on low, swampy ground."

"Yes," sez Mr. Bolster cheerfully, "that is the reason why it is
healthy. The ground was originally low and wet, and so it was elevated,
filled in. Why, just before the great fire we lifted up all the houses,
in the best part of the city, on jack-screws for eight feet, and filled
the ground under them. The idea of lifting up a whole city eight feet
and making new ground under it! There never was such an undertaking
before since the world began.

"And then the fire come, and the city was rebuilt just as we wanted it.
Why, the death-rate of Chicago is lower than almost any city of the
world except London--it is just about the same as that. Then," sez he,
"our climate is perfect; it is so temperate and even that folks don't
have to spend all their energies in keeping warm, as they do in colder
climates, nor is it so warm that they have to spend their vital energies
in fanning themselves."

Sez Josiah, "I had ruther mow a beaver medder in dog days than to fan
myself--it wouldn't tire me so much."

Sez Mr. Bolster, "The climate is _just_ right to call forth the prudent
saving qualities to provide for the winter; and warm enough to keep them
happy and cheerful looking forward to bounteous harvests."

"Wall," sez I, "it got burnt up, anyway."

It fairly provoked me to see him look down so on all the rest of the
world.