and sot in our own door yard under
a spreadin' geranium tree, and Sister Bobbett stood admirin'ly before
me with a tea-cup in her hand, beggin' for a slip from the immense
branches. It wuz a sweet dream, and I waked up refreshed.

CHAPTER XI

Well, one week later we found ourselves agin on the boundless deep,
the broad Pacific, bound for the Philippines. How fur off from
Jonesville did I seem as I thought on't, but Love journeyed with me,
and Duty. Tommy wuz gittin' fat and rosy, his cough grew better every
day, and he looked and acted like a different child.

This wuz to be a longer voyage than we had took. We layed out to stop
to the Philippines first, and so on to China and Japan. It beats all
how soon you settle down and seem to feel as if the great ship you are
embarked on is the world, and the little corner you occupy your home,
specially if you have a devoted pardner with you to share your corner,
for Love can make a home anywhere. Arvilly got a number of new
subscribers and made friends amongst the passengers, but Elder Wessel
avoided her. And he didn't seem to like Sister Evangeline. I told him
what I had seen and hearn, for it seemed to me like a olive branch
bore into our dark, rainy world by a dove of Paradise. But he scoffed
at it; he said that it wuz all imagination. But I sez: "It hain't
imagination that the poor woman wuz dyin' and Sister Evangeline saved
her." And he said that wuz a coincidence, and I said that it wuz a
pity there wuzn't more such coincidences. And he didn't answer me at
all. He wuz settin' up on his creed with his legs hangin' off, and he
sot straight, no danger of his gittin' off and goin' down amongst the
poor steerage passengers and helpin' 'em. He thought he wuz a eminent
Christian, but in my opinion he might have been converted over agin
without doin' him any harm.

Well, the big world we wuz inhabitin' moved on over the calm waters.
Josiah read a good deal, settin' in the library with Tommy on his
knee. And I read some myself, but took considerable comfort studyin'
the different passengers, some as if they wuz books with different
bindin's, some gilt and gay, some dull and solid and some sombry, but
each with different readin' inside.

And stiddy and swift, onheedin' any of our feelin's or fears, the
great ship ploughed on, takin' us towards that wuz comin' to meet us
onbeknown to us. Miss Meechim kep' up pretty well, keepin' a good
lookout on Dorothy, but restin'