's, it has
sights of ornaments and statutes. One of the most impressive statutes I
see there wuz Spring Asleep. It struck so deep a blow onto my fancy that
I thought on't the last thing at night, and I waked up in the night and
thought on't.

There never wuz a better-lookin' creeter than Spring wuz, awful big
too--riz way up lofty and grand, and hantin' as our own dreams of Spring
are as we set shiverin' in the Winter.

Her noble face wuz perfect in its beauty, and she sot there with her
arms outstretched; and grouped all round her wuz beautiful
forms--lovely wimmen, and babies, and children, all bound in slumber,
but, as I should imagine, jest on the pint of wakin' up.

I guess they wuz all a-dreamin' about the song of birds a-comin' back
from the south land, and silky, pale green willers a-bendin' low over
gurglin' brooks, and pink and white may-flowers a-hidin' under the leafy
hollows of Northern hills, and the golden glow of cowslips down in the
dusky brown shallows in green swamps, and white clouds a-sailin' over
blue skies, and soft winds a-blowin' up from the South.

They wuz asleep, but the cookoo's notes would wake 'em in a minute or
two; and then I could see by their clothes that they wuz expectin'
warmer weather. It wuz a very impressive statute. Mr. Tafft done his
very best--I couldn't have done as well myself--not nigh. Wall, to go
through that buildin' wuz like walkin' through fairyland, if fairyland
had jest blown all out full of beauty and greenness.

Right in the centre overhead, way up, way up, is a crystal ruff made to
represent the sky, and it seems to be a-glitterin' in its crystal beauty
way up in the clouds; underneath wuz the most beautiful pictures you
ever see, or Josiah, or anybody. They wuz painted in Paris--not Paris in
the upper end of Lyme County, but Paris in France, way over the billowy
Atlantic; and under this magnificent dome wuz all kinds of the most
beautiful palms, bamboos and tree ferns, with their shiny, feathery
foliage, and big leaves. Why some of them long, feathery leaves wuz so
big, if the tree wuz in the middle of our dooryard the ends of 'em
would go over into the orchard--one leaf; the idee! Why, you would
almost fancy you wuz in a tropical forest, as you looked up into the
great feathery masses and leaves as big as a hull tree almost; and
risin' right in the centre wuz a mountain sixty feet high all covered
with tropical verdure; leadin' into it wuz a shady, cool gro