Samantha at the Worlds Fair | Page 8

But Elnathan had done well; I admitted it only when I wuz too much
put upon.
He had gone fur West, got rich, invested his capital first rate, some on
it in a big Eastern city, and had got to be a millionare.
He wuz a widower with one child, The Little Maid, as he called her; he
jest idolized her, and thought she wuz perfect.
And I spoze she wuz oncommon, not from what her Pa said--no, I
didn't take all his talk about her for Gospel; I know too much.
But Barzelia Ann Allen (a old maid up to date) had seen her, had been

out to California on a excursion train, and had staid some time with
'em.
And she said that she wuz the smartest child this side of Heaven. With
eyes of violet blue, big luminous eyes, that draw the hearts and souls of
folks right out of their bodies when they looked into 'em, so full of
radiant joy and heavenly sweetness wuz they.
And hair of waving gold, and lips and cheeks as pink as the hearts of
the roses that climbed all Winter round her winder--and the sweetest,
daintiest ways--and so good to everybody, them that wuz poor and
sufferin' most of all.
Barzeel wuz always most too enthusiastick to suit me, but I got the idee
from what she said that she wuz a oncommon lovely child.
Good land! Elnathan couldn't talk about anything else--like little
babblin' brooks runnin' towards the sea, all his talk, every anecdote he
told, and every idee he sot forth, jest led up to and ended with that child.
Jest like creeks.
He worshipped her.
And he himself told me so many stories about her bein' so good to the
poor, and sacrificin' her little comforts for 'em--at her age, too--that I
thought to myself, I wonder why you don't take some of them object
lessons to heart--why you don't set down at her feet, and learn of
her--and I wonder too where she took her sweet charity from, but spoze
it wuz from her mother. Her mother had been a beautiful woman, so I
had been told. She wuz a Devereaux--nobody that I ever knew, or
Josiah. Celeste Devereaux.
The little girl wuz named for her mother. But they always called her
The Little Maid.
Wall, to resoom, and to hitch my horse in front of the wagon agin.
(Allegory.)

Elnathan had left The Little Maid and her nurse in that Eastern city
where he owned so much property, and had come on to pay a flyin'
visit to Jonesville, not forgittin' Loontown, you may be sure, where a
deceased Aunt had jest died and left her property to him.
He wuz close.
He had left The Little Maid in the finest hotel in the city, so he said. He
had looked over more'n a dozen, so I hearn, before he could git one he
thought wuz healthy enough and splendid enough for her. At last he
selected one, standin' on a considerable rise of ground, with big, high,
gorgeous rooms, and prices higher than the very topmost cupalo, and
loftiest chimbly pot.
Here he got two big rooms for The Little Maid, and one for the nurse.
He got the two rooms for the child so's the air could circulate through
'em.
[Illustration: Here he got two big rooms.]
He wuz very particular about her havin' air of the very purest and best
kind there wuz made, and the same with vittles and clothes, etc., etc.,
etc.
Wall, while he wuz a-goin' on so about pure air and the values and
necessities of it, I couldn't help thinkin' of what Barzelia had told me
about that big property of hisen in the Eastern city where he had left
The Little Maid.
Here, in the very lowest part of the city, he owned hull streets of
tenement housen, miserable old rotten affairs, down in stiflin' alleys,
and courts, breeders of disease, and crime, and death.
At first some on 'em fell into his hands by a exchange of property, and
he found they paid so well, that he directed his agent to buy up a lot of
'em.
Barzelia had told me all about 'em, she was jest as enthusiastick about

what she didn't like as what she did; she said the money got in that way,
by housin' the poor in such horrible pestilental places, seemed jest like
makin' a bargain with Death. Rentin' housen to him to make carnival in.
And while he wuz talkin' to such great length, and with such a satisfied
and comfortable look onto his face, about the vital necessities of pure
air and beautiful surroundin's, in order to make children well and happy,
my thoughts kept a-roamin', and I couldn't help