"Pardner or no pardner, I hain't a-goin' to be imposed upon this time of night!"
Sez I, "I should be ashamed if I wuz in your place, the father and grandfather of a family, and the deacon in a meetin'-house, to be up at midnight a-posin' for statutes and actin'."
"But," sez he, "I didn't know but they would want to sculp me while I wuz here in Chicago, and I thought I'd git a attitude all ready. You never know what may happen, and it's always well to be prepared, and attitudes are dretful hard to catch onto at a minute's notice."
Sez I, "Do you come back to bed, Josiah Allen. What would they want of you for a statute?"
"Wall," sez he, reluctantly relinquishin' his toga, or, in other words the flannel blanket and bedspread—
"I see many a statute to-day with not half my good looks, and if Chicago wanted me to ornament it, I wanted to be prepared."
I sithed aloud, and sez I—
"Here I be waked up for good, as tired as I wuz, all for your vanity and actin'."
"Wall," sez he, "Samantha, my mind wuz all so stirred up and excited by seein' so many ile paintin's and statutes to-day, that I felt dretful." And as he sez this my madness all died away, as the way of pardners is, and a great pity stole into my heart.