You have heerd a school come out, of little boys?
Lord, it's no touch to it. Or a flock of geese at it? They are no more
a match for 'em than a pony is for a coach-horse. But when they are
at work, all's as still as sleep and no snoring. I guess we have a
right to brag o' that invention--we trained the dear critters, so
they don't think of striking the minutes and seconds no longer.
"Now the folks of Halifax take it all out in talking. They talk of
steamboats, whalers and railroads; but they all end where they
begin--in talk. I don't think I'd be out in my latitude if I was to
say they beat the womenkind at that. One feller says, 'I talk of
going to England;' another says, 'I talk of going to the country;'
while a third says, 'I talk of going to sleep.' If we happen to speak
of such things, we say, 'I'm right off down East;' or 'I'm away off
South,' and away we go, jist like a streak of lightning.
"When we want folks to talk, we pay 'em for it, such as ministers,
lawyers, and members of Congress; but then we expect the use of their
tongues, and not their hands; and when we pay folks to work, we
expect the use of their hands, and not their tongues. I guess work
don't come kind o' natural to the people of this Province, no more
than it does to a full-bred horse. I expect they think they have a
little too much blood in 'em for work, for they are near about as
proud as they are lazy.
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