“And such men,” sez I, “say wimmen don’t know enough to vote.”
The very idee wuz so weak and inconsistent that it made the man statute hysterical, and he bust out into a peal of derisive laughter, and I took my dollar and walked off, though I knowed enough could be said on this subject to make a stun statute hystericky. I lay out to send the dollar to the W. C. T. U.
Jest after this I met Bildad, and he sez, “I jest see Josiah; he wuz in Steeple Chase Park, talkin’ with some girls there.”
I didn’t wait to ask what they wuz talkin’ about, I hoped it wuz religion, but felt dubersome, and hurried there fast as I could. I crossed the automobile track where crowded cars wuz runnin’ all the while round and round, past the rows of big high headed mettlesome hosses (this is a pun; they wuz made of metal).
But I passed ’em all as if they wuzn’t there; for my mind wuz all took up with the thought, should I find my pardner there talkin’ with them girls, and if so, what would be the subject of their conversation? Josiah is sound; but the best of men have weak spots in their armor which the glance of a bright eye will oft-times pierce through and do damage. So, to protect 247 my dear pardner from danger, I pressed forward and wuz let in by a good-lookin’ man for twenty-five cents. He gin me a paper locket and told me to be sure and not lose it. It had a man’s face on it, and I d’no but he thought I would treasure it on account of that.
I didn’t argy with him, but jest looked him coldly in the face and sez, “I am no such a woman, I have got a pardner of my own, though I can’t put my hand on him this minute.” And I passed on.
“Rows of high-headed mettlesome hosses.”