nous, fur-reachin' in its rays, and possesses
almost divine intelligence.

It sheds its pure white light a good ways now, and no knowin' how much
further it is a-goin' to flash 'em out--no knowin' what sublime and
divine power of intelligence it will yet grow to be, when it is fully
understood, and when it has the full, free power to branch out, and do
all that is in it to do.

Jest like wimmen's love, and divine ardor, and holy desires for a
world's good--jest exactly.

It wuz a good-lookin' head-dress.

Her figger wuz noble, jest as majestic and perfect as the human form can
be. And it stood up there jest as the Lord meant wimmen to stand, not
lookin' like a hour-glass or a pismire, but a good sensible waist on
her, jest as human creeters ort to have.

I don't know what dressmakers would think of her. I dare presoom to say
they would look down on her because she didn't taper. And they would
probable be disgusted because she didn't wear cossets.

But to me one of the greatest and grandest uses of that noble figger wuz
to stand up there a-preachin' to more than a million wimmen daily of the
beauty and symmetry of a perfect form, jest as the Lord made it, before
it wuz tortured down into deformity and disease by whalebones and cosset
strings.

Imagine that stately, noble presence a-scrunchin' herself in to make a
taper on herself--or to have her long, graceful, stately draperies cut
off into a coat-tail bask--the idee!

Here wuz the beauty and dignity of the human form, onbroken by vanity
and folly. And I did hope my misguided sect would take it to heart.

And of all the crowds of wimmen I see a-standin' in front of it admirin'
it, I never see any of 'em, even if their own waists did look like
pismires, but what liked its looks.

Till one day I did see two tall, spindlin', fashionable-lookin' wimmen
a-lookin' at it, and one sez to the other:

"Oh, how sweet she would look in elbow-sleeves and a tight-fittin'
polenay!"

"Yes," sez the other; "and a bell skirt ruffled almost to the waist, and
a Gainsboro hat, and a parasol."

"And high-heel shoes and seven-button gloves," sez the other.

And I turned my back on them then and there, and don't know what other
improvements they did want to add to her--most likely a box of French
candy, a card-case, some eye-glasses, a yeller-covered novel, and a pug
dog. The idee!

[Illustration: "How sweet she would look!"]

And as I wended on at a pretty good jog after