I groaned in spirit but handed him the desired refreshment, and then we talked over the subject of the cottage. Whitfield thought it would be splendid for the health of Tirzah Ann and the children, to say nothin’ of their happiness. She and Delight both looked kinder pimpin’, and he sez, “Mother, I’ve got the lot, and now I am going to lay up money just as fast as I can for our house; I hope we can live here in a year or two anyway.”
Well, we stayed here for quite a spell, Whitfield and Tirzah Ann buildin’ castles higher than Castle Rest, on the foundations of their rosy future, underlaid with youth and glowin’ hope—the best-lookin’ underpinnin’ you can find anywhere. And little Delight rolled on the green moss and built her rosy castles in the illumined present, as children do. And I looked off onto the fur blue waters some as if I wuz lookin’ into the past. And furder off than I could see the water, the meller blue haze lay that seemed to unite earth and heaven, and I 71 looked on it, and way off, way off, and thought of a good many things.
Josiah wuz tryin’ to ketch a fish for supper; the boatman had a pole and fish hook, but he couldn’t ketch any, he hadn’t any nack; it takes nack to ketch fish as well as worms.
CHAPTER FIVE
Josiah’s imagination about his fishin’ exploits carries him to a pint where I have to rebuke him, which makes him dretful huffy
CHAPTER FIVE