ouse of hissen is changed into the biggest
meetin'-house in the world. Of course we had seen St. Peter's from a
distance ever since we'd got nigh the city, and we sot out the very
next mornin' after we got there, to see it at clost view.

Now I had thought, comparin' it to the Jonesville meetin'-house, which
I guess is about fifty by sixty feet, and will, on a pinch, set four
hundred and fifty, and comparin' that with the cathedral in New York I
had thought that that Catholic Cathedral in New York was about as big
a meetin'-house as a minister could handle easy; but the area of that
is forty-three thousand, whilst St. Peter's at Rome is two hundred
and twelve thousand.

The difference these figgers make in the two meetin'-houses is bigger
than my writin' can show you, no matter how big a pen I use or how
black my ink is.

As I stood in St. Peter's Church in Rome I had a great number of
emotions and large, very large in size. Right here where Mr. Nero (the
mean, misable creeter) got hilarious over the dyin' struggles of the
Christian martyrs, right here where St. Peter met his death with the
glory of heaven lightin' up his dyin' eyes (I am just as sure on't as
if I see it myself) stands this immense meetin'-house.

Three hundred years of labor and sixty millions of dollars have been
expended on it and the end is not yet. But I would not done it for a
cent less if I had took the job, I couldn't afford it nor Josiah
couldn't.

Why, when we stood in front on't I didn't feel no bigger than the head
of a pin, not a hat pin or a shawl pin, but the smallest kind they
make, and Josiah dwindled down so in size as compared to the edifice
that I 'most thought I should lose him right there with my eyes glued
onto his liniment.

You go through a large double door which shuts up behind you as
noiselessly and securely as if you wuz walled in to stay. My first
feelin' after I entered wuz the immensity of the place. Some of the
statutes you see that didn't look so big as Josiah, when you come
clost up to 'em you found wuz sixteen feet high. And the little
cherubs holdin' the shell of holy water at the entrance you see are
six feet high. You look fur down the meetin'-house as you look down
the road into a big piece of woods, only here the distant trees turn
into statutes and shrines and altars and things. Fur off like distant
stars shinin' down into the forest you see the lamps, one hundred and
twelve of 'em, burnin' day and night