Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition

ap of the United States covering five acres of ground, gravel walks mark the

wn onto it jest like a map, from the

th the sight and I myself thoug

Uncle Sam to immortalize what is

st to 'em out-doors. If I live till another spring, Samantha," sez he firmly, "I will set you out in the paster.

nderlyin' the idee, but sez I, "H

needn't have your hull frame made in posies, I could plant you in different seeds and ra

' me, and added, "Or I could set you out mostly in

ut in pusley, Josiah Al

s crazy as anything

well and be equinomical, I could probable train 'em s

ah Allen; don't try to combin

t up, and I spoze I may see tro

he parlor a spell talkin' to granpa Huff and Billy, Blandina come into my room. She wuz all fagg

right down to them blood-curdlin' chapters where they fried the martyrs in ile and briled 'em on

an willin' to please him, for sez she smilin' in a queer sort of a way and sort o' bri

hat you loved his grandchild passionately? Why," sez I, "Blandina,

, and now it has settled down upon his grandpa's bosom. Mr. Huff needs a companion, Aunt Samantha. He needs a tender female companion to journey by his side o

st on grandpa Huff, but I don't believe he could stand the

t lookin' mournful but

s a col

t. Louis," sez I, wipin' my h

any will of my own. I feel that he h

tter, Blandina, that's what's the matter with you, you're so good hearted you mistake good nater and pity for love more'n hal

love him, Aunt Samantha, w

m dretful things and felt queer, I wuz sorry for Blandina to think she wuz so very sensitive to masculine influence. She refused the catnip tea but took the other half of my advice and went to bed, and I sez to myself, I declare I don't know what the good nater of that creeter will lead her into and I most w

e like the dark places where the deep water is. Hair about the same color, done up in a shinin' coil on the top of her head, but where it would git loose a little kinder curlin' and crinklin' about h

m any, it wuz only a new face to hang up for the present in the gallery of a boy's Fancy. Aunt Tryphena fairly worshipped her. She immegiately rose to the top place in her gallery of perfect beings. Nothing wuz

of the cars some ways from the gate and we got out and walked thinkin' we'd git there quicker, Josiah started to step off first when Blandina rushed past him, waved him back, and descended herself right int

or you'll find yourself killed some day

n' dear uncle Josiah, it wuzn't so much matter about me. A wo

uz driv to it, and I s

female's life is worth only half as much as a man's. Don't you remember last spring in Brooklyn it

ez I, eppisodin' a little but walkin' along all the time, "how did that man know but the soul of a Florence Nightingale would wake up in that girl and bless the world for all time? And how did he know but the boy would prove a Benedict Arnold

along unless you want to stay here

not preachin', Josi

pisodin' and a time for commo

n't say I thought so not even for love's sake. And mebby he squirmed because I said I would have him do thus and so. Men are so

ake her over at this late day, she'd been made too long, so Common Sense, with whom I always try to be on the most intimate terms, told me I hadn't better multiply any more words with her. Josiah

n't dressy enough; why the old mair hain't quite twenty-one, hain't old enough to vote even if her sect had the privelige. She's young and ort to dress young. That hat will be jest the thing. And what a sensation we will make enterin' Jonesville on a S

nger, he would go to the Pike that morni

day and you can do as you're a minter." And Blandina jined in of course and said that if dear Uncle Josiah's mind wuz sot

wended our way thither with no more parley, and Josiah, as soon as our heads wuz turned that way, begun to brighten up and look better, and so about one-half of my mind and sperit wuz satisfied. And sometimes I think you can't be satisfied an

forth what we would find inside their domain. They wuz a strange and skairful set, their clothes wuz rough and disheveled and so wuz their linements. They all on 'em brandished aloft a pistol, s

t that the feet of one of their horses never touched the ground, all four

ick, gallop along without his feet touchin' the ground. Jest think what a sensation it

they are turned up in their last rest. But I wouldn't try, Josiah Allen, to imitate t

in my face, I should think you'd git

probable settle down and make the best of husbands if they had a tender and loving companion. I wonder," sez she, "if they

out had his pistol raised the highest

ow, and towers and steeples and domes and crescents, and ornaments of all kinds busts on your vision, and at the same time your ear-pans are assailed

on. For the Pike is the amusement street of the Exposition. And a bystander standin' by told us that

inkerses up in Zoar? Old Ethan Skinker had a boy who come West. Most probabl

eeter, but sunk in ignorance, for when Josiah sez,

is Jone

Samantha, if this man at this age of th

ad jest come to the entrance of the Tyoleran Alps I wouldn't let Josiah stop and parley

ldn't try to see all the sights of the Pike. But this bein' the first one we com

nd some nigher by, a lake lyin' smooth and placid at their feet. Its shore

nigh the mountain that it seemed to grow out of it with its ivied walls and lofty towers pierced with quaintly paned

nd along its white terraces and masses of foliage on each side. A white monument towered up to the sky in the centre of its beautiful lawn in front, and nigher by there wuz a big le

ent with several bridges over it that foamed and dashed along through the quaint little place. Pretty gir

real pretty girls so I didn't mind so much goin' on (married wimmen w

, victorious soldier, lover of country, but like many another hero he had to suffer mar

below, chimes sounding from high towers, the peasants singing their national songs, the bands ringing out their stirring

so it is symbolical of where such stuff and its dealers will find themselves if they don't repent, down in the dirt and the dark, ke

ld buy Irish linen and lace there right on the spot. But Josiah sez, thrustin' his

wuz dretful interestin', Josia

his portmoney and must have strained his

in't I

y there wuz so many folks round, wimmen have to choke off time

of Parliament and you could drive in jaunting cars through Lake Kil

, and in a village here is an Irish national exhibit together with a Scotch display, laces, linens, carpets, etc., and there is a gal

t the famous St. Lawrence gate, Droggeda, one of the most famous relics in all Ireland, with its tall towers and its noble archway filled with crowds of sightseers

nd Over

hat luxury. And it wuz thrillin' in the ex

passengers embarkin' on it, two hundred and fifty can be carried by this boat at one time,

shin' waves, water above you and on every side and see the strange monsters of the deep, and the queer marine growths and blossoms. Imagi

the top of Eiffel Tower. Blandina sez holdin' onto my tabs

olt of the other with an almost frenzied grasp

no, mebby to th

ing axents sez, "I wis

and quaverin' voice as he looked down from the dizzy hite onto Paris, "I

ch we took flight through the boundless fields of air. Paris died on our vision, then we floated over many cities and harbors, up the English Channel, anon the lights of London are passed and we are high u

mantha, have you got

ustr

n him furtively gittin' ready to throw away his jack-knife. But at that minute the storm calms down and Josiah replaces h

ally in tender greeting, and sez in fervid axents, "I wouldn't have you take

uld we have done without dea

headway agin them whales and water monsters to say nothin' of danger by dro

sia, and I said it wuz a pity not to when w

r it wuz planned by a woman, the only woman who ever rec

on sunthin' of more importance; it proba

n there. But I see he wuz beginnin' to look kinder mauger, and as first chaperone I sez anx

animals enough when I gi

t to go to the He

n without my payin' out money. I told you I wu

nce or Ceylon or Persia? Or Cai

"I want to go where I c

your appetite; we will go to once." And havin' heard th