' agreeable to the idee, we went and
see 'em. There they lay in glass cases, pretty little creeters lookin'
like wee bits of dolls, I felt sad as I looked down on 'em, and
thought on the hard journey them tiny feet must set out on from them
glass boxes. What rough crosses the little fingers had got to grasp
holt of, and onbeknown to me my mind fell onto the follerin' poetry--

"Our crosses are made from different trees,
But we all of us have our Calvaries;
We may climb the mount from a different side,
But we all go up to be crucified."

Of course, I knowed there would be some bright posies wreathed round
the crosses; but there would be thorns in them. And though the road
might be soft and agreeable in spots, yet I knowed well what hard
rocks there wuz in the highway of life to stub toes on, even
common-sized toes, and it did seem a pity such little mites of feet
had got to git stun bruises on 'em.

Poor little creeters! I thought, little do you know what sadness and
ecstacy, what grief and joy, gloom and glory lays ahead on you. I wuz
sorry for 'em, sorry as a dog.

And then I didn't like the idee of the little helpless creeters bein'
laid out on exhibition, like shirt buttons, or hooks and eyes, to be
stared on by saint and sinner, by eyes tender or cruel--and voices
lovin' and hateful to comment on. I felt that the place for little
babies wuz to home in the bedroom. And I thought nothin' would tempt
me, if Josiah wuz a infant babe, to place him on exhibition like
Hamburg edgin', or bobbinet lace. The very idee wuz repugnant to me.
And I wuz more than willin' when the female asked me if I didn't want
to go and see the midgets, and we went.

And you don't know what interestin' little creeters they wuz, mindin'
their own bizness and midgetin' away. Actin' out a little play jest as
if a company of dolls had come to life, talkin' and actin'. They
seemed to be jest as happy and contented as if they wuz eight or ten
feet high and heavy accordin'.

As we left this place the female ketched sight of her husband. He
bagoned hautily to her with one finger, and she hastened to jine him.
Such is females. And so true it is that love in either sect will rise
up above naggin', or any other kind of pardner meanness.

I went forward alone to see the Head Hunters. And I looked on the
brown little folks with a feelin' of pity. How did I know they had
ever had good advice? I felt her