But Arvilly, the ondanted, went on, "Well I never see or hearn of any savage idol to compare in hegiousness with the Whiskey Power that is built up and pampered and worshipped by Americans rich and poor, high and low, Church and State. Let any one make a move to tear that idol down from its altar, made of dead men's bones, and see what a flutter there is in the camp, how new laws are made and old laws shoved aside, and new laws fixed over, and the highest and the lowest will lie and cringe and drag themselves on their knees in front of it to protect it and worship it. Don't talk to me about your wood idols; they hain't nothin' to be compared to it. They stay where they're put, they don't rare round and kill their worshippers as this Whiskey idol duz. I'd think enough sight more of some men high in authority if they would buy a good clean basswood idol and put it up in the Capitol at Washington, D. C., and kneel down before it three times a day, than to do what they are doin'; they wouldn't do half the hurt and God knows it, and He would advise 'em that way if they ever got nigh enough to Him so's He could speak to 'em at all." "Oh, Sister Arvilly!" sez Elder Wessel, and he looked as if he would faint away. And I too wuz shocked to my soul, specially as Josiah whispered kinder low to me: "Samantha, we might git a small idol whilst we're here. You know it would come handy in hayin' time and when the roads are drifted full." I looked at him in a way that he will remember through his hull life, and sez he quick, "I shan't do nothin' of the kind unless you're willin'." "Willin'!" sez I, in heart-broken axents. "What will happen next to me?" And then indignation dried my tears before they fell and I sez, "I command you, Josiah Allen, to never speak to me on this subject agin; or think on't!" sez I fiercely. He muttered sunthin' about thinkin' what he wuz a mindter. And I turned to Arvilly and sez, to git her mind off: "See that native, Arvilly, standin' up on that board!" For as our good ship bore us onward we see crowds of natives standin' up on little tottlin' boards, dartin' through the water every which way, risin' and fallin' on the waves. I couldn't done it to save my life. No, Josiah nor me couldn't stood on boards like that on our creek, to say nothin' of the Pacific Ocean. But we should never have appeared in public dressed in that way--it wuzn't decent, and I told Josiah I wouldn't look at 'em if I wuz in his place; I mistrusted that some on 'em might be wimmen. And then I thought of the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve first took the place, and I didn't really know what to think. But I drawed Arvilly's attention to one on 'em that seemed extra dextrious in managin' his board and sez, "How under the sun duz he do it, Arvilly?"