Si Ann looked real good and as if she took every word I said in good part; bein’ naterally so smart she would recognize the onselfishness and nobility of my mission, but I see that there wuz a real pert look on one of the ladies’ faces as she said sunthin’ to one of the other ones, and I mistrusted that they didn’t like what I had said about that wall of theirn, and I went on to say to Si Ann:
“Of course you may say that a nation or a woman has a right to do as they’ve a mind to, but common sense must be used if you are goin’ to enjoy yourself much in this world. Now, we had a neighbor in Jonesville that sot out in married life determined not to borrow or lend, dretful exclusive, 218 jest built a high wall of separation round herself and family. But after tryin’ it for a year or so she wuz glad to give it up, and many is the cup of tea and sugar I’ve lent her since, and she borries and lends her washtub now or biler, or settin’ hens, or anythin’. And she sez that she and her family takes as much agin’ comfort now and are doin’ as well agin’, for of course the neighbors didn’t set so much store by ’em as they did when their ports wuz open, as you may say, and they wuz more neighborly.”
I could see by Si Ann’s face that she not only enjoyed all I said, but believed a good share on’t, and bein’ such a case for justice, I felt that I ort to let her know I realized our own nation’s short-comin’s, as well as hern. Sez I, “I hain’t got a word to say to you, Si Ann, about the different castes in your country, when the wimmen in my own land build up a wall between themselves and their kitchen helpers higher than the highest peak of your stun wall and harder to git over, and I don’t want to say a word about your folks bindin’ down their children’s feet to make ’em small as long as our own females pinch down their waists till they’re in perfect agony and ten times as bad as to pinch their feet, for the life, the vital organs don’t lay in the feet, or hain’t spozed to, and so it don’t hurt ’em half so much to be tortured. And as long as they drag round yards of silk and velvet through the streets to rake up filth and disease to carry home and endanger their own lives and their families; no, as long as our females do all this I hain’t nothin’ to say about your dress and customs here, nor I hain’t a goin’ to cast reflections agin you about your men wearin’ night gowns and braidin’ their hair down their backs. Good land, Si Ann! you and I know what men be. We are married wimmen and seen trouble. You couldn’t stop ’em if you tried to. If Josiah Allen took it into his head to braid his hair down his back, I should have to let it go on unless I broke it up sarahuptishly by cuttin’ it off when he wuz asleep, but thank fortin’ he hain’t got enough so that the braid would be bigger than a pipe stale anyway if he should let it grow out, and he is so dressy he wouldn’t like that. But I’ve tried to break up his wearin’ such gay neckties for years and years, and if he should go out and buy one to-day it would most likely be red and yaller.”
I withdrawed him, bowin’ very low and smilin’ at her.––Page 219.
I felt that China hadn’t been used exactly right; I knowed it. Younger nations––new-comers, as you may say––had made light on her and abused her, usin’ the very type the Chinese had invented to say they didn’t know anything and usin’ the gunpowder they had invented to blow ’em up with. I had felt that the Powers hadn’t treated ’em well, and I had made up my mind some time ago that when I see the Powers I should tell ’em what I thought on’t. Then there wuz the opium trade––a burnin’ shame! I wanted to sympathize with her about that, but thought mebby it wuz best to not harrer up her feelin’s any more, so I sez in a real polite way:
“I have nothin’ further to say now, Si Ann, only to bid you adoo and to tell you that if you ever come to Jonesville be sure and come and see me; I’ll be proud and happy to have you.”
Here Josiah had to put in his note: “Good-by, Widder!” sez he. If I had had time I would have tutored him; he spoke just as he would to widder Gowdey. I wanted him to act more courtly and formal, but it wuz too late, it wuz spoke. “Good-by, Widder; we’ll have to be a-goin’. We’ve had quite a spell of weather, but it looks some like rain now, and I have a important engagement to-night, and we’ll have to be gittin’ hum.”