"Well, what did you tell him, Josiah Allen?"
"I told him, Samantha, I would consider it."
"And," sez I, "have you been all this time, months and months, a considerin'?"
"Yes, mom," sez he, in a polite, genteel tone, "I have."
"Well, do you stop considerin' to once, Josiah Allen."
"No, Samantha, a pardner can do a good deal, but she can't break up a man's considerin'. It is very genteel and fashionable, and I shall keep it up."
I groaned aloud; the more I thought on't, the worse I felt. Sez I, "To think of all the evils that are a flowin' out of that place, Josiah, and you could stop it to once if you wuz a minter."
"But," sez Josiah, "Ury sez that if it wuzn't sold there by Cap'n Bardeen the factory folks would go over into Zoar and git worse likker sold by low down critters."
Sez I, "You might as well say if Christians don't steal and murder, it will be done by them of poor moral character. That is one strong weepon to kill the evil--confine the bizness to the low and vile and show the world that you, a Methodist and a deacon, put the bizness right where it belongs, with murder and all wickedness, not as you are sayin' now by your example, it is right and I will protect it."
"Well," sez Josiah, as sot as a old hen settin' on a brick bat, "it is law; Ury has settled it."
My heart ached so that it seemed to clear my head. "We'll see," sez I, "if it can't be changed. I'll know before a week has gone over my head." And I got up and dragged out the hair trunk, sithin' so deep that it wuz dretful to hear, some like the melancholy winter winds howlin' round a Jonesville chimbly.
"What are you a goin' to do, Samantha?" sez Josiah anxiously.
"I am goin' back home," sez I, "to-morrer to see about that law."
"Never!" sez Josiah. "Never will I let my idol go from Japan to Jonesville unprotected. If you must go and make a town's talk from China to Jonesville I'll stand by you." And he took down his hat and ombrell.
"What would you do if you went back?" sez I. "I should think you had done enough as it is; I shall go alone."
"What! you go and leave all the pleasures of this trip and go alone? Part from your pardner for months and months?"
"Yes," sez I wildly, "and mebby forever. It don't seem to me that I can ever live with a man that is doin' what you are." And hot tears dribbled down onto my sheep's-head night-caps.