As Josiah and I wuz a-wendin’ along on the gallery a-frontin’ the lake, I heard a man—­he looked some like a minister, too—­say to another one, sez he, “The style of this buildin’ is Corinthian.”

[Illustration:  “This Buildin’ is Corinthian.”]

And I spoke right up, bein’ determined that Josiah and I too should be took for what we wuz—­good, Bible-readin’ Methodists.

I said to Josiah, but loud enough so that the man should hear—­

“The New Testament hain’t got a better book in it than Corinthians—­it is one of my favorites; I am glad that this buildin’ takes after it.”

He looked kinder dumfoundered, and then he looked tickled; he see that we wuz congenial, though we met only as two barks that meet on the ocean, or two night-hawks a-sailin’ past each other in the woods at Jonesville.

But true it is that a good-principled person is always ready to stand by his colors.

But the crowd swept us on, and we wuz divided—­he to carry his good, solid principles out-doors, and disseminate ’em under the open sky; I to carry mine inside that immense—­immense buildin’.

Why, a week wouldn’t do justice at all to this buildin’—­you ort to come here every day for a month at least, and then you wouldn’t see a half or a quarter of what is in it.

Why, to stand and look all round you, and up and down the long aisles that stretch out about you on every side, you feel some as a ant would feel a-lookin’ up round it in a forest, (I mean the ant “Thou sluggard” went to, not your ma’s sister.)

Fur up, fur up the light comes down through the immense skylight, so it is about like bein’ out-doors, and in the night it is most as light as day, for the ark lights are so big that, if you’ll believe it, there are galleries of ’em up in the chandliers, and men a-walkin’ round in ’em a-fixin’ the lights look like flies a-creepin’ about.  The idee!

And the exhibits in that buildin’ are like the sands of the sea for number, and it would be harder work to count ’em if you wuz a-goin’ to tackle the job, for they hain’t spread out smooth, like sea sand, but are histed up into the most gorgeous and beautiful pavilions, fixed off beyend anything you ever drempt on, or read of in Arabian Nights, or anywhere else.

They wuz like towerin’ palaces within a palace, and big towers all covered with wonderful exhibits, and cupalos, and peaks, and scollops, and every peak and every scollop ornamented and garnished beyend your wildest fancy.

The United States don’t make such a big show as Germany duz, right acrost, but come to look clost, you’ll see that she holds her own.

Why, Tiffany’s and Gorham’s beautiful pavilion, that rises up as a sort of a centre piece to the United States exhibit, some think are the most beautiful in the hull Exposition.

Big crowds are always standin’ in front of that admirin’ly; the decoration and colorin’ are perfect.