'
"'Well, I said a moose,' he replied.
"'Yes, I know you said a moose, but that's not the way to pronounce a
mouse. It may be Scotch, but it ain't English. Do you go into that
hardware shop, and ask for a moose-trap, and see how the boys will
wink to each other, and laugh at you.'
"'A man,' sais he, drawing himself up, 'who has learned humanity at
Glaskee, don't require to be taught how to pronounce moose.'
"'As for your humanity,' said I, 'I never see much of that. If you
ever had that weakness, you got bravely over it, and the glass key
must have been broke years agone in Spain.'
"'You are getting impertinent,' said he, and he walked off and left
me.
"It's very strange, your Honour, but I never saw an Irishman or
Scotchman yet that hadn't the vanity to think he spoke English better
than we do."
"But the Yankees?" said I.
"Well, Sir, they are foreigners, you know, and only speak broken
English; but they mix up a deal of words of their own with it, and
then wonder you don't understand them. They keep their mouths so busy
chawing, they have to talk through their noses.
"A few days after that, Sir, we walked down to the marketplace, and
there was another of these hanimals for sale. But perhaps I am making
too bold, Sir?"
"No, no, not at all; go on. I like to hear you."
"'Well,' said M'Clure to the countryman, 'What do you call that?'
"'A moose,' said he.
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