tryin'?" sez he lookin' shrewdly, and longingly, up the slide.I trembled, for I knew not what the next move of his would be.But I bethought me of a powerful weepon I had by me.

And I sez, "The driver will ask pay for every minute we are here."And as I sez this, Josiah turned and almost flew down the steps and into the buggy.I had skairt him.Truly I felt relieved, and sez I to myself, "What would wimmen do if it wuzn't for these little weepons they hold in their hands, to control their pardners with." I felt happy.

But the next words of Josiah knocked down all that palace of Peace, that my soul had betook herself to.Sez he, "Samantha Allen, before I leave Saratoga I shall Toboggen."Wall, I immegetly turned the subject round and talked wildly and almost incoherently on politicks.I praised the tariff amost beyond its deserts.I brung up our foreign relations, and spoke well on 'em.I tackled revenues and taxation, and hurried him from one to the other on 'em, almost wildly, to get the idee out of his head.And I congratulated myself on havin' succeeded.

Alas! how futile is our hopes, sometimes futiler than we have any idee on!

By night all thoughts of danger had left me, and I slept sweetly and peacefully.But early in the mornin' I had a strange dream.