第7章 ARDELLA TUTT AND HER MOTHER(1)

But to resoom and continue on.I was a settin' one day, after it wuz all decided, and plans laid on; I wuz a settin' by the fire a mendin' one of Josiah's socks.I wuz a settin' there, as soft and pliable in my temper as the woosted I wuz a darnin' 'em with, my Josiah at the same time a peacefelly sawin' wood in the wood-house, when I heard a rap at the door and I riz up and opened it, and there stood two perfect strangers, females.I, with a perfect dignity and grace (and with the sock still in my left hand) asked 'em to set down, and consequently they sot.Then ensued a slight pause durin' which my two gray eyes roamed over the females before me.

The oldest one wuz very sharp in her face and had a pair of small round eyes that seemed when they were sot onto you to sort a bore into you like two gimlets.Her nose was very sharp and defient, as if it wuz constantly sayin' to itself, "I am a nose to be looked up to, I am a nose to be respected, and feared if necessary." Her chin said the same thing, and her lips which wuz very thin, and her elbow, which wuz very sharp.

Her dress was a stiff sort of a shinin' poplin, made tight acrost the chest and elboes.And her hat had some stiff feathers in it that stood up straight and sort a sharp lookin'.She had a long sharp breast-pin sort a stabbed in through the front of her stiff standin' collar, and her knuckles sot out through her firm lisle thread gloves, her umberell wuz long and wound up hard, to that extent I have never seen before nor sense.She wuz, take it all in all, a hard sight, and skairful.

The other one wuzn't no more like her in looks than a soft fat young cabbage head is like the sharp bean pole that it grows up by the side on, in the same garden.She wuz soft in her complexion, her lips, her cheeks, her hands, and as I mistrusted at that first minute, and found out afterwards, soft in her head too.Her dress wuz a loose-wove parmetty, full in the waist and sort a drabbly round the bottom.Her hat wuz drab-colored felt with some loose ribbon bows a hangin' down on it, and some soft ostridge tips.

She had silk mits on and her hands wuz fat and kinder moist-lookin'.Her eyes wuz very large and round, and blue, and looked sort o' dreamy and wanderin' and there wuz a kind of a wrapped smile on her face all the time.She had a roll of paper in her hand and I didn't dislike her looks a mite.

Finally the oldest female opened her lips, some as a steel trap would open sudden and kinder sharp, and sez she: "I am Miss Deacon Tutt, of Tuttville, and this is my second daughter Ardelia.

Cordelia is my oldest, and I have 4 younger than Ardelia."I bowed real polite and said, "I wuz glad to make the acquaintance of the hull 7 on 'em." I can be very genteel when I set out, almost stylish.

"I s'pose," says she, "I am talkin' to Josiah Allen's wife?"I gin her to understand that that wuz my name and my station, and she went on, and sez she: "I have hearn on you through my husband's 2d cousin, Cephas Tutt.""Cephas," sez she, "bein' wrote to by me on the subject of Ardelia, the same letter containin' seven poems of hern, and on bein' asked to point out the quickest way to make her name and fame known to the world at large, wrote back that he havin' always dealt in butter and lard, wuzn't up to the market price in poetry, and that you would be a good one to go to for advice.And so,"sez she a pointin' to a bag she carried on her arm (a hard lookin'

bag made of crash with little bullets and knobs of embroidery on it), "and so we took this bag full of Ardelia's poetry and come on the mornin' train, Cephas'es letter havin' reached us at nine o'clock last night.I am a woman of business."The bag would hold about 4 quarts and it wuz full.I looked at it and sithed.

"I see," sez she, "that you are sorry that we didn't bring more poetry with us.But we thought that this little batch would give you a idee of what a mind she has, what a glorious, soarin' genus wuz in front of you, and we could bring more the next time we come."I sithed agin, three times, but Miss Tutt didn't notice 'em a mite no more'n they'd been giggles or titters.She wouldn't have took no notice of them.She wuz firm and decided doin' her own errent, and not payin' no attention to anything, nor anybody else.

"Ardelia, read the poem you have got under your arm to Miss Allen!

The bag wuz full of her longer ones," sez she, "but I felt that Imust let you hear her poem on spring.It is a gem.I felt it would be wrongin' you, not to give you that treat.Read it Ardelia."I see Ardelia wuz used to obeyin' her ma.She opened the sheet to once, and begun.

Jest the minute Ardelia stopped readin' Miss Tatt says proudly:

"There! haint that a remarkable poem,?"

Sez I, calmly, "Yes it is a remarkable one.""Did you ever hear anything like it?" says she, triumphly.

"No," sez I honestly, "I never did."

"Ardelia, read the poem on Little Ardelia Cordelia; give Miss Allen the treat of hearin' that beautiful thing."I sort a sithed low to myself; it wuz more of a groan than a common sithe, but Miss Tutt didn't heed it, she kep' right on --"I have always brought up my children to make other folks happy, all they can, and in rehearsin' this lovely and remarkable poem, Ardelia will be not only makin' you perfectly happy, givin' you a rich intellectual feast, that you can't often have, way out here in the country, fur from Tuttville; but she will also be attendin'

to the business that brought us here.I have always fetched my children up to combine joy and business; weld 'em together like brass and steel.Ardelia, begin!"So Ardelia commenced agin'.It wuz wrote on a big sheet of paper and a runnin' vine wuz a runnin' all 'round the edge of the paper, made with a pen.

Jest as soon as Ardelia stopped rehearsin' the verses, Miss Tutt sez agin to me:

"Haint that a most remarkable poem?"