Josiah Allen's Wife as a P. A. and P. I.: Samantha at the Centennial. Designed As a Bright and Shining Light, to Pierce the Fogs of Error and Injustice That Surround Society and Josiah, and to Bring More Clearly to View the Path That Leads Straight on to Virtue and Happiness.

“You seem to be havin’ a kind of a enquiry meetin’ in politics, Josiah Allen, and I’ll get up in my mind, and speak in meetin’.” And then I jest let loose that eloquent tone I k...

I should have went on about him considerable more,—I have such a deep honor and respect, and such a strong (meetin’ house) regard for him—but Josiah looked so restless and worry...

“Yes,” says the Widder Doodle, that is jest what Mr. Doodle used to say. He said it would make a woman’s reputation black as a coal, would spile her modesty entirely to go to th...

But I argued with her; says I: “Sister, you are well meanin’, no doubt, but you ort to remember that the battle haint always to the swift.” Says I, “It wont harm none of us to f...

“There is cobwebs a hangin’ from your brain this minute Mahala Spicer, more’n a yard long.” Says I, “You have chased me round with a mop, and kinder limbered me up, so I feel li...

Never did the year let a lovlier day slip offen his string (containin’ jest 365) than the day my pardner and me set off on our tower. Never did a brighter light rest upon a more...

Anon, (or nearly that time) the enjun stopped before the Woman’s Pavilion—a noble big buildin’ that filled me with such proud and lofty emotions as I looked at it, that I don’t...

They ort to respect and reverence each other’s individuality.—(That is a long hefty word, but I have got it all right, for I looked it out in Thomas Jefferson’s big dictionary,...

“Wimmen’s minds is weak. But this haint the main reason why I make my motion. My main reason is, that I object, and I always will—while I have got a breath left in my body—objec...

And jest so he kep’ a grindin’ and a hangin’ back and a actin’. It was a curious time, very. I a standin’ there erect and firm on the stoop, with my table cloth on my left arm a...

“And so I would git up and cut the kindlin’ wood, and build the fire, and feed the cows, and go round the house a gettin’ breakfast, as still as a mice so’s not to disturb him,...

If Thomas J. and Maggy could feel contented to settle down in Jonesville after they was married, the cup of my happiness would be full and runnin’ over, and so would Josiah’s cu...

And truly, it was awful big and nice; big enough for half a dozen families, but it was shet up fearfully close and tight, as tight as if air and sunshine and Josiah and me was d...

“No doubt some of my sect are extravagant; I dare persume to say that some of the big wimmen in Washington and New York, and other big villages of the Union, git new clothes som...

This very girl when she was a child, was left to his care by her dyin’ mother and she grew up as pretty as a half blown rose bud, and jest as innocent; an orphan, unbeknowin’ to...

I believe in workin’ and earnin’ your honest bread, etc. and so 4th; but still, I believe in makin’ things agreeable and pleasant, very. We Americans, as a nation, are a dretful...

“Yes, in jail for playin’ horse and disturbin’ the peace. Sam Snyder has jest told me the particulars. They got to thinkin’ I s’pose, how many scrapes they had got into sense th...

And there she was, behavin’ herself like a perfect lady, and them three healthy young American fellers a laughin’ and a scorfin’ and a pokin’ fun at her—a pintin’ at her hair an...

There was “Yankey Doodle” as interestin’ as I always knew that yankey was; I never see him look better than he did here; there stood three generations with the soul of 1776 a sh...

There was one vase higher than my Josiah, that the handles of it was clear dragons, and nothin’ else, and a row of wimmen a dancin’ round it, each one carryin’ a rose in her han...

So we wended our way along, the eye of my speck takin’ in the heavenly beauty of the scene, when all of a sudden Josiah spoke up, and says he: “What a pity it is that they are a...

“Good land!” says I. “Is marryin’ the only theme that anybody can lay holt of? It seems to me that the best way would be to lay holt of duty now, and then if a bo comes lay holt...

“Good land! of all the poor excuses I ever heerd, that is the poorest. If I don’t kill my grandmother, somebody else will; or she’ll die herself, of old age, or sunthin’; good l...

“Well,” says I, “I can recommend it to her, and I haint the only one. If she has any doubts of its bein’ good, let her go right to Miss Archibald Gowdey and she’ll convince her....

“Well! the idee of roustin’ anybody up in the dead of night, and callin’ on ’em for principle and things. But you wont git any principle out of me at this time of night, you’ll...

“And after they have done, let ’em lay that telescope down, and say that wimmen don’t know enough, and haint sound-minded enough to vote; jest let ’em say it if they dare! And w...

“‘We have always taught our boy to love God, and taught him that He was the one reality in an unreal world.’ Says she, ‘I have tried from his childhood to make Him who is invisi...

So, as I was a sayin’, bein’ the only literary woman of any account in Jonesville, they made a great handlin’ of havin’ me present at their meetin’s, or at least, some of ’em di...

DESIGNED AS A BRIGHT AND SHINING LIGHT, TO PIERCE THE FOGS OF ERROR AND INJUSTICE THAT SURROUND SOCIETY AND JOSIAH, AND TO BRING MORE CLEARLY TO VIEW THE PATH THAT LEADS STRAIGH...

It seems he had jest told his father to the barn, and Josiah come in all broke down about his goin’ off west. Maggy was my choice, and hisen, but the goin’ west was where the ca...