embroidered in gold and silver, added to the beauty
of the panorama. Jewels wuz sparklin' everywhere, and I thought to
myself I d'no but Dorothy wuz more fraid than she need be, I d'no; but
I might have resked the cameo pin there. For it didn't seem as if
anybody there, man or woman, stood in need of any more ornaments, and
if they took it, I should always thought they done it out of pure
meanness. For such a profusion of jewelled ornaments I never see, and
such dresses, oh, my! I thought even before I met the royal party what
would I give if Almina Hagadone could be sot down there with liberty
to bring a lot of old newspapers, the Jonesville "Augurses" and
"Gimlets" and take patterns. Oh, my! wuzn't they grand, though our
good Methodist sisters wouldn't dream of havin' their calico and
woosted dresses with such long trains draggin' behind 'em or havin'
'em low-necked and short sleeves. I could hardly imagine how Sister
Gowdey and Sister Henzy would look with their chocolate-colored
calicos made without sleeves and dekolitay, as Miss Meechim called it;
they would blush to entertain the thought, and so would their
pardners.

Francis Joseph, or as I called him in my mind, the good crisp name of
Fritz, I found wuz good lookin' and good actin'. Of course, like
myself and Josiah, he's gittin' some along in years. And like us, too,
he won't most probable ever be hung for his beauty. But what of that?
Like others lately mentioned, his liniment shows just what kind of a
person he has been and is. Honest, honorable, hard-workin', gittin'
up at five o'clock in the mornin', doin' a good day's work before lots
of folks rises up from their goose-feather pillers. Fillin' up the day
with duties performed to the best of his ability. Good, solid-lookin'
and good-actin' the most of the time, though I spoze that like every
human bein', he has had spells of bein' contrary and actin', but on
the whole a good man, and a well-wisher to his race.

And now in this dretful epock of time, when everything seemed
upside down, thrones tottlin' and foundations warpin', and the roar of
battle comin' nigher and nigher on every side, I felt that it wuz a
great thing for him that he had the chance to hear some words of
encouragement and advice. Yes, I knowed that if ever the Powers
wuz in a tight place they wuz now.

I wuz the last one in the line, and so had a chance at him; I
shouldn't have had if Miss Meechim and Arvilly had been follerin'
close