He seemed real glad to see us and wuz dretful chipper for a man most a hundred; he got hold of my hand and shook it as if he never would leggo, and went right on confidin’ in me about his lost companion, what a treasure she wuz, and what a loss.

And I sez, “Your wives wuz real nice wimmen, most all on ’em wuz, or them that I knowed.”

“Oh, yes,” sez he, “and these blows that has fell on me has most onmanned me.”

And I sez in pityin’ axents, “You won’t try to git another wife, will you, Uncle Giles?”

“Yes, I shall, as long as the Lord keeps a takin’, I shall—­is that woman with Josiah a widder?”

I answered evasive, and kinder stepped in between him and Blandina, I didn’t want her to hear what he wuz sayin’, I dassent.  It wouldn’t been best for her to married a man most a hundred.  And I knowed her soft nater made her a willin’ martyr to widower’s wiles.  Age made no difference to Blandina.  And I dassent venter to let him git nearer to her.  So I bid him a hasty good-by and linked my arm into hern and led her away.  She lookin’ back and sayin’, “How agreeable and willin’ a lookin’ man that wuz,” and I hurried her on fast to Manufactures Buildin’—­stoppin’ by the way to see the beautiful Sunken Garden.

The display in Manufactures is so large that they fill two immense palaces, Manufacturers and Varied Industries, and you’d git lost you couldn’t help it, amongst the bewilderin’ and endless native and foreign displays, only the aisles are divided off into streets and squares, all the same width, so you can git ’round first-rate.  And if you had ten or fifteen years you could spend here you might possibly see most of the displays of your own native land and all the foreign countries.  These two palaces cover twenty-eight acres, as big as Luman Gowdey’s farm that he gits a good livin’ on, and the hull twenty-eight acres are full of interestin’ sights.  You can walk nine miles in it right ahead—­as fur as from Jonesville way up to Zoar, and back agin.

And jest think of every single thing that wuz ever manufactured from a hatpin to a rose-wood bedstead, and from a needle to a piano, and there it wuz in plain sight if you could git to it, for truly you got bewildered amongst the endless displays.  Furniture, upholstery, all sorts of cloth, silk, wool and cotton that wuz ever woven, all kinds of silver and gold, and pearl and jet and shell and ivory articles that wuz ever used, clocks, watches, jewels, embroideries, laces, carpets, curtains, wall paper, stationery, hardware, glass and crystal, furs, bronze, ironware, leather goods, stained glass, artists’ supplies, tailor shop, rubber store, toy store.

But good land! what is the use of tryin’ to name ’em over?  I couldn’t do it if I had a blank book as big as a dictionary and writ it full.  But you can jest think of everything manufactured you ever see, or ever didn’t see and there it wuz, and more and more and more, and I might fill pages with “mores,” but what use would it be.