“Oh! keep a naggin’ at me!” sez he. But I see he wuz a gittin’ kinder sick of the idee.
“What you mean by puttin’ ’em on at all is more than I can say,” sez I, “a tryin to walk on snowshoes right in dog-days.”
“I put ’em on,” Samantha, sez he, a beginnin’ to unstrap ’em, “I put ’em on because I wanted to feel like a savage.”
“Wall,” sez I, “I have seen you at times durin’ the last 20 years, when I thought you realized how they felt without snow-shoes on, either.”
(These little interchanges of confidence will take place in every-day life.) But at that very minute Ardelia Tutt rapped at the door, and Josiah hustled them snow-shoes into the closet, and that wuz the last trial I had with him about ’em. He had borrowed ’em.
Wall, Ardelia wuz dretful pensive, and soft actin’ that night, she seemed real tickled to see us, and to get where we wuz. She haint over and above suited with the boardin’ place where she is, I think. I don’t believe they have very good food, though she won’t complain, bein’ as they are relations on her own side. And then she is sech a good little creeter anyway. But I had my suspicions. She didn’t seem very happy. She said she had been down to the park that afternoon, she and the young chap that has been a payin’ her so much attention lately, Bial Flamburg. She said they had sot down there by the deer park most all the afternoon a watchin’ the deer. She spoke dretful well of the deer. And they are likely deer for anything I know. But she seemed sort a pensive and low spirited. Mebby she is a beginnin’ to find Bial Flamburg out. Mebby she is a beginnin’ to not like his ways. He drinks and smokes, that I know, and I’ve mistrusted worse things on him. Before Ardelia went away, she slipped the followin’ lines into my hand, which I read after she had left. They wuz rather melancholy and ran as follows:
“STANZAS WROTH ON A DEER IN CENTRAL PARK.
“BY ARDELIA TUTT.
“Oh deer, sweet deer that softly steppeth out
From out thy rustick cot beneath the hill;
We would not meet thee with a wild, wild shout,
But with the low voice, low and sweet, and still
As anything.
“And in thine ear would whisper thoughts that swell
Our bosom nigh beyond our corset’s bound;
As lo! we see thee step along the dell
And with thy horns, and eyes look all around
And up, and down.
“We think of all thy virtue, and thy ways,
Thy simple ways of eating hay and grass;
We would not cause thy cheek to blush with praise,
Yet we have marked thee, marked thee as thou pass
We could but fain.
“And lo! our admiration thou dost win
Thou in the haunts of fashion keep afar,
Thou dost not lo! imbibe vile beer or gin,
Or smoke with pipe, or with a bad cigar,
Or cigarette.
“Thou dost not flirt nor cast sheep eyes on her
Who is bound unto another by a vow—
Thou dost not murmur love words in her ear,
While husband’s prowl about, to make a row
Or shoot with gun.
“Thou dost not drive in tandem, or on high—
In stately loneliness, in Tally Ho go round,
Thou dost not on a horse back nobly canter by,
Or drive in dog carts up and down the land,
By day or night.
“For ice cream, or for custard pie thou hankerest not,
Yearn not for caramels, nor apple sass,
Thou dost not eat pop corn, or peanuts down the grot,
Ah! no, sweet deer, thou meekly eatest grass
In peace.
“A lesson man might learn of thee full well,
To eat with sweet content tough steak, or thin;
Cold toast, or hot imbibe, think of that dell—
That patient deer, and eat in peace, nor sin
With profane word.
“If waiters do not come with food, think on that deer,
If food be bad and cold, think on that dell,
Strike not for vengeance with a deadly spear,
Learn of that angel deer and murmur, all is well,
While eating grass.”
Chapter XIV.
LAKE GEORGE AND MOUNT McGREGOR.
It wuz on a nice pleasant day that Ardelia Tuit, Josiah Allen, and me, met by previous agreement quite early in the mornin’, A. M., and sot out for Lake George. It is so nigh, that you can step onto the cars, and go out and see George any time of day.
It seemed to me jest as if George wuz glad we had come, for there wuz a broad happy smile all over his face, and a sort of a dimplin’ look, as if he wanted to laugh right out. All the beckonin’ shores and islands, with their beautiful houses on ’em, and the distant forests, and the trees a bendin’ over George, all seemed to sort a smile out a welcome to us. We had a most beautiful day, and got back quite late in the afternoon, P. M.