re, richly ornamented, and has
three passages. I didn't like all the base reliefs on it; indeed, I
considered some on 'em as real base, such as Mr. Tragan's offerin's to
the gods, etc. But then I realized that I wuzn't obleeged to look at
'em. And some on 'em wuz very good showin' off Mr. Tragan educatin'
poor children, etc. And some of Constantine's doin's there I liked
first-rate.

And I d'no as I see anything in Rome that interested me more than the
tomb of Celia Crassus--Celia Matella that wuz. It is a round, massive
structure that stands on the Appian Way and is about two thousand
years old. It wuz once all covered with costly marble, but the hand of
Time and other thieves, in mortal shape, have stole it a long time
ago. But enough is left to show what it wuz. Nobody knows jest who
Celia wuz and what she did do, or didn't do, to git such a monument.
But I shall always believe she wuz a real likely woman and smart.
'Tennyrate, I said her pardner must have thought high on her and
mourned her loss like a dog or he never would have rared such a
magnificent tomb to her memory.

But Arvilly looked at it different. She said she believed her husband
drinked and got led off into all sorts of sins and made Celia no end
of trouble and riz this monument up to smooth things over.

But I sez, "Mebby things wuz different then;" but didn't really spoze
so, human nater havin' capered about the same from the start.
"'Tennyrate," sez I, "I shall always believe that Miss Crassus wuz
good as gold, and this great massive monument that it seems as if the
hand of Time can't ever throw down I take as a great compliment to my
sect as well as Celia Crassus."

But Arvilly wuz as firm as a rock to the last in her belief that Mr.
Crassus drinked and that Miss Crassus wuz broken-hearted by her grief
and anxiety and tryin' to cover up her pardner's doin's as the wives
of drunkards will, and tryin' to keep her children from follerin'
their pa's dretful example, and then after he'd jest killed her with
these doin's he rared up this great monument as a conscience soother.

Josiah thought Celia wuz equinomical and a wonderful good cook, and
her grateful pardner riz this up in honor of his blissful life with
her.

Miss Meechim thought that at all events she must have been genteel.

Robert and Dorothy looked at its massive walls, and I hearn him say
sunthin' to her kinder low about "how love wuz stronger than time or
death."

But Tommy just