But Arvilly sez, “Don’t be too sure, Josiah Allen’s wife; with three wars bein’ precipitated on our country durin’ one administration, and the conquered contented regions havin’ to be surrounded by our soldiers and fit all the time to keep ’em from laughin’ themselves to death, you don’t know how soon all of our men will be drafted into the army and we wimmen have to do all the farm work.”
“Yes,” sez Josiah, “that is so, and you would be a crackin’ good hand to pitch on a load of hay or mow away, you are so tall.”
“And you,” sez she with a defiant mean, “would be a good hand to put in front of the battle field; you’re so short, the balls might not hit you the first round.”
She put a powerful emphasis on the “might not,” and Josiah looked real agitated, and I sez:
“Such talk is onprofitable, and I should advise you, Josiah, to use your man’s influence to try to make peace for the country’s good, instead of wars for the profit of Trusts, Ambition, etc., and you can escape the cannon’s mouth, and Arvilly keep on sellin’ books instead of ploughin’ and mowin’.”
Robert Strong and Dorothy enjoyed Carlsbad the best that ever wuz. I don’t think they sot so much store by the water as they did the long mountain walks. Everybody here becomes a mountain climber. The doctors here agree that this exercise is a great means of cure, and they make the climbing easy and delightful. There are over thirty miles 417 of good roads over the mountains and around Carlsbad, and as you climb upwards anon or even oftener you come to pretty little pavilions where you can rest and look off onto the delightful scenery, and every little while you’ll come to a place where you can git good refreshments to refresh you.
The Sprudel, or Bubbling Well, bubbles over in a stream of almost boiling hot water five or six inches in diameter. It is so hot that you can’t handle the mugs it is served in with your naked hand, you hold it by a napkin and have to take it a little sip at a time if you don’t want to be scalded.
Josiah had disputed with me about the waters being so hot. He said it didn’t look reasonable to him that bilin’ hot water would flow out of the cold ground, and he knowed they had told stories about it. “Why,” sez he, “if it wuz hot when it started it would git cooled off goin’ through the cold earth.”
But I sez: “They say so, Josiah––them that have been there.”
“Well,” sez he, “you can hear anything. I don’t believe a word on’t.”