then I knew it wuz my duty to compose myself, and
I summoned all my fortitude, put my handkerchief in my pocket, and
give Tommy a cream cookey, which calmed his worst agony. I then
recognized and passed the compliments of the day with Miss Meechim and
Dorothy and pretty little Aronette, who wuz puttin' away our wraps and
doin' all she could for the comfort of the hull of us. Seein' my
agitation, she took Tommy in her arms and told him some stories, good
ones, I guess, for they made Tommy stop cryin' and go to laughin',
specially as she punctuated the stories with some chocolate drops.

Dorothy looked sweet as a rose and wuz as sweet. Miss Meechim come and
sot down by me, but she seemed to me like a furiner; I wuz dwellin' in
a fur off realm Miss Meechim had never stepped her foot in, the realm
of Wedded Love and Pardner Reminiscences. What did Miss Meechim know
of that hallowed clime? What did she know of the grief that wrung my
heart? Men wuz to her like shadders; her heart spoke another
language.

Thinkin' that it would mebbe git my mind off a little from my idol, I
asked her again about Robert Strong's City of Justice; sez I, "It has
run in my mind considerable since you spoke on't; I don't think I ever
hearn the name of any place I liked so well, City of Justice! Why the
name fairly takes hold of my heart-strings," sez I; "has he made well
by his big manufactory?"

"Why, yes, fairly well," sez she, "but he has strange ideas. He says
he don't want to coin a big fortune out of other men's sweat and
brains. He wants to march on with the great army of toilers, and not
be carried ahead of it on a down bed. He says he wants to feel that he
is wronging no man by amassing wealth out of the half-paid labor of
their best years, and that he is satisfied with an equal and
reasonable share of the labor and capital invested. He has the best of
men in his employ and they are all well paid and industrious; all
well-to-do, able to live well, educate their children well, and have
time for some culture and recreation for themselves and their
families. I told him that his ideas were Utopian, but he says they
have succeeded even better than he expected they would. But there will
come a crash some time, I am sure. There must be rich and there must
be poor in this world, or the Scriptures will not be fulfilled."

Sez I, "There ain't no need to be such a vast army of poverty marching
on to the almshouse and grave, if it wuzn't for the