Here Josiah gin a deep groan out to one side, but he no need to—­I spoke truth, or pretty near the truth, anyway.

Sez I, “Here I take my stand!” and I brung down my good cotton umbrell agin firmly, as if to punctuate my remarks, and add weight to it, and I wuz so earnest that before I knew it I fell into a fervid eloquence—­catched from my old revolutionary 4 fathers, I spoze—­and, sez I—­

“I care not what course others may take—­”

“But,” sez Miss Plank, “we will hang together in such a crowd as this.”

“Yes,” sez Josiah; “you mustn’t go wanderin’ off by yourself, Samantha; it hain’t safe.”

I wuz brung down some, but I kep on with considerable eloquence, though it wuz kinder drizzlin’ away onbeknown to me, such is the power of environment.

Sez I, “I care not what course others may take, I will go first to the place my proud heart has dwelt on ever sence the Fair wuz opened—­

“I will go first to the Woman’s Buildin’, home of my sect, and my proud ambition and love.”

Miss Plank demurred, and said “that it wuz some distance off;” but I held firm—­Josiah see that I wuz firm—­and he finally gin in quite graciously, and, sez he—­

“I don’t spoze it will take long, anyway, to see all that wimmen has brung here—­and I spoze the buildin’ will be a sight—­all trimmed off with ornaments, and flowers, and tattin’; mebby they will have lace all festooned on the outside.”

Sez he, “I always did want to see a house trimmed with bobinet lace on the outside, and tattin’ and ribbin streamers.”

I wouldn’t dain a reply; he did it to lower my emotions about wimmen.

But it wuz impossible.  So we turned our bodies round and set off north by northwest.

Agin Miss Plank mentioned the distance, and agin my Josiah spoke longin’ly of the live stock.

And I sez with a calm dignity, “Josiah, you are not a woman.”

“No,” sez he, “dum it all, I know I hain’t, and so there hain’t much chance of my gettin’ my way.”

I kep on calmly, and with the same lofty mean, “You are not a woman, and therefore you can’t tell a woman’s desires that go with me, to see the glorification of her own sect, in their great and lofty work, and the high thrones on which they have sot themselves in the year of our Lord, 1893; I am sot,” sez I, “I am sot as ever the statute of America is on her marble pedestal, jest so solid am I riz up on the firm and solid foundation of my love, and admiration, and appreciation for my own sect.”

And so, as I say, we turned round in our tracts and went back round that noble Adminstration Buildin’—­

Josiah a-talkin’ anon or oftener about what he expected to see in the Woman’s Buildin’, every one on ’em light and triflin’ things, such as gauzes, and artificial flowers, and cossets, and high-heel shoes, and placks, and tattin’, and etc.

And I anon a-answerin’ his sneerin’ words, and the onspoken but fatigued appeals in Miss Plank’s eyes, by sayin’—­