It is a perfect sight to behold, to set on the piazzas at Saratoga, and see the folks a goin' past.
Now in Jonesville, when there wuz a 4th of July, or campmeetin', or sunthin' of that kind a goin' on, why, I thought I had seen the streets pretty full.Why, I had counted as many as seven teams in the road at one time, and I had thought that wuz pretty lively times.But good land? Good land! You would have gin up in ten minutes time here, that you had never seen a team (as it were).
Why I call my head a pretty sound one, but I declare, it did fairly make my head swim to set there kinder late in the afternoon, and see the drivin' a goin' on.See the carriages a goin' this way, and a goin' that way; horses of all colers, and men and wimmen of all colers, and parasols of all colers, and hats, and bonnets and parasols, and satins, and laces, and ribbins, and buttons, and dogs, and flowers, and plumes, and parasols.And horses a turnin' out to go by, and horses havin'
gone by, and horses that hadn't gone by.And big carriages with folks inside all dressed up in every coler of the rain beaux.
And elligent gentlemen dressed perfectly splendid, a settin' up straight behind.With thin yellow legs, or stripes down the side on 'em, and their hats all trimmed off with ornaments and buttons up and down their backs.
Haughty creeters they wuz, I make no doubt.They showed it in their looks.But I never loved so much dress in a man.And Iwould jest as soon have told them so; as to tell you.I hain't one to say things to a man's back that I won't say to his face, whether it be a plain back or buttoned.
Wall, as I say, it wuz a dizzy sight to set there on them piazzas and see the seemin'ly endless crowd a goin' by; back and forth, back and forth; to and fro, to and fro.I didn't enjoy it so much as some did, though for a few minutes at a time I looked upon it as a sort of a recreation, some like a circus, only more wilder.
But some folks enjoyed it dretfully.Yes, they set a great deal on piazzas at Saratoga.And when I say set on 'em, I mean they set a great store on 'em, and they set on 'em a great deal.Some folks set on 'em so much, that I called them setters.Real likely creeters they are too, some on 'em, and handsome; some pious, sober ones, some sort a gay.Some not married at all, and some married a good deal, and when I say a good deal I meen, they have had various companions and lost 'em.
Now there wuz one woman that I liked quite well.
She had had 4 husbands countin' in the present one.She wuz a good lookin' woman and had seen trouble.It stands to reeson she had with 4 husbands.Good land!
She showed me one day a ring she wore.She had took the weddin'
rings of her 4 pardners and had 'em all run together, and the initials of their first names carved inside on it.Her first husband's name wuz Franklin, her next two wuz Orville and Obed, and her last and livin' one Lyman.Wall, she meant well, but she never see what would be the end on't and how it would read till she had got their initials all carved out on it.
She wuz dretfully worked up about it, but I see that it wuz right.
For nobody but a fool would want to run all these recollections and memories together, all the different essociations and emotions, that must cluster round each of them rings.The idee of runnin'
'em all together with the livin' one! It wuz ectin' like a fool and it seemed fairly providential that their names run in jest that way.
Why, if I had had 2 husbands, or even 4, I should want to keep 'em apart - settin' up in high chairs on different sides of my heart.Why, if I'd had 4, I'd have 'em to the different pints of the compass, east, west, north, south, as far apart from each other as my heart would admit of.Ketch me a lumpin' in all the precious memories of my Josiah with them of any other man, bond or free, Jew or Genteel; no, and I'd refrain from tellin' to the new one about the other ones.
No, when a pardner dies and you set out to take another one, bury the one that has gone right under his own high chair in your heart, don't keep him up there a rattlin' his bones before the eyes of the 2d, and angerin' him, and agonizen' your own heart.Bury him before you bring a new one into the same room.
And never! never! even in moments of the greatest anger, dig him up agin or even weep over his grave, before the new pardner.No;under the moonlight, and the stars, before God only, and your own soul, you may lay there in spirit on that grave, weep over it, keep the turf green.But not before any one else.And I wouldn't advise you to go there alone any too often.I would advise you to spend your spare time ornementin' the high chair where the new one sets, wreathin' it round with whatever blossoms and trailin' vines of tenderness and romance you have left over from the first great romance of life.
It would be better for you in the end.
I said some few of these little thoughts to the female mentioned;and I s'pose I impressed her dretfully, I s'pose I did.But Icouldn't stay to see the full effects on't, for another female setter came up at that minute to talk with her, and my companion came up at that very minute to ask me to go a walkin' with him up to the cemetery.
That is a very favorite place for Josiah Allen.He often used to tell the children when they wuz little, that if they wuz real good he would take 'em out on a walk to the grave-yard.
And when I first married to him, if I hadn't broke it up, that would have been the only place of resort that he would have took me to Summers.But I broke it up after a while.Good land!
there is times to go any where and times to stay away.I didn't want to go a trailin' up there every day or two; jest married too!
But to-day I felt willin' to go.I had been a lookin' so long at the crowd a fillin' the streets full, and every one on 'em in motion, that I thought it would be sort a restful to go out to a place where they wuz still.And so after a short walk we came to the village that haint stirred by any commotion or alarm.Where the houses are roofed with green grass and daisies, and the white stun doors don't open to let in trouble or joy, and where the inhabitants don't ride out in the afternoon.
