But Josiah owned up to me afterwards that he gin up that he wuz a-goin’ to be killed, and that his last thought wuz as he swooned away—­wuz how much ostrich feathers cost, and how sweet it would be to give me a last gift of dyin’ love, by pickin’ a feather off for nothin’.

I groaned and sithed when he told me, and sez I, “What won’t you do next, Josiah Allen?”

But this wuz hereafter, and to pick up the thread of my story agin.

Wall, Josiah wuzn’t killed, he wuz only stunted, and he soon recovered his conscientousness.

And before half a hour passed away he wuz a-talkin’ as pert as you please, a-boastin’ of how he would tell it in Jonesville.  Sez he, “I wonder what Deacon Henzy will say when I tell him that I rode a bird while I wuz here?” Sez he, “He never rode a crow or a sparrer.”

“Nor you, nuther,” sez I; “how could you ride a crow?”

“Wall,” sez he, “I’ve rid a ostrich, and the news will cause great excitement in Jonesville, and probable up as fur as Zoar and Loontown.”

Then come Solomon’s Temple.  Josiah and I both felt that that wuz a good scriptural sight, worthy of a deacon and a deaconess, for some say that that is the proper way to address a deacon’s wife.

But come to find out, the Temple wuz inside of a house, and you had to pay to go in.

And I sez, “Less pay, Josiah Allen, and go in.”

And he said that “it wuzn’t scriptural.  Solomon’s Temple in Bible times never had a house built round it.  And he wuzn’t a-goin’ to encourage folks to go on and build meetin’-housen inside of other housen.

“Why,” sez he, “if that idee is encouraged, they will be for buildin’ a house round the Jonesville meetin’-house, and we will have to pay to go in.”

Sez he, “Less show our colors for the right, Samantha.”

The argument wuz a middlin’ good one, though I felt that there wuzn’t no danger.

But he went on ahead, and I had to foller on after him, like two old ducks goin’ to water.

I guess that if it had been free he wouldn’t have insisted on our showin’ our colors.

Wall, the end of the Plaisance wuz devoted to soldiers, military displays, and camps and drill grounds.

Quite a spacious place, as big as two city blocks, and it must have been very interestin’ for war-like people to look on and see ’em in their handsome uniforms, a-marchin’, and a-counter-marchin’, and a-haltin’, and a-presentin’ arms, etc., etc.

And there wuz gardens and orange groves nigh by, too, where you could see ripe oranges and green ones hangin’ to the same trees—­dretful interestin’ sight.

Wall, if you would turn back agin and go towards the Fair ground on the south side, a Hungarian Orpheum is seen first.  This is a dance hall, theatre, and restaurant all combined.

Folks can dance here all the time from mornin’ till night, if they want to, but we didn’t want to dance—­no, indeed! nor see it; our legs wuz too wore out, and so wuz our eyes, so we wended on to the Lapland Village.