"I would be strikin' as Mercury, but I think I would be at my best as Apollo."
"A loonatick would strike me as the right thing, Josiah Allen, or an idiot from birth.
"Or," sez I, speakin' more ironicler as my fear died away, leavin' in its void a great madness and tiredness, "if you'd brung your scythe 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!