Samantha at the World's Fair

by Marietta Holley

But my Josiah heard the inquiry, and sez he—

"I should call her a duck;" and he continued, with his eyes riveted on the beautiful face of the Duke's daughter—

"That pretty girl is a duck, and no mistake."

But I sez, "Hush; that would be too familiar and also too rural."

I hain't ashamed of the country—no, indeed, I am proud on't; still I knew that it wuz, specially in June, noted for its tender greenness.

And sez I, "I'll trust to the hour to inspire me; I'll sail out as his great ancestor did, and trust to Providence to help me out."

So I advanced onto 'em, and I thought, as I went, if you call a man by the hull of his name he hadn't ort to complain; so I sez with a deep curchey—I knew a plain curchey wouldn't do justice to the occasion.

So I gracefully took hold of my alpaca skirt with both hands and held it out slightly, and curchied from ten to fourteen inches, I should judge.

I wanted it deep enough to show the profound esteem and honor in which I held him, and not deep enough so's to give him the false idee that I wuz a professional dancer, or opera singer, or anything of that sort.