Arvilly come to bid me good-bye, and Miss Stebbins wuz with her, and so she come in too.
Arvilly said, "That she should be in Chicago to that World's Fair, if her life wuz spared." She said, "That she wouldn't miss bein' in the place where wimmen wuz made sunthin' of, and had sunthin' to say for themselves, not for ontold wealth."
She said, "That she jest hankered after seein' one woman made out of pure silver—and then that other woman sixty-five feet tall; she said it would do her soul good to see men look up to her, and they have got to look up to her if they see her at all, for she said that it stood to reason that there wuzn't goin' to be men there sixty-five feet high.
"And then that temple there in Chicago, dreamed out and built by a woman—the nicest office buildin' in the world! jest think of that—in the World. And a woman to the bottom of it, and to the top too. Why," sez Arville, "I wouldn't miss the chance of seein' wimmen swing right out, and act as if their souls wuz their own, not for the mines of Golconda." Sez she, "More than a dozen wimmen have told me this week they wanted to go; but they wuzn't able. But I sez to 'em, I'm able to go, and I'm a-goin'—I am goin' afoot."
"Why, Arvilly," sez I, "you hain't a-goin' to Chicago a-walkin' afoot!"
"Why, Arvilly!"
"Yes, I be a-goin' to Chicago a-walkin' afoot, and I am goin' to start next Monday mornin'."
"Why'ee!" sez I, "you mustn't do it; you must let me lend you some money."