me. It come
straight, that Serenus only stayed there nights and to a early
breakfast, but spent his hull durin' time to Coney Island, and he a
twin too. She said Sylvester felt so hurt she wuz afraid it would
make a lastin' hardness. And it made me enough trouble too, yes
indeed! for he would come and pour out his praises of that frisky,
frivolous spot into Josiah's too willin' ears, till he got him as wild
as he wuz about it.

Why, evenin's after he'd been there recountin' its attractions till
bed-time, Josiah would be so wrought up he'd ride night mairs most all
night. He'd spring up in bed cryin' out, "All aboard for Coney
Island!" or, "There is the Immoral Railway! See the divin' girls, and
the Awful Tower. Get a hot dog; look at the alligators, etc., etc." I
gin him catnip to soothe his nerve, but that didn't git the pizen out
of his system; no, acres of catnip couldn't.

Oh, how dead sick I'd git of their talk, Coney Island! Luna Park! Well
named, I'd say to myself, it is enough to make anybody luny to hear so
much about it. Steeple Chase! chasin' steeples, folly and madness.
Dreamland! night mairs, most probable. Why, from Serenus' talk that I
hearn onwillingly about toboggan slides, merry-go-rounds, swings,
immoral railways, skatin' rinks, diving girls, loops de loops, and
bumps de bumps, trips to the moon and trashy shows of all kinds I got
the idee there wuzn't nothin' there God had made, only the Ocean and
the little incubator babies, though them two shows wuzn't what you
might call similar and the same size. Why, I myself, with my powerful
mind, would git so cumfuddled hearin' his wild and glarin'
descriptions, that my brain would seem to turn over under my foretop,
and I didn't wonder at Josiah's bein' led away by it, much as I
lamented it, for he soon declared that go there he would.

In vain I reminded him that he wuz a deacon and a grand-father. He
said he didn't care how many deacons he wuz, or how many
grand-fathers; he wuz goin' to see that beautiful and entrancin' place
with his own eyes. I tried to quell him down, but couldn't quell him
worth a cent, with Serenus firin' him up on the other side.

One Sunday, Elder Minkley preached an eloquent sermon describing the
glories of the New Jerusalem, and Josiah said goin' home that from
Serenus' tell, the elder had gin a crackin' good description of Coney
Island.

I groaned aloud. And he sez, "You may groan and sithe all you're a
minter; I shall see