way, and it is her duty as well as privilege to look up to him."

And Josiah Allen crossed his left leg over his right one, as haughty
and over bearin' a-crossin' as I ever see in my life, and looked up
haughtily at the stove-pipe hole in the ceilin', and resoomed,

"But, as I wuz sayin' about her mit, the widder's, you know. That is
jest my idee of givin', equinomical, savin', jest as it should be."

"Yes," sez I, in a very dry axent, most as dry as my flat-iron, and that
wuz fairly hissin' hot. "She most probable had some man to advise her,
and to tell her what use the mit would be to support a big meetin'
house." Oh, how dry my axent wuz. It wuz the very dryest, and most irony
one I keep by me--and I keep dretful ironikle ones to use in cases of
necessity.

"Most probable," sez Josiah, "most probable she did." He thought I wuz
praisin' men up, and he acted tickled most to death.

"Yes, some man without any doubt, advised her, told her that some other
widder would lose one of hern, and give hers to the meetin' house, jest
the mate to hern. That is the way I look at it," sez he "and I mean to
mention that view of mine on this subject the very next time they take
up a subscription in the meetin' house and call on me."

But I turned and faced him then with the hot flat-iron in my hand, and
burnin' indignation in my eys, and sez I:

"If you mention that, Josiah Allen, in the meetin' house, or to any
livin' soul on earth, I'll part with you." And I would, if it wuz the