“I haven’t the pleasuah of knowin’ youah name,” sez he, lookin’ sort of pale round the mouth, and his eyes lookin’ big and round. I spoze I skairt him some by my lofty mean (lofty under difficulties).
“I couldn’t tell, youah know, who had come, youah know.”
“That is so,” sez I, “I forgot. Tell ’em that Josiah Allen’s wife has come.”
“Oh, Josiah Allen’s wife, I have the gweatest pleasuah in meeting you. I have heard of youah, youah know.” And he took off his hat and bowed low to me. I sithed, for I believed then and believe now he would have stood there for an hour holdin’ his hat in his hand and bowin’ to me and actin’, and he looked more’n a mile high, too, I a-settin’ there helpless. But I looked at him that witherin’ that he turned agin and hurried off as fast as his long legs would carry him.
He hadn’t got more’n a few steps away before a light buggy come rollin’ on swift, and who should it be but Tom Willis goin’ on some law bizness for Thomas J. up beyend Zoar. How curious things will turn out, now this wuz jest as curious as it wuz for Crusoe to discover Friday.
I guess I didn’t have to talk to Tom Willis about his helpin’ me. No, he flung the lines to the boy who wuz with him, and he wuz out of that buggy and by my side in less than a minute. And it wuzn’t a minute more when he jest lifted me right up and held me for a minute or so, for I wuz giddy and sort o’ stunted, and then he helped me into his buggy and we drove on to Hamenses and got there long enough before that long legged chap had arrived. He couldn’t walk fast, so he told me afterwards, on account of his “pespiwin,” and then he had “dwopped” his cane, “you know.” And I could see for myself jest what a time he had had pickin’ it up. For the land’s sake! I don’t see how he ever done it, and so I told Josiah.
But, anyway, Tom Willis took me out of the buggy jest as tender and careful as if I had been his own Ma, and, leanin’ on his strong arm, I arrived at Hamenses door and went in, Tom leavin’ me at the doorsteps and not goin’ in, for reasons to be named hereafter. But as I stood on the front stoop, and Tom turned to go away, I see a red, red rose come a-circlin’ through the air from right over our heads and fall at Tom’s feet, and he took it up and kissed it, for I see him, and put it in his bosom. And then he turned and looked up into a window overhead, and no light of the mornin’ sun breakin’ through a cloud wuz ever brighter or more luminous than the glance and smile he gin to somebody overhead. But it wuz all done in a minute, and Tom wuz gone, and in a minute more Anna Smith wuz in my arms, with both her sweet young arms round my neck and her soft pink cheeks pressed clost to mine. I think enough of Anna Smith, and she thinks enough of me.
Well, Hamenses wife come runnin’ in dretful glad to see me, she wuz in the back kitchen givin’ orders to her hired girl, Arabeller, and Hamen come in, too, real cordial actin’, he wuz in the back yard at work, and Jack come boundin’ in and most eat me up, he wuz so glad to see me. And bimeby Cicero come in with his fingers between the pages of a dime novel, and shook hands with me in a absent mekanical way, but he didn’t seem to sense my bein’ there much of any, and what he did sense didn’t seem to be an overagreeable feelin’, real cool and indifferent he acted. I guess Tamer noticed it, for she spoke up and said:
“Cicero wuz such a reader, he had such a great taste for books and literatoor, he wuz so much like his Ma.” And then she patted him on his head, but he didn’t seem to mind that any, he wuz fairly bound up in his book, it wuz “The Brave Bold Young Bandit; or, The Farmer Fool Outwitted.” It had a yeller cover and painted on it wuz a innocent lookin’ young farmer boy, kneelin’ at the feet of a bandit boy with bold flashin’ eyes, embroidered uniform and tall feathers in his hat. I looked at it when he laid it down for a minute that day, and I see that it would be real instructive in learnin’ a boy to despise honest labor and heart merit, and honor dashing wickedness and crime. He had a cigarette in his hand when he met me, and he had one in his hand or his mouth every time I see him almost while we wuz there.