ll_ happiness."

"It is," sez Josiah (cross and surly), "it is, too."

[Illustration: "YOU GO TOO FUR."]

And Serena Fogg said, gently, that she thought I wuz mistaken, "she
thought it wuz." And Josiah jined right in with her and said:

"He _knew_ it wuz, and he would take his oath to it."

But I went right on, and, sez I, "Mebby it is in one sense the most
peaceful; that is, when the affections are firm set and stabled it makes
'em more peaceful than when they are a-traipsin' round and a-wanderin'.
But," sez I, "marriage hain't _all_ peace."

Sez Josiah: "It is, and I'll swear to it."

Sez I, goin' right on, cool and serene, "The sunshine of true love gilds
the pathway with the brightest radiance we know anything about, but it
hain't all radiance."

"Yes, it is," sez Josiah, firmly, "it is, every mite of it."

And Serena Fogg sez, tenderly and amiably, "Yes, I think Mr. Allen is
right; I think it is."

"Wall," sez I, in meanin' axcents, awful meanin', "when you are married
you will change your opinion, you mark my word."

And she said, gently, but persistently, "That she guessed she shouldn't;
she guessed she was in the right of it."

Sez I, "You think when anybody is married they have got beyend all
earthly trials, and nothin' but perfect peace and rest remains?"

And she sez, gently, "Yes, mem!"

"Why," sez I, "I am married, and have been for upwards of twenty years,
and I think I ought to know somethin' about it; and how can it be called
a state of perfect rest, when some days I have to pass through as many
changes as a comet, and each change a tegus one. I have to wabble round
and be a little of everything, and change sudden, too.

"I have to be a cook, a step-mother, a housemaid, a church woman, a wet
nurse (lots of times I have to wade out in the damp grass to take care
of wet chickens and goslins). I have to be a tailoress, a dairy-maid,
a literary soarer, a visitor, a fruit-canner, a adviser, a soother, a
dressmaker, a hostess, a milliner, a gardener, a painter, a surgeon, a
doctor, a carpenter, a woman, and more'n forty other things.

"Marriage is a first-rate state, and agreeable a good deal of the time;
but it haint a state of perfect peace and rest, and you'll find out it
haint if you are ever married."

But Miss Fogg said, mildly, "that she thought I wuz mistaken--she
thought it wuz."

"You do?" sez I.

"Yes, mem," sez she.

I got up, and sez I, "Come, Josiah, I guess we had bette