第54章 VISITS TO NOTABLE PLACES(3)

Wall, we sot there on the stoop for quite a spell and then we wended our way down to the highway, and as we arrived there my companion proposed that we should take a carriage and go to the Toboggen slide.Sez I, "Not after where we have been today, Josiah Allen."And he sez, "Why not?"

And I sez, "It wouldn't look well, after visitin' the folks we have jest now.""Wall," sez he, "they won't speak on't to anybody, if that is what you are afraid on, or sense it themselves."And I see in a minute, he had some sense on his side, though his words shocked me some at first, kinder jarred aginst some sensitive spot in my nater, jest as pardners will sometimes, however devoted they may be to each other.Yet I see he wuz in the right on't.

They wouldn't sense anything about it.And as for us, we wuz in the world of the livin' still, and I still owed a livin' duty to my companion, to make him as happy as possible.And so I sez, mildly, "Wall, I don't know as there is anything wrong in slidin'

down hill, Josiah.I s'pose I can go with you.""No," sez he, "there haint nothin' wrong about slidin' down hill unless you strike too hard, or tip over, or sunthin'." So he bagoned to a carriage that wuz passin', and we got into it, and sot sail for the Toboggen slide.

We passed through the village.(Some say it is a city, but if it is, it is a modest, retirin' one as I ever see; perfectly unassumin', and don't put on a air, not one.)But howsumever, we passed through it, through the rows and rows of summer tarvens and boardin' houses, good-lookin' ones too;past some good-lookin' private houses -- a long tarven and a pretty red brick studio and rows of summer stores, little nests that are filled up summers, and empty winters, then by some more of them monster big tarvens where some of the 200,000 summer visitors who flock here summers, find a restin' place; and then by the large respectable good-lookin' stores and shops of the natives, that stand solid, and to be depended on summer and winter; by churches and halls, and etc., and good-lookin' houses and then some splendid-lookin' houses all standin' back on their grassy lawns behind some trees, and fountains, and flower beds, etc., etc.

Better-lookin' houses, I don't want to see nor broader, handsomer streets.And pretty soon fur away to the east you could see through the trees a glimpse of a glorious landscape, a broad lovely view of hill and valley, bounded by blue mountain tops.

It was a fair seen - a fair seen.To be perfectly surrounded by beauty where you, wuz, and a lookin' off onto more.There Iwould fain have lingered, but time and wagons roll stidily onward, and will not brook delay, nor pause for women to soar over seenery.

So we rolled onwards through still more beautiful, and quiet pictures.Pictures of quiet woods and bendin' trees, and a country road windin' tranquilly beneath, up and down gentle hills, and anon a longer one, and then at our feet stood the white walls of a convent, with 2 or 3 brothers, a strollin' along in their long black gowns, and crosses, a readin' some books.

I don't know what it wuz, what they wuz a readin' out of their books, or a readin' out of their hearts.Mebby sunthin' kinder sad and serene.Mebby it wuz sunthin' about the gay world of human happiness, and human sorrows, they had turned backs to forever.Mebby it wuz about the other world that they had sot out for through a lonesome way.Mebby it wuz "Never" they wuz a readin' about, and mebby it wuz "Forever." I don't know what it wuz.But we went by 'em, and anon, yes it wuz jest anon, for it wuz the very minute that I lifted my eyes from the Father's calm and rather sad-lookin' face, that I ketched sight on't, that Isee a comin' down from the high hills to the left on us, an immense sort of a trough, or so it looked, a comin' right down through the trees, from the top of the mountain to the, bottom.

And then all acrost the fields as fur, as fur as from our house way over to Miss Pixley's wuz a sort of a road, with a row of electric lights along the side on't.

We drove up to a buildin' that stood at the foot of that immense slide, or so they called it, and a female woman who wuz there told us all about it.And we went out her back door, and see way up the slide, or trough.There wuz a railin' on each side on't, and a place in the middle where she said the Toboggen came down.

And sez Josiah, "Who is the Toboggen, anyway? Is he a native of the place or a Injun? Anyway," sez he, "I'd give a dollar bill to see him a comin' down that place."And the woman said, "A Toboggen wuz a sort of a long sled, that two or three folks could ride on, and they come down that slide with such force that they went way out acrost the fields as far as the row of lights, before it stopped."Sez I, "Josiah Allen, did you ever see the beat on't?" Sez I, "Haint that as far as from our house to Miss Pixley's?""Yes," says he, "and further too.It is as far as Uncle Jim Hozzleton's.""Wall," says I, "I believe you are in the right on't."And sez Josiah, "How do they get back agin? Do they come in the cars, or in their own conveniences?""There is a sleigh to bring 'em back, but sometime they walk back," sez the woman.