.

And jest as he turned to go back, he sez--

"Why, if there hain't Deacon Rogers of Loontown!"

And he advanced onto a good-lookin' man, who wuz a-standin' some
distance off.

My pardner put out his hand and stepped forward with a glad face till he
got to within three feet of him, and then his gladness died out, and he
looked meachin'.

It wuzn't Rogers. And my pardner jest turned on his tracks, and
disappeared round the buildin'. A bystander who wuz a-standin' by spoke
up and sez:

"That is Governor Markham, of California."

"Why'ee!" sez I, "is that so?" and then the thought come to me that the
pityin' Providence that had removed Senator Stanford from my
encouragement, and warnin', had throwed this man in my way.

I see in a minit what would be expected of me both by the nation and by
my own Gardeen Angel of Duty.

I must encourage him by tellin' him what I thought of the noble doin's
of one of his folks, and I must warn him on a few things, and git him to
turn round in his tracks.

So I advanced, and accosted him.

He was a-standin' out a little ways to one side a-lookin' up to the
handsome front of the house, and I sez to him, in a voice nearly
tremblin' with emotion--

"I have wanted to tell you, Governor Markham, how I feel, and how Josiah
feels."

He turned round and looked kinder surprised, but good-natered, and I see
then that he wuz a real good-lookin' man, and sez he--"Who is Josiah?"

And I sez, "My own pardner. I am Josiah Allen's Wife."

And as I sez this, bein' very polite, I kinder bowed my head, and he
kinder bowed his head too. We appeared real well, both on us.

And sez I, "We feel it dretful, the passin' away and expirin' of one of
your folks."

And sez he, "You allude to Senator Stanford?"

And I sez, "Yes; when I think of that noble school of hisen that he has
sot up there in your great State--the finest school in the world for
poor boys and poor girls, as well as rich ones--when I think what that
great educational power is a-goin' to do for the children of this great
country, rich and poor, I think on him almost by the side of Christopher
Columbus. For if Christopher discovered a new world, Senator Stanford
wuz a-takin' the youth of this country into a new realm--a-sailin' 'em
out into a new world, and a grander one than they'd any idee
on--a-sailin' 'em out on the great ship of his magnificent Charity; and
that Ship," sez I, in a kind of a tremblin' voice, "wuz wafted ou