r old white duck; his
name is Columbus, but he calls it Colum."

She is a great duck-raiser; but I didn't thank her for alludin' to
barn-yard fowls in such a time as this.

Wall, there wuz the first life of Columbus ever writ, by his son
Farnendo.

And a book relatin' to the namin' of America. I thought it would been a
good plan if there had been a few more about that, and had named it
Columbia--jest what it ort to be, and not let another man take the honor
that should have been Christopher's.

But I meditated on what a queer place this old world wuz, and how
nateral for one man to toil and work, and another step in and take the
pay for it; so it didn't surprise me a mite, but it madded me some.

Then there wuz the histories of the different cities where he wuz born,
and the different places where his bones repose.

Poor creeter! they fit then because they didn't want his bones, and they
starved him so that he wuzn't much besides bones, and they didn't want
his bones anyway, and they put chains onto them poor old bones, and led
'em off to prison.

And now hull cities and countries would hold it their chief honor to lie
about it, and claim the credit of givin' 'em burial. O dear suz! O dear
me!

Wall, there wuz one of the anchors, and the canvas used by Columbus on
board his flag-ship.

The very canvas that the wind swelled out and wafted the great
Discoverer. O my heart, think on't!

And then there wuz the ruins of the little town of Isabella, the first
established in the new world, brung lately from San Domingo by a
man-of-war.

And then there wuz the first church bell that ever rung in America,
presented to the town of Isabella by King Ferdinand.

Oh, if I could have swung out with that old bell, and my senses could
have took in the sights and seens the sound had echoed over! What a
sight--what a sight it would have been!

Ringin' out barbarism and ringin' in the newer religion; ringin' out, as
time went on, old simple ways, and idees--mebby bringin' in barbarous
ways; swingin' back and forth, to and fro; ringin' in now, I hope and
pray, the era of love and justice, goodwill to man and woman.

Wall, I wuz almost lost in my thoughts in hangin' over that old bell. It
had took me back into the dim old green forest isles and onbroken
wilderness, when I heard a bystander a-sayin' to another one--"There is
Columbuses relations; there is the Duke of Veragua."

And on lookin' up, I indeed see Columbuses ow