“Do you suppose I would hurt the feelin’s of my sect, do you suppose I would mortify ’em before the assembled nations of the earth, by slightin’ ’em, by not payin’ attention to ’em, and makin’ ’em the first and prime object of my distinguished and honorable consideration?

“No, indeed; no, indeed!”

So we went on at a pretty good jog, and a-meetin’ every single person in the hull earth, every man, woman, and child, black and white, bond and free, lame and lazy, or it did seem so to my wearied and bewildered apprehenshion.

And I sez to myself mekanicly, what if conflagrations should break out in Asia, or the chimbly get afire in Australia, or a earthquake take place in Africa, or a calf get into the waterin’ trough at Jonesville, who would git it out or put ’em out?

Everybody in the hull livin’ world is here; the earth has dreaned off all its livin’ inhabitants down into this place; some of the time I thought mebby one or two would be left in Jonesville, and Loontown, and the hind side of Asia, and Hindoostan; but as I wended on and see the immense crowd, a-passin’ out of one buildin’ and a-passin’ in to another, and a-swarmin’ over the road and a-coverin’ the face of the water, I sez to myself—­

“No, there hain’t a soul left in Hindoostan, or Jonesville, not one; nor Loontown, nor Shackville, nor Africa, nor Zoar.”

It wuz a curious time, very, but anon, after we had wended on for some distance, and Miss Plank looked some wilted, and Josiah’s steps dragged, and my own frame felt the twinges of rheumatiz—­

Miss Plank spoke up, and sez she, “If you are bound on going to the Woman’s Building first, why not take a boat and go around there, and that will give you a good view of the buildings.”

I assented to her propisition with alacrity, and wondered that I hadn’t thought of it before, and Josiah acted almost too tickled.

That man loves to save his steps; and then, as I soon see, he had another idee in his head.

Sez he, “I always wanted to be a mariner—­I will hire a boat and be your boatman.”

“Not with me for a passenger, Josiah Allen,” sez I.  “I want to live through the day, anyway; I want to live to see the full glory of my sect; I don’t want to be drownded jest in front of the gole.”

He looked mad—­mad as a hen; but he see firmness in my mean, so we went back, and down a flight of steps to the water’s edge, and he signalled a craft that drew up and laid off aginst us—­a kinder queer-shaped one, with a canopy top, and gorgeous dressed boatmen—­and we embarked and floated off on the clear waters of the Grand Basin.  Oh! what a seen that would have been for a historical painter, if Mr. Michael Angelo had been present with a brush and some paint!

Josiah Allen’s Wife a-settin’ off for the express purpose of seein’ and admirin’ the work of her own sect, and right in front of her the grand figger of Woman a-standin’ up a hundred feet high; but no higher above the ordinary size of her sect wuz she a-standin’ than the works of the wimmen I wuz a-settin’ out to see towered up above the past level of womankind.  Oh, what a hour that wuz for the world! and what a seen that wuz for Josiah Allen’s Wife to be a-passin’ through, watched by the majestic figger of Woman.