It's astonishing
how many friends Moore's disloyalty made him. A seditious song or a
treasonable speech finds more favour with some people in the old
country than building a church, that's a fact. Howsomever, I think I
am safe from him, for first, I am a Yankee, secondly, I ain't married,
thirdly, I am a Clockmaker, and fourthly, my biography is written by
myself in my book, fifthly, I write no letters I can help, and never
answer one except on business."
"This is a hint father gave me: 'Sam,' said he, 'never talk to a
woman, for others may hear you; only whisper to her, and never write
to her, or your own letters may rise up in judgment against you some
day or another. Many a man afore now has had reason to wish he had
never seen a pen in his life;' so I ain't afeard therefore that he can
write himself up or me down, and make me look skuywoniky, no how he
can fix it. If he does, we will declare war again England, and blow
the little darned thing out of the map of Europe; for it ain't much
bigger than the little island Cronstadt is built on after all, is it?
It's just a little dot and nothin' more, dad fetch my buttons if it
is.
"But to go back to the grupers and the devil's hole; I have been there
myself and seen it, Doctor," sais I, "but there is other fish besides
these in it; there is the parrot-fish, and they are like the feminine
gender too; if the grupers are fond of being tickled, parrots are fond
of hearing their own voices.
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