Wound that, and he never recovers; he is
foundered--his heart is broke. Now, if a nigger has a soul, and it
ain't in his gizzard, and can't in natur be in his skull, why, it
stands to reason it must be in his heel."
"Oh, Mr Slick," said Cutler, "I never thought I should have heard this
from you. It's downright profanity."
"It's no such thing," sais I, "it's merely a philosophical
investigation. Mr Cutler," sais I, "let us understand each other. I
have been brought up by a minister as well as you, and I believe your
father, the clergyman at Barnstaple, was as good a man as ever lived;
but Barnstaple is a small place. My dear old master, Mr Hopewell, was
an old man who had seen a great deal in his time, and knew a great
deal, for he had 'gone through the mill.'"
"What is that?" said he.
"Why," sais I, "when he was a boy, he was intended, like Washington,
for a land-surveyor, and studied that branch of business, and was to
go to the woods to lay out lots. Well, a day or two arter he was
diplomatised as a surveyor, he went to bathe in a mill-pond, and the
mill was a goin' like all statiee, and sucked him into the flume, and
he went through into the race below, and came out t'other side with
both his legs broke. It was a dreadful accident, and gave him serious
reflections, for as he lay in bed, he thought he might just as easily
have broke his neck.
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