like; built perfectly round. That is sunthin' uneek. I'll have
a barn like that if I live. I fairly love that barn." And he
stopped the horse stun still to look at it.

And I sez in sort o' cool tones, not entirely cold, but coolish:
"What under the sun do you want with a round barn? And you don't
need another one."

"Wall, I don't exactly need it, Samantha, but it would be a
comfert to me to own one. I should dearly love a round barn."

And he went on pensively, - "I wonder how much it would cost. I
wouldn't have it quite so big as this is. I'd have it for a
horse barn, Samantha. It would look so fashionable, and genteel.
Think what it would be, Samantha, to keep our old mair in a round
barn, why the mair would renew her age."

"She wouldn't pay no attention to it," sez I. "She knows too
much." And I added in cooler, more dignifieder tones, but dretful
meanin' ones, "The old mair, Josiah Allen, don't run after every
new fancy she hears on. She don't try to be fashionable, and she
haint high-headed, except," sez I, reasenably, "when you check her
up too much."

"Wall," sez he, "I am bound to make some enquiries. Hello!" says
he to a bystander a comin' by. "Have you any idee what such a
barn as that would cost? A little smaller one, I don't need so
big a one. How many feet of lumber do you s'pose it would take
for it? I ask you," sez he, "as between man and man."