along you might personate Old Father Time."

I guess this kinder madded him, and sez he, "Don't you want to pose,
Samantha?

"Don't you want to be the Witch of Endor?" sez he.

"Yes," sez I, "I'd love to! If I _wuz_ her you'd see sights in this room
that would bow your old bald head in horrow, and drive you, vain old
creeter that you be, back where you belong."

He wuz afraid he'd gone too fur, and sez he, "Mebby you'd ruther be
Venus, Samantha? Mebby you'd ruther appear in the nude?"

Sez I, coldly, "I should think that you'd done your best to make me
appear in that way, Josiah Allen. There's only one thin sheet to keep me
from it.

"But," sez I, spruntin' up, "if you talk in that way any more to me I'll
holler to Miss Plank!

"Pardner or no pardner, I hain't a-goin' to be imposed upon this time of
night!"

Sez I, "I should be ashamed if I wuz in your place, the father and
grandfather of a family, and the deacon in a meetin'-house, to be up at
midnight a-posin' for statutes and actin'."

"But," sez he, "I didn't know but they would want to sculp me while I
wuz here in Chicago, and I thought I'd git a attitude all ready. You