"And God separated the water from the land." Little peaks of land emerged from the water or it seemed as if the water receeded from them, and gradually the dry land appeared, and soon queer livin' forms appeared on it. And gradually, with green grass and verdure, it become fit for the home of man, and then Adam and Eve appeared. They wuzn't clothed in much besides innocence, but somehow they didn't look so immodest as some of the fashonably dressed females of to-day, with dekolitay and peek-a-boo waists, and skin-tight drapery. There wuz good Bible talk and sacred music all through the show. And I felt as if I had looked on and seen a world made right before my eyes, and that I would dearly love to make a few myself if I had time, and Josiah wuz willin'. I wuz highly delighted with it and said as much to the female who sot next to me. She had a discontented, onhappy face, and I guess she had enough to make her so, for her husband who sot by her kep' findin' fault with her all the time, till at last she turned--for you know a angle worm will turn if it is trod on enough--and she sez to me, but meant it for her pardner I knowed: "The lecturer ort to gone on and told how sneakin' mean Adam treated his wife, eatin' the apple, I'll bet down to the very core, and then misusin' her for givin' it to him, and puttin' all the blame on her for bringin' sin into the world, when he wuz jest as much to blame as she wuz." Sez her husband, "You have to slur men all the time, don't you? You can't see or hear anything without findin' sunthin' to complain of about men. I despise such a sperit; men don't have it." Now, I love justice, and I hate to see my sect imposed upon, and then whenever or wherever I travel, I always bear with me the honorary title I won honorably. Jest as men take with 'em on sea or land their titles of B. A. or D. D., just so I ever carry the title, won by high minded and strenous effort, Josiah Allen's wife, P. A. and P. I.--Public Adviser and Private Investigator. Here, I thought, is need for a P. A. So I sez to her, yet in a voice her pardner couldn't help hearin': "I hearn once of a husbands' meetin' in a revival, when the minister asked every man to git up who had complaints to make about his wife. Every man sprung to his feet to once, except one lone man by the door. And the minister sez, 'My friend, you are one man in a million who have no complaints to make about your wife.' The man sez, 'That hain't it; I'm paralyzed, I can't _git_ up.'" I d'no as the husband I aimed this at took it kind or not, but he didn't nag his wife any more in my hearin'. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN IN WHICH I CONTINUE MY SEARCH FOR JOSIAH THROUGH DREAMLAND, HUNTIN' FOR HIM IN VAIN, AND RETURN TO BILDAD'S AT NIGHT, WEARY AND DESPAIRIN' CHAPTER SEVENTEEN IN WHICH I CONTINUE MY SEARCH FOR JOSIAH THROUGH DREAMLAND, HUNTIN' FOR HIM IN VAIN, AND RETURN TO BILDAD'S AT NIGHT, WEARY AND DESPAIRIN'