trod that Plank every day and all day, if we would listen to her.

And sometimes when I would try to get her offen that Plank for a minute,
and would bring up the World's Fair to her, and how big the housen wuz,
I would find my efforts futile; for all she would say about 'em wuz to
tell what Mr. Plank would have done if he had been a-livin', and if he
had been onhampered, and out of salt, how much better he would have done
than the directors did, and what bigger housen he would have built.

And I would say, "A house that covers over most forty acres is a pretty
big house."

But she seemed to think that Mr. Plank would have built housen that
covered a few more acres, and towered up higher, and had loftier
cupalos.

And finally I got tired of tryin' to quell her down, and I got so that I
could let her talk and keep up a-thinkin' on other subjects all the
time. Why, I got so I could have writ poetry, if that had been my aim,
right under a constant loadin' and onloadin' of that Plank.

Curious, hain't it?

As I said, there wuz only a few boarders, most of 'em quiet folks, who
had been there some time. Some on 'em had been there long enough to have
children born under the ruff, who had growed up almost as big as their
pa's and ma's. There wuz several of 'em half children there, and among
'em wuz one of the same age who wuz old--older than I shall ever be, I
hope and pray.