And he laid his hand agin lovin'ly on the boards as we left the seen.
Wall, on our way home I had an awful trial with Josiah Allen.

Mebby what he had seen that day had made him feel kind o' riz up, and want to act.
He and I wuz a-wendin' our way along the lagoon, when all of a sudden he sez-- "Samantha, I want to go out sailin' in a gondola--I want to swing out and be romantic," sez he.
Sez he, "I always wanted to be romantic, and I always wanted to be a gondolier, but it never come handy before, and now I will! I _will_ be romantic, and sail round with you in a gondola.

I'd love to go by moonlight, but sunlight is better than nothin'." [Illustration: "I want to swing out and be romantic and sail round with you in a gondola."] I looked down pityin'ly on him as he stood a few steps below me on the flight o' stairs a-leadin' down to the water's edge.
I leaned hard on my faithful old umbrell, for I had a touch of rumatiz that day.
And sez I, "Romance, Josiah, should be looked at with the bright eyes of youth, not through spectacles No.

12." Sez I, "The glowin' mist that wrops her round fades away under the magnifyin' lights of them specs, Josiah Allen." He had took his hat off to cool his forward, and I sez further-- "Romance and bald heads don't go together worth a cent, and rumatiz and azmy are perfect strangers to her.

Romance locks arms with young souls, Josiah Allen, and walks off with 'em." "Oh, shaw!" sez Josiah, "we hain't so very old.