ime, 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.

The green, tree-dotted terraces bloomin' with flowers a-risin' up from
the blue water, and above the verdent terraces the tall white walls of
them gorgeous palaces, a-risin' up with colonades, and statutes, and
arabesques, and domes, and pinnacles, and on the smooth white path that
lay in front of 'em, and on every side of 'em, the hull world a-walkin'
and a-admirin' the seen jest as much as we did. And if there wuzn't
everything else to look at and admire, the looks of that crowd wuz
enough--full enough--for one pair of eyes; for they wuz from every
country of the globe, and dressed in