"
"Ah, my good friend, you always please when you talk, and that is more
than can be said of most men."
"And so will you," he replied, "if you use soft sawder that way. Oh,
dear me! it seems but the other day that you laughed so at my theory
of soft sawder and human natur', don't it? They were pleasant days,
warn't they? I often think of them, and think of them with pleasure
too. As I was passing Halifax harbour, on my way hum in the 'Black
Hawk,' the wind fortunately came ahead, and thinks I to myself, I will
put in there, and pull foot1 for Windsor and see the Squire, give him
my Journal, and spend an hour or two with him once more. So here I am,
at least what is left of me, and dreadful glad I am to see you too;
but as it is about your dinner hour I will go and titivate up a bit,
and then we will have a dish of chat for desert, and cigars, to remind
us of by-gones, as we stroll through your shady walks here."
1 The Americans are not entitled to the credit or ridicule, whichever
people may be disposed to bestow upon them, for the extraordinary
phrases with which their conversation is occasionally embellished.
Some of them have good classical authority. That of "pull-foot" may be
traced to Euripides, [Greek text].
My old friend had worn well; he was still a wiry athletic man, and his
step as elastic and springy as ever. The constant exercise he had been
in the habit of taking had preserved his health and condition, and
these in their turn had enabled him to maintain his cheerfulness and
humour.
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