And Josiah sez "he guessed it wouldn't make much difference whether I
made a move or not. He guessed Chicago could take care of its own
business, and would do it."

I wuz a-pinnin' the outside onto a comforter, and I had a lot of pins in
my mouth, but before I put 'em in I sez--

"Wall, it looks kind o' shiftless to me, to think they hadn't no place
to put it, after all their actions."

And as I resoomed my work, he went on:

"Now, you imagine how you would feel, Samantha Allen, if you had bought
a big elephant, bigger than Jumbo, and you knew it wuz on its way here,
approachin' nearer and nearer--had got as fur as Old Bobbet's, and we
hadn't a place to put it in that wuz suitable and strong enough--we
couldn't git her head hardly in the stable, we couldn't leave her out
doors to rampage round and step over barns and knock down housen, and we
couldn't git it offen our hands any way, kill it, or give it away--how
would you feel?"

[Illustration: We couldn't git her head hardly in the stable.]

Then I took my pins out of my mouth, and sez--

"I wouldn't have bought the elephant till I had measured my barn."

Then I put my pins in my mouth agin, for I thought like as not that I
wouldn't have to use my tongue agin. I didn't lay out to, for my mouth