Around the World with Josiah Allen's WifeHolley, Marietta
General
Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife
Holley, Marietta
Women travelers -- Fiction
"Well, it turned out jest as it did, Ulaly. But I think just as much
of you as I did before you lost your propputy, and I d'no as the
propputy Uncle Sam got hold of in the dicker is a goin' to do him much
good, not for quite a spell anyway. There is such a thing as bein'
land poor, taxes are heavy, hired help hain't to be relied on and the
more you have the more you have to watch and take care on, though of
course it is a pleasure to a certain set of faculties and some
particular bumps in your head, to own a path as you may say, most
round the world, steppin' off from California to Hawaii and then on to
the Philippines, ready to step off from there, Heaven knows how fur or
when or where. It is a pleasure to a certain part of your mind, but
other parts of your head and heart hold back and don't cheer in the
procession. But howsumever, Ulaly, that is neither here nor there. I
hope your folks are so as to git round. I wuz sorry enough to hear
that you and your pardner don't live agreeable. But though it is a
pity, pardners have had spats from Eden to Chicago and I d'no but they
always will. The trouble is they take pardners as boons instead of
dispensations, and don't lean hard enough on scripter.
"But this is not the time or place for sermons on how to be happy,
though married. How is Christina and Alfonso? I'm afraid he's gittin'
obstropolous, and I d'no but Christina will have to give him a good
spankin' before she gits through. Of course, spankin' a king seems
quite a big job to tackle, and of course he's pretty old for it. But
it don't do to let children have their heads too much. One good
spankin' will strike in truth when reams of sermons and tearful
expostulations will fail. You might just mention to Christina what
I've said, and then she can do as she wants to with fear and
tremblin'."
But I see my folks passin' down a distant path, and I sez: "I will now
bid you adoo, Ulaly, as time and Arvilly and Josiah are passin' away."
She bid me a real pleasant good-by, and I withdrawed myself and jined
my folks.
One day the hull of our party visited Fontainbleu and went through the
apartments of kings and queens and popes and cardinals. The rooms of
Napoleon wuz full of the thrilling interest that great leader always
rousted up, and always will, I spoze, till history's pages are torn up
and destroyed. And in the rooms of Marie Antoinette we see the lovely
costly things gin to this beautiful queen when the people loved her,
and she, as she slept under the beautiful draperies gin by the
people, never dreamed, I spoze, that the hands that wrought love and
admiration into these fabrics would turn on her and rend her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account