Samantha at Saratoga | Page 7

may try to hedge 'em out, and shet the doors and everything.
But they will creep up into your mind, climb up and draw up their
ladders, and there they will be, and stalk round independent as if they
owned your hull head; curious!
Well, there the idee wuz -- I never knew nothin' about it, nor how it got
there. But there it wuz, lookin' me right in the face of my soul, kinder
pert and saucy, sayin', "You'd better go to Saratoga next summer; you
and Josiah."
But I argued with it. Sez I, "What should we go to Saratoga for? None
of the relations live there on my side, or on hison; why should we go?"
But still that idee kep' a hantin me; "You'd better go to Saratoga next
summer, you and Josiah." And it whispered, "Mebby it will help
Josiah's corns." (He is dretful troubled with corns.) And so the idee kep'
a naggin' me, it nagged me for three days and three nights before I

mentioned it to my Josiah. And when I did, he scorfed at the idee. He
said, "The idee of water curing them dumb corns -- "
Sez I, "Josiah Allen, stranger things have been done;" sez I, "that water
is very strong. It does wonders."
And he scorfed agin and sez, "Don't you believe faith could cure em?"
Sez I, "If it wuz strong enough it could."
But the thought kep a naggin' me stiddy, and then -- here is the curious
part of it -- the thought nagged me, and I nagged Josiah, or not exactly
nagged; not a clear nag; I despise them, and always did. But I kinder
kep' it before his mind from day to day, and from hour to hour. And the
idee would keep a tellin' me things and I would keep a tellin' 'em to my
companion. The idee would keep a sayin' to me, "It is one of the most
beautiful places in our native land. The waters will help you, the
inspirin' music, and elegance and gay enjoyment you will find there,
will sort a uplift you. You had better go there on a tower;" and agin it
sez, "Mebby it will help Josiah's corns."
And old Dr. Gale a happenin' in at about that time, I asked him about it
(he doctored me when I wuz a baby, and I have helped 'em for years.
Good old creetur, he don't get along as well as he ort to. Loontown is a
healthy place.) I told him about my strong desire to go to Saratoga, and
I asked him plain if he thought the water would help my pardner's corns.
And he looked dreadful wise and he riz up and walked across the floor
2 and fro several times, probably 3 times to, and the same number of
times fro, with his arms crossed back under the skirt of his coat and his
eyebrows knit in deep thought, before he answered me. Finely he said,
that modern science had not fully demonstrated yet the direct bearing of
water on corn. In some cases it might and probably did stimulate 'em to
greater luxuriance, and then again a great flow of water might retard
their growth.
Sez I, anxiously, "Then you'd advise me to go there with him?"
"Yes," sez he, "on the hull, I advise you to go."
Them words I reported to Josiah, and sez I in anxious axents, "Dr. Gale
advises us to go."
And Josiah sez, "I guess I shan't mind what that old fool sez."
Them wuz my pardner's words, much as I hate to tell on 'em. But from
day to day I kep' it stiddy before him, how dang'r'us it wuz to go ag'inst
a doctor's advice. And from day to day he would scorf at the plan. And

I, ev'ry now and then, and mebby oftener, would get him a extra good
meal, and attack him on the subject immegatly afterwards. But all in
vain. And I see that when he had that immovible sotness onto him, one
extra meal wouldn't soften or molify him. No, I see plain I must make a
more voyalent effort. And I made it. For three stiddy days I put before
that man the best vittles that these hands could make, or this brain
could plan.
And at the end of the 3d day I gently tackled him agin on the subject,
and his state wuz such, bland, serene, happified, that he consented
without a parlay. And so it wuz settled that the next summer we wuz to
go to Saratoga. And he began to count on it and make preparation in a
way that I hated to see.
Yes, from the very minute that our two minds wuz