t marble
building seems to be the beatomest. Congressmen seem to be always
getting out dirty clothes here, beside whitewashing every now and then,
raking each other over the coals, and doing all sorts of kitchen and
garden work.

Cousin Dempster told me all this before I went up to see exactly what
Congress was, and it certainly upset me, you may just believe. That
great building, which might be cut up into half a dozen palaces for
kings to live in, turned into a wash-house and national laundry! The
very thought made me creep all over.

I always like to investigate matters from the foundation, so the first
thing I did was to go into the basement story of the building, and see
what the kitchen arrangements amounted to. Of course Cousin D. could be
of no use to me, and Cousin E. E. declined the subterranean raid, as she
nippingly called it, which ended in my going into the underground
department alone.

Well, the first thing that struck me was the duskiness of the place; it
was like travelling through a sunset that had no color in it. The whole
building seemed to have put on a gray mantle and gone to sleep. I went
upstairs and downstairs, travelled over miles of stone floors, and
through forests of great stone posts that looked strong enough to have a
world built atop of them. Once in a while I caught sight of a man
scooting along in the dusk before me like a black ghost; and once I
heard noises like the rush of a steamboat down below me, and began to
suspect that the wash-house and lime-slacking department was lower down
yet. I opened two or three doors, and looked into a good many dark and
deserted rooms piled up with books and crowded full of all sorts of
things. Once or twice I saw the head of a man popping up between piles
of books, but no sign of washing, as yet.

Well, I wandered on and on, till at last I came to a great kitchen that
looked lively enough. Lots of men were moving about, fires were burning,
and there was a lovely scent of roast chickens and boiled garden-sass--I
beg pardon, vegetables. I would have gone in and asked some questions
about the wash-tubs, but not a female woman was to be seen--and I hope I
know what is due to my sex too well for any attempt to draw the
attention of men in the service of their country by the presence of
attractions that--well, I was going to say that the charm of high female
society might have seemed a little out of place so low down in that
stone wilderness. So I to