and
Nature, and the hull world a-lookin' on, and a-marvellin' at 'em. And
then to suppose that anybody would be a-lookin' out for shell-work
stockin's, a-carin' whether they wuz clam-shell pattern, or oyster
shell.

The idee!

That is the way Maggie and I felt; why, if you'll believe it, that sweet
little creeter never took but one dress with her, besides a old wrapper
to put on mornin's. She took a good plain black silk dress, with two
waists to it--a thick one for cool days and a thin one for hot days--and
some under-clothes, and some old shoes that didn't hurt her feet, and
looked decent. And there she wuz all ready.

She never bought a thing, I don't believe, not one. You wouldn't ketch
her waitin' to embroider night-shirts for Thomas Jefferson--no, indeed!
She felt jest as I did. What would the Christopher Columbus World's Fair
care for the particular make of Thomas J's night-shirts? That had bigger
things on its old mind than to stop and admire a particular posey or
runnin' vine worked on a man's nightly bosom. Yes, indeed!

But Tirzah Ann felt jest that way, and I couldn't make her over at that
late day, even if I had time to tackle the job. She took it honest--it
come onto her from her Pa.

The preperations that man would have made if he had had his head would
have outdone Tirzah Ann's, and that is sayin' enough, and more'n enough.

And the size of the shoes that man would have sot out with if he had
been left alone would have been a shame and a disgrace to the name of
decency as long as the world stands.

Why, his feet would have been two smokin' sacrifices laid on the altar
of corns and bunions. Yes, indeed! But I broke it up.

I sez, "Do you lay out and calculate to hobble round in that pair of
leather vises and toe-screws," sez I, "when you have got to be on foot
from mornin' till night, day after day? Why under the sun don't you wear
your good old leather shoes, and feel comfortable?"

And he said (true father of Tirzah Ann), "He wuz afraid it would make
talk."

[Illustration: "Leather vises and toe-screws."]

Sez I, "The idee of the World's Fair, with all it has got on its mind, a
noticin' or carin' whether you had on shoes or went barefoot! But if you
are afraid of talk," sez I, "I guess that it would make full as much
talk to see you a-goin' round a-groanin' and a-cryin' out loud. And that
is what them shoes would bring you to," sez I.

"Now," sez I, "you jest do them shoes right up and ca