own ma had spanked him good and sound and sot him down hard in
the corner from day to day he wouldn't acted and behaved so when he
got bigger. She said she presoomed he wuz allowed to pierce flies with
a pin and torter hornets and May bugs and rob birds' nests and tie
cans to dogs' tails and act, and he got worse as he got bigger. And I
d'no but she wuz right. I've seen the Nero sperit in small boys many
times; why, I see it in Thomas Jefferson when he wuz little, but it
wus squenched and he's come up noble.

Miss Meechim wanted to see the Paletine Hill, the spot where Romulus
and Remus wuz nursed by a she wolf; Josiah don't believe it. He said
no wolf would consent to bring up twins by hand, and no ma would ever
allow it, but that's what they say. Miss Meechim explained here how
when the twins had growed up Romulus harnessed a heifer and bull to a
plough and laid out the site of the city. Robert Strong wuz full of
memories of Cicero, Catalus, the Gracchi, and so wuz Dorothy. But no
place interested me there so much as the Forum, where some think Paul
wuz tried. He wuz tried before Nero, and there wuz Nero's judgment
place, and there wuz the seat for prisoners. As I looked round me I
could imagine the incomparable eloquence of Paul that sways the human
heart as leaves are waved by a strong breeze, and his memory sweetened
the hull place, and it needed it bad enough, yes indeed it did. But to
resoom:

One day Arvilly and I wuz takin' a walk together, Josiah and Tommy
bein' a little ahead, when we see a elegant carriage comin' along, a
rich red color all ornamented with gold, with six horses, their
gorgeous harnesses nice enough for bridal ornaments. And there wuz
outriders goin' ahead and men in brilliant uniform fallin' in behind,
and lots and lots of carriages follerin' on in the procession. There
wuz a axident in front, two carriages goin' in opposite directions had
smashed in together, and two or three fallin' over them wuz the cause.
I see that in that splendid carriage right under my nose as it were, a
gentleman sittin' alone, dressed up in a way that would have shed
delight into the soul of Josiah Allen, and a female bystander sez,
"There is the pope."

He had a bright red robe on, all covered with crosses and stars and
orders, and a high peaked cap of the same color. And even as I looked
at him I thought what a beautiful stripe them clothes would make in a
rag carpet after he'd got through with 'em.

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