n anything that would hold
it up.

And after I remembered that Miss Dagget's bed wuz jest the other side
of the thin board partition. I sez, "Yes, Josiah, with weariness and a
easy conscience, any bed will seem soft as downy pillows are."

The next day I felt pretty mauger and stayed in my room most of the
time, though Josiah and the children sallied round considerable. But
after supper I felt better and went out and set down on the piazza
that run along the front of the house, and looked round and enjoyed
myself first rate.

Way off, between the trees and between the houses, I could see the
dear old Saint meanderin' along, blue and gold colored where the sun
struck the shining surface. And, dearer sight to me, I could catch a
glimpse through the interstices of the trees, of my beloved pardner
and little Delight in her white dress and flutterin' blue ribbons
walkin' along by his side. Whitfield and Tirzah Ann had gone santerin'
off some time before.

The hour and the seen wuz both beautiful and soothin'. The little
streets between the houses stretched out on every side, some on 'em
bordered with trees. Gay awnings wuz over the doors and winders,
flowering shrubs and posies set off the yards, and the piazzas
ornamented by the good-lookin' folks settin' out on chairs and
benches, the wimmen in light, pretty summer gowns, and there wuz
babies in their perambulators perambulatin' along and pretty children
runnin' and playin' about.

Anon or oftener a group of good-lookin' cottagers would sally out of
their houses and santer along, or a pedestrian in a hurry would walk
by. It seemed like the land where it is always afternoon, that I'd
hearn Thomas J. read about,

The island valley of Avilion,
Where falls not rain or hail or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly--
Deep meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows, crowned by summer sea.

It wuz a fair seen! a fair seen! and my soul seemed attuned to its
perfect harmony and peace. When all of a sudden I hearn these strange
and skairful words comin' like a sharp shower of hail from a clear
June sky:--

"Malviny is goin' to _freeze_ to-night!"

There wuz a skairful axent on the word "freeze" that seemed to bring
all of Malviny's sufferin's right in front of me. But so strong is my
common sense that even in that agitatin' time I thought to myself, as
I wiped the perspiration from my foretop, "