nd I passed on. I
guess he had worried for fear it would be out of sight, out of mind
with me, and I rejoined my pardner. The rest of our party had passed
on into another gorgeous apartment, but my faithful pardner had waited
for me. He wuz rejoiced to see me I knowed, though his words wuz:

"What under the sun wuz you hangin' round and preachin' to a Emperor
for? I believe you would dast anything."

"I hope I would," sez I, calmly, "upheld by Duty's apron strings." I
wouldn't have it knowed in Jonesville for a dollar bill that right
there in the Emperor's palace Josiah demeaned himself so, but he did
say:

"I don't want to hear any more about them infarnal strings."

And a gorgeous official looked round at him in surprise and rebuke.
Well, we didn't stay a great while after that. We walked round a
little longer through the magnificent rooms, and anon we met Arvilly.
She wuz lookin' through a carved archway at the distant form of the
Emperor and unfastenin' the puckerin' strings of her work-bag, but I
laid holt of her arm and sez:

"Arvilly, for pity sake help me find Robert and Dorothy." She turned
with me, and my soul soared up considerable to think I had already
begun to help the powers and lighten their burdens. And pretty soon
the rest of our party jined us, and we returned home to our tarven.

CHAPTER XXXIII

Miss Meechim wanted to visit Carlsbad, the great Bohemian watering
place. She said it wuz a genteel spot and very genteel folks went
there to drink the water and take the mud baths. And so we took a trip
there from Vienna. It is only a twelve-hours' journey by rail. Our
road lay along the valley of the Danube, and seemed to be situated in
a sort of a valley or low ground, till we reached the frontiers of
Bohemia, but it wuz all interestin' to us, for novelty is as
refreshin' to older ones as to children. Cheerful, clean-lookin'
little villages wuz scattered along the way, flourishin' orchards and
long fields of grass and grain, and not a fence or hedge to break the
peaceful beauty of the picture.

Anon we entered a mountainous country with blue lakes and forests of
tall pine trees and knowed we had entered Bohemia. We see gypsy tents
anon or oftener, for what are gypsies but true Bohemians, wanderers at
will, hither and yon.

Josiah mentioned the idee of our leavin' the train for an hour or two
and havin' our fortunes told by a real gypsy, but I told him _sotey
vosey_ that my fortune come