第21章 WE ARRIVE AT SARATOGA(2)

If the man of the moon was there he wuz a layin' in the bottom of the boat, he wuzn't in sight.But if he heard that music I'll bet he would say he wuzn't in the practice of hearin' any better.And Josiah stood stun still till she had got done, and then he sort a sithed out:

"Oh, it seems as if it must be Beuler land! Do you s'pose, Samantha, Beuler land is any more beautiful?"And I sez, "I haint a thinkin' about Beulah." I sez it pretty middlin' tart, partly to hide my own feelin's, which wuz perfectly rousted up, and partly from principle, and sez I, "Don't for mercy's sake call it Beuler."Josiah always will call it so.I've got a 4th cousin, Beulah Smith (my own age and unmarried up to date), and he always did and would call her Beuler.Truly in some things a pardner's influence and encouragement fails to accomplish the ends aimed at.

Wall, it wuz after some words that I drew Josiah away from that seen of enchantment - or he me, I don't exactly know which way it wuz - and we wended onwards in our walk.

The hull broad streets wuz full of folks, full as they could be, all on 'em perfect strangers to us and who knew what motives or weapons they wuz a carryin' with 'em; but we knew we wuz safe, Josiah and me did, for way up over all our heads, stood a big straight soldier, a volunteer volunteerin, to see to the hull crew on 'em below, a seein' that they behaved themselves.His age wuz seventy-seven as near as I could make out but he didn't look more'n half that.He had kep' his age remarkable.

Wall, it wuz, if I remember right, jest about now that we see a glitterin' high up over our heads some writen in flame.I never see such brilliant writin, before nor don't know as I ever shall ag'in.

And Josiah stopped stun still, and stood a lookin' perfectly dumfoundered at it.And finally he sez, "I'd give a dollar bill if I could write like that."I see he wuz deeply rousted up for 2 cents is as high as he usually goes in betted.I see he felt deep and I didn't blame him.Why," sez he, "jest imagine, Samantha, a hull letter wrote like that! how I'd love to send one back to Uncle Nate Gowdey.

"How Uncle Nate's eyes would open, and he wouldn't want no spectacles nor nothin' to read it with, would he? I wonder if Icould do it," sez he, a beginnin' to be all rousted up.

But I sez, "Be calm," for so deep is my mind that I grasped the difficuties of the undertaken' at once."How could yon send it, Josiah Allen? Where would you get a envelop? How could you get it into the mail bag?" Sez I, "When anybody would send a letter wrote like that, they would want to write it on sheets of lightnin', and fold it up in the envelopin' clouds of the skies, and it should be received by a kneelin' and reverent soul.Who is Uncle Nate that he should get it? He has not a reverent Soul and he has also rheumatiz in his legs."And then I thought, so quick and active is my mind when it gets to startin' off on a tower, I thought of what I had hearn a few days before, of how the secret had been learnt by somebody who lived right there in the village, of floatin' letters up at sea from one ship to another, sigualin' out in letters of flame -"Help! I'm a sinkin'!" or "Danger ahead! Look out!"And I thought what it must be to stand on a dusky night on a lone deck and see up on the broad, dark; lonesome sky above, a sudden message, a flash of vivid lightnin', takin' to itself the form of language.And I wondered to myself if in the future we should use the great pages of the night-sky to write messages from one city to another, or from sea to land, of danger and warnin'; and then Ithought to myself, if souls clog-bound to earth are able to accomplish so much, who knows but the freed soul goin' outward and onward from height to height of wisdom may yet be able to signal down from the Safe Land messages of help and warnin' to the souls it loved below.

The souls a sailin' and a driftin' through the dark night of despair - a dashin' along through fog and mist and darkness aginst rocks.What it would be to one kneelin' in the lonesome night watches by a grave, if the dark sky could grow luminous and he could read, - "Do not despair! I am alive! I love you!"Or, in the hour of the blackest temptation and dread, when the earth is hollow and the sky a black vault, and the only way of happiness on God's earth seems down the dangerous, beautiful way, God-forbidden, what would it be to have the empty vault lit up with "Danger ahead! We will help you! be patient a little longer!"Oh how fur my thoughts wuz a travellin', and at what a good jog, but not one trace did my companion see on my forward of these thoughts that wuz a passin' through my foretop: and at that very minute, we came up nigh enough to see that right back of the glitterin' language overhead, went a long line of big, glowin'

stars of glory way up over our heads, and leadin' down a gentle declivity and Josiah sez, "Let's foller on, and see what it will lead us to, Samantha.""Wall," sez I, "light is pretty generally, safe to foller, Josiah Allen." And so we meandered along, keepin' our 2 heads as nigh as we could under that long glitterin' chain of golden drops that wuz high overhead.And on, and on, we follered it dilligently; till for the land's sake! if it didn't lead us to another one of them openwork buildin's, fixed off beautiful, and we could see inside 2big wells like, with acres of floor seemin'ly on each side of 'em, and crowds of folks a walkin' about and settin' at little tables and most all of 'em a drinkin'.

The water they drinked we could see wuz a bubblin' up and a runnin' over all the time, in big round crystal globes.And up, up on a slender pole way up over one of the wells hung another one of them crystal bowls, a bubblin' over with the water and sparklin'.

And ag'in Josiah asked me if I thought Beuler land could compare with it?

And I told him ag'in kinder sharp, That I wuzn't a thinkin' about Beuler, I didn't know any sech a place or name.I wish he would call things right.

Wall, he wuz so dead tired by this time, that we sot sail homewards;that is, my feet wuz tired, and my bones, but my mind seemed more rousted up than common.