Now, you may
call it crackin' and braggin', and all that sort of a thing, if you
please, but I must say, I allot that I look, sit, walk, stand, eat,
drink, smoke, think, and talk, aye, and brag too, like a Yankee
clockmaker, don't you? Yes, there is a decided and manifest
improvement in the appearance of this province. When I say the
province, I don't refer to Halifax alone, though there are folks there
that think it stands for and represents the whole colony. I mean what
I say in using that expression, which extends to the country at
large--and I am glad to see this change, for I like it. And there is a
still more decided and manifest improvement in the people, and I am
glad of that too, for I like them also. Now, I'll tell you one great
reason of this alteration. Blue-nose has seen himself as other folks
see him, he has had "the mirror held up to him."
CHAPTER XIX.
THE BUNDLE OF STICKS.
I had hardly entered these remarks in my Journal, and ascended the
companion-ladder, when the doctor joined me in my quarter-deck walk,
and said, "Mr Slick, what is your opinion of the state of these North
American colonies?"
What a curious thing these coincidences are, Squire, ain't they? How
often when you are speaking of a man, he unexpectedly makes his
appearance, don't he? or if you are thinking of a subject, the person
who is with you starts the same topic, or if you are a going to say a
thing, he takes, as we say, the very words out of your mouth.
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