' It's very
wrong, no doubt, but it ain't very new after all. Ignorant and bigoted
people always have persecuted, and always will to the end of the
chapter. But what was to be done with his high mightiness, the Dutch
governor? Well, they decided that it was not lawful to put him into
the stocks; but that it was lawful to deprive him of the means of
sinning. So one of the elders swapped horses with him, and when he
started on the Sabbath, the critter was so lame after he went a mile,
he had to return and wait till Monday.
"No, I don't understand these puritan folks; and I suppose if I had
been a preacher they wouldn't have understood me. But I must get back
to where I left off. I was a talkin' about the difference of life in
town and in the country, and how in the world I got away, off from the
subject, to the Dutch governor and them puritans, I don't know. When I
say I love the country, I mean it in its fullest extent, not merely
old settlements and rural districts, but the great unbroken forest.
This is a taste, I believe, a man must have in early life. I don't
think it can be acquired in middle age, any more than playin' marbles
can, though old Elgin tried that game and made money at it. A man must
know how to take care of himself, forage for himself, shelter himself,
and cook for himself. It's no place for an epicure, because he can't
carry his cook, and his spices, and sauces, and all that, with him.
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