'
boats, lookin' some like corn houses standin' on end, bulged out
towards us from the shore. They said they wuz cargo lighters to onload
ships, and mebby they wuz. And one peculiarity I see that I despised.
The natives all seemed to wear their shirts over their pantaloons,
hangin' loose, and some on 'em didn't have on any pantaloons, jest the
shirt, and some not even that, jest a sash or so tied round about
'em.

I despised the sight and sez to Josiah: "They might do as much as Adam
did anyway; they might wear some leaves round 'em, there is plenty of
fig trees here I spoze."

And he sez: "I have been thinkin' that it is a crackin' good idee to
wear the shirt over the pantaloons; it would be cool and look all
right after we got used to it; the bottom of the shirt could be
ruffled or trimmed with tattin or red braid, and they would look as
dressy agin as I've always wore 'em."

I looked daggers at him out of my eyes and sez: "What won't you take
it into your head to do next, Josiah Allen?"

But our attention wuz drawed off by Arvilly, who approached us. She
looked skornfully at the costoom of the natives, and I hearn her say
to herself: "Not much chance to canvass here." But even as she spoke
her eye fell hopefully on the opposite shore, like a good book agent
scanning the earth and heavens for a possible subscriber.

Miss Meechim, who had come on deck with Dorothy and Robert, looked
benignantly at the natives and sez: "The poor ye shall always have
with you," and she put her hand in the little bag that she always wore
at her side and said: "I wonder if I have got a copy of that blessed
tract with me, 'The Naked Sinner Clothed and in His Right Mind.'"

But Robert sez to her: "They wouldn't thank you for clothes, Aunt
Albina; you will have to wait until we reach New York; some of the
naked there would be gladly covered up from the snow and storms."

"Oh, don't compare our own blessed land with this heathen clime."

"But," sez Robert, "the warm breezes here bring only joy and comfort
to that sinner's naked limbs, and the sin of ignorance may be
forgiven. But the shivering sinners, crouching on the cold stone
doorsteps, hearing dimly through their benumbed senses prayers and
thanksgivings to the Most High for mercies they have no part in, why
that is quite a different matter."

Aronette wuz standing a little ways apart, talking with a young man.
He wuz payin' her compliments, I knew, for there wuz a pink flush o