Phemie Frost's ExperiencesStephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
General
Phemie Frost's Experiences
Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
Fiction
The society give this lady no remunerative salary, and nothing but a
pure missionary spirit could keep her in that dull and mournful place.
If she raises money enough to keep the homestead in repair, it is all
any one ought to ask, and all the nation wants. But for my part, I scorn
this quiddling way of making money. There is a meanness about it that
disgraces the nation.
The thing that should be done is this: put the whole concern into the
hands of Congress. It ought to belong to the nation. Washington was not
the saviour of a lot of women only, but of the whole country. Let the
country have possession of his old home, and appropriate all the money
needed to keep it in perfect order, as Washington left it. If the women
of America raised money enough to buy the estate for no better purpose
than to peddle out a sight of Washington's tomb for twenty-five cents a
sight, and keep flowers to sell, they have sent their patriotism to a
mighty small retail market.
Well, in the afternoon we all went on board the steamboat again, and had
a good time running up and down the river, which is just one of the
things I should like to do every day; for the day was bright enough to
keep one out-doors forever, if it would only have lasted so long.
When we had got out of sight of Mount Vernon, a band of music came on
deck, and played like anything, while we went down into the cabin, one
party at a time, and ate dinner, which tasted delicious, I can tell
you--to say nothing of the bottled cider, and such like, that kept the
corks a-flying about like bullets.
It is wonderful what smartness that cider gives to a person. It sparkles
through one like the first spring sap in a maple-tree.
When I went on deck again, my limbs felt springy as a steel trap, and I
couldn't help dancing along, for a band of fiddlers and toot-horns was
a-pouring out music, that, joined to the cider, was enough to make one
want to dance with her own grandfather.
They did dance, sisters--I own it, with shame and contrition. I joined
in with the other young girls, and flatter myself they know by this time
what a genuine Virginia reel is.
Forgive me, I know it wasn't just the thing for a church member to do,
especially while returning from that tomb; but bottled cider and
fiddlers must be a stronger power in the hands of the Evil One than
anything I have tried yet; and more church members, and ever so much
older persons than me, just made that deck shake with their dancing,
half the way up that beautiful river.
Still, my head aches this morning, and I have a sort of backsliding
feeling. The truth is, Tombs and Virginia reels don't seem to gibe in
together.
LX.
MR. GREELEY'S NOMINATION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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