“The next time!” sez I—“there won’t be no next time. If I ever git acrost the ocean agin I shall stay there.”
“Yes,” sez my Josiah; “if we ever see home agin we shall probble never step our feet outside the house agin, or the back door-yard.”
But I sez, “I shall probble walk round some in the front yard, and mebby visit the children.”
Sez he, “Not for years, if ever.” Sez he, “I want to set down on our back steps and set there for over a year without gittin’ up.”
I felt that along in January he would be willin’ to move round a little and git into the house, but that dear man can’t be megum.
Wall, with deep dissapintment I realized that the Widder Albert and I wuzn’t a-goin’ to meet. If she wuz in the state Martin said she wuz, of course I knew she couldn’t take no comfort a-visitin’, and I hain’t no hand to go and visit sick folks if I can’t help ’em.
And I spoze, as Martin sed, that she had good hired girls and everything done for her comfort.
But I worried about her quite a good deal.
But it wuz a comfort to me to think of what a big house she had—it wuz big enough to hold plenty of help, and it must have good air in it—yes, indeed! The house itself is as big as from our house over to Deacon Gowdey’s, and I d’no but bigger.
Martin made a great pint on goin’ to see the Bank of England. I believe he jest loves to walk round the outside of buildin’s that has immense wealth in ’em, if he don’t go inside. He and Josiah went and wuz gone all the forenoon. I spozed it would take a week to go through all the rooms. Why, there is nine different door-yards right inside the buildin’; they call ’em courts, and the rooms open into ’em; so you can form a idee of how big it is. But I didn’t seem to care so much about goin’, so I stayed to home. I had quite a talk with Al Faizi about it. He’d been a-huntin’ up facts and idees, as his way is.