Well, I told Fidelia, the next day, that as Josiah had got his business done, I guessed I wouldn’t stay any longer, and she bust right out a-cryin’ onto my shoulder (it wuz a gray outin’-cloth, and I knew that it would wash, so I didn’t care).
And sez she, “My preserver, how can I have you go?”
And Elinor, who wuz in the room, throwed herself onto my other shoulder, and her tears drizzled down onto my shoulder-blade (but agin the thought calmed me that the colors wuz fast).
Sez Elinor, “You have preserved my happiness; you have dragged me back from the very brinks of ruin.”
“And me, too!” sez Fidelia.
And I sez gently, extricatin’ myself from the four encirclin’ arms: “Oh, shaw! you have preserved yourselves, and drawed yourselves back by the cords of common-sense and mejumness. And now,” sez I, in confidence, “ere we part, let me adjure you to cling to them two strings, and cling hard. Use common-sense day by day, be good and true to them you love, and be good and true to yourselves; brace up, have gumption, and may Heaven bless you!” sez I, and I turned away and begun to pack my nightgown and barred-muslin night-cap into my satchel-bag.
CHAPTER V
