And Bizer and Josiah wuz all carried away with it. This wuz in the
children's room, and all the animals are reproduced life size, every one
of 'em two and two, jest as they enter the Ark.
We couldn't hardly tear our two pardners away, Selinda and I couldn't.
Josiah said, "It wuz so beautiful and interestin'," and so Bizer said.
But I believe what made them men cling to it so for sech a length of
time, they hearn us talk about how we wanted to go into the Bazaar,
where there wuz lots of things to sell.
But finally they see they couldn't hold us back no longer, so we went
through that gorgeous place, all full of bronzes, rugs, vases, pipes,
and etcetry.
We didn't stay long here, though, for Bizer and Josiah said that the air
wuz that bad they wuz chokin', and that they couldn't stan' it.
And Selinda and I a-feelin' that chokin' a pardner wuz the last thing we
wanted to undertake, we went through it at a pretty good jog, and anon
we found ourselves in Turkey; and here I found the Turkeys had done
first-rate.
Why, one piece of their hand-wrought lace wuz worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars. While I wuz a-admirin' of it, Josiah whispered
firmly--
"Don't go to thinkin' of that old night-cap in sech a time as this."
And I whispered back, "I hain't no more idee on't than you have of
buyin' that old tent to take down to the lake with you a-fishin'."
That very old battle-tent wuz all hand work, embroidered in gold and
silver and silk in nateral figgers, and they said it wuz worth five
millions of dollars--
And a silver bedstead the Sultan is a-goin' to give to his daughter as
a part of her settin' out when she marries wuz worth four hundred and
fifty thousand dollars.
You can from this form some idee of the value of the other enormous
exhibits.
And the most beautiful horses you ever see, right from the Sultan's
stable, wuz a-prancin' round. And one hundred Beoudins with camels and
dromedaries added to the picteresqueness of the seen.
And then we see Cleopatri's needle, that tall column a-risin' up to the
sky, all covered with writin' worse than mine, and that's a-sayin' a
good deal. I couldn't read a word on't, nor Josiah couldn't.
And to the back of the Grand Bazaar wuz leven cottages, where male and
female Turkeys wuz workin' at their different trades, showin' jest how
rugs, and carpets, and embroideries, and brass work is made.
As I said to Selinda, "Would you believed it possible, Selinda, if we'd
been told on't a dozen years ago that you and I should be a-travellin'
in Turkey to-day?"
And she said, "No, indeed; she had never imagined that she should ever
visit sech foreign shores."
Yes, we felt considerable riz up to think that we wuz engaged in foreign
travel, but not hauty. No, we are both on us well-principled, and don't
believe in puttin' on airs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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