you know that we Americans are a very smart people, (ask your
grandfather if we are not,) and we made up our minds that we would show
John Bull, and Sandy, and Pat, a Crystal Palace of our own; and when an
American says he will do a thing--it is done!

So, I was not at all astonished at what I saw last night;--such a
beautiful building,--such a splendid glass roof--such a blaze of light,
(for it was evening) my eyes were almost put out! I couldn't begin to
tell you all the pretty things there were in it, but if you wish to
know what I wanted more than anything else, it was a little marble
statue (I suppose you would call it "an image") of a sleeping child. It
had the prettiest, plumpest little dimpled limbs, you ever saw, and
such an innocent little cherub face; I wanted to catch it up and run
away with it.

There were a great many very beautiful statues there, some of which
would have made you cuddle very close up to your mother, and hold her
hand very tight; for instance, one statue representing a dead mother
with a live baby lying on her breast, and a great, strong eagle
fastening its claws in the little baby to carry it off. And then, there
was a statue of an enormous bear, giving a poor man _such_ a
hugging--squeezing the very life out of him; he wouldn't have had to
squeeze you at all to kill you, for the very sight of such a grizzly
monster would have scared you to death in an instant.

Then there was a glass case full of swords, and dirks, and daggers, and
all sorts of instruments to kill people; and you would have been as
glad as I was, had you seen them hanging up there so harmlessly,
instead of making widows and orphans, on the battlefield.

Then, there were beautiful pianos with silver keys, and rich sofas, and
bedsteads, and chairs, and tables, and bureaus; and pretty, tempting
work-boxes, full of all sorts of knick-knacks to tempt ladies to be
industrious; and such dainty little writing desks!--oh, I can tell you,
it was very hard work not to covet those.

Then the diamonds, and amethysts, and emeralds, and pearls, and rubies,
fit for a queen's diadem;--they flashed in my eyes till I was almost
blind--but I would rather have had that little image of the sleeping
baby than the whole of them.

Then there were silks, and satins, and gauzes, and embroideries, and
worsted jackets, and tippets, and gloves, and shoes fit for Cinderella.

Then there were dolls, (boys and girls) dressed up to show off the
f