places, seemed
jest like makin' a bargain with Death. Rentin' housen to him to make
carnival in.

And while he wuz talkin' to such great length, and with such a satisfied
and comfortable look onto his face, about the vital necessities of pure
air and beautiful surroundin's, in order to make children well and
happy, my thoughts kept a-roamin', and I couldn't help it. Down from the
lovely spot where The Little Maid wuz, down, down, into the dretful
places that Barzelia had told me about. Where squalor, and crime, and
disease, and death walked hand in hand, gatherin' new victims at every
step, and where the children wuz a-droppin' down in the poisinous air
like dead leaves in a swamp.

I kep a-thinkin' of this, and finally I tackled Elnathan about it, and
he laughed, Elnathan did, and begun to talk about the swarms and herds
of useless and criminal humanity a-cumberin' the ground, and he threw a
lot of statisticks at me. But they didn't hit me. Good land! I wuzn't
afraid on 'em, nor I didn't care anything about 'em, and I gin him to
understand that I didn't.

And in the cause of duty I kep on a-tacklin' him about them housen of
hisen, and advisin' him to tear 'em down, and build wholesome ones, and
in the place of the worst ones, to help make some little open breathin'
places for the poor creeters down there, with a green tree now and then.

And then agin he brung up the utter worthlessness, and shiftlessness,
and viciousness of the class I wuz a-talkin' about.

And then I sez--"How is anybody a-goin' to live pattern lives, when they
are a-starvin' to death? And how is anybody a-goin' to enjoy religion
when they are a-chokin'?"

And then he threw some more statisticks at me, dry and hard ones too;
and agin he see they didn't hit me, and then he kinder laughed agin, and
assumed something of a jokelar air--such as men will when they are
a-talkin' to wimmen--dretful exasperatin', too--and sez he--

"You are a Philosopher, Cousin Samantha, and you must know such housen
as you are a-talkin' about are advantageous in one way, if in no
other--they help to reduce the surplus population. If it wuzn't for such
places, and for the electric wires, and bomb cranks, and accidents,
etc., the world would git too full to stand up in."

"Help to reduce the surplus population!" sez I, and my voice shook with
indignation as I said it. Sez I--

"Elnathan Allen, you had better stop a-pilin' up your statisticks, for a
spell, and come