By this time General Davis wuz fur away.

And I sithed, when I thought on’t, what he’d lost by not receivin’ my eloquent and heartfelt thanks, and what I’d lost in not givin’ ’em.

I d’no as Josiah was jealous—­mebby he wuzn’t.  But General Davis is considerable handsome, and Josiah can’t bear to have me praise up any man, livin’ or dead.  Sometimes I have almost mistrusted that he didn’t like to have me praise up St. Paul too much, or David, or Job—­or he don’t seem to care so much about Job.  But, as I say, mebby it wuzn’t jealousy—­his appetite is good; mebby it was hunger.

CHAPTER XIX.

Wall, this mornin’, on our way to the grounds, I sez to Josiah—­

“There is one thing that I want you to do the first thing to-day, and that is for you to see that good creeter, Senator Palmer.”

Sez I, “I jest happened to read this mornin’ how he’s takin’ up a subscription to help the Duke of Veragua, and we must see him and help the cause along.”  Sez I, “I can’t bear to think of Columbuses folks a-sufferin’ for things.”

Sez Josiah, “Let Columbuses folks nip in and work jest as I do, and they’ll git along.”

“They hain’t been brung up to it,” sez I; “I don’t spoze he ever ploughed a acre of land in his life, or sheared a sheep.  And I don’t spoze she knows what it is to pick a goose, or do a two weeks’ washin’.”

I’m sorry for ’em as I can be.  And to think that that villain of a Manager should have run away with that money while they wuz over here a-helpin’ their forefathers birthday!

Sez I, “It makes me feel like death.”

“It makes me feel,” sez Josiah gloomily, “that no knowin’ but the Old Harry will git into Ury while we are away.”

But I sez, “Don’t worry, Josiah—­Ury and Philura are pure gold.”

“Wall, dum it all, pure gold can be melted if the fire is hot enough.”

But I went back to the old subject—­“We must give sunthin’ to the cause; it will be expected of us, and it is right that we should.”

“But,” sez Josiah, with a gloomy and fierce look, “if I can git out of Chicago with a hull shirt on my back it’s all I expect to do.  I hain’t no money to spend on Dukes, and you’ll say so when we come to pay our bills.”

Sez I, “You needn’t send any money, Josiah Allen; but,” sez I, “we might send ’em a tub of butter and a kag of cowcumber pickles jest as well as not, and a ham, to help ’em along through the winter, and I’d gladly send him and her yarn enough for a good pair of socks and stockin’s.  She might knit ’em,” sez I, “or I would.  I’ll send him a pair of fringe mittens anyway,” sez I; “it hain’t noways likely that she knows how to make them.  They take intellect and practice to knit.”

And sez I, “I want you to be sure and see Senator Palmer without fail, and tell him to be sure and let us know when he sends things, so’s we can put in and add our two mites.”