Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife Part 15

There wuz some handsome houses in the residence portion of the city, but aside from the Cathedral there are few public buildings worth seeing. But one thing they have here always beautiful, and that is the luxuriant tropical vegetation, beautiful blossoming trees and shrubs, and the mult.i.tude of flowers, tall palms, bamboo, ebony, log-wood, mangoes, oranges, lemons, bread fruit, custard apples, and forty or fifty varieties of bananas, from little ones, not much more than a mouthful, to them eighteen or twenty inches long. Josiah enjoyed his walk, finding many things to emulate when he got back to Jonesville.

Among 'em wuz the Chinamen's hair; he thought it wuz a dressy way to comb a man's hair, and he wondered dreamily how his would look if he let it grow out and braid it. But he said if he did, he should wear red ribbons on it, or baby blue. But I knew there wuz no danger of his hair ever stringin' down his back, for I could, if danger pressed too near, cut it off durin' his sleep, and would, too, even if it led to words.

Wall, Arvilly's first work, after she had canva.s.sed the hotel-keeper for the "Twin Crimes," and as many of the guests as she could, wuz to find out if Waitstill wuz there. And sure enough she found her. She wuz in one of the hospitals and doin' a good work, jest as she would anywhere she wuz put. She come to the hotel to see us as soon as she could, and Arvilly seemed to renew her age, having Waitstill with her agin. We writ to once to Cousin John Richard.

Robert Strong and Dorothy wuz dretful interested in Waitstill, I could see, and they asked a great many questions about her work in the hospital. And I see that Robert wuz only grounded in his convictions when Waitstill told him of the sickness the doctors and nurses had to contend with, and how largely it wuz caused by liquor drinking.

Hundreds of American saloons in Manila, so she said, and sez she, "How can the hospitals hope to undo the evils that these do to men's souls and bodies?" Sez she, "You know what a fearful disease and crime breeder it is in a temperate climate, but it is tenfold worse here in this tropical land."

She wuz anxious to hear all the news from Jonesville, and I willin'ly told her what Phila Ann had told me about Elder White, and the n.o.ble work he was doin' in East Loontown, and I sez, "Missionary work is jest as necessary and jest as important and pleasin' to G.o.d if done in Loontown as in the Antipithies."

And she said she knew it. And I sez: "Elder White is working himself to death, and don't have the comforts of life, to say nothin' of the happiness he ort to."

Waitstill didn't say nothin', but I fancied a faint pink flush stole up into her white cheeks, some like the color that flashes up onto a s...o...b..nk at sunset. Life wuz all snow and sunset to her, I could see, but I knowed that she wuz the one woman in the world for Ernest White, the ideal woman his soul had always wors.h.i.+pped, and found realized in Waitstill--poor little creeter!

I didn't know whether the warm sun of his love could melt the snow and frozen hail or not--the sun duz melt such things--and I knew love wuz the greatest thing in the world. Well, I had to leave the event to Providence, and wuz willin' to; but yet, after a woman duz leave things to the Most High to do, she loves to put in her oar and help things along; mebby that is the way of Providence--who knows? But 'tennyrate I gin another blind hint to her before we left the conversation.

Sez I, "Ernest White is doin' the Lord's work if ever a man did, and I can't think it is the Lord's will that whilst he's doin' it he ort to eat such bread as he has to--milk emtin's and sour at that, to say nothin' of fried stuff that a anaconda couldn't digest. He deserves a sweet, love-guarded home, and to be tended to by a woman that he loves--one who could inspire him and help him on in the heavenly way he's treading alone and lonesome." Her cheeks did turn pink then, and her eyes looked like deep blue pools in which stars wuz s.h.i.+nin', but she didn't say anything, and Robert Strong resoomed his talk with her about her hospital work. And before she left he gin her a big check to use for her patients; I don't know exactly how big it wuz, but it went up into the hundreds, anyway; and Dorothy gin her one, too, for I see her write it; Miss Meechim gin her her blessin' and more'n a dozen tracts, which mebby will set well on the patients, if administered cautious. I myself gin her the receipt for the best mustard poultice that ever drawed, and two pairs of clouded blue-and-white wool socks I had knit on the way, and though it wuz a warm country she said they would come handy when her patients had chills.

There wuz two young American girls at the hotel, and they happened to come into the parlor while we wuz talkin' and they sent a big present to the hospital. I guess they wuz real well off and good dispositioned. They wuz travellin' alone and seemed to be havin' a real good time. One on 'em wuz sunthin' of a invalid, but wuz outdoors all day, I spoze tryin' to git well. They minded their own bizness and didn't do any hurt so fur as I could see, but Elder Wessel couldn't bear 'em. Sez he to me one day:

"I spoze they represent the new young woman?"

He said it real skornful, and Arvilly, who wuz present, took him up real snappish. "Well, what of it? What have they done?" If that poor man had said that black wuz black and white wuz white, Arvilly would found fault with it.

"I don't object to what they have done," sez he, "so much as to what they are. Young American women know too much." And Arvilly sez with a meanin' glance at him, "That is sunthin' that everybody don't have to stand."

She might just as well have called him a fool, her axent wuz such.

Arvilly is too hash. Sez he: "Now my Lucia is different. She knows nothing about sin and wickedness, and I got this position for her, so that as soon as she left the convent she was placed directly in the care of this good woman and her little innocent child. What does she know of sin or sorrow, or worldliness or vanity?"

"Or danger?" sez I meanin'ly. "If she always has some one at her side to guard her, her perfect ignorance and innocence is a charm, but how would it be in the hour of danger and temptation? Why should anybody fear being burned if they had no knowledge of fire?"

"Oh," sez he, "her divine innocence is her safeguard. Evil would retire abashed before the timid glance of her pure eyes."

"I hope so," sez I dryly. "I hope so. But I never knew the whiteness of its wool to help a lamb if a wolfdog got after it. But mebby it will in her case," sez I reasonably. "I don't want to break up your happiness," sez I.

"You cannot," sez he dogmatically. "You cannot. I have brought up my Lucia in the only right way for a young girl to be brought up. She has been completely separated from young people of the opposite s.e.x; she knows nothing of fas.h.i.+onable flirting and folly. And when I see such abnormal creatures as the New Girl, as they call her, I am horrified, shocked beyond words at the spectacle of their brazen independence and what they call their freedom, their comrades.h.i.+p with the opposite s.e.x, their fearlessness and boldness and frankness with gentlemen, talking with them really as if they were of the same s.e.x as themselves. As I see this I thank G.o.d my Lucia is different."

Well, she wuz a pretty little thing, with eyes as innocent and timid as a young fawn's that had never been outside its green covert in the great wilderness. But I knew that under her baby looks and baby ways wuz a woman's heart; a woman's emotions and impulses would roust up when the time come and the sun of love shone down on her. Why, Nater had layed down laws before Elder Wessel did; he couldn't keep her from thinkin' about her future mate; she would let her mind dwell on some one if it wuz only the man in the moon. And I knew the world wuz full of bad men as well as good men. How would it be with her if thrown with a wolf in sheep's clothing? If guarded and sheltered, all right, but if onguarded and onwarned and thrown into temptation and danger, I felt that trouble wuz ahead for Lucia Wessel. But I knew it wuz no use for me to hist up a danger flag in front of her, for her father wouldn't let me. But I felt dubersome about her, dretful dubersome. She and Aronette had formed a real girl attachment for each other, and some way I didn't like the idee on't, but don't know as I could have told why.

Well, we didn't lay out to stay long in Manila, but we did stay long enough so Dorothy and Miss Meechim and Robert Strong went round and see the different islands. They went to Illollo and wuz gone for three days, Aronette stayin' with me at the tarven, and Dorothy told me when she got back how beautiful the journey wuz. The water wuz like gla.s.s, the sunrise and sunset marvellous, thickly wooded sh.o.r.es on either side filled with oncounted wealth. Great forests of sandal-wood, enough to build houses of, and how we treasure little snips on't in fan sticks. Mahogany trees enough to build barns and cow stables on, and how we gloat over a old clock case or lamp stand made on't. She said that Illollo wuz like most old Spanish towns, dretful old lookin'

and kinder run down. The natives dressed like others she had seen, but spoke a different language. They went to the American general's headquarters some two milds off. A hundred varieties of palm trees grow along the road and every sort of tropical tree. The natives wuz all dark complected, but some good lookin', most all bareheaded or else with a gay turban and knives stuck in the sashes of their gay tunics.

One day whilst the party wuz gone Tommy and I wuz takin' a little walk; Josiah couldn't go, he had got hold of a New York paper of three weeks before, and was readin' it through from t.i.tle page to Lost and Found column. We wandered into a little cross street lined on each side with little shops with the shopkeepers squattin' in the door, and outside the native wives and children. Everything under the sun almost wuz to be found in these shops, and we had wandered along for quite a good ways lookin' at the curious things, and still more curious people, when we met Aronette and Lucia, accompanied by the two young men I had seen with 'em on the boat; they wuz on the stoop of one of the old business buildin's, gigglin' and laughin' like a bevy of swallers round the eaves of a Jonesville barn.

But, as I said before, I didn't like the looks of the young men, and on Aronette's return I told her so, feelin' I wuz in a measure responsible for her safety whilst her mistress wuz away. Aronette wuz combin' Tommy's hair and curlin' it over her finger as I talked to her, which made me feel some mean to attact her whilst in my service, but Duty's ap.r.o.n string fluttered down before me and I stiddied myself on it as I spoke real good warnin' words to her.

Sez I, "My dear, I didn't like the looks of the young men I saw you walkin' with to-night." Sez I, "I saw them two young men coming out of a saloon not a half hour before, and" sez I, "they look to me dissipated and mean. They drink; I know by their looks they do."

And she sez, "Oh, dear madam, I only went out to take the air a little while. You know I care for n.o.body in this country. My heart is in old Normandie," sez she, the tears welling up to the blue well of her eyes. "My heart is with my Pierre, but," sez she, kinder tossin' her head, not a high toss, only a little vain pretty motion of a pretty, thoughtless girl, some like a bluebird in the spring of the year, "if a young man insists on paying you a little attention what can a poor little girl do? The days are long when one is young and her own Pierre so far away, and, dear madam, Lucia was with me."

"Another innocent, ignorant young creature," sez I; "two little b.u.t.terflies fluttering about instead of one, not thinkin' or carin'

for the fouler's net," sez I, smilin' on her pleasant, for I couldn't help it. For I knew the heart of youth, and the monotony of life, and the need of young hearts for each other. But I didn't like the young men's looks and told her so agin, and she laughed, and said she didn't like their looks either. Sez she, "Their breath always smells of the whiskey. Faugh!" sez she, "it makes me sick," and she shrugged her shoulders in the true French way.

And I sez agin, lookin' solemn, "No young man whose breath smells of whiskey is safe for any young girl to a.s.sociate with. It is a pizen atmosphere that blasts every sweet and pure thing that comes nigh it."

And I sithed.

And she said in her own sweet way that she knew I was telling the truth, for I talked just as her own sweet mother did. And she bent down with one of her pretty foreign ways and kissed my hand. Dear little thing, I didn't spoze my talk had done her much good, but then I considered it couldn't do her any hurt 'tennyrate. And so I left the event to the overruling Power, just as we poor weak mortals have to.

CHAPTER XIII

Well, a day or two after that Josiah and I wuz takin' a walk, meetin'

occasionally Turks all dressed Turkey fas.h.i.+on, and j.a.pans, and Yankees and men and wimmen and children, when who should we meet face to face but Cousin John Richard, that blessed man. As I said, we had writ and writ and tried to find him, but didn't know but we should have to hunt round considerable, but wuz bound to not leave the islands till we'd seen him. But lo and behold! here he wuz, lookin' just as good and heavenly minded as ever. He wuz santerin' along apparently lost in deep thought or nearly lost.

But when he see us he grasped our hands with a welcome that made us know that no matter to what a extent a man's soul may live in the heavens, his heart is tied with deathless ties to the relations on his own side and to their pardners if they be congenial.

We stopped stun still and talked quite a spell about different things, our health, the relations and so forth.

Anon I sez, "Cousin John Richard, you look wan and pale, but it is a blessed work you are doin'."

He had opened a midnight mission, helpin' the weak and tempted and overcome of both sects, preachin' the love of Christ and follerin' his teachin' up by good works.

He told us all about it as we santered on and said he wuz not weary or discouraged. And I could see that though his linement looked pale and worn a deathless light shone in his deep kind eyes and I knew he wuz endurin' as seein' Him who wuz invisible.

As we walked on he said, sadly pintin' to a barren lookin' spot sown thick with graves, "In this deadly climate the Drink Demon has little to do to a.s.sist his brother, Death. Our poor northern boys fall like rotten leaves before a hurricane."

Sez I, lookin' up to the blue sky, "Why don't the heavens fall when such things affront the light of day!"

"The patience of G.o.d," sez Cousin John Richard, "is one of the things we cannot measure."

"Nor his pity nuther," sez I in heart-broken axents, for as I looked at them thickly sown graves and thought of the mothers and wives and sweethearts fur, fur away mournin' for them that wuz not, my tears fell and I wiped 'em off with my snowy linen handkerchief.

Well, Cousin John Richard had an appointment in another part of the city and we parted away from each other, he promisin' to come and see us at our tarven before we left the city.

Well, we didn't make a long stay in Manila. But Arvilly beset me to go with her to see General Grant, who was here on a tour of inspection, on this subject so near to her heart, and which she had made her lifework. She said that it wuz my duty to go.

But I sez, "Arvilly, you talk so hash; I can't bear to have the son of the man who saved his country talked to as I am afraid you will if you git to goin'."

Sez she, "I won't open my head. You know the subject from A to izzard.

I'll jest stand by and listen, but somebody ort to talk to him.

Hundreds and hundreds of American saloons in this one city! Forced onto these islands by our country. Sunthin' has got to be done about it. If you don't go and talk to him about it I shall certainly go alone, and if I do go," sez she, "he will hear talk that he never hearn before."

"I'll go, Arvilly," sez I hurriedly, "I'll go and do the best I can, but if you put in and talk so hash it will jest throw me off the track."

"A promise is a promise," sez she; "I never did break my word yet."