“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.