They did talk fearfully skareful, and calculated to skare any man that
hadn't went through with what Christopher had. They said that ruther
than have the young people who would be gathered there from the four
ends of the earth--ruther than have these innocent young creeters
contaminated by walkin' through them rooms and lookin' at them wonders
of nature and art, why, they had ruther not have any Fair at all.

Why, I read sights and sights about it, and hearn powerful talk, and
immense quantities of it.

And one night I hearn the most masterly and convincin' arguments brung
up on both sides--arguments calculated to make a bystander wobble first
one way and then the other, with the strength and power of 'em.

It wuz at a church social held to Miss Lums, and a number of us had got
there early, and this subject wuz debated on before the minister got
there.

Deacon Henzy wuz the one who give utterance to the views I have
promulgated.

He said right out plain, "That no matter how keen the slight would be
felt, he shouldn't attend to it if it wuz open Sunday." He said "that
the country would be ruined if it took place."

"Yes," sez Miss Cornelius Cork, "you are right, Deacon Henzy. I wouldn't
have Cornelius Jr. go to Chicago if the Fair is open Sundays, not for a
world full of gold. For," sez she, "I feel as if it would be the ruin of
him."

And then sister Arvilly Lanfear (she is always on the contrary side),
sez she--"Why?"

"Why?" sez Miss Cork. "You ask why? You a woman and a perfessor?"

"Yes," sez Arvilly--"why?"

Sez Miss Cork, "It would take away all his reverence for the Sabbath,
and the God who appointed that holy day of rest. His morals would be all
broke up, and he would be a ruined boy. I expect that he will be there
two months--that would make eight days of worldliness and wickedness;
and I feel that long enough before the eighth day had come his
principles would be underminded, and his morals all tottered and broke
down."

"Why?" sez Arvilly. "There hain't any wickedness a-goin' on to the Fair
as I know of; it is a goin' to be full and overflowin' of object lessons
a teachin' of the greatness and the glory of the Lord of Heaven, and the
might and power of the human intellect. Wonders of Heaven, and wonders
of earth, and I don't see how they would be apt to ruin and break down
anybody's morals a-contemplatin' 'em--not if they wuz sound when they
begun.

"It seems to me it would make 'em have ten times the reverence they had
before--reverence and awe and worshipful love for the One, the great
and loving mind that had thought out all these marvels of beauty and
grandeur and spread 'em out for His children's happiness and
instruction."

"Oh, yes," sez Miss Cork. "On week days it is a exaltin' and upliftin'
and dreadful religious sight; but on Sundays it is a crime to even think
on it. Sundays should be kep pure and holy and riz up, and I wouldn't
have Cornelius desecrate himself and the Sabbath by goin' to the Fair
not for a world full of gold."

"Where would he go Sundays while he wuz in Chicago if he didn't go
there?" sez Arville.

She is real cuttin' sometimes, Arville is, but then Miss Cork loves to
put on Arville, and twit her of her single state, and kinder act
high-headed and throw Cornelius in her face, and act.

Sez Arville--"Where would Cornelius Jr. go if he didn't go to the Fair?"

Cornelius Jr. drinks awful and is onstiddy, and Miss Cork hemmed and
hawed, and finally said, in kind of a meachin' way--

"Why, to meetin', of course."

He hadn't been in a meetin'-house for two years, and we all knew it,
and Miss Cork knew that we knew it--hence the meach.

"He don't go to meetin' here to Jonesville," sez Arville.

[Illustration: "He don't go to meetin' here."]

It wuz real mean in her, but I spoze it wuz to pay Miss Cork off for her
aggravatin'.

And she went on, "I live right acrost the road from Fasset's saloon, and
I see him and more'n a dozen other Jonesvillians there most every
Sunday.

"Goin' to Chicago hain't a-goin' to born a man agin, and change all
their habits and ways to once, and I believe if Cornelius Jr. didn't go
to the Fair he would go to worse places."

"Well," sez Miss Cornelius Cork, "if he did, I wouldn't have to bear the
sin. I feel that it is my duty to lift my voice and my strength aginst
the Sunday openin' of the Fair, and even if the boys did go to worse
places, my conscience would be clear; the sin wouldn't rest on my head."

Sez Arville, "That is the very way I have heard wimmen talk who burned
up their boys' cards, and checker-boards, and story-books, and drove
their children away from home to find amusement.

"They wanted the boys to set down and read the Bible and sam books year
in and year out, but they wouldn't do it, for there wuz times when the
young blood in 'em riz up and clamered for recreation and amusement,
and seein' that they couldn't git it at home, under the fosterin' care
of their father and mother, why, they looked for it elsewhere, and found
it in low saloons and bar-rooms, amongst wicked and depraved companions.
And then, when their boys turned out gamblers and drunkards, they would
say that their consciences wuz clear.

"But," says Arville, "that hain't the way the Lord done. He used Sundays
and week days to tell stories to the multitude, to amuse 'em, draw 'em
by the silken cord of fancy towards the true and the right, draw 'em
away from the bad towards the good. And if I had ten boys--"

"Which you hain't no ways likely to have," says Miss Cork; "no, indeed,
you hain't."

"No, thank Heaven! there hain't no chance on't. But if I had ten boys I
would ruther have 'em wanderin' through them beautiful halls, full of
the wonders of the world which the Lord made and give to His children
for their amusement and comfort--I would ruther have 'em there than to
have 'em help swell a congregation of country loafers in a city
saloon--learnin' in one day more lessons in the height and depth of
depravity than years of country livin' would teach 'em.

"These places, and worse ones, legalized places of devils' pastime, will
lure and beckon the raw youth of the country. They will flaunt their
gaudy attractions on every side, and appeal to every sense but the sense
of decency.

"And I would feel fur safer about the hull ten of 'em, if I knew they
wuz safe in the art galleries, full of beauty and sublimity, drawin'
their minds and hearts insensibly and in spite of themselves upward and
onward, or lookin' at the glory and wonders of practical and mechanical
beauty--the beauty of use and invention.

"After walkin' through a buildin' forty-five acres big, and some more of
'em about as roomy, I should be pretty sure that they wouldn't git out
of it in time to go any great lengths in sin that day; and they would be
apt to be too fagged out and dead tired to foller on after Satan any
great distance."

"Well," says Miss Snyder, "I d'no but I should feel safer about my Jim
and John to have 'em there in the Fair buildin's than runnin' loose in
the streets of Chicago. They won't go to meetin' every Sunday, and I
can't make 'em; and if they do go, they will go in the mornin' late, and
git out as soon as the Amen is said.

"My boys are as good as the average--full as good; but I know when they
hain't got anything to do, and git with other boys, they will cut up and
act."

"Well," says Miss Cornelius Cork, "I know that my Cornelius will never
disgrace himself or me by any low acts."

She wuz tellin' a big story, for Cornelius Jr. had been carried home
more'n once too drunk to walk, besides other mean acts that wuz worse;
so we didn't say anything, but we all looked queer; and Arville kinder
sniffed, and turned up her nose, and nudged Miss Snyder. But Miss Cork
kep right on--she is real high-headed and conceited, Miss Cork is.

And, sez she, "Much as I want to see the Fair, and much as I want
Cornelius and Cornelius Jr. to go to it, and the rest of the country, I
would ruther not have it take place at all than to have it open
Sundays."

"And I feel jest so," sez Miss Henzy.

Then young Lihu Widrig spoke up. He is old Elihu Widrig's only son, and
he has been off to college, and is home on a vacation.

He is dretful deep learnt, has studied Greek and lots of other languages
that are dead, and some that are most dead.

He spoke up, and sez he:

"What is this Sabbath, anyway?"

We didn't any of us like that, and we showed we didn't by our means. We
didn't want any of his new-fangled idees, and we looked high-headed at
him and riz up.

But he kep right on, bein' determined to have his say.

"You can foller the Sabbath we keep right back, straight as a string, to
planet worship. Before old Babylon ever riz up at all, to say nothin' of
fallin', the dwellers in the Euphrates Valley kep a Sabbath. They spozed
there wuz seven planets, and one day wuz give to each of them. And
Saturday, the old Jewish Sabbath, wuz given to Saturn, cruel as ever he
could be if the ur in his name wuz changed to e. In those days it wuz
not forbidden to work in that day, but supposed to be unlucky.

"Some as Ma regards Friday."

It wuz known that Miss Widrig wouldn't begin a mite of work Fridays, not
even hemin' a towel or settin' up a sock or mitten.

And, sez he, "When we come down through history to the Hebrews, we find
it a part of the Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments.

"In the second book of the Bible we find the reason given for keeping
the Sabbath is, the Lord rested on that day. In the fifth book we find
the reason given is the keeping of a memorial for the deliverance out
of Egypt.

"Now this commandment only forbids working on that day; no matter what
else you do, you are obeying the fourth commandment. According to that
command, you could go to the World's Fair, or wherever you had a mind
to, if you did not work.

"The Puritan Sabbath wuz a very different one from that observed by
Moses and the Prophets, which wuz mainly a day of rest."

"Wall, I know," sez Miss Yerden, "that the only right way to keep the
Sabbath is jest as we do, go to meetin' and Sunday-school, and do jest
as we do."

Sez Lihu, "Maybe the people to whom the law wuz delivered didn't
understand its meaning so well as we do to-day, after the lapse of so
many centuries, so well as you do, Miss Yerden."

We all looked coldly at Lihu; we didn't approve of his talk. But Miss
Yerden looked tickled, she is so blind in her own conceit, and Lihu
spoke so polite to her, she thought he considered her word as goin'
beyend the Bible.

Then Lophemia Pegrum spoke up, and sez she--

"Don't you believe in keeping the Sabbath, Lihu?"

"Yes, indeed, I do," sez he, firm and decided. "I do believe in it with
all my heart. It is a blessed break in the hard creakin' roll of the
wheel of Labor, a needed rest--needed in every way for tired and
worn-out brain and muscle, soul and body; but I believe in telling the
truth," sez he.

He always wuz a very truthful boy--born so, we spoze. Almost too
truthful at times, his ma used to think. She used to have to whip him
time and agin for bringin' out secret things before company, such as
borrowed dishes, and runnin's of other females, and such.

So we wuz obliged to listen to his remarks with a certain amount of
respect, for we knew that he meant every word that he said, and we knew
that he had studied deep into ancient history, no matter how much
mistook we felt that he wuz.

But Miss Yerden spoke up, and sez she--

"I don't care whether it is true or not. I have always said, and always
will say, that if any belief goes aginst the Bible, I had ruther believe
in the Bible than in the truth any time."

And more than half of us wimmen agreed with her.

You see, so many reverent, and holy, and divine thoughts and memories
clustered round that book, that we didn't love to have 'em disturbed. It
wuz like havin' somebody take a spade and dig up the voyalets and lilies
on the grave of the nearest and dearest, to try to prove sunthin' or
ruther.

We feel in such circumstances that we had ruther be mistook than to have
them sweet posies disturbed and desecrated.

Holy words of counsel, and reproof, and consolation delivered from the
Most High to His saints and prophets--words that are whispered over our
cradles, and whose truth enters our lives with our mother's milk; that
sustains us and helps us to bear the hard toils and burdens of the day
of life, and that go with us through the Valley and the Shadow--the only
revelation we have of God's will to man, the written testimony of His
love and compassion, and the only map in which we trace our titles clear
to a heavenly inheritance.

If errors and mistakes have crept in through the weaknesses of men, or
if the pages have become blotted by the dust of time, we hated to have
'em brung out and looked too clost into--we hated to, like a dog.

So we, most all of us, had a fellow feelin' for Miss Yerden, and looked
approvin' at her.

And Lihu, seein' we looked cold at him, and bein' sensitive, and havin'
a hard cold, he said "he guessed he would go over to the drug-store and
git some hoarhoun candy for his cough."

So he went out. And then Miss Cork spoke up, and sez she--

"How it would look in the eyes of the other nations to have us a
breakin' Sundays after keepin' 'em pure and holy for all these years."

"Pure and holy!" sez Arvilly. "Why, jest look right here in the country,
and see the way the Sabbath is desecrated. Saturday nights and Sundays
is the very time for the devil's high jinks. More whiskey and beer and
hard cider is consumed Saturday nights and Sundays than durin' all the
rest of the week.

"Why, right in my neighborhood a man who makes cider brandy carrys off
hull barrels of it most every Saturday, so's to have it ready for Sunday
consumption.

"The saloons are crowded that day, and black eyes, and bruised bodies,
and sodden intellects, and achin' hearts are more frequent Sundays than
any other day of the week, and you know it.

"And after standin' all this desecration calmly for year after year, and
votin' to uphold it, it don't look consistent to flare up and be so
dretful afraid of desecratin' the Sabbath by havin' a place of
education, greater than the world has ever seen or ever will see agin,
open on the Sabbath for the youth of the land."

"But the nation," sez Miss Henzy, in a skareful voice. "This nation must
keep up its glorious reputation before the other countries of the world.
How will it look to 'em to have our Goverment permit such Sunday
desecration? This is a national affair, and we should not be willin' to
have our glorious nation do anything to lower itself in the eyes of the
assembled and envious world."

Sez Arville, "If our nation can countenance such doin's as I have spoke
of, the man-killin' and brute-makin', all day Sundays, and not only
permit it, but go into pardnership with it, and take part of the pay--if
it can do this Sundays, year after year, without bein' ashamed before
the other nations, I guess it will stand it to have the Fair open."

"But," says Miss Bobbet, "even if it is better for the youth of the
country, and I d'no but it will be, it will have a bad look to the
other nations, as Sister Henzy sez--it will look bad."

Says Arville, "That is what Miss Balcomb said about her Ned when she
wouldn't let him play games to home; she said she didn't care so much
about it herself, but thought the neighbors would blame her; and Ned got
to goin' away from home for amusement, and is now a low gambler and
loafer. I wonder whether she would ruther have kep her boy safe, or made
the neighbors easy in their minds.

[Illustration: "She wouldn't let her Ned play games at home."]

"And now the neighbors talk as bad agin when they see him a-reelin' by.
She might have known folks would talk anyway--if they can't run folks
for doin' things they will run 'em for not doin' 'em--they'll talk every
time."

"Yes, and don't you forgit it," sez Bub Lum.

But nobody minded Bub, and Miss Cork begun agin on another tact.

"See the Sabbath labor it will cause, the great expenditure of strength
and labor, to have all them stupendious buildin's open on the Sabbath.
The onseemly and deafnin' noise and clatter of the machinery, and the
toil of the men that it will take to run and take care of all the
departments, and the labor of the poor men who will have to carry
guests back and forth all day."

"I d'no," sez Arville, "whether it will take so much more work or not;
it is most of it run by water-power and electricity, and water keeps on
a-runnin' all day Sunday as well as week days.

"Your mill-dam don't stop, Miss Cork, because it is Sunday."

Miss Cork's house stands right by the dam, and you can't hear yourself
speak there hardly, so it wuz what you might expect, to have her object
specially to noise.

Miss Cork kinder tosted her head and drawed down her upper lip in a real
contemptious way, and Arvilly went on and resoomed:

"And electricity keeps on somewhere a-actin' and behavin'; it don't stop
Sundays. I have seen worse thunder-storms Sundays, it does seem to me,
than I ever see week days. And when old Mom Nater sets such a show
a-goin' Sundays, you have got to tend it, whether you think it is wicked
or not.

"And as for the work of carryin' folks back and forth to it,
meetin'-housen have to run by work--hard work, too. Preachin', and
singin', and ringin' bells, and openin' doors, and lightin' gas, and
usherin' folks in, and etc., etc., etc.

"And horse-cars and steam-cars have to run to and frow; conductors, and
brakemen, and firemen, and engineers, and etc., etc.

"And horses have to be harnessed and worked hard, and coachmen, and
drivers, and men and wimmen have to work hard Sundays. Yes, indeed.

"Now, my sister-in-law, Jane Lanfear, works harder Sundays than any day
out of the seven. They take a place with thirty cows on it, and she and
Jim, bein' ambitious, do almost all the work themselves.

"Every Sunday mornin' Jane gets up, and she and Jim goes out and milks
fifteen cows apiece, and then Jim drives them off to pasture and comes
back and harnesses up and carries the milk three miles to a cheese
factory, and comes back and does the other out-door chores.

"And Jane gets breakfast, and gets up the three little children, and
washes 'em and dresses 'em, and feeds the little ones to the table. And
after breakfast she does up all her work, washes her dishes and the
immense milk-cans, sweeps, cleans lamps and stoves, makes beds, etcetry,
and feeds the chickens, and ducks, and turkeys. And by that time
it is nine o'clock. Then she hurries round and washes and combs the
three children, curls the hair of the twin girls, and then gets herself
into her best clothes, and by that time she is so beat out that she is
ready to drop down.

"But she don't; she lifts the children into the democrat, climbs her own
weary form in after 'em, and takes the youngest one in her lap. And Jim,
havin' by this time got through with his work and toiled into his best
suit, they drive off, a colt follerin' 'em, and Jim havin' to get out
more'n a dozen times to head it right, and makin' Jane wild with
anxiety, for it is a likely colt.

"Wall, they go four milds and a half to the meetin'-house--there hain't
no Free-well Baptist nearer to 'em, and they are strong in the belief,
and awful sot on that's bein' the only right way. So they go to
class-meetin' first, and both talk for quite a length of time; they are
quite gifted, and are called so. And then they set up straight through
the sermon, and that Free-well Baptist preaches more'n a hour, hot or
cold weather, and then they both teach a large class of children, and
what with takin' care of the three restless children, and their own
weariness on the start, they are both beat out before they start for
home. And Jane has a blindin' headache.

"But she must keep up, for she has got to git the three babies home
safe, and then there is dinner to get, and the dishes to wash, and the
housework, and the out-door work to tend to, and what with her headache,
and her tired-out nerves and body, and the work and care of the babies,
Jane is cross as a bear--snaps everybody up, sets a bad pattern before
her children and Jim--and, in fact, don't get over it and hain't good
for anything before the middle of the week.

"The day of rest is the hardest day of the week for her.

"But she told me last night--she come in to get my bask pattern, she is
anxious to get her parmetty dress done for the World's Fair--but she
said that she shouldn't go if it wuz open Sunday, for her mind wuz so
sot on havin' the Sabbath kep strict as a day of rest.

"Now I believe in goin' to meetin' as much as anybody, and always have
been regular. But I say Jane hain't consistent." (They don't agree.)

Arvilly stopped here a minute for needed breath. Good land! I should
have thought she would; and Lophemia Pegrum spoke up--she is a dretful
pretty girl, but very sentimental and romantic, and talks out of poetry
books. Sez she:

"Another thought: Nature works all the Sabbath day. Flowers bloom, their
sweet perfume wafts abroad, bees gather the honey from their fragrant
blossoms, the dews fall, the clouds sail on, the sun lights and warms
the World, the grass grows, the grain ripens, the fruit gathers the
sunshine in its golden and rosy globes, the birds sing, the trees
rustle, the wind blows, the stars rise and set, the tide comes in and
goes out, the waves wash the beach, and carries the great ships to
their havens--in fact, Nature keeps her World's Fair open every day of
the week just alike."

"Yes," sez Miss Eben Sanders--she is always on the side of the last
speaker--she hain't to be depended on, in argument. But she speaks quite
well, and is a middlin' good woman, and kind-hearted. Sez she--

"Look at the poor people who work hard all the week and who can't spend
the time week days to go to this immense educational school.

"Them who have to work hard and steady every working day to keep bread
in the hands of their families, to keep starvation away from themselves
and children--clerks, seamstresses, mechanics, milliners, typewriters,
workers in factories, and shops, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

"Children of toil, who bend their weary frames over their toilsome,
oncongenial labor all the week, with the wolves of Cold and Hunger
a-prowlin' round 'em, ready to devour them and their children if they
stop their labor for one day out of the six--

"Think what it would be for these tired-out, beauty-starved white slaves
to have one day out of the seven to feast their eyes and their hungry
souls on the _best_ of the World.

"What an outlook it would give their work-blinded eyes! What a blessed
change it would make in all their dull, narrow, cramped lives! While
their hands wuz full of work, their quickened fancy would live over
again the too brief hours they spent in communion with the World's
best--the gathered beauty and greatness and glory of the earth. Whatever
their toil and weariness, they _had_ lived for a few hours, their eyes
_had_ beheld the glory of God in His works."

Miss Cork yawned very deep here, and Miss Sanders blushed and stopped.
They hain't on speakin' terms. Caused by hens.

And then Miss Cork sez severely--a not noticin' Miss Sanders speech at
all, but a-goin' back to Arvilly's--she loves to dispute with her, she
loves to dearly--

"You forgot to mention when you wuz talkin' about Sabbath work connected
with church-goin' that it wuz to worship God, and it wuz therefore
right--no matter how wearisome it wuz, it wuz perfectly right."

"Wall, I d'no," sez Arvilly--"I d'no but what some of the beautiful
pictures and wonderful works of Art and Nature that will be exhibited at
the World's Fair would be as upliftin' and inspirin' to me as some of
the sermons I hear Sundays. Specially when Brother Ridley gits to
talkin' on the Jews, and the old Egyptians.

"It stands to reason that if I could see Pharo's mummy it would bring me
nearer to him, and them plagues and that wickedness of hisen, than
Brother Ridley's sermon could.

"And when I looked at a piece of the olive tree under which our Saviour
sot while He wuz a-weepin' over Jeruesalem or see a wonderful picture of
the crucifixion or the ascension, wrought by hands that the Lord Himself
held while they wuz painted--I believe it would bring Him plainer before
me than Brother Ridley could, specially when he is tizickey, and can't
speak loud.

"Why, our Lord Himself wuz took to do more than once by the Pharisees,
and told He wuz breakin' the Sabbath. And He said that the Sabbath wuz
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

"And He said, 'Consider the Lilies'--that is, consider the Lord, and
behold Him in the works of His hands.

"Brother Ridley is good, no doubt, and it is right to go and hear him--I
hain't disputed that--but when he tries to bring our thoughts to the
Lord, he has to do it through his own work, his writin', which he did
himself with a steel pen. And I d'no as it is takin' the idees of the
Lord so much at first hand as it is to study the lesson of the Lilies He
made, and which He loved and admired and told us to consider.

"The World's Fair is full of all the beauty He made, more wonderful and
more beautiful than the lilies, and I d'no as it is wrong to consider
'em Sundays or week days."

"But," sez Miss Yerden, "don't you know what the Bible sez--'Forget not
the assemblin' of yourselves together'?"

[Illustration: Bub Lum.]

"Well," piped up Bub Lum, aged fourteen, and a perfect imp--

"I guess that if the Fair is open Sundays, folks that are there won't
complain about there not bein' folks enough assembled together. I guess
they won't complain on't--no, indeed!"

But nobody paid any attention to Bub, and Arvilly continued--

"I believe in usin' some common sense right along, week days and Sundays
too. It stands to reason that the Lord wouldn't gin us common sense if
He didn't want us to use it.

"We don't need dyin' grace while we are a livin', and so with other
things. There will be meetin'-housen left and ministers in 1894, most
likely, and we can attend to 'em right along as long as we live.

"But this great new open Book of Revelations, full of God's power and
grace, and the wonderful story of what He has done for us sence He
wakened the soul of His servant, Columbus, and sent him over the
troubled ocean to carry His name into the wilderness, and the strength
and the might He has given to us sence as a nation--

"This great object lesson, full of the sperit of prophecy and
accomplishment, won't be here but a few short months.

"And I believe if there could be another chapter added to the Bible this
week, and we could have the Lord's will writ out concernin' it, I
believe it would read--

"'Go to that Fair. Study its wonderful lessons with awe and reverence.
Go week days if you can, and if you can't, go Sundays. And you rich
people, who have art galleries of your own to wander through Sundays,
and gardens and greenhouses full of beauty and sweetness, and the
means to seek out loveliness through the world, and who don't need the
soul refreshment these things give--don't you by any Pharisaical law
deprive my poor of their part in the feast I have spread for both rich
and poor.'"

Sez Miss Cork, "I wouldn't dast to talk in that way, Arville. To add or
diminish one word of skripter is to bring an awful penalty."

"I hain't a-goin' to add or diminish," says Arville. "I hain't thought
on't. I am merely statin' what, in my opinion, would be the Lord's will
on the subject."

But right here the schoolmaster struck in. He is a very likely young
man--smart as a whip, and does well by the school, and makes a stiddy
practice of mindin' his own business and behavin'.

He is a great favorite and quite good-lookin', and some say that he and
Lophemia Pegrum are engaged; but it hain't known for certain.

He spoke up, and sez he, "There is one great thing to think of when we
talk on this matter. There is so much to be said on both sides of this
subject that it is almost impossible to shut your eyes to the advantages
and the disadvantages on both sides.

"But," sez he, "if this nation closes the Fair Sundays, it will be a
great object lesson to the youth of this nation and the world at large
of the sanctity and regard we have for our Puritan Sabbath--

"Of our determination to not have it turned into a day of amusement, as
it is in some European countries.

"It would be something like painting up the Ten Commandments and the
Lord's Prayer in gold letters on the blue sky above, so that all who run
may read, of the regard we have for the day of rest that God appointed.
The regard we have for things spiritual, onseen--our conflicts and
victories for conscience' sake--the priceless heritage for which our
Pilgrim Fathers braved the onknown sea and wilderness, and our
forefathers fought and bled for."

"They fit for Liberty!" sez Arville. She would have the last word. "And
this country, in the name of Religion, has whipped Quakers, and
Baptists, and hung witches--and no knowin' what it will do agin. And I
think," sez she, "that it would look better now both from the under and
upper side--both on earth and in Heaven--to close them murderous and
damnable saloons, that are drawin' men to visible and open ruin all
round us on every side, than to take such great pains to impress onseen
things onto strangers."

She would have the last word--she wuz bound to.

And the schoolmaster, bein' real polite, though he had a look as if he
wuzn't convinced, yet he bowed kinder genteel to Arvilly, as much as to
say, "I will not dispute any further with you." And then he got up and
went over and sot down by Lophemia Pegrum.

And I see there wuz no prospect of their different minds a-comin' any
nearer together.

And I'll be hanged if I could wonder at it. Why, I myself see things so
plain on both sides that I would convince myself time and agin both
ways.

I would be jest as firm as a rock for hours at a time that it would be
the only right thing to do, to shet up the Fair Sundays--shet it up jest
as tight as it could be shet.

And then agin, I would argue in my own mind, back and forth, and
convince myself (ontirely onbeknown to me) that it would be the means of
doin' more good to the young folks and the poor to have it open.

Why, I had a fearful time, time and agin, a-arguin' and a-disputin'
with myself, and a-carryin' metafors back and forth, and a-eppisodin',
when nobody wuz round.

And as I couldn't seem to come to any clear decision myself, a-disputin'
with jest my own self, I didn't spoze so many different minds would
become simultanous and agreed.

So I jest branched right off and asked Miss Cork "If she had heard that
the minister's wife had got the neuralligy."

I felt that neuralligy wuz a safe subject, and one that could be agreed
on--everybody despised it.

[Illustration: Neuralligy wuz a safe subject.]

And gradual the talk sort o' quieted down, and I led it gradual into
ways of pleasantness and paths of peace.

CHAPTER VII.

Christopher Columbus Allen got along splendid with his railroad
business, and by the time the rest of us wuz ready for the World's Fair,
he wuz.

We didn't have so many preparations to make as we would in other
circumstances, for Ury and Philury wuz goin' to move right into our
house, and do for it jest as well as we would do for ourselves.

They had done this durin' other towers that we had gone off on, and
never had we found our confidence misplaced, or so much as a towel or a
dish-cloth missin'.

We have always done well by them while they wuz workin' for us by the
week or on shares, and they have always jest turned right round and done
well by us.

Thomas Jefferson and Maggie went with us. Tirzah Ann and Whitfield
wuzn't quite ready to go when we did, but they wuz a-comin' later, when
Tirzah Ann had got all her preperations made--her own dresses done, and
Whitfield's night-shirts embroidered, and her stockin's knit.

I love Tirzah Ann. But I can't help seein' that she duz lots of things
that hain't neccessary.

Now it wuzn't neccessary for her to have eleven new dresses made a
purpose to go to the World's Fair, and three white aprons all worked off
round the bibs and pockets.

Good land! what would she want of aprons there in that crowd? And she no
need to had six new complete suits of under-clothes made, all trimmed
off elaborate with tattin' and home-made edgin' before she went. And it
wuzn't neccessary for her to knit two pairs of open-work stockin's with
fine spool thread.

I sez to her, "Tirzah Ann, why don't you buy your stockin's? You can git
good ones for twenty cents. And," sez I, "these will take you weeks and
weeks to knit, besides bein' expensive in thread."

But she said "she couldn't find such nice ones to the store--she
couldn't find shell-work."

"Then," sez I, "I shall go without shell-work."

But she said, "They wuz dretful ornamental to the foot, specially to the
instep, and she shouldn't want to go without 'em."

"But," sez I, "who is a-goin' to see your instep? You hain't a-goin'
round in that crowd with slips on, be you?"

"No," she said, "she didn't spoze she should, but she should feel better
to know that she had on nice stockin's, if there didn't anybody see
'em."

And I thought to myself that I should ruther be upheld by my principles
than the consciousness of shell-work stockin's. But I didn't say so
right out. I see that she wouldn't give up the idee.

And besides the stockin's, which wuz goin' to devour a fearful amount of
time, she had got to embroider three night-shirts for Whitfield with
fine linen floss.

Then I argued with her agin. Sez I, "Good land! I don't believe that
Christopher Columbus ever had any embroidered night-shirts." Sez I, "If
he had waited to have them embroidered, and shell-work stockin's knit,
we might have not been discovered to this day. But," sez I, "good,
sensible creeter, he knew better than to do it when he had everything
else on his hands. And," sez I, "with all your housework to do--and hot
weather a-comin' on--I don't see how you are a-goin' to git 'em all done
and git to the Fair."

And she said, "She had ruther come late, prepared, than to go early with
everything at loose ends."

"But," sez I, "good plain sensible night-shirts and Lyle-thread
stockin's hain't loose--they hain't so loose as them you are knittin'."

But I see that I couldn't break it up, so I desisted in my efforts.

Maggie, though she is only my daughter-in-law, takes after me more in a
good many things than Tirzah Ann duz, who is my own step-daughter.
Curious, but so it is.

Now, she and I felt jest alike in this.

Who--who wuz a-goin' to notice what you had on to the World's Fair; and
providin' we wuz clean and hull, and respectable-lookin', who wuz
a-goin' to know or care whether our stockin's wuz open work or plain
knittin'?

There, with all the wonder and glory of the hull world spread out before
our eyes, and the hull world there a-lookin' at it, a-gazin' at strange
people, strange customs, strange treasures and curiosities from every
land under the sun--wonders of the earth and wonders of the sea, marvels
of genius and invention, and marvels of grandeur and glory, of Art and
Nature, and the hull world a-lookin' on, and a-marvellin' at 'em. And
then to suppose that anybody would be a-lookin' out for shell-work
stockin's, a-carin' whether they wuz clam-shell pattern, or oyster
shell.

The idee!

That is the way Maggie and I felt; why, if you'll believe it, that sweet
little creeter never took but one dress with her, besides a old wrapper
to put on mornin's. She took a good plain black silk dress, with two
waists to it--a thick one for cool days and a thin one for hot days--and
some under-clothes, and some old shoes that didn't hurt her feet, and
looked decent. And there she wuz all ready.

She never bought a thing, I don't believe, not one. You wouldn't ketch
her waitin' to embroider night-shirts for Thomas Jefferson--no, indeed!
She felt jest as I did. What would the Christopher Columbus World's Fair
care for the particular make of Thomas J's night-shirts? That had bigger
things on its old mind than to stop and admire a particular posey or
runnin' vine worked on a man's nightly bosom. Yes, indeed!

But Tirzah Ann felt jest that way, and I couldn't make her over at that
late day, even if I had time to tackle the job. She took it honest--it
come onto her from her Pa.

The preperations that man would have made if he had had his head would
have outdone Tirzah Ann's, and that is sayin' enough, and more'n enough.

And the size of the shoes that man would have sot out with if he had
been left alone would have been a shame and a disgrace to the name of
decency as long as the world stands.

Why, his feet would have been two smokin' sacrifices laid on the altar
of corns and bunions. Yes, indeed! But I broke it up.

I sez, "Do you lay out and calculate to hobble round in that pair of
leather vises and toe-screws," sez I, "when you have got to be on foot
from mornin' till night, day after day? Why under the sun don't you wear
your good old leather shoes, and feel comfortable?"

And he said (true father of Tirzah Ann), "He wuz afraid it would make
talk."

[Illustration: "Leather vises and toe-screws."]

Sez I, "The idee of the World's Fair, with all it has got on its mind, a
noticin' or carin' whether you had on shoes or went barefoot! But if you
are afraid of talk," sez I, "I guess that it would make full as much
talk to see you a-goin' round a-groanin' and a-cryin' out loud. And that
is what them shoes would bring you to," sez I.

"Now," sez I, "you jest do them shoes right up and carry 'em back to the
store, and if you have got to have a new pair, git some that will be
more becomin' to a human creeter, let alone a class-leader, and a
perfessor, and a grandfather."

So at last I prevailed--he a-forebodin' to the very last that it would
make talk to see him in such shoes. But he got a pair that wuzn't more'n
one size too small for him, and I presumed to think they would stretch
some. And, anyway, I laid out to put his good, roomy old gaiters in my
own trunk, so he could have a paneky to fall back on, and to soothe.

As for myself, I took my old slips, that had been my faithful companions
for over two years, and a pair of good big roomy bootees.

I never bought nothin' new for any of my feet, not even a shoe-string.
And the only new thing that I bought, anyway, wuz a new muslin night-cap
with a lace ruffle.

I bought that, and I spoze vanity and pride wuz to the bottom of it. I
feel my own shortcomin's, I feel 'em deep, and try to repent, every now
and then, I do.

But I did think in my own mind that in case of fire, and I knew that
Chicago wuz a great case for burnin' itself up--I thought in case of
fire in the night I wouldn't want to be ketched with a plain
sheep's-head night-cap on, which, though comfortable, and my choice for
stiddy wear, hain't beautiful.

And I thought if there wuz a fire, and I wuz to be depictered in the
newspapers as a-bein' rescued, I did feel a little pride in havin' a
becomin' night-cap on, and not bein' engraved with a sheep's head on.

Thinks'es I, the pictures in the newspapers are enough to bring on the
cold chills onto anybody, even if took bareheaded, and what--what would
be the horror of 'em took in a sheep's head!

There it wuz, there is my own weakness sot right down in black and
white. But, anyway, it only cost thirty-five cents, and there wuzn't
nothin' painful about it, like Josiah's shoes, nor protracted, like
Tirzah Ann's stockin's.

Wall, Ury and Philury moved in the day before, and Josiah and I left in
the very best of sperits and on the ten o'clock train, Maggie and Thomas
Jefferson and Krit a-meetin' us to the depot.

Maggie looked as pretty as a pink, if she didn't make no preperations.
She had on her plain waist, black silk, and a little black velvet
turban, and she had pinned a bunch of fresh rosies to her waist, and the
rosies wuzn't any pinker than her pretty cheeks and lips, and the dew
that had fell into them roses' hearts that night wuzn't any brighter
than her sweet gray eyes.

She makes a beautiful woman, Maggie Allen duz; and she ort to, to
correspond with her husband, for my boy, Thomas Jefferson, is a young
man of a thousand, and it is admitted that he is by all the
Jonesvillians--nearly every villian of 'em admits it.

Tirzah Ann and the babe wuz to the depot to see us off, and she said
that she should come on jest as soon as she got through with her
preperations.

But I felt dubersome about her comin' very soon, for she took out her
knittin' work (we had to wait quite a good while for the cars), and I
see that she hadn't got the first one only to the instep.

It is slow knittin'--shells are dretful slow anyway--and she wuz too
proud sperited to have 'em plain clam-shell pattern, which are bigger
and coarser; she had to have 'em oyster-shell pattern, in ridges.

Wall, as I say, I felt dubersome, but I spoke up cheerful on the
outside--

"If you git your stockin's done, Tirzah Ann, you must be sure and come."

And she said she would.

The way she said it wuz: "One, two, three, four, yes, mother; five, six,
seven, I will."

She had to count every shell from top to toe of 'em, which made it hard
and wearin' both for her and them she wuz conversin' with.

Why, they do say--it come to me straight, too--that Whitfield got that
wore out with them oyster-shell stockin's that he won't look at a oyster
sence--he used to be devoted to 'em, raw or cooked; but they say that
you can't git him to look at one sence the stockin' episode, specially
scolloped ones.

No, he sez "that he has had enough oysters for a lifetime."

Poor fellow! I pity him. I know what them actions of hern is; hain't I
suffered from the one she took 'em from?

But to resoom, and continue on.

Miss Gowdey come to the depot to see me off, and so did Miss Bobbet and
the Widder Pooler.

Miss Gowdey wuz a-comin' to the World's Fair as soon as she made her
rag-carpet for her summer kitchen; she said "she wouldn't go off and
leave her work ondone, and she hadn't got more'n half of the rags cut,
and she hadn't colored butnut yet, nor copperas; she would not leave her
house a-sufferin' and her rags oncut."

I thought she looked sort o' reprovin' at me, for she knew that I had a
carpet begun.

But I spoke up, and sez, "Truly rags will be always here with us, and
most likely butnut and copperas; but the World's Fair comes but once in
a lifetime, and I believe in embracin' it now, and makin' the most of
it." Sez I, "We can embrace rags at any time."

"Wall," she said, "she couldn't take no comfort with the memory of
things ondone a-weighin' down on her." She said "some folks wuz
different," and she looked clost at me as she said it. "Some folks could
go off on towers and be happy with the thought of rags oncut and warp
oncolored, or spooled, or anything. But she wuzn't one of 'em; she could
not, and would not, take comfort with things ondone on her mind."

And I sez, "If folks don't take any comfort with the memories of things
ondone on 'em, I guess that there wouldn't be much comfort took, for, do
the best we can in this world, we have to leave some things ondone. We
can't do everything."

"Wall," she said, "she should, never should, go off on towers till
everything wuz done."

And agin I sez, "It is hard to git everything done, and if folks waited
for them circumstances, I guess there wouldn't be many towers gone off
on."

But she didn't give in, nor I nuther. But jest then Miss Bobbet spoke
up, and said, "She laid out to go to the World's Fair--she wouldn't miss
it for anything; it wuz the oppurtunity of a lifetime for education and
pleasure; but she wuz a-goin' to finish that borrow-and-lend bedquilt of
hern before she started a step. And then the woodwork had got to be
painted all over the house, and _he_ was so busy with his spring's work
that she had got to do it herself."

And I sez, "Couldn't you let those things be till you come back?"

And she said, "She couldn't, for she mistrusted she would be all beat
out, and wouldn't feel like it when she got back; paintin' wuz hard
work, and so wuz piecin' up."

And I sez, "Then you had ruther go there all tired out, had you?" sez I.
"Seems to me I had ruther go to the World's Fair fresh and strong, and
ready to learn and enjoy, even if I let my borrow-and-lend bedquilt go
till another year. For," sez I, "bedquilts will be protracted fur beyend
the time of seein' the World's Fair--and I believe in livin' up to my
priveleges."

And she said, "That she wouldn't want to put it off, for it had been
a-layin' round for several years, and she felt that she wouldn't go
away so fur from home, and leave it onfinished."

And I see that it wouldn't do any good to argy with her. Her mind wuz
made up.

Miss Pooler said, "That she wuz a-goin' to the Fair, and a-goin' in good
season, too. She wouldn't miss it for anything in the livin' world. But
she had got to make a visit all round to his relations and hern before
she went. And," sez she, a-lookin' sort o' reproachful at me,

"I should have thought you would have felt like goin' round and payin'
'em all a visit, on both of your sides, before you went," sez she. "They
would have felt better; and I feel like doin' everything I can to please
the relations."

And I told Miss Pooler--"That I never expected to see the day that I
hadn't plenty of relations on my side and on hisen, but I never expected
to see another Christopher Columbus World's Fair, and I had ruther spend
my time now with Christopher than with them on either side, spozin' they
would keep."

But Miss Pooler said, "She had always felt like doin' all in her power
to show respect to the relations on both sides, and make 'em happy. And
she felt that, in case of anything happenin', she would feel better to
know she had made 'em all a last visit before it happened."

"What I am afraid will happen, Miss Pooler," sez I, "is that you won't
git to the World's Fair at all, for they are numerous on both sides, and
widespread," sez I. "It will take sights and sights of time for you to
go clear round."

But I see that she wuz determined to have her way, and I didn't labor no
more with her.

And I might as well tell it right here, as any time--she never got to
the World's Fair at all. For while she wuz a-payin' a last visit
previous to her departure, she wuz took down bed-sick for three weeks.
And the Fair bein' at that time on its last leglets, as you may say, it
had took her so long to go the rounds--the Fair broke up before she got
up agin.

Miss Pooler felt awful about it, so they say; it wuz such a dretful
disapintment to her that they had to watch her for some time, she wuz
that melancholy about it, and depressted, that they didn't know what she
would be led to do to herself.

And besides her own affliction about the Fair, and the trouble she gin
her own folks a-watchin' her for months afterwards, she got 'em mad at
her on both sides. Seven different wimmen she kep to home, jest as they
wuz a-startin' for the Fair, and belated 'em.

Eleven of the relations on her side and on hisen hain't spoke to her
sence. And the family where she wuz took sick on their hands talked hard
of suin' her for damage. For they wuz real smart folks, and had been
makin' their calculations for over three years to go to the Fair, and
had lotted on it day and night, and through her sickness they wuz kep to
home, and didn't go to it at all.

But to resoom.

Jest as I turned round from Miss Pooler, I see Miss Solomon Stebbins and
Arvilly Lanfear come in the depot.

Arvilly come to bid me good-bye, and Miss Stebbins wuz with her, and so
she come in too.

Arvilly said, "That she should be in Chicago to that World's Fair, if
her life wuz spared." She said, "That she wouldn't miss bein' in the
place where wimmen wuz made sunthin' of, and had sunthin' to say for
themselves, not for ontold wealth."

She said, "That she jest hankered after seein' one woman made out of
pure silver--and then that other woman sixty-five feet tall; she said it
would do her soul good to see men look up to her, and they have got to
look up to her if they see her at all, for she said that it stood to
reason that there wuzn't goin' to be men there sixty-five feet high.

"And then that temple there in Chicago, dreamed out and built by a
woman--the nicest office buildin' in the world! jest think of that--_in
the World_. And a woman to the bottom of it, and to the top too. Why,"
sez Arville, "I wouldn't miss the chance of seein' wimmen swing right
out, and act as if their souls wuz their own, not for the mines of
Golconda." Sez she, "More than a dozen wimmen have told me this week
they wanted to go; but they wuzn't able. But I sez to 'em, I'm able to
go, and I'm a-goin'--I am goin' afoot."

"Why, Arvilly," sez I, "you hain't a-goin' to Chicago a-walkin' afoot!"

[Illustration: "Why, Arvilly!"]

"Yes, I be a-goin' to Chicago a-walkin' afoot, and I am goin' to start
next Monday mornin'."

"Why'ee!" sez I, "you mustn't do it; you must let me lend you some
money."

"No, mom; much obliged jest the same, but I am a-goin' to canvass my way
there. I am goin' to sell the 'Wild, Wicked, and Warlike Deeds of Man.'
I calculate to make money enough to get me there and ride some of the
way, and take care of me while I am there; I may tackle some other book
or article to sell. But I am goin' to branch out on that, and I am goin'
to have a good time, too."

[Illustration: "No, mom; much obliged jest the same."]

Miss Stebbins said, "She wanted to go, and calculated to, but she wanted
to finish that croshay lap-robe before snow fell."

"Wall," sez I, "snow hain't a-goin' to fall very soon now, early in the
Spring so."

"Wall," she said, "that it wuz such tryin' work for the eyes, she
wouldn't leave it for nothin' till she got back, for she mistrusted that
she should feel kind o' mauger and wore out. And then," she said, "she
had got to make a dozen fine shirts for Solomon, so's to leave him
comfortable while she wuz gone, and the children three suits apiece all
round."

Sez I, "How long do you lay out to be gone?"

"About two weeks," she said.

And I told her, "That it didn't seem as if he would need so many shirts
for so short a time."

But she said, "She should feel more relieved to have 'em done."

So I wouldn't say no more to break it up. For it is fur from me to want
to diminish any female's relief.

And the cars tooted jest then, so I didn't have no more time to multiply
words with her anyway.

CHAPTER VIII.

We were travellin' in a car they call a parlor, though it didn't look no
more like our parlor than ours does like a steeple on a wind-mill. But
it wuz dretful nice and comogeous.

We five occupied seats all together, and right next to us, acrost the
aisle, wuz two men a-arguin' on the Injun question. I didn't know 'em,
but I see that Thomas J. and Krit wuz some acquainted with 'em; they wuz
business men.

When I first begun to hear 'em talk (they talked loud--we couldn't help
hearin' 'em), they seemed to be kinder laughin', and one of 'em said:

"Yes, they denied the right of suffrage to wimmen and give it to the
Injuns, and the next week the Injuns started off on the war-path.
Whether they did it through independence or through triumph nobody
knows, but it is known that they went."

And I thought to myself, "Mebby they wuz mad to think that the Goverment
denied to intelligent Christian wimmen the rights gin to savages."
Thinks'es I, "It is enough to make a Injun mad, or anything else."

[Illustration: "They denied the right of suffrage to wimmen and give
it to the Injuns."]

But I didn't speak my mind out loud, and they begun to talk earnest and
excited about 'em, and I could see as they went on that they felt jest
alike towards the Injuns, and wanted 'em wiped off'en the face of the
earth; but they disagreed some as to the ways they wanted 'em wiped. One
of 'em wanted 'em shot right down to once, and exterminated jest as you
kill potato-bugs.

The other wanted 'em drove further off and shet up tighter till they
died out of themselves; but they wuz both agreed in bein' horrified and
disgusted at the Injuns darin' to fight the whites.

And first I knew Krit jest waded right into the talk. He waded polite,
but he waded deep right off the first thing.

And, sez he, "Before they all die I hope they will sharpen up their
tommyhawks and march on to Washington, and have a war-dance before the
Capitol, and take a few scalps there amongst the law-makers and the
Injun bureau."

He got kinder lost and excited by his feelin's, Krit did, or he wouldn't
have said anything about scalpin' a bureau. Good land! he might talk
about smashin' its draws up, but nobody ever hearn of scalpin' a bureau
or a table.

But he went on dretful smart, and, sez he, "Gentlemen, I have lived
right out there amongst the Injuns and the rascally agents, and I know
what I am talkin' about when I say that, instead of wonderin' about the
Injuns risin' up aginst the whites, as they do sometimes, the wonder is
that they don't try to kill every white man they see.

"When I think of the brutality, the cheatin', the cruelty, the
devilishness of the agents, it is a wonder to me that they let one stick
remain on another at the agencies--that they don't burn 'em up, root
and branch, and destroy all the lazy, cheatin', lyin' white scamps they
can get sight of."

The two men acted fairly browbeat and smut to hear Krit go on, and they
sez--

"You must be mistaken in your views; the Goverment, I am sure, tries to
protect the Injuns and take care of 'em."

"What is the Goverment doin'," sez Krit, "but goin' into partnership
with lyin' and stealin,' when it knows just what their agents are doin',
and still protects them in their shameful acts, and sends out troops to
build up their strength? Maybe you have a home you love?" sez Krit,
turnin' to the best lookin' of the men.

"Yes, indeed," sez he; "my country home down on the Hudson is the same
one we have had in the family for over two hundred years. My babies are
to-day runnin' over the same turf that I rolled on in my boyhood, and
their great-great-grandmothers played on in their childhood.

"My babies' voices raise the same echoes from the high rock back of the
orchard, the same blue river runs along at their feet, the sun sets
right over the same high palisade. Why, that very golden light acrost
the water between the two high rocks--that golden line of light seems
to me now, almost as it did then in my childhood, the only path to
Heaven.

"Heaven and Earth would be all changed to me if I had to give up my old
home. Why, every tree, and shrub, and rock seems like a part of my own
beloved family, such sacred associations cluster around them of my
childhood and manhood. And the memories of the dear ones gone seem to be
woven into the very warp and woof of the stately old elm-trees that
shade its velvet lawns, and the voice of the river seems full of old
words and music, vanished tones and laughter.

"No one can know, or dream, how inexpressibly dear the old home is to my
heart. If I had to give it up," sez he, "it would be like tearin' out my
very heart-strings, and partin' with what seems like a part of my own
life."

The man looked very earnest and sincere when he said this, and even
agitated. He meant what he said, no doubt on't.

And then Krit sez, "How would you like it if you were ordered to leave
it at a day's notice--leave it forever--leave it so some one else, some
one you hated, some one who had always injured you, could enjoy it--

"Leave it so that you knew you could never live there again, never
see a sun rise or a sun set over the dear old fields, and mountains, and
river, you loved so well--

"Never have the chance to stand by the graves of your fathers, and your
children, that were a-sleepin' under the beautiful old trees that your
grandfathers had set out--

"Never see the dear old grounds they walked through, the old rooms full
of the memories of their love, their joys, and their sorrows, and your
loves, and hopes, and joys, and sadness?

"What should you do if some one strong enough, but without a shadow of
justice or reason, should order you out of it at once--force you to go?"

"I should try to kill him," sez the man promptly, before he had time to
think what to say.

"Well," sez Krit, "that is what the Injuns try to do, and the world is
horrified at it. Their homes are jest as dear to them as ours are to us;
their love for their own living and dead is jest as strong. Their grief
and sense of wrong and outrage is even stronger than the white man's
would be, for they don't have the distractions of civilized life to take
up their attention. They brood over their wrongs through long days and
nights, unsolaced by daily papers and latest telegraphic news, and their
famished, freezin' bodies addin' their terrible pangs to their soul's
distress.

"Is it any wonder that after broodin' over their wrongs through long
days and nights, half starved, half naked, their dear old homes
gone--shut up here in the rocky, hateful waste, that they must call
home, and probably their wives and daughters stolen from them by these
agents that are fat and warm, and gettin' rich on the food and clothing
that should be theirs, and receivin' nothing but insults and threats if
they ask for justice, and finally a bullet, if their demands for justice
are too loud--

"What wonder is it that they lift their empty hands for vengeance--that
they leave their bare, icy huts, and warm their frozen veins with
ghost-dances, haply practisin' them before they go to be ghosts in
reality? What wonder that they sharpen up their ancestral tomahawk, and
lift it against their oppressors? What wonder that the smothered fires
do break out into sudden fiery tempests of destruction that appall the
world?

"You say you would do the same, after your generations of culture and
Christian teaching, and so would I, and every other man. We would if we
could destroy the destroyers who ravage and plunder our homes, deprive
us of the earnings of a lifetime, turn us out of our inheritance, and
make of our wives and daughters worse than slaves.

"We meet every year to honor the memory of the old heroes who rebelled
and fought for liberty--shed rivers of blood to escape from far less
intolerable oppression and wrongs than the Injuns have endured for
years.

"And then we expect them, with no culture and no Christianity, to
practise Christian virtues, and endure buffetings that no Christian
would endure.

"The whole Injun question is a satire on true Goverment, a lie in the
name of liberty and equality, a shame on our civilization."

"What would you do about it?" said the kinder good-lookin' man.

Sez Krit, "If I called the Injuns wards, adopted children of the
Goverment, I would try not to use them in a way that would disgrace any
drunken old stepmother.

"I would have dignity enough, if I did not stand for decency, to not
half starve and freeze them, and lie to them, and cheat them till the
very word 'Goverment' means to them all they can picture of meanness and
brutality. I would either grant them independence, or a few of the
comforts I had stolen from them.

"If I drove them out of their rich lands and well-stocked
hunting-grounds they had so long considered their own--if I drove them
out in my cupidity and love of conquest, I would in return grant them
enough of the fruits of their old homes to keep up life in their unhappy
bodies.

"If I made them suffer the pains of exile, I would not let them endure
also the gnawings of starvation.

"And I would not send out to 'em the Bible and whiskey packed in one
wagon, appeals to Christian living and the sure means to overthrow it.

[Illustration: "I would not send 'em Bibles and whiskey packed in
one wagon."]

"I would not send 'em religious tracts, implorin' 'em to come to
Christ's kingdom, packed in the same hamper with kegs of brandy, which
the Bible and the tracts teach that those that use it are cursed, and
that no drunkard can inherit the kingdom."

But, sez Krit, "The Bible they _should_ have. And after they had
mastered its simplest teachings, they should don their war-paint and
feathers, and go out with it in their hands as missionaries to the white
race, to try to teach them its plainest and simplest doctrines, of
justice, and mercy, and love."

But at this very minute the cars tooted, and the two men seized their
satchels, and after a sort of a short bow to Krit and the rest of us,
they rushed offen the train.

I believe they wuz conscience-smut, but I don't know.

[Illustration: I believe they wuz conscience-smut, but I don't
know.]

When we arrove at the big depot at Chicago, the sun wuz jest a-drawin'
up his curtains of gorgeous red, and yeller, and crimson, and wuz
a-retirin' behind 'em to git a little needed rest.

The glorious counterpane wuz kinder heaped up in billowy richness on his
western couch, but what I took to be the undersheet--a clear long fold
of shinin' gold color--lay straight and smooth on the bottom of the
gorgeous bed.

And the sun's face wuz just a-lookin' out above it, as if to say
good-bye to Chicago, and trouble, and the World's Fair, and Josiah and
me, as we sot our feet on _terry firmy_. (That is Latin that I have
hearn Thomas J. use. Nobody need to be afraid of it; it is harmless. My
boy wouldn't use a dangerous word.)

But to resoom and go on. As I ketched the last glimpse of the old
familier face of the sun, that I had seen so many times a-lookin'
friendly at me through the maple trees at Jonesville, and that truly had
seemed to be a neighbor, a-neighborin' with me, time and agin--when I
see him so peaceful and good-natured a-goin' to his nightly rest, I
thought to myself--

Oh! how I wish I could foller his example, for it duz seem to me that
nowhere else, unless it wuz at the tower of Babel, wuz there ever so
much noise, and of such various and conflictin' kinds.

Instinctively I ketched holt of my pardner's arm, and sez I, "Stay by
me, Josiah Allen; if madness and ruin result from this Pandemonium, be
with me to the last."

He couldn't hear a word I said, the noise wuz that deafnin' and
tremendious. But he read the silent, tender language of the brown cotton
glove on his arm, and he cast a look of deep affection on me, and sez he
in soulfull axents--

"Hurry up, can't you? Wimmen are always so slow!"

I responded in the same earnest, heartfelt way. And anon, or perhaps a
little before, Thomas J. and Krit hurried us and our satchel bags into a
big roomy carriage, and we soon found ourselves a-wendin' our way
through the streets of the great Western city, the metropolis of the
Settin' Sun.

Street after street, mild after mild of high, towerin' buildin's did we
pass. Some on 'em I know wuz high enough for the tower of Babel--and old
Babel himself would have admitted it, I bet, if he had been there.

And as the immense size and magnitude of the city come over me like a
wave, I thought to myself some in Skripter and some in common readin'.

When I thought that fifty years ago the grassy prairie lay stretched out
in green repose where now wuz the hard pavements worn with the world's
commerce; when I thought that little prairie-dogs, and mush-rats, and
squirells wuz a-runnin' along ondisturbed where now stood high blocks
full of a busy city's enterprise; when I thought that little pretty,
timid birds wuz a-flyin' about where now wuz steeples and high
chimblys--why, when I thought of all this in common readin', then the
Skripter come in, and I sez to myself in deep, solemn axents--

"Who hath brought this thing to pass?"

And then anon I went to thinkin' in common readin' agin, and thinks'es
I--

A little feeble woman died a few days ago--not so very old either--who
wuz the first child born in Chicago--and I thought--

What a big, big day's work wuz done under her eye-sight! What a immense
house-warmin' she would had to had in order to warm up all the housen
built under her eye!

Millions of folks did she see move into her neighborhood.

And what a party would she had to gin to have took all her neighbors in!
What a immense amount of nut-cakes would she have had to fry, and
cookies!

Why, countin' two nut-cakes to a person--and that is a small estimate
for a healthy man to eat, judgin' by my own pardner--she would have had
to fry millions of nut-cakes. And millions of cookies, if they wuz made
after Mother's receipt handed down to me; that wouldn't have been one
too many.

And where could she spread out her dough for her cookies--why, a prairie
wouldn't have been too big for her mouldin' board. And the biggest
Geyser in the West, old Faithful himself, wouldn't have been too big to
fry the cakes in, if you could fry 'em in water, which you can't.

But mebby if she had gin the party, she could have used that old
spoutin' Geyser for a teapot or a soda fountain--if she laid out to
treat 'em to anything to drink.

But good land! there is no use in talkin', if she had used a volcano to
steep her tea over, she couldn't made enough to go round.

CHAPTER IX.

Wall, after a numerous number of emotions we at last reached our
destination and stoppin'-place. And I gin a deep sithe of relief as the
wheel of the carriage grated on the curb-stun, in front of the boardin'
house where my Josiah and me laid out to git our two boards.

Thomas J. and Krit wanted to go to one of the big hotels. I spozed, from
their talk, it wuz reasonable, and wuz better for their business, that
they should be out amongst business men.

But Josiah and I didn't want to go to any such place. We had our place
all picked out, and had had for some time, ever sence we had commenced
to git ready for the World's Fair.

We had laid out to git our two boards at a good quiet place recommended
by our own Methodist Episcopal Pasture, and a distant relation of his
own.

It wuz to Miss Ebenezer Plank'ses, who took in a few boarders, bein'
middlin' well off, and havin' a very nice house to start with, but
wanted to add a little to her income, so she took in a few and done well
by 'em, so our pasture said, and so we found out. It wuz a
splendid-lookin' house a-standin' a-frontin' a park, where anybody could
git a glimpse of green trees and a breath of fresh air, and as much
quiet and rest as could be found in Chicago durin' the summer of 1893,
so I believed.

Thomas J. and Maggie wuz perfectly suited with the place for us--and
Thomas J. parleyed with Miss Plank about our room, etc.--and we wuz all
satisfied with the result.

And after Josiah and me got settled down in our room, a good-lookin'
one, though small, the children sot off for their hotel, which wuzn't so
very fur from ourn, nigh enough so that they could be sent for easy, if
we wuz took down sudden, and visey versey.

I found Miss Plank wuz a good-appearin' woman, and a Christian, I
believe, with good principles, and a hair mole on her face, though she
kep 'em curbed down, and cut off (the hairs).

[Illustration: A good-appearin' woman.]

Her husband had been a man of wealth, as you could see plain by the
house that he left her a-livin' in. But some of her property she had
lost through poor investments--and don't it beat all how wimmen do git
cheated, and every single man she deals with a-tellin' her to confide in
him freely, for he hain't but one idee, and that is to look out for her
interests, to the utter neglect of his own, and a-warnin' her aginst
every other man on earth but himself.

But, to resoom. She had lost some of her property, and bein' without
children, and kind o' lonesome, and a born housekeeper and cook, her
idee of takin' in a few respectable and agreeable boarders wuz a good
one.

She wuz a good calculator, and the best maker of pancakes I ever see,
fur or near. She oversees her own kitchen, and puts on her own hand and
cooks, jest when she is a mind too. She hain't afraid of the face of man
or woman, though she told me, and I believe it, that "her cook wuz that
cross and fiery of temper, that she would skair any common person almost
into coniption fits."

"But," sez she, "the first teacup that she throwed at me, because I
wanted to make some pancakes, wuz the last."

I don't know what she done to her, but presoom that she held her with
her eye. It is a firm and glitterin' one as I ever see.

Anyway, she put a damper onto that cook, and turns it jest when she is
a mind to--to the benefit of her boarders; for better vittles wuz never
cooked than Miss Plank furnishes her boarders at moderate rates and the
comforts of a home, as advertisements say.

Her house wuz kep clean and sweet too, which wuz indeed a boon.

She talked a sight about her husband, which I don't know as she could
help--anyway, I guess she didn't try to.

She told me the first oppurtunity what a good Christian he wuz, how
devoted to her, and how much property he laid up, and that he wuz "in
salt."

I thought for quite a spell she meant brine, and dassent hardly enquire
into the particulars, not knowin' what she had done by the departed,
widders are so queer.

But after she had mentioned to me more'n a dozen times her love for the
departed, and his industrious and prosperous ways, and tellin' me every
single time, "he wuz in salt," I found out that she meant that he wuz in
the salt trade--bought and sold, I spozed.

I felt better.

But oh, how she did love to talk about that man; truly she used his
sirname to connect us to the vast past, and to the mysterious future. We
trod that Plank every day and all day, if we would listen to her.

And sometimes when I would try to get her offen that Plank for a minute,
and would bring up the World's Fair to her, and how big the housen wuz,
I would find my efforts futile; for all she would say about 'em wuz to
tell what Mr. Plank would have done if he had been a-livin', and if he
had been onhampered, and out of salt, how much better he would have done
than the directors did, and what bigger housen he would have built.

And I would say, "A house that covers over most forty acres is a pretty
big house."

But she seemed to think that Mr. Plank would have built housen that
covered a few more acres, and towered up higher, and had loftier
cupalos.

And finally I got tired of tryin' to quell her down, and I got so that I
could let her talk and keep up a-thinkin' on other subjects all the
time. Why, I got so I could have writ poetry, if that had been my aim,
right under a constant loadin' and onloadin' of that Plank.

Curious, hain't it?

As I said, there wuz only a few boarders, most of 'em quiet folks, who
had been there some time. Some on 'em had been there long enough to have
children born under the ruff, who had growed up almost as big as their
pa's and ma's. There wuz several of 'em half children there, and among
'em wuz one of the same age who wuz old--older than I shall ever be, I
hope and pray.

He wuz gloomy and morbid, and looked on life, and us, with kinder mad
and distrustful eyes. Above all others, he wuz mean to his twin sister;
he looked down on her and browbeat her the worst kind, and felt older
than she did, and acted as if she wuz a mere child compared to him,
though he wuzn't more'n five minutes older than she wuz, if he wuz that.

Their names wuz Algernon and Guenivere Piddock, but they called 'em Nony
and Neny--which wuz, indeed, a comfort to bystanders. Folks ort to be
careful what names they put onto their children; yes, indeed.

Neny wuz a very beautiful, good-appearin' young girl, and acted as if
she would have had good sense, and considerable of it, if she hadn't
been afraid to say her soul wuz her own.

But Nony wuz cold and haughty. He sot right by me on the north side,
Josiah Allen sot on my south. And I fairly felt chilly on that side
sometimes, almost goose pimples, that young man child felt so cold and
bitter towards the world and us, and so sort o' patronizin'.

[Illustration: He sot by me.]

He didn't believe in religion, nor nothin'. He didn't believe in
Christopher Columbus--right there to the doin's held for him, he didn't
believe in him.

"Why," sez I, "he discovered the land we live in."

He said, "He was very doubtful whether that wuz so or not--histories
made so many mistakes, he presoomed there never was such a man at all."

"Why," sez I, "he walked the streets of Genoa."

And he sez, "I never see him there."

And, of course, I couldn't dispute that.

And he added, "That anyway there wuz too much a-bein' done for him. He
wuz made too much of."

He didn't believe in wimmen, made a specialty of that, from Neny back to
Rachael and Ruth. He powed at wimmen's work, at their efforts, their
learnin', their advancement.

Neny, good little bashful thing, wuz a member of the WCTU and the
Christian Endeavor, and wanted to do jest right by them noble societies
and the world. But, oh, how light he would speak of them noble bands of
workers in the World's warfare with wrong! To how small a space he
wanted to reduce 'em down!

And I sez to him once, "You can't do very much towards belittlin' a
noble army of workers as that is--millions strong."

"Millions weak, you mean," sez he. "I dare presoom to say there hain't a
woman amongst 'em but what is afraid of a mouse, and would run from a
striped snake."

Sez I, "They don't run from the serpent Evil, that is wreathin' round
their homes and loved ones, and a-tryin' to destroy 'em--they run
towards that serpent, and hain't afraid to grapple with it, and
overthrow it--by the help of the Mighty," sez I.

Sez he, "There is too much made of their work." Sez he, "There hain't
near so much done as folks think; the most of it is talk, and a-praisin'
each other up."

"Wall," sez I, "men won't never be killed for that in their political
rivalin's, they won't be condemned for praisin' each other up."

"No," sez he, "men know too much."

And then I spoke of that silver woman--how beautiful and noble an
appearance she made, in the spear she ort to be in, a-representin'
Justice.

And Nony said, "She wuz too soft." Sez he, "It is with her as it is with
all other wimmen--men have to stand in front of her with guns to keep
her together, to keep her solid."

That kinder gaulded me, for there wuz some truth in it, for I had seen
the men and the rifles.

But I sprunted up, and sez I--

"They are a-guardin' her to keep men from stealin' her, that is what
they are for. And," sez I, "it would be a good thing for lots of wimmen,
who have got lots of silver, if it hain't in their bodies, if they had a
guard a-walkin' round 'em with rifles to keep off maurauders."

Why, there wuzn't nothin' brung up that he believed in, or that he
didn't act morbid over.

Why, I believe his Ma--good, decent-lookin' widder with false hair and a
swelled neck, but well-to-do--wuz ashamed of him.

Right acrost from me to the table sot a fur different creeter. It wuz a
man in the prime of life, and wisdom, and culture, who _did_ believe in
things. You could tell that by the first look in his
face--handsome--sincere--ardent. With light brown hair, tossed kinder
careless back from a broad white forward--deep blue, impetuous-lookin'
eyes, but restrained by sense from goin' too fur. A silky mustache the
same color of his hair, and both with a considerable number of white
threads a-shinin' in 'em, jest enough so's you could tell that old Time
hadn't forgot him as he went up and down the earth with his hour-glass
under his arm, and his scythe over his shoulder.

He had a tall, noble figger, always dressed jest right, so's you would
never think of his clothes, but always remember him simply as bein' a
gentleman, helpful, courteous, full of good-nature and good-natured wit
and fun. But yet with a sort of a sad look underlyin' the fun, some as
deep waters look under the frothy sparkle on top, as if they had secrets
they might tell if they wuz a mind to--secrets of dark places down, fur
down, where the sun doesn't shine; secrets of joy and happiness, and
hope that had gone down, and wuz carried under the depths--under the
depths that we hadn't no lines to fathom.

No, if there wuz any secrets of sadness underlyin' the frank openness
and pleasantness of them clear blue eyes, we hadn't none of us no way of
tellin'.

We hadn't no ways of peerin' down under the clear blue depths, any
further than he wuz willin' to let us.

All we knew wuz, that though he looked happy and looked good-natured,
back of it all, a-peerin' out sometimes when you didn't look for it, wuz
a sunthin' that looked like the shadder cast from a hoverin'
lonesomeness, and sorrow, and regret.

But he wuz a good-lookin' feller, there hain't a doubt of that, and good
actin' and smart.

He wuz a bacheldor, and we could all see plain that Miss Plank held his
price almost above rubies.

If there wuz any good bits among vittles that wuz always good, it wuz
Miss Plank's desire that he should have them bits; if there wuz drafts
a-comin' from any pint of the compass, it wuz Miss Plank's desire to not
have him blowed on. If any soft zephyr's breath wuz wafted to any one of
us from a open winder on a hot evenin' or sunny noon, he wuz the one she
wanted wafted to, and breathed on.

If her smiles fell warm on any, or all on us, he wuz the one they fell
warmest on. But we all liked him the best that ever wuz. Even Nony
Piddock seemed to sort of onbend a little, and moisten up with the dew
of charity his arid desert of idees a little mite, when he wuz around.

And occasionally, when the bacheldor, whose name wuz Mr. Freeman, when
he would, half in fun and half in earnest, answer Nony's weary and
bitter remarks, once in a while even that aged youth would seem to be
ashamed of himself, and his own idees.

There wuz another widder there--Miss Boomer; or I shouldn't call her a
clear widder--I guess she wuz a sort of a semi-detached one--I guess she
had parted with him.

Wall, she cast warm smiles on Mr. Freeman--awful warm, almost meltin'.

Miss Plank didn't like Miss Boomer.

Miss Piddock didn't want to cast no looks onto nobody, nor make no
impressions. She wuz a mourner for Old Piddock, that anybody could see
with one eye, or hear with one ear--that is, if they could understand
the secrets of sithes; they wuz deep ones as I ever hearn, and I have
hearn deep ones in my time, if anybody ever did, and breathed 'em out
myself--the land knows I have!

Miss Plank loved Miss Piddock like a sister; she said that she felt
drawed to her from the first, and the drawin's had gone on ever
sence--growin' more stronger all the time.

Wall, there wuz two elderly men, very respectable, with two wives, one
apiece, lawful and right, and their children, and Miss Schack and her
three children, and a Mr. Bolster, and that wuz all there wuz of us,
includin' and takin' in my pardner and myself.

Mr. Freeman wuz very rich, so Miss Plank said, and had three or four
splendid rooms, the best--"sweet"--in the house, she said.

I spoze she spoke in that way to let us know they wuz furnished
_sweet_--that is, I spoze so.

His mother had died there, and he couldn't bear to know that anybody
else had her rooms; so he kep 'em all, and paid high for 'em, so she
said, and wuz as much to be depended on for punctuality, and honesty, as
the Bank of England, or the mines of Golcondy.

Yes, Miss Plank said that, with all his sociable, pleasant ways with
everybody, he wuz a millionare--made it in sugar, I believe she said--I
know it wuz sunthin' good to eat, and sort o' sweet--it might have been
molasses--I won't be sure.

But anyway he got so awful rich by it that he could live anywhere he wuz
a mind to--in a palace, if he took it into his head to want one.

But instead of branchin' out and makin' a great show, he jest kep right
on a-livin' in the rooms he had took so long ago for his family. But
they had all gone and left him, his mother dead, and his two nieces gone
with their father to California, where they wuz in a convent school.
And he kep right on a-livin' in the old rooms.

Miss Plank told me in confidence, and on the hair-cloth sofa in the
upper hall, that it would be a big wrench if he ever left there.

[Illustration: Miss Plank told me in confidence that it would be a
big wrench if he left.]

She said, "She didn't say it because he wuz a bacheldor and she a
widder, she said it out of pure-respect."

And I believed it, a good deal of the time I did; for good land! she wuz
old enough to be his ma, and more too.

But he acted dretful pretty to her, I could see that. Not findin' no
fault, eatin' hash jest as calm as if he wuzn't engaged in a strange and
mysterious business.

For great, _great_ is the mystery of boardin'-house hash.

Not a-mindin' the children's noise--indeed, a-courtin' it, as you may
say, for he would coax the youngest and most troublesome one away from
its tired mother sometimes, and keep it by him at the table, and wait on
it.

He thought his eyes of children, so Miss Plank said.

I might have thought that he took care of the child on its mother's
account, out of sentiment instead of pity, if Miss Schack hadn't been
as humbly as humbly could be, and a big wart on the end of her nose, and
a cowlick. She had three children, and they wuz awful, awful to git
along with.

Her husband "wuz on the road," she said. And we couldn't any of us
really make out from what she said what he wuz a-doin' there, whether he
wuz a-movin' along on it to his work, or jest a-settin' there.

But anyway she talked a good deal about his "bein' on the road," and how
much better the children behaved "before he went on it."

They jest rid over her, and over us too, if we would let 'em.

They wuz the awfullest children I ever laid eyes on, for them that had
such pious and well-meanin' names.

There wuz John Wesley, and Martin Luther, and little Peter Cooper
Schack.

Miss Schack wuz a well-principled woman, no doubt, and I dare say had
high idees before they wuz jarred, and hauled down, and stomped and
trampled on, by noise and confusion. And I dare presoom to say that she
had named them children a-hopin' and a-expectin' some of the high and
religious qualities of their namesakes would strike in. But to set and
hear Martin Luther swear at John Wesley wuz a sight. And to see John
Wesley clench his fists in Martin Luther's hair and kick him wuz enough
to horrify any beholder. But Peter Cooper wuz the worst; to see him take
everything away from his brothers he possibly could, and devour it
himself, and want everything himself, and be mad if they had anything,
and steal from 'em in the most cold-blooded way, and act--why, it wuz
enough to make that blessed old philanthropist, Peter Cooper, turn over
in his grave.

They wuz dretful troublesome and worrisome to the rest of the boarders,
but Mr. Freeman could quell 'em down any time--sometimes by lookin' at
'em and smilin', and sometimes by lookin' stern, and sometimes by candy
and oranges.

I declare for't, as I told Miss Plank sometimes, I didn't know what we
would have done durin' some hot meal times if it hadn't been for that
blessed bacheldor.

I said that right out openly to Miss Plank, and to everybody else. Bein'
married happy, I felt free to speak my mind about bacheldors, or
anything. Of course, bein' a widder, Miss Plank felt more hampered.

And he wuz good to me in other ways, besides easin' my cares and nerves
at the table.

His rooms wuz jest acrost the hall from ourn, and my Josiah's and my
room wuz very small; it wuz the best that Miss Plank could do, so I
didn't complain. But it wuz very compressed and confined, and extremely
hot.

When we wuz both in there sometimes on sultry days, I felt like
compressed meat, or as I mistrusted that would feel, sort o' canned up,
as it were.

And one warm afternoon, 'most sundown, jest as I opened my door into the
hall, to see if I could git a breath of fresh air to recooperate me,
Josiah a-pantin' in the rockin'-chair behind me, Mr. Freeman opened his
door, and so there we wuz a-facin' each other.

[Illustration: And so there we wuz a-facin' each other.]

And bein' sort o' took by surprise, I made the observation that "I wuz
jest about melted, and so wuz my Josiah, and my room wuz like a dry oven
and a tin can."

I wouldn't have said it if I hadn't been so sort o' flustrated, and by
the side of myself.

And he jest swung open his door into a big cool parlor, and I could see
beyend the doors open into two or three other handsome rooms.

And, sez he, "I wish, Mrs. Allen, that you and your husband would come
in here and see if it isn't cooler." Sez he, "I feel rather lonesome,
and would be glad to have you come in and visit for a spell."

He told me afterwards that it wuz the anniversary of his mother's death.

He looked sort o' sad, and as if he really wanted company. So we thanked
him, or I did, and we walked in and sot down in some big, cool cane-seat
easy-chairs.

And we sot there and visited back and forth for quite a spell, and took
comfort. Yes, indeed, we did. This room wuz on the cool side of the
house, and the still side. And it wuz big and furnished beautiful. It
wuzn't Miss Plank's taste, I could see that.

No, her taste is fervent and gorgeous. Gildin' is her favorite
embellishment, and chromos, high-colored, and red.

This room wuz covered with pure white mattin', and such rugs on it
scattered over the floor as I never see, and don't know as I ever shall
see agin.

Some on 'em was pure white silky fur, and some on 'em as rich in
colorin' as the most wonderful sunset colors you ever see in the red and
golden west, or in the trees of a maple forest in October.

And such pictures as hung on the walls I never see.

Why, on one side of the room hung a picture that looked as if you wuz
a-gazin' right out into a green field at sunset. There wuz a deep, cool
rivulet a-gurglin' along over the pebbles, and the green, moist
rushes--why, you could almost hear it.

And the blue sky above--why, you could almost see right up through it,
it looked so clear and transparent. And the cattle a-comin'up through
the bars to be milked. Why, you could almost hear the girl call, "Co,
boss! co, boss!" as she stood by the side of the bars with her
sun-bunnet a-hangin' back from her pretty face, and her milk-pail on her
arm.

[Illustration: "Co, boss! co, boss!"]

Why, you could fairly hear the swash, swash of the water, as the old
brindle cow plashed through its cool waves.

It beat all I ever see, and Josiah felt jest as I did. The beautiful
face of the girl looked dretful familiar to me, though I couldn't tell
for my life who it wuz that she looked so much like.

And there on every side of us wuz jest as pretty pictures as that, and
some white marble figures, that stood up almost as big as life on their
marble pedestals, and aginst the dark red draperies.

Why, take it all in all, it was the prettiest room I had ever looked at
in my life, and so I told Mr. Freeman.

And, if you'll believe it, that man up and said right there that we wuz
perfectly free to use that room jest as much as we wanted to.

He said he had another room as large as this that he staid in most of
his time when he was at home--his writin'-desk wuz in that room. But he
was not here much of the time, only to sleep and to his meals.

And as he said this, what should that almost angel man do but to put a
key in my hand, so Josiah and I could come in any time, whether he wuz
here or not.

Why, I wuz fairly dumbfoundered, and so wuz Josiah. But we thanked him
warm, very warm, warmer than the weather, and that stood more'n ninety
in the shade.

And I told him--for I see that he really meant what he said--I told him
that the chance of comin' in there and settin' down in that cool, big
room, once in a while, as a change from our dry oven, would be a boon.
And I didn't know but it would be the means of savin' our two lives, for
meltin' did seem to be our doom and our state ahead on us, time and time
agin.

And he spoke right up in his pleasant, sincere way, and said, "The more
we used it the more it would please him."

And then he opened the doors of a big bookcase--all carved off the doors
wuz, and the top, and the beautiful head of a white marble female
a-standin' up above it. And he sez--

"Here are a good many books that are fairly lonesome waiting to be read,
and you are more than welcome to read them."

Wall, I thanked him agin, and I told him that he wuz too good to us. And
I couldn't settle it in my own mind what made him act so. Of course, not
knowin' at that time that I favored his mother in my looks--his mother
he had worshipped so that he kep her room jest as she left it, and
wouldn't have a thing changed.

But I didn't know that, as I say, and I said to my Josiah, after we went
back into our room--

Sez I, "It must be that we do have a good look to us, Josiah Allen, or
else that perfect stranger wouldn't treat us as he has."

"Perfect stranger!" sez Josiah. "Why, we have neighbored with him 'most
a week. But," sez he, "you are right about our looks--we are dum
good-lookin', both on us. I am pretty lookin'," says he, firmly, "though
you hain't willin' to own up to it."

Sez he, "I dare presoom to say, he thought I would be a sort of a
ornament to his rooms--kinder set 'em off. And you look respectable,"
sez he, sort o' lookin' down on me--

"Only you are too fat!" Sez he, "You'd be quite good-lookin' if it
wuzn't for that."

And then we had some words.

And I sez, "It hain't none of our merits that angel looks at; it is his
own goodness."

"Wall, there hain't no use in your callin' him an angel. You never
called me so."

"No, indeed!" sez I; "I never had no occasion, not at all."

And then we had some more words--not many, but jest a few. We worship
each other, and it is known to be so, all over Jonesville, and Loontown,
and Zoar. And I spozed by that time that Chicago wuz a-beginnin' to wake
up to the truth of how much store we sot by each other. But the fairest
spring day is liable to have its little spirts of rain, and they only
make the air sweeter and more refreshin'.

Wall, from that time, every now and then--not enough to abuse his
horsepitality, but enough to let him know that we appreciated his
goodness--when our dry oven become heated up beyend what we could seem
to bear, we went into that cool, delightful room agin, and agin I
feasted my eyes on the lovely pictures on the wall; most of all on that
beautiful sunset scene down by the laughin' stream.

And as hot and beat out as I might be, I would always find that pretty
girl a-standin', cool and fresh, and dretful pretty, by the old bar
post, with her orburn hair pushed back from her flushed cheeks, and a
look in her deep brown eyes, and on her exquisite lips, that always put
me dretfully in mind of somebody, and who it wuz I could not for my life
tell.

Josiah used to take a book out of the bookcase, and read. Not one glance
did I ever give, or did I ever let Josiah Allen give to them other rooms
that opened out of this, nor into anything or anywhere, only jest that
bookcase. We didn't abuse our priveleges; no, indeed!

And Josiah would lean back dretful well-feelin', and thinkin' in his
heart that it wuz his good looks that wuz wanted to embellish the room,
and I kep on a wonderin' inside of myself what made Mr. Freeman so
oncommon good to us, till one day he told us sunthin' that made it
plainer to us, and Josiah Allen's pride had a fall (which, if his pride
hadn't been composed of materials more indestructible than iron or gutty
perchy, it would have been broke to pieces long before, so many times
and so fur had it fell).

But Mr. Freeman one day showed us a picture of his mother in a little
velvet case. And, sez he to me--

"You look like her; I saw it the first time I met you."

And I do declare the picture did look like me, only mebby--_mebby_ I
say, she wuzn't quite so good-lookin'.

Yes, I did look like his mother. And then I see the secret of his
interest in, and his kindness to me and mine.

And Mr. Freeman wuz raised up in my mind as many as 2 notches, and I
don't know but 3 or 4. To think that he loved his mother's memory so
well as to be so kind for her sake, for the sake of a fleetin' likeness,
to be so good to another female.

But Josiah Allen looked meachin'. I gin him a dretful meanin' look. I
didn't say nothin', only jest that look, but it spoke volumes and
volumes, and my pardner silently devoured the volumes, and, as I say,
looked meachin' for pretty near a quarter of a hour.

And that is a long time for a man to look smut, and conscience-struck.
It hain't in 'em to be mortified for any length of time, as is well
known by female pardners.

But we kep on a-goin'. And every single time I went into that beautiful
room, whether it wuz broad daylight or lit up by gas, every single time
the face of that tall slender girl, a-standin' there so calm by the
crystal brook, would look so natural to me, and so sort o' familiar,
that I almost ketched myself sayin'--

"Good-evenin', my dear," to it, which would have been perfectly
ridiculous in me, and the very next thing to worshippin' a graven image.

And what made it more mysterious to me, and more like a circus (a
solemn, high-toned circus), wuz, to ketch ever and anon, and I guess
oftener than that, Mr. Freeman's eyes bent on that pretty young face
with a look as if he too recognized her, and wanted to talk to her. And
some, too, he looked as if she wuz dead and buried, and he wuz
a-mournin' deep for her, _very_ deep.

As curious a look as I ever see; and if I hain't seen curious looks in
my time, then I will say nobody has. Yes, indeed! I have seen curious
looks in my journey through life, curious as a dog, and curiouser.

But there she stood, no matter what looks wuz cast on her from friend or
foe--and I guess it would sound better to say from friend or lover, for
nobody could be a foe to that radiant-faced, beautiful creeter.

There she stood, in sun or shade, knee-deep in them fresh green grasses,
a-lookin' off onto them sunset clouds always rosy and golden, by the
side of that streamlet that always had the sparkle on its tiny waves.

I might be tired and weak as a cat, and Mr. Freeman might have the
headache, and Josiah Allen be cross, and all fagged out--

But her face wuz always serene, and lit up with the glow of joy and
health, and her sweet, deep eyes always held the secret that she
couldn't be made to tell.

Mr. Bolster was a stout, middle-aged man, with bald head, side whiskers,
and a double chin. And his big blue eyes kinder stood out from his face
some. He was a real estate agent, so Miss Plank said. But his principal
business seemed to be a-praisin' up Chicago, and a-puffin' up the
World's Fair.

Good land! Columbus didn't need none of his patronizin' and puffin' up,
and Chicago didn't, not by his tell.

Josiah wuz dretful impressed by him. We didn't lead off to the Fair
ground the next day after our arrival. No; at my request, we took life
easy--onpacked our trunks and got good and rested, and the mornin'
follerin' we got up middlin' early, bein' used to keepin' good hours in
Jonesville, and on goin' down to the breakfast-table we found that there
wuzn't nobody there but Mr. Bolster. He always had a early breakfast,
and drove his own horse into the city to his place of business.

He looked that wide awake and active as if he never had been asleep, and
never meant to.

And my companion bein' willin', and Mr. Bolster bein' more than willin',
they plunged to once into a conversation concernin' Chicago, Miss Plank
and I a-listenin' to 'em some of the time, and some of the time
a-talkin' on our own hook, as is the ways of wimmen.

Mr. Bolster--and I believe he knew that we wuz from York State, and did
it partly in a boastin' way--he begun most to once to prove that Chicago
wuz the only place in America at all suitable to hold the World's Fair
in.

And I gin him to understand that I thought that New York would have been
a good place for it, and it wuz a disapintment to me and to several
other men and wimmen in the State to not have it there.

But Mr. Bolster says, "Why, Chicago is the only place at all proper for
it. Why," sez he, "in a way of politeness, Chicago is the only place for
it. In what other city could the foreigners be welcomed by their own
people as they can here?" Sez he--

"In Chicago over 75 per cent of the population is foreign."

"Yes," sez Josiah, with a air as if he had made population a study from
his youth.

But he didn't know nothin' about it, no more than I did.

Sez Mr. Bolster, "Out of a population of a little over a million
200,000, we have nine hundred and 14,000 foreigners. That shows in
itself that Chicago is the only city calculated to make our foreign
friends feel perfectly at home."

"Yes," sez Josiah, "that is very true."

But I sez to Miss Plank, "There is other folks I like jest as well as I
do my relations, and if they had thought so much on 'em, why didn't they
stay with 'em in the first place?"

And Miss Plank kinder looked knowin' and nodded her head; she couldn't
swing right out free, as I could, bein' hampered by not wantin' to
offend any of her boarders.

Sez Mr. Bolster, "Chicago has the most energetic and progressive people
in the world. It hain't made up, like a Eastern village, of folks that
stay to home and set round on butter-tubs in grocery stores, talkin'
about hens. No, it is made up of people who dared--who wuz too
energetic, progressive, and ambitious, to settle down and be content
with what their fathers had. And they struck out new paths for
themselves, as the Pilgrim Fathers did.

"And it is of these people, who represent the advancin' and progressive
thought of the day, that Chicago is made up. It embodies the best energy
and ambition of the Eastern States and of Europe."

"Yes," sez Josiah, "that is jest so."

And then, sez Mr. Bolster, "Chicago is, as is well known, in the very
centre of the earth."

[Illustration: "Chicago is the very centre of the earth."]

"Yes," sez Josiah.

But I struck in here, and couldn't help it, and, sez I, "That is what
Boston has always thought;" and, sez I, candidly, "That is what has
always been thought about Jonesville."

He looked pityin'ly at me, and, sez he, "Where is Jonesville?"

And I sez, "Jest where I told you, in the very centre of the earth, as
nigh as we can make out."

"How old is the place?" sez Mr. Bolster.

Sez I proudly, "It is more than a hundred and fifty years old, for Uncle
Nate Bently's grandfather built the first store there, and helped build
the first Meetin'-House; and," sez I, "Uncle Nate is over ninety."

"How many inhabitants has it?" sez he briskly.

And then my own feathers had to droop; and as I paused to collect my
thoughts, Josiah spoke up--he is always so forward--and, sez he, "About
200 and 10 or 11."

But I sez, with dignity, "Perhaps I know more about some things than
you do, Josiah. There may be, by this time, one or two more
inhabitants."

Sez Mr. Bolster, "A growth of about 200 in one hundred years! Chicago is
about half as old, and has one million eight hundred thousand
population. In ten years the population has increased 108 per cent, and
property has increased in the same time 656 per cent, the greatest
growth in the world."

He regarded Jonesville as he would a fly in dog days. He went right by
it.

"As I was saying, we say nothing about Chicago but what we can prove.
Look on the map and you will see for yourself that Chicago is right in
the centre of the habitable portion of North America. Put your thumb
down on Chicago, and then sweep round it in an even circle with your
middle finger, and you will see that it takes in with that sweep all the
settled portion of North America."

"Yes," sez Josiah, with a air as if he had proved it with his thumb and
finger, time and agin, but he hadn't no such thing.

Sez Mr. Bolster, "We say nothing about our City that we can't prove. As
Chicago is in the very centre of productive North America, so it is the
centre of population of the United States.

"It is the centre of the raw materials for manufactures, cotton, wool,
metals, coal, gas, oil fields, all sorts of food. And as it is the
centre of supply, so it is of distribution--60 railroads and branches
bring freight and carry out manufactured products to every part of the
country--to say nothing of the great number of lines of water
transportations--connecting with all parts of the world. Why, last year
Chicago had 50 per cent more arrivals and clearances than New York. It
is the greatest shipping place in America. And," sez Mr. Bolster, "not
only can we prove that Chicago is the centre of the world for
manufactures, but it is the healthiest place to live in."

And then agin I spoke out, and, sez I, "I always hearn that it was built
on low, swampy ground."

"Yes," sez Mr. Bolster cheerfully, "that is the reason why it is
healthy. The ground was originally low and wet, and so it was elevated,
filled in. Why, just before the great fire we lifted up all the houses,
in the best part of the city, on jack-screws for eight feet, and filled
the ground under them. The idea of lifting up a whole city eight feet
and making new ground under it! There never was such an undertaking
before since the world began.

"And then the fire come, and the city was rebuilt just as we wanted it.
Why, the death-rate of Chicago is lower than almost any city of the
world except London--it is just about the same as that. Then," sez he,
"our climate is perfect; it is so temperate and even that folks don't
have to spend all their energies in keeping warm, as they do in colder
climates, nor is it so warm that they have to spend their vital energies
in fanning themselves."

Sez Josiah, "I had ruther mow a beaver medder in dog days than to fan
myself--it wouldn't tire me so much."

Sez Mr. Bolster, "The climate is _just_ right to call forth the prudent
saving qualities to provide for the winter; and warm enough to keep them
happy and cheerful looking forward to bounteous harvests."

"Wall," sez I, "it got burnt up, anyway."

It fairly provoked me to see him look down so on all the rest of the
world.

"Yes," sez he, "that is another evidence of the city's marvellous power
and resources. Find me another city, if you can, where in a few hours
200 millions of dollars were burnt up, two thousand 100 acres burnt
over, right in the heart of a big city, with a loss of two hundred and
ninety million dollars, and then to have it spring up in a marvellously
short time--not only as good as new, but infinitely better; so much
better that the disaster proved to be an untold blessing to the city."

Truly, as I see, swamps couldn't dround out his self-conceit, nor fire
burn it up.

And I knew myself that Chicago had great reason to be proud of her
doin's, and I felt it in my heart, only I couldn't bear to see Mr.
Bolster act so haughty.

And I sez to my pardner, with quite a lot of dignity, "I guess it is
time we are goin', if we get to the Fair in any season."

And Mr. Bolster to once told us what way would be best for us to go. A
good-natured creeter he is, without any doubt.

But jest as we wuz startin' I happened to think of a errent that had
been sent me by Jim Meesick, he that wuz Philura Meesick's brother.

He wanted to get a place to work somewhere in Chicago, through the Fair,
so's to pay his way, and gin him a chance to go to the Fair.

I had already asked Miss Plank about it, but she didn't know of no
openin' for him, and I happened to think, mebby Mr. Bolster, seein' he
knew everything else, might know of a place where Jim could get work.

And, sez I, "He is handy at anything, and I spoze there are lots of
folks here in Chicago that hire help. I spoze some of 'em have as many
as four or five hired men apiece."

Sez I, "There are them in Jonesville, durin' the summer time, who employ
as high as two men by the day, besides the regular hired man, and I
spoze it is so here."

"Yes," sez he; "Mr. Pullmen has five thousand four hundred and fifty
hired men, and Philip Armoor has seven thousand seven hundred and
seventy-five."

Wall, there wuz no more to be said. Bolster had done what he sot out to
do--he had lowered my pride down lower than the Queen of Sheba's ever
wuz, by fur. I had no sperit left in me. He might have gone on to me by
the hour, and I not sensed it.

But I didn't let on how I felt. I only sez weakly, "Wall, they hain't
a-sufferin' for help, I guess, and I'll write to Philura so."

But Bolster, good-natured agin, sez, "I will look round, and see what I
can do for him." And he snatched out a note-book, and writ his name
down. And I thanked him, and weakly follered my companion from the
room.

And I felt that if the door had been much smaller I could have got out
of it. I felt very diminutive--very--almost tiny. But I got over it
pretty soon. I felt about my usial size as we descended the stairs and
stood on the steps, ready to sally out and take the street cars that wuz
to transport our bodys to the Christopher Columbus World's Fair.

But while we wuz a-standin' there a-lookin' round to see jest which wuz
the best way to go to get to the corner Miss Plank had directed us to,
Mr. Bolster come down the steps spry and active as a young cat, and, sez
he--

"My carriage is waiting to take me to my orfice, and I will be glad to
take you both in, and take you past some of our city sights, and I will
leave you at a station where the train will take you right to the
grounds."

So we accepted his offer, Josiah with joy and I with a becomin' dignity,
and the carriage sot off down the street.

And what follers truly seems like a dream to me, and so duz the talk
accompanyin' it. The tall buildin's we looked at, one of 'em 260 feet
high, 20 storys--elevators that carry 40,000 passengers--and a garden on
the roof, a garden 260 feet in the air, where you can set and talk and
eat nut-cakes, and fried oysters--the idee!

And then the block that Mr. Bolster said wuz the largest business block
in the world, it accomidated 6000 people. And then we went by big
meetin'-housen, and other big housen, whose ruffs seemed so high that it
seemed as if you could stand up on the chimblys and shake hands with the
man in the moon, and neighbor with him.

And then the talk I hearn--22 miles of river frontage sweepin' up from
the lake into the heart of the city, where the giant elevators unload
their huge traffic. He told us what the revenue of the city wuz yearly,
$25,000,000, 25 millions--the idee!

And Jonesville, fifty years older than Chicago, thinks she has done well
if she has 3 dollars and 25 cents in her treasury.

Why, that man used so many immense sums in his talk, that I got all
muddled up, and a ort seemed to me almost like a million--I felt queer.

And then the system of Parks and Boulevards, the finest in the
world--100 miles of them beautiful pleasure drives. I believe, from what
I see afterwards, that he told the truth, for no city, it seems to me,
could improve on that long, broad, beautiful way, smooth and
tree-bordered, edged with stately homes, leadin' into the matchless
beauty of the Parks.

But anon, when I felt that I wuz bein' crushed down beneath a gigantic
weight of figgers, and estimates, elevators, population, hite, depth,
underground tunnels, and systems of drainage--though every one of 'em
wuz a grand and likely subject and awful big--but I felt that I wuz
a-bein' crushed by 'em--I felt that the Practical, the Real wuz a
crushin' me down--the weight, and noise, and size of the mighty iron
wheel of Progress, that duz roll faster in Chicago than in any other
place on earth, it seems to me. But I felt so trodden down by it, and
flattened out, that I thought I would love to see sunthin' or other
different, sunthin' kinder spiritual, and meditate a spell on some of
the onseen forces that underlays all human endeavor.

So, at my request, we went out of our way a little, so I could set my
eyes on that Temple dreamed out by a woman and wrought a good deal by
faith, some like the walls of Jericho, only different, for whereas they
fell by faith, this wuz riz up by it.

And my feelin's as I looked at that Temple wuz large and noble-sized as
you will find anywhere.

A Temple consecrated not so much to the Almighty in Heaven, who don't
need it, as to God in Humanity--to the help of the Divine as it shows
itself half buried and lost in the clay of the human--a help to relieve
the God powers from the trammels of the fiend--

A Temple--not so much to set, and pray, and sing in, about the beauties
of our Heavenly home, as to build up God's kingdom on earth, show forth
His praise in helpin' His poor, and weak, and sinful.

My feelin's wuz a sight--a sight to behold, as I sot and looked at
it--that tall, noble, majestic pile, and thought of the way it wuz
built, and what it wuz built for.

But as we drove on agin, my mind got swamped once more in a sea of
immense figgers that swashed up agin me--elevators that carry grain up
to the top of towerin' buildin's, 10,000 bushels a hour, and then come
down its own self and weigh itself, and I guess put itself into bags and
tie 'em up--though he didn't speak in particuler about the tyin' up.

And then he praised their stores--one of 'em which employed 2,000,400
men. And then he praised up their teliphone system, so perfect that
nothin' could happen in any part of the city without its bein' known to
once at police headquarters.

And then he praised up agin and agin the business qualities and
go-ahead-it-ivness of the people, and how property had riz.

"Why," sez he, "Chicago and three hundred miles around it wuz bought for
five shillings not so long ago as your little town was founded, and now
look at the uncounted millions it represents."

And then he boasted about the Board of Trade, and said its tower wuz 300
feet high. And, sez he, "While folks all over the world are prayin' for
their daily bread, the men inside that building was deciding whether
they could get it or not."

And after he talked about everything else connected with Chicago, and
hauled up figgers and heaped 'em up in front of me till my brain reeled,
and my mind tottered back, and tried to lean onto old Rugers'
Rithmatick--and couldn't, he wuz so totally inadequate to the
circumstances--he mentioned "that they had 6000 saloons in Chicago, and
made twenty-one million barrels of beer in a year."

"Wall," sez I, a-turnin' round in the buggy, "my brain has been made a
wreck by the figgers you have brung up and throwed at me about the
noble, progressive doin's of Chicago, and," sez I firmly, "I wuz willin'
to have it, for I respect and honor the people who could do such
wonders, and keepon a-doin' 'em, to the admiration of the world. But,"
sez I, "my brain _shall not_ totter under none of your beer and whiskey
statisticks." And as I spoke I put my hand to my fore-top, and I looked
quite bad, and truly I felt so.

He glanced at me, and see that I wuz not in a situation to be trifled
with.

And as we wuz jest approachin' the station where we wuz to be left, he
ceased his remarks, and held his horse in.

He helped me to alight, and I thanked him for his kindness, and acted as
polite as a person could whose brain lay a wreck in the upper part of
her head. The last word Mr. Bolster said to us wuz, as he gathered up
the reins, sez he:

"Thirty-six lines of cars come to and leave Chicago, which, with its
immense shipping facilities, makes it the--"

But the cars tooted jest then, and I didn't hear his last words, and I
wuz glad on't, as I say, I had thanked him before.

But good land! he would have carried two giraffes or camels willin'ly if
he could have got 'em into his buggy, and sot 'em up by him on the seat,
and could have boasted to 'em understandin'ly about Chicago. But I guess
he is well-meanin'.

CHAPTER X.

Wall, after he left us we boarded some cars, and found ourselves, with
the inhabitants of several States, I should judge, borne onwards towards
the White City.

And anon, or about that time, we found ourselves at a depot, where wuz
the entire census of several other States, and Territories.

There we wuz right in front of the Gole, and I don't believe there wuz a
better-lookin' Gole sence the world begun.

The minute we left the cars we found ourselves between two lines of
wild-lookin' and actin' men, a-tryin' to sell us things we hadn't no
need on.

What did I want with a cane? or Josiah with a little creepin' beetle?
And what did I want with galluses?

They didn't use no judgment, and their yellin's wuz fearful; whatever
else they had, they didn't have consumption, I don't believe.

After payin' our two fares, a little gate sort o' turned round and let
us in to the Columbian World's Fair--that marvellous city of magic; and
anon, if not a little before, the Adminstration Buildin' hove up in
front of us.

All the descriptions in the World can't give no idee of the wonderful
proportions of the buildin's and the charm of the surroundin's. The
minute you pass the gate you are overwhelmed with the greatness, charm,
and nobility, the impressive, onspeakable aspect of the buildin's.

The stucco, of which most of the buildin's are composed, made it
possible for the artist and the architect to carry out their idees to a
magnitude never before attempted. It is a material easy to be moulded
into all rare and artistic shapes and groupin's, and still cheap enough
to be used as free as their fancy dictated, and is as beautiful as
marble.

Colossial buildin's, beautiful enough for any Monarch, and which no
goverment on earth wuz ever rich enough to carry out in permanent form.

Wall, as I said, the Adminstration Buildin' wuz the one that hove up
directly in front of us.

[Illustration: The Adminstration Buildin' hove up directly in front
of us.]

It towers up in the circumambient air with its great gilded dome, and
seems to begen to us all to come and pass through it into the marvels
beyend.

This buildin' is like a main spring to a watch, or the pendulum to a
gigantick clock--it regulates the hull of the rest of the works. Here is
the headquarters of the managers of the World's Fair--the fire and
police departments--the press, and them that have charge of the foreign
nations.

Here is a bank, post-office, and the department of general information
about the Fair.

And never, never sence the creation of the world has old General
Information had a better-lookin' place to stay in.

Why, some folks call this high, magnificent buildin', with its great
shinin' dome, the handsomest buildin' amongst that city of matchless
palaces. It covers four acres, every acre bein' more magnificent than
the other acres. Why, the Widder Albert herself gin Mr. Hunt, the
architect, a ticket, she was so tickled with his work.

The dome on top of it is the biggest dome in the world, with the
exception of St. Peter's in Rome. And it seemed to me, as I looked up at
the dome, that Peter might have got along with one no bigger than this.

Howsumever, it hain't for me to scrimp anybody in domes. But this wuz
truly enormious.

But none too big, mebby, for the nub on top of the gate of the World's
Fair. That needs to be mighty in size, and of pure gold, to correspond
with what is on the inside of the gate.

But never wuz there such a gorgeous gate-way before, unless it wuz the
gate-way of Paradise.

Why, as you stood inside of that dome and looked way up, up, up towards
the top, your feelin's soared to that extent that it almost took you
offen your feet.

Noble pictures and statutes you see here, too. Some on 'em struck
tremendious hard blows onto my appreciation, and onto my head also.

And a-lookin' on 'em made me feel well, dretful well, to see how much my
sect wuz thought on in stun, and canvas, and such.

There wuz Diligence, a good-lookin' woman, workin' jest as she always
has, and is willin' to; there she sot a-spinnin' and a-bringin' up her
children as good as she knew how.

Mebby she wuz a-teachin' a Sunday-school lesson to the boy that stood by
her.

He had his arms full of ripe fruit and grapes. I am most afraid for his
future, but she wuz a-teachin' him the best she could; you could see
that by her looks.

Then there wuz Truth, another beautiful woman, a-holdin' a lookin'-glass
in her hand, and a-teachin' another little boy. Mebby it wuz the young
Future she wuz a-learnin' to tell the truth, anyway, no matter how much
it hurt him, how hard it hit aginst old custom and prejudices. He wuz
a-leanin' affectionate on her, but his eyes wuz a-lookin' away--fur off.
Mebby he'll hear to her, mebby he will--he's young; but I feel kinder
dubersome about it.

She held her glass dretful high. Mebby she laid out that Uncle Sam
should see his old features in it, and mebby she wuz a-remindin' him
that he ortn't to carve woman as a statute of Truth, and then not be
willin' to hear her complaints when she tries to tell him about 'em, in
his own place, where he makes his laws, year in and year out.

If he believes she is truthful--and he must, or he wouldn't name her
Truth and set her up so high for the nations to look at--what makes him,
year after year, act towards wimmen as if he believed she wuz a-lyin'?
It is onreasonable in him.

And then there wuz Abundance, a woman and a man. I guess they had an
abundance of everything for their comfort, and it looked real good to
see they wuz both a-sharin' it.

She wuz a-settin' in a chair, and he wuz on the floor. That might do for
a Monument, or Statute, but I don't believe they would foller it up so
for day after day in real life, and they hadn't ort to. Men and wimmen
ort to have the same settin' accommodations, and standin' too, and ort
to be treated one of 'em jest as well as the other. They are both likely
creeters, a good deal of the time.

Then there wuz Tradition. Them wuz two old men, as wuz nateral--wimmen
wuzn't in that--woman is in the future and the present. Them two men,
a-lookin' considerable war-like, wuz a-talkin' over the past--the deeds
of Might.

They didn't need wimmen so much there, and I didn't feel as if I cared a
cent to have her there.

When they git to talkin' over the deeds of _Right_, I'd want wimmen to
be present. _And she will be there._

And then there wuz Liberty, agin a woman, beautiful and serene,
a-depicterin' Liberty, and agin a-holdin' her arms round a young male
child, and a-teachin' him.

That, too, filled me with high hope, that Uncle Sam had at last
discovered the mean actions that wuz a-goin' on about wimmen; that he
had seen the chains that wuz a-bindin' her, and a-gaulin' her.

He wouldn't be likely to depicter her as Liberty, and set her up so high
in the gate-way to the World's Fair, if he calculated to keep her on in
the slavery she is now, a-bindin' her with her own heart-strings--takin'
away her power to help her own heart's dearest, in their fights aginst
the evils and temptations of the World.

No, I believe Uncle Sam is a-goin' to turn over a new leaf--anyway,
Liberty sot up there, a-lookin' off with a calm mean, and there wuz a
smile on her face, as if she see a light in the future that begened to
her.

And then, there wuz Charity; of course she wuz a woman--she always is.

She had two little boys by her; one had his hand on her heart, and that
faithful heart wuz filled with love and pity for him, jest as it always
has been, and always will be. Another wuz a-kneelin' at her feet, with
her fosterin' hand on his head. A good-lookin' creeter Charity wuz, and
well behaved.

Joy seemed to be enjoyin' herself first rate. Her pretty face seemed to
answer back the music that the youth at her feet wuz a-rousin' from his
magic flute.

Theology wuz a wise, reverend-lookin' old man, a-thinkin' up a sermon,
or a-thinkin' out some new system of religion, I dare presoom to say,
for his book seemed to be half closed, and he wuz lost in deep thought.

He looked first rate--a good and well-behaved old man, I hain't a doubt
on't.

Then, there wuz Patriotism--a man and a woman. He, a-standin' up ready
to face danger, or die for his country; she, with her arms round him,
a-lookin' up into his face, as if to say--

"If you must go, I will stay to home with a breakin' heart, and take
care of the children, and do the barn chores."

They both looked real good and noble. Mr. Bitters done first
rate--Josiah couldn't have begun to done so well, nor I nuther.

Then there wuz a dretful impressive statute there, a grand-lookin' old
man, with his hand uplifted, a-tellin' sunthin' to a young child, who
wuz a-listenin' eagerly.

I d'no who the old man wuz; there wuz broad white wings a-risin' up all
round him, and it might be he wuz meant to depicter the Recordin'
Angel; if he wuz, he could have got quills enough out of them wings to
do all his writin' with.

And it might be that it wuz Wisdom instructin' youth.

And it might be some enterprisin' old goose-raiser a-tellin' his oldest
boy the best way to save the white wings of ganders.

But I don't believe this wuz so. There wuz a riz up, noble look on the
old man's face that wuz never ketched, I don't believe, with wrestlin'
with geese on a farm, and neighbors all round him.

No, I guess it wuz the gray and wise old World a-instructin' the young
Republic what to do and what not to do.

The child looked dretful impetuous and eager, and ready to start off any
minute, a good deal as our country does, and I presoom wherever the
child wuz a-startin' for it will git there.

A noble statute. Mr. Bitters did first rate.

But when I git started on pictures and statutes--I don't know where or
when to stop.

But time hastens, and to resoom.

As I reluctantly tore myself away from the glory and grandeur inside,
and passed through the buildin' to the outside, and a full view of the
Court of Honor busted on to our bewildered vision, I did--I actually
did feel weak as a cat.

Never agin--never agin will such a seen glow and grow before mine eyes,
till the streets of the New Jerusalem open before my vision.

Beyend that wide Plaza, that long basin of clear sparklin' water, dotted
all over its glowin' bosom with fairy-like gondolas, and gondolers,
dressed in all the colors of the rainbow, or picturesque launches, with
their gay freight of happy sightseers. And here and there, jest where
they wuz needed, to look the best, wuz statutes and banners and the most
gorgeous fountain that ever dripped water.

Then the broad flights of snowy marble steps risin' from the water to
the green flowery terraces, and then above them the magnificent white
wonders of the different buildin's.

And standin' up aginst the sky, and the blue waters of the lake, the
tall ivory columns of the Perestyle stood, like a immense beautiful
screen, to guard this White City of magic splendor.

And risin' from the blue waters of the Basin stands the grand figure of
the Republic, towerin' up a hundred feet high, lookin' jest as she ort
to look. Calm, stately, but knowin' in her heart jest what she had done,
and jest what she hadn't done, knowin' jest what she had to be proud
on, if she only let her mind run on't.

But there wuz no high-headedness, no tostin' of her neck. No, fair and
stately and serene as a dream Queen, she stood a fittin' centre for the
onspeakable beauty of her surroundin's.

It wuz all perfect, everything--no flaw in the perfect harmony of the
seen. No limit to its onapproachable beauty. Yes, the glory of that seen
as it bust onto my raptured vision will go with me through life, and
won't never be outdone and replaced by anything more perfect, till that
rapt hour when the mortal puts on immortality, and the glory that no eye
hath seen busts on my glorified vision.

And as we wended onwards and got still further views of the matchless
wonders of the Columbus World's Fair--wall, I gin in, and felt and said,
that I spozed I had had emotions all my life, and sights of 'em; why, I
have had 'em as high as from 70 to 80 a minute right along for a hour on
a stretch--sometimes when I have been rousted up about sunthin'.

But when I stood stun still in my tracts, and the full glory and beauty
of that seen of wonder and enchantment broke onto my almost enraptured
vision, I gin up that I never had had a emotion in my hull life, not
one, nothin' but plain, common breathin's and sithes.

When I see these snowy palaces, vast and beautiful and dreamlike, risin'
up from the blue waters, and their pure white columns and statuary
reflected into the mirrow below, and the green beauty of the Wooded
Island, and the tall trees a-dottin' them here and there--

And when I see the lagoon a-windin' along, and arched over with bridges,
like the best of the beauty of Venice born agin, perfect and fresh in
the heart of the New World--

When I beheld the immense quantity of shrubs and flowers of every kind
known to the world--

And all along the blue waters of the Grand Basin, surrounded by the
magnificence and glory of these beautiful palaces--the fountains
a-sprayin' up, and waters a-flashin', and banners a-flyin', and the tall
white statutes a-standin' on every side of us a-watchin' us with their
still eyes, to see how we took in the transcendent seen, and how we
appeared under the display--wall, I stood, as I say, stun still in my
tracts, and sez to myself--

"It would be jest as easy to comprehend the wonder of this Exposition by
readin' about it, as it would be for any one to try to judge Niagara by
lookin' at a pan of dishwater."

They are both water, but different, fur different.

And you have got to take in the wonder and majesty of the sight, through
the pores as it wuz, through all your soul, not at first, but it has got
to grow and soak in, and make it a part of yourself.

And then, when you have, you hain't a-goin' to describe it--words can't
do it; you can walk through it and talk about the size of the buildin's,
and the wonders of the display, but that hain't a-goin' to describe it,
no more than the pan of dishwater can explain Niagara.

You can converse about Niagara, the depth, the eddies, the swirl of the
waters, the horseshoe falls, the rainbow that rises over it, the grotto,
the slate-stun on the banks below, and so forth, and so forth, and so
on.

And how to show off the might and rush of the volume of water that
shakes the earth, the mountain of shinin' mist that floats up to the
wonderin' and admirin' heavens--how to paint this wonderful and
inexpressible glory by tongue, how to put in words that which is
mightier than any words that wuz ever said or sung! Wonder and awe,
overwhelmin' sensation that makes the pulse stop and then beat agin in
bounds.

When you paint a picture showin' the full power and depth of a mother's
love; when you can paint the ardor and extacy that inspires the hero's
soul as he leads the forlorn hope, and dies with his face to the foe--

Then you may try to describe Niagara; no pen, no tongue can describe
this ever rushin', ever old and ever new Wonder of the new world.

And no more can any pen describe the World's Fair, the tall, towerin'
fruit of the four-century tree of civilization, and liberty, and equal
rights.

You can talk about the buildin's--how they are made, how long and wide
they are. You can talk about the lagoons, the Grand Basin, the Bridges,
the Statutes, the Fountains, the wonders of the flowers and foliage, the
grandeur of the display, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth.

But how to describe this as a hull, its immensity, its concentrated
might of material, practical beauty and use, that moves the world with
its volume and power--

Or the more wonderful forces and influences that arise from it, like a
gold mist seekin' the Heavens, to fall in showers of blessin's to the
uttermost ends of the earth--knowledge, wisdom, and beauty, of Freedom,
and Individual Liberty, Educational, Moral, and Beneficent
influences--who is a-goin' to describe all this?

I can't, nor Josiah, nor Miss Plank, nor nobody. No, Mr. Bolster
couldn't.