Samantha at the Worlds Fair | Page 2

better write the book. There's ink in
the house, hain't there?" sez he anxiously.
"Yes," sez I.
"And paper?" sez he.
Agin I sez, "Yes."
"Wall, then, when there's ink and paper, what's to hender Our writin'
it?"
"Our!" "We!" Agin them words entered my soul like lead arrows and
gaulded me, but agin I looked up, and the clear light of affection that
shone from my pardner's eyes melted them arrows, and I suffered and
wuz calm. But anon I sez--

"Don't great emotions rise up in your soul, Josiah Allen, when you
think of Columbus and the World's work? Don't the mighty waves of
the past and the future dash up aginst your heart when you think of
Christopher, and what he found, and what is behind this nation, and
what is in front of it, a-bagonin' it onwards?"
"No," sez he calmly; "I look at it with the eye of a business man, and
with that eye," sez he, "I say less write the book."
He ceased his remarks, and agin silence rained in the room.
But to me the silence wuz filled with voices that he couldn't hear--deep,
prophetic voices that shook my soul. Eyes whose light the dust fell on
four hundred years ago shone agin on me in that quiet room in
Jonesville, and hanted me. Heroic hands that wuz clay centuries ago
bagoned to me to foller 'em where they led me. And so on down
through the centuries the viewless hosts passed before me and gin me
the silent countersign to let me pass into their ranks and jine the army.
And then, away out into the future, the Shadow Host defiled--fur off,
fur off--into the age of Freedom, and Justice, and Perfect rights for man
and woman, Love, Joy, Peace.
Josiah didn't see none of these performances.
No; two pardners may set side by side, and yet worlds lay between 'em.
He wuz agin immersed in his ambitious reveries.
I didn't tell him the heft or the size of my emotions as I mentally
tackled the job he proposed to me--there wuzn't no use on't. I only sez,
as I looked up at him over my specs--
"Josiah, We will write the book."

SAMANTHA AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.
CHAPTER I.

[Illustration: Drop Capital]
Christopher Columbus has always been a object of extreme interest and
admiration to me ever sence I first read about him in my old Olney's
Gography, up to the time when I hearn he wuz a-goin' to be celebrated
in Chicago.
I always looked up to Christopher, I always admired him, and in a
modest and meetin'-house sense, I will say boldly and with no fear of
Josiah before my eyes that I loved him.
Havin' such feelin's for Christopher Columbus, as I had, and havin'
such feelin's for New Discoverers, do you spoze I wuz a-goin' to have a
celebration gin for him, and also for us as bein' discovered by him,
without attendin' to it?
No, indeed! I made calculations ahead from the very first minute it wuz
spoke on, to attend to it.
And feelin' as I did--all wrought up on the subject of Christopher
Columbus--it wuz a coincerdence singular enough to skair anybody
almost to death--to think that right on the very day Christopher
discovered America, and us (only 400 years later), and on the very day
that I commenced the fine shirt that Josiah wuz a-goin' to wear to
Chicago to celebrate him in--
That very Friday, if you'll believe me, Christopher Columbus walked
right into our kitchen at Jonesville--and discovered me.
[Illustration: If you'll believe me, Christopher Columbus Allen walked
right into our kitchen--and discovered me.]
Yes, Christopher Columbus Allen, a relative I never had seen, come to
Jonesville and our house on his way to the World's Fair.
Jest to think on't--Christopher Columbus Allen, who had passed his
hull life up in Maine, and then descended down onto us at such a time
as this, when all the relations in Jonesville wuz jest riz up about the

doin's of that great namesake of hisen--And the gussets wuz even then
a-bein' cut out and sewed on to the shirt that wuz a-goin' to encompass
Josiah Allen about as he went to Chicago to celebrate him--
That then, on that Friday, P.M., about the time of day that the Injuns
wuz a-kneelin' to the first Christopher, to think that Josiah Allen should
walk in the new Columbus into our kitchen--why, I don't spoze a more
singular and coincidin' circumstance ever happened before durin' the
hull course of time.
The only incident that mellered it down any and made it a little less
miracalous wuz the fact that he never had been called by his full name.
He always has been, is now, and I spoze