Then Martin telegrafted to Thomas J.—
“Arrange matters for father and mother to take trip. Send bill to me. Alice needs their care. Her health and happiness depend on it.”
So he got Thomas Jefferson on his side. Thomas J. and Maggie loved Alice like a sister. But there wuzn’t any bill to send to Martin, for Thomas J. pinted out the facts that Ury could move right into the house and take care of everything. And sez he, “The trip and the rest will do you both good.”
“But the danger,” sez I.
And he said, jest like Martin—“Less danger than the land, better rates of insurance given,” etc., etc., etc.
And Maggie put in too, and Josiah begun to kinder want to go.
And we wavered back and forth, until a long letter from Alice, beggin’ me and her Uncle Josiah to go with her to take care of her, tottled the balance over on the side of Europe.
And Josiah and I began to make preperations for a trip abroad.
Oh my heart! think on’t!
I announced our decision to Martin in a letter of 9 pages of foolscap—Josiah writ half of it—describin’ our doubts and delays and our final reasons for decision.