Well, Tom Willis kep’ doin’ better and better and wuz gittin’ a good salary, good enough, with what property he had, for him to marry on, and Anna kep’ on lovin’ him and refusin’ to marry Von Crank, and Tamer kep’ on naggin’ Anna, and things seemed to be at a standstill. Since Cicero wuz shut up Tamer had acted worse than ever, so it seemed; the trouble instead of softenin’ had seemed to harden her.
There is some troubles you know jest like that, kinder sharp, stiff, humiliatin’ troubles, and agin there is heart meltin’, heart breakin’ griefs that soften the heart while it well nigh breaks ’em. Well, Tamer’s wuz one of them sharp, witherin’, humiliatin’ ones, and her heart seemed harder than ever and she seemed more in favor of Von Crank, more sot against Tom Willis, more hard on Jack and more naggin’. But a change wuz to come, when the right time come the Lord softened Tamer’s heart, and Anna went out of her servitude, out of the house of bondage into the Land of Promise, into a happy useful life with the man of her choice.
But, oh, my dear little Jack! my poor boy!
But to resoom backwards agin and take up the thread of history, I stayed at Hamen’s several days, visitin’ ostensibly with Celestine. For as many as three times a day, when she would be brung in to her meals from her engrossin’ Art work, Celestine would say to me: “How glad I am, Josiah Allen’s wife, that you could come while I am here, I am so glad to visit with you.” And then she would retire agin into that remote world of her own and abide there in her own pink castles set down on blue landscapes, amongst her own strange lookin’ animals and birds and flowers and things.
And Tamer would say anon and every little while, “How glad I am, Cousin Samantha, that you could come and visit with me and Celestine.” And then she would retire into her own enchanted realm amongst her own droves of pirates and outlaws and romantic heroines and villians. It wuz a queer time, queer as a dog, but I had real good visits with Anna, sweet girl, with the shadder of the deepest sorrow of youth and life hangin’ black above her. And she wuz so good and innocent and obedient that she said she had told Tom she would never marry aginst her mother’s wishes, “For,” sez she, “Aunt Samantha, with Ma’s health as it is she says it would kill her, and as I tell Tom, what comfort could I ever take even as his wife if I had been the cause of my mother’s death?”
So I didn’t really know how it wuz comin’ out. I couldn’t see much chance for Anna’s future, for I expected jest as much to see a mornin’ glory sproutin’ out of my dry oven as to see any blossom of tenderness and consideration growin’ in the ambitious, sandy, trompled sile of Tamer’s heart.
It looked dark before me, dark as Egyptian shades, blind creeter that I wuz, and, oh! of little faith. I knew well whose hand wuz at the hellum, and I might have trusted more, my faith might have been as big as the pint of a pin, but I don’t spoze it wuz, or I wouldn’t have felt as I did. If my faith had been as big as the pint of a needle, it must have removed one or two of the hillocks of gloom that towered up in high ranges in front of me when I meditated on the future of the girl I loved so well. But I sot crouched down there in the gloom, and had no idee how they wuz goin’ to be leveled down and light break through, nor how many heartaches wuz to go on below while the light broke through high up, and as mysterious as all things earthly are if we come to realize it.
Oh, my poor Jack! I never dreamed that it wuz your little hand that wuz to touch these solid, gloomy pinnacles and shiver ’em down to the earth. Dear little boy! how many times did I say I wished you wuz safe from the trials and temptations of this world and its tribulations? Wuz my wish took as a prayer, and did the Lord grant it in mercy? But, oh, poor hearts below! how you must ache on as long as you are wrapped up in this human clay, soft stuff this human clay is, anyway, and as easy to take impressions as putty.
But to stop eppisodin’ and resoom backwards agin. The day I wuz to return to the bosom of my family, that bosom incarnated in the form of my beloved pardner appeared on the seen in good season, no later than nine A. M. Celestine wuz also to depart that mornin’, she went a few minutes previous to my companion’s arrival, for she went on the Loontown stage that passed at a quarter to nine.
She got up very early and did her packin’, she had got most of her easels and canvases and paint brushes packed up, and her landscapes and panels and things all padded at the corners and wropped up safe for the journey. But Celestine said she couldn’t leave till she took a last look at the lake from the west piazza, the lake come most up to that side of the house, and it wuz a beautiful sight, I will admit, and the picture looked quite well, too, for she showed it to me. The blue of the lake and the sky overhead wuz jest about the color of little Mary’s eyes, and the light in the east wuz some the color of her fluffy wavin’ hair, and I told her Ma so as I held the little girl fondly in my arms. But she looked real indifferent at the child, as if she see some panels through her and some calenders and things and called my attention to the “cheri obscuro” of the pictures, and the “alto releevo,” or I guess that is what she called ’em, I didn’t have a idee what she meant, but not wantin’ to act green, I told her I presumed so, “I spoze they’re real favorites of yourn, but,” sez I candidly, “there hain’t a doubt of this, this child here would be a prime favorite of mine if I had her with me much.” And I hugged her to me agin real clost, and she put her soft, white arm lovin’ly round my neck.