Five little children with merry, laughin’ faces a-playin’ at hide and seek in a broken gray old stump, and flowers, and vines, and mosses a-runnin’ round it and over it as nateral as life.

Wall, I stood before that beautiful object till Josiah had to draw me away from it almost by main force.

But inside it come my time to draw him away.

When we see that picter of the old farm made in seeds, he wuz as rooted to the spot as if he intended to remain sot out there, and grow up with the State.

[Illustration:  He wuz rooted to the spot.]

And it wuz a dretful interestin’ sight—­the farm-house, the barns, the well, the old windmill, the long fields a-stretchin’ back, and fenced off, with different crops on ’em, the good-lookin’ men and wimmen, and the horses, with their glossy hides and silky manes and tails, and all made of different kinds of seeds and grasses.  It wuz a sight to see the crowd that stood before that from mornin’ till night, and you ask ten folks what impressed ’em the most at the Fair, and more’n half on ’em would most likely say that it wuz that seed picter in the Illinois Buildin’.  Over one side on’t wuz draped sunthin’ that I took to be the very richest silk or velvet, all fringed out with a deep fringe on the end on’t.  But it wuz all made of grasses of different kinds—­the idee!  Fifteen young ladies of Illinois made that, and they done first-rate.  I want ’em to know what I think on’t, and what Josiah duz.

Wall, inside the buildin’ wuz full and runnin’ over with beautiful objects—­lovely picters, noble statuary, beautiful works of art and industry done by the sons and daughters of the State.

It would take more’n a week to do any justice to it.  Illinois done splendid.  I want her to know how I appreciated it.  She’ll be glad to know how riz up I felt there.

Wall, when we left there we had a little dialogue—­not mad exactly, but earnest.

I wanted to go and see Great Britain, and Josiah wanted to go to Vermont (he has got a third cousin a-livin’ there, and he wanted to see him).  “Wall,” sez I, “we’ve got a mother to tend to; the Mother Country calls for a little filial attention.”

“Oh, shaw!” sez he; “I guess you feel more related than they do; and,” sez he, “I shall go to Vermont.  Mebby I shall meet Bildad Allen right there in the settin’-room.”

So there it wuz—­we wuz both determined.  I see by my companion’s mean that it wouldn’t do to insist on Great Britain.

But a woman hates to give in awful.  So I suggested makin’ a compromise on California.

[Illustration:  A woman hates to give in awful, so I suggested a compromise on California.]

And he agreed to it.  He, too, had seen a look of marble determination on my mean, and he dassent press the Vermont question too hard.

So we directed our steps towards the California Buildin’.  It is a exact reproduction of the old Monastery of San Diego, and one hundred thousand square feet is the size on’t.