t would keep me awake it wuz so
strong, but knowin' that I had got to be polite anyway in such a time
as this.

She talked quite good English and we had a pleasant visit with her,
and anon she took each on us by the hand--for all the world they
acted as if we wuz infants and couldn't walk alone--and led us through
the magnificent rooms with lofty mirrors, furniture covered with
costly Persian cloth embroidered with gold and silver, great rugs of
the most exquisite color and texture, mounds of flowers, baskets and
vases everywhere running over with them, makin' the air sweet with
their perfume.

In one room there wuz no winders, the walls bein' made of glitterin'
mirrors sot in gilded frames, light comin' down through stained glass
in the gilded ceiling.

On the Princess' toilet table wuz a large gold tray holdin' a basin of
perfumed water, and white silk towels embroidered in gold and silver.

I remembered my crash and huck-a-buck towels and thought to myself I
didn't know what she would do if she ever come to see me, unless I
took one of Josiah's silk handkerchiefs for her to wipe her hands on.
But concluded I would do that if she ever paid my visit. And I thought
the minute I got home I would paint the bowl of the pipe we had used
for tizik, a pale blue or pink, and dry some extra fine mullen leaves
and catnip blows, they smell real sweet to me, and I knew they would
be good for her bronkial tubes anyway. And I laid out to make up in a
warm welcome what we lacked in luxury.

Well, the last room we went into we wuz served in tiny cups with a
delicate drink. Lemonade, I guess it wuz, or orange and fruit juice of
some kind. It wuz served to us in jewelled cups and we had gold
embroidered napkins. Here the Princess thanked us for our visit and
retired, followed by the slaves who had gone with us through the
palace.

And we went down the staircase with a girl on each side on us jest as
we went up, so if Miss Meechim and I had had any mind to break away
and act, we couldn't, and went to our carriage waited on jest as when
we come. Miss Meechim said as we started back:

"Did you ever see the like? Was you prepared to see such magnificence,
Josiah Allen's wife?"

And I told her I wuz partly prepared, for I had read the Arabian
Night's Entertainment.

"Well," sez she, "it goes fur beyend my wildest dreams of luxury."

When we got back to the tarven we found that Robert Strong had been
delayed by a visitor and wuz