But I sez, "Don't worry, Josiah--Ury and Philura are pure gold." "Wall, dum it all, pure gold can be melted if the fire is hot enough." But I went back to the old subject--"We must give sunthin' to the cause; it will be expected of us, and it is right that we should." "But," sez Josiah, with a gloomy and fierce look, "if I can git out of Chicago with a hull shirt on my back it's all I expect to do. I hain't no money to spend on Dukes, and you'll say so when we come to pay our bills." Sez I, "You needn't send any money, Josiah Allen; but," sez I, "we might send 'em a tub of butter and a kag of cowcumber pickles jest as well as not, and a ham, to help 'em along through the winter, and I'd gladly send him and her yarn enough for a good pair of socks and stockin's. She might knit 'em," sez I, "or I would. I'll send him a pair of fringe mittens anyway," sez I; "it hain't noways likely that she knows how to make them. They take intellect and practice to knit." And sez I, "I want you to be sure and see Senator Palmer without fail, and tell him to be sure and let us know when he sends things, so's we can put in and add our two mites." Sez he, "The money has gone." "Wall," sez I, "I am a disap'inted creeter. I wanted to do my part towards gittin' them good, noble folks enough to live on till Spring." Sez Josiah (and mebby it wuz to git my attention off from the subject, which he felt wuz perilous to his pocket--he is clost)--sez he, "There is one man here, Samantha, that I'd give a cent to see." Sez I, "Who is it that you are willin' to make such a extraordinary outlay for?" "The Rager," sez he. "The Rager," sez I dreamily; "who's that?" "Why, the Rager from India. I spoze," sez he, "that he is one of the raginest men that you ever see. He took his name from that, most likely, and to intimidate his subjects. Now, King or Emperor don't strike the same breathless terror; but Rager--why, jest the name is enough to make 'em behave." "Wall," sez I, "if the Monarch of Ingy is here I must see him, and git him not to burn any more widders with their dead pardners." Sez I, "It's a clear waste of widders, besides bein' wicked as wicked can be. Widders is handy," sez I, "now to keep boardin'-housen, or to go round as agents. Old maids hain't nothin' by the side of 'em, and they look so sort o' respectable behind their black veils, and then they are needed so for the widdower supply--and that market is always full." Sez I, "I don't want 'em wasted, and I want the wickedness to be stopped. "And then to insist on marryin' so many wimmen. I'd love to labor with him, and convince him that one's enough." "It seems to me," sez Josiah, "that I could make him _know_ that one's enough. It _seems_ as if _any married man might_. Heaven knows, it _seems_ so!" sez he. I didn't like his axent. There seemed to be some iron in it, but I wouldn't dane to parley.