But brother Minkley went on a talkin’, and oh! how I went on a thinkin’: “Senator Vyse says, that the nation would be so madded to have wimmen try to vote, that it would rise up to a man, to defend the purity of the pole. Ah! here comes the Senator to vote; look quick, Alzina Ann! stand up close to me, and I’ll try to introduce you.”
Oh! how reverentially, and awe-struck everybody in the store looked at the Senator as he came a sailin’ in, a lookin’ as big and hauty as if he owned Jonesville and the hull world. I believe they would have strewed palm leaves in his way, if they had any palms by ’em. He stopped a minute to speak to brother Minkley and the Elder introduced his wife to him, with an air as if he was a settlein’ a dowery on her, that would make her rich for life. And sister Minkley looked on to him as awe-stricken, and admirin’ly, as if he was a entire menagery of new and curious animals, and she beholdin’ ’em for the first time on a free ticket. And when he reached out his hand to shake hands with her, she acted perfectly overcome with joy.
Then brother Minkley introduced the Senator to me, with considerable the mean as if he was makin’ me a present of a nice house and lot, all paid for. But when that Senator reached out his hand to shake hands with Josiah Allen’s wife, that woman, nerved completely up with principle, jest looked at him with a stiddy lofty mean, and gripped holt of her brown alpaca overskirt, and never touched his hand. I wouldn’t. It was white and delicate, and a great seal ring set with diamonds glittered on it, but it was stained with crimes blacker than murder, enough sight; I had jest as lives laid holt of a pisen serpent.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SENATOR.
I am naturally well bred, and polite in my demeanor, and the politest way is generally the quietest way; so ruther than make a fuss, I bowed my head a very little, mebby half or three quarters of a inch. But oh! what a majestic look there was on my eyebrow; what a terrible rebukin’ expression curved my nostrils; what a firmness, and a icyness there sot throned on my upper lip. He felt it. His handsome false face turned red as blood, as I calmly replied to brother Minkley’s last words. Says I:
“I agree with you brother Minkley in what you said. I think it would be a first-rate plan to keep impure people from the pole, male or female. It would be apt to thin the voters out considerable; it would be apt to make it considerable lonesome for the pole. But howsumever, I should approve of it highly and so would Josiah.”
Truly, if the coat fits anybody, let ’em put it on freely, without money and without price. Senator Vyse felt what I said deeply, I know he did, for I’ll be hanged if I ever see Josiah’s face look any meachener in his meachinest times. I then coolly turned my back to ’em and looked out of the winder; and the Senator and brother Minkley went up towards the pole together, for the Elder seemed to think it would be a perfect treat to see such a big man vote. And sister Minkley followed him with her eyes, as admirin’ly as if he was a hull circus, side show and all.
When Senator Vyse and Brother Minkley moved off toward the pole, Sister Minkley and I was left alone. We was in a little corner by the winder, fenced in by a high counter and still more deeply secluded by a lofty and almost precipitous pile of rag carpetin’, that towered up on the nigh side of us. On the off side as I said was the counter.
My body stood there a lookin’ out of the winder, but my mind was nearly lost in thought, a wanderin’ off into a complete wilderness of strange and conflictin’ idees; little underbrushes of puzzlin’ contradictions, runnin’ every which way, and hedgin’ my mind almost completely up, when it tried to soar off free and noble; great high trees of the world’s curious beliefs, and practices, and proceedin’s, castin’ a shadder black as night down on the ever green mosses beneath ’em all. Sometimes my tuckered out mind would git half a minute’s rest, reclinin’ as you may say, on them mosses, that with tender, faithful fingers, touch with the same repose, the ruins of castle and hovel; that are ever green in sunshine and in shade; that quietly, silently—never hastin’, never restin’, never tirin’—make a soft piller for all tired heads alike; the lofty, and the lowly. Sometimes, as I say, I would rest half a moment in the thought of that tender Mercy and Compassion. And little wild flowers of sweet thoughts and consolations, would kinder peep up at me, and hopes, and prophecies of truth and justice would shine out like glorious stars; and I’d git perhaps for three quarters of a moment or so, all lit up and a feelin’ awful well. Then my mind would soar off again, considerable of a ways, and some of them runnin’ vines of curious idees and customs, that was a tanglin’ up the tree tops, would trip it up, and down it would come again—all the harder from fallin’ from such a height. Good land! what a hard time it was a havin’. All of a sudden sister Minkley spoke up, for she too, it seems, had been a lookin’ out of the winder, entirely unbeknown to me.