Around the World with Josiah Allen's WifeHolley, Marietta
General
Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife
Holley, Marietta
Women travelers -- Fiction
Holdin' Oppression and Injustice back with a hard bit and makin' 'em
behave, makin' Envy and Hatred sheath their claws some as a cat will
when it is warm and happy. He tears down mouldy walls and lets the
sunshine in. Pullin' up what bad-smellin' weeds he can in the gardens
of the poor, and transplantin' some of the overcrowded posy beds of
the rich into the bare sile, makin' 'em both look better and do
better. I set store by him. But to resoom:
CHAPTER XXXII
Amongst my letters wuz one from Evangeline Noble tellin' of her safe
arrival in Africa and of the beginning of her work there, some like
strikin' a match to light a lamp in a dark suller, but different from
that because the light she lit wuz liable to light other lamps, and so
on and on and on till no tellin' what a glorious brilliance would
shine from the one little rushlight she wuz kindlin'. She felt it, she
wuz happy with that best kind of happiness, doin' good. She spoke of
Cousin John Richard, too; he wuz not in the same place she wuz, but
she hearn of him often, for his life wuz like a vase filled with the
precious ointment broke at the feet of Jesus. Broken in a earthly
sense, but the rich aroma sweetened the whole air about and ascended
to the very heavens.
A missionary she knew had seen him just before she wrote me. He wuz
working, giving his life and finding it again, useful, happy,
beloved. Not a success in a worldly way; Mudd-Weakdew would have
called it a dead failure. In place of a palace, Cousin John
Richard could not call even the poor ruff that sheltered him his own.
Instead of a retinue of servants, Cousin John Richard worked
diligently with his hands to earn his daily bread; instead of
stocks and bonds bringing him rich revenues, he had only the title
deeds of the house of many mansions, and Mudd-Weakdew would not
have accepted any deeds unless signed before a notary and sealed with
our govermunt stamp. No wealth, no luxuries, not hardly the
necessities of life had Cousin John Richard, whilst Mudd-Weakdew
wuz steeped in the atmosphere of wealth and grandeur for which he
had lived and toiled, yet Cousin John Richard wuz blissfully happy
and content, Mudd-Weakdew unspeakably and hopelessly wretched. Both
had follored their goles and wuz settin' on 'em, but, oh! how
different they wuz--how different to themselves and them about 'em.
Inspiration and help flowed from Cousin John Richard's personality
like the warm sunshine of a clear June day, or the perfume from a rare
lily, brightening, sweetening and uplifting all about him, whilst from
Mudd-Weakdew fell a dark shadder made up of gloom, discontent, envy,
hatred. How different they wuz, how different they wuz! And Robert
Strong's gole, how different his wuz from Mudd-Weakdew's. I
methought of what Miss Meechim had said to me deplorin'ly, how
different Robert Strong wuz. Yes, indeed! both on 'em had had fur
different goles and pursued 'em. The onselfish road Robert Strong trod
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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