Josiah Allen's Wife as a P. A. and P. I.: Samantha at the Centennial. / Designed As a Bright and Shining Light, to Pierce the Fogs of Error and Injustice That Surround Society and Josiah, and to Bring More Clearly to View the Path That Leads Straight on to Virtue and Happiness.

by Marietta Holley

THE LITTLE INNOCENT.

“Amen,” says sister Minkley, speakin’ up jest as prompt and serene as if she was carryin’ on a conference meetin’. She is as well meanin’ a woman as I ever see, and bein’ a Methodist by perswasion ‘Amens’ come jest as natural to her as the breath she breathes. They are truly her theme; but she means well.

Says I goin’ on and resumin’:

“After that girl gave her freshness and beauty to the little face that lay for a few months on her bosom—dear to her, dearer to her in all her shame and guilt, than her life, because she could see his features in it—then Senator Vyse grew tired of her.

GRIEF AND REMORSE.

“And then her baby died. Perhaps God knew she was not fit to guide a deathless life, so he took to himself the little white soul. And she missed it. Missed the little constant hands that clung to her trustingly—the innocent eyes that never looked at her scornfully, and the little loving head that nestled fearlessly on her guilty breast.

“TOOK TO DRINKIN’.”