anguage out of the mouth of man, and of course as
a deacon I couldn't listen to such profanity, so I hurried right
away."

"Hadn't you ort to return the hoss collar, Deacon?"

"Oh no, I couldn't stop to listen to such wicked talk."

That wuz jest like deacon Gansy; he thought he wuz awful religious but
I always felt dubersome about it.

But on we went through the matchless beauty of the drive. And anon we
ketched a view of the blue tostin' waves of the Atlantic, the air jest
as fresh and invigoratin' as when it blowed unto Columbuses weary
foretop when he discovered us. And like his dantless cry to his
fearful pilot, so my soul echoed the same cry to my deprestin' fears:

"Sail on, and on, and on," to the goal of our own desires. Our two
quests wuz some different, he wuz seekin' a new continent and I an old
Josiah. But I knowed the Atlantic breezes never blowed on two more
determined and noble linements than hisen and mine. And I felt that we
would have been real congenial if he hadn't died too soon, or I been
born too late.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE CURIOUS SIGHTS I SEEN AN' THE HAIR-RAISIN' EPISODES I UNDERWENT IN
MY AGONIZIN' SEARCH FOR MY PARDNER

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE CURIOUS SIGHTS I SEEN AN' THE HAIR-RAISIN' EPISODES I UNDERWENT
IN MY AGONIZIN' SEARCH FOR MY PARDNER

Bildad's folks wuz glad to see me. They visited us jest before they
moved there, so I felt free. But not one word did I say about my quest
for Josiah. No, such is woman's deathless devotion to the man she
loves, I'd ruther face the imputation of frivolity and friskiness, and
I spoze they think to this day I went to Coney Island out of curosity
and Pleasure Huntin', instead of the lofty motives that actuated me. I
knowed Bildad's wife wuz most bed-rid so I would be free to conduct my
search with no gossip or slurs onto Josiah.

And another reason for goin' there: I knowed the savin' sperit of my
pardner, and I thought he would ruther git a free meal than to keep
his incognito incog. And sure enough Bildad's first words wuz, "Why
didn't you come with Josiah yesterday? He wuz here to dinner."

"Where is he now?" sez I.

Sez Bildad, "The last time I see him he wuz startin' to take a trip to
the Moon."

Oh what a shock that wuz, Josiah goin' to the moon; and yet even as he
spoke I felt a relief, knowin' man's fickle nater, that the only
inhabitant I ever hearn on in the moon wuz an old man instead of a
woman. For few indeed a