ost sizeable bridge in the world. But it is no such thing; it
don't begin, as I told him, with the Brooklyn Bridge; why, it hain't
no longer than the bridge between Loontown and Zoar, or the one over
our creek, but I presoom them who passed over this bridge to execution
gin deep, loud sithes--it wuz nateral they should--so the bridge wuz
named after them sithes.

Josiah said if that wuz fashionable he should name the bridge down
back of the barn the Bridge of Groans, it wuz such a tug for the
horses to draw a load over it. Sez he, "I almost always give a groan
and so does Ury--Bridge of Groans." Sez he, "that will sound uneek
and genteel in Jonesville."

But mebby he won't do it; he often makes plans he don't carry out and
he gits things wrong--he did the very first minute we got there.

We arrove in Venice about the middle of the afternoon, and as Robert
had writ ahead for rooms, a man wuz waitin' with a sizeable gondola to
take us to our tarven.

When Josiah see it drawin' nigh he sez to me, _soty vosy_, "Never,
never, will I ride in a hearse; I wouldn't in Jonesville and I won't
in Italy; not till my time comes, I won't."

But I whispered back agin to keep still, it wuzn't a hearse. But, to
tell the truth, it did look some like one, painted black as a coal.
But, seein' the rest of us embark, he, too, sot sail in it. He didn't
have to go a great ways before it stopped at our tarven, which wuz
once a palace, and I kinder hummed to myself while I wuz washin' me
and puttin' on a clean collar and cuffs:

"'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam," puttin' the main
emphasis on palaces. But Josiah catched up the refrain and sung it
quite loud, or what he calls singin':

Be it ever so humbly,
There's no place like hum.

He looked round the vast, chilly, bare apartment, the lofty walls, the
marble floors, with here and there a rug layin' like a leaf on a
sidewalk, and I kinder echoed it. Sez he feelin'ly and sort of
plaintively, "I'd ruther have less ornaments and more comfort."

I sez, "It is very grand and spacious."

And he sez, "I'd give the hull of the space and throw in the grandeur
for a good big fire and a plate of your nut cakes."

But I sez soothin'ly, "It is sunthin', Josiah, to live in a palace;"
and I drawed his attention to the mosaic work on the floor, and the
massive furniture covered with inlaid work.

And he sez, "I'd ruther have less work laid into the furniture and
some decent