"'Well,' said he, 'what do you call the female moose?'
"'Why,' sais the man, 'I guess,' a-talkin' through his nose instead of
his mouth--how I hate that Yankee way, don't you, Sir? 'Why,' sais he,
'I guess we call the he-moose M, and the other N, as the case may be.'
"'Who gave them that name?' said M'Clure.
"'Why, I reckon,' said the other, 'their godfathers and godmothers at
their baptism, but I can't say, for I warn't there.'
"'I say, my man,' said M'Clure, 'you had better keep a civil tongue in
your head.'
"'Ask me no questions, then,' said the countryman, 'and I'll tell you
no lies; but if you think to run a rig on me, you have made a mistake
in the child, and barked up the wrong tree, that's all. P'raps I ain't
so old as you be, but I warn't born yesterday. So slope, if you
please, for I want to sneeze, and if I do, it will blow your cap over
the market-house, and you'll be lucky if your head don't go along with
it."
"'Come away,' said I, 'Mac, that fellow has no more manners than a
heathen.'
"'He's an hignorant beast,' said he, 'he is beneath notice.'
"The man eard that, and called after him, 'Hofficer, hofficer,' said
he.
"That made M'Clure stop, for he was expectin' to be one every day, and
the word sounded good, and Scotchmen, Sir, ain't like other people,
pride is as natural as oatmeal to them. The man came up to us limpin'.
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