Around the World with Josiah Allen's WifeHolley, Marietta
General
Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife
Holley, Marietta
Women travelers -- Fiction
And so it went on, sad things put me in mind of him and joyful things,
all, all speakin' of him, and how, how wuz I to brook the separation?
But I will cease to harrow the reader's tender bosom. Dry your tears,
reader, I will proceed onwards.
The next day we sot off for California, via Salt Lake and Denver.
Jest as we left the tarven at Chicago our mail wuz put in our hands,
forwarded by the Jonesville postmaster accordin' to promise; but not a
word from my pardner, roustin' up my apprehensions afresh. Had his
fond heart broken under the too great strain? Had he passed away
callin' on my name?
My tears dribbled down onto my dress waist, though I tried to stanch
'em with my snowy linen handkerchief. Tommy's tears, too, began to
fall, seein' which I grabbed holt of Duty's black apron-strings and
wuz agin calm on the outside, and handed Tommy a chocolate drop (which
healed his woond), although on the inside my heart kep' on a seethin'
reservoir of agony and forbodin's.
The next day, as I sot in my comfortable easy chair on the car,
knittin' a little, tryin' to take my mind offen trouble and Josiah,
Tommy wuz settin' by my side, and Miss Meechim and Dorothy nigh by.
Aronette, like a little angel of Help, fixin' the cushions under our
feet, brushin' the dust offen her mistresses dresses, or pickin' up my
stitches when in my agitation or the jigglin' of the cars I dropped
'em, and a perfect Arabian Night's entertainer to Tommy, who
worshipped her, when I hearn a exclamation from Tommy, and the car
door shet, and I looked round and see a young man and woman advancin'
down the isle. They wuz a bridal couple, that anybody could see. The
blessed fact could be seen in their hull personality--dress, demeanor,
shinin' new satchels and everything, but I didn't recognize 'em till
Tommy sez:
"Oh, grandma, there is Phila Henzy and the man she married!"
Could it be? Yes it wuz Phila Ann Henzy, Philemon Henzy's oldest girl,
named for her pa and ma, I knew she wuz married in Loontown the week
before. I'd hearn on't, but had never seen the groom, but knew he wuz
a young chap she had met to the Buffalo Exposition, and who had
courted her more or less ever sence. They seemed real glad to see me,
though their manners and smiles and hull demeanors seemed kinder new,
somehow, like their clothes. They had hearn from friends in Jonesville
that I wuz on my way to California, and they'd been lookin' for me.
Sez the groom, with a fond look on her:
"I am so glad we found you, for Baby would have been so disappointed
if we hadn't met you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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