' So I advertised that I would give four pounds ten
shillings for the largest Hackmetack knee in the island, four pounds
for the second, three pounds ten shillings for the third, and three
pounds for the fourth biggest one. I suppose, Squire, you know what a
ship's knee is, don't you? It is a crooked piece of timber, exactly
the shape of a man's leg when kneeling. It forms two sides of a
square, and makes a grand fastening for the side and deck beams of a
vessel.
1 The opossum, when chased by dogs, will often pretend to be dead, and
thus deceives his pursuers.
"'What in the world do you want of only four of those knees?' said the
Doctor.
"'Nothing,' said I, 'but to raise a laugh on these critters, and make
them pay real handsome for the joke.'
"Well, every bushwhacker and forest ranger in the island thought he
knew where to find four enormous ones, and that he would go and get
them, and say nothing to nobody, and all that morning fixed for the
delivery they kept coming into the shipping place with them. People
couldn't think what under the light of the living sun was going on,
for it seemed as if every team in the province was at work, and all
the countrymen were running mad on junipers. Perhaps no livin' soul
ever see such a beautiful collection of ship-timber afore, and I am
sure never will again in a crow's age. The way these 'old oysters' (a
nick-name I gave the islanders, on account of their everlastin' beds
of this shell-fish) opened their mugs and gaped was a caution to dying
calves.
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