If
they only had edication here, they might learn to do so too, but
they don't know nothin'."
"You undervalue them," said I; "they have their College and
Academies, their grammar schools and primary institutions, and I
believe there are few among them who cannot read and write."
"I guess all that's nothin'," said he. "As for Latin and Greek, we
don't vally it a cent; we teach it, and so we do painting and music,
because the English do, and we like to go ahead on 'em, even in
them 'ere things. As for reading, it's well enough for them that
has nothing to do, and writing is plaguy apt to bring a man to
states-prison, particularly if he writes his name so like another man
as to have it mistaken for his'n. Cyphering is the thing--if a man
knows how to cipher, he is sure to grow rich. We are a 'calculating'
people, we all cipher.
"A horse that won't go ahead, is apt to run back, and the more you
whip him the faster he goes astarn. That's jist the way with the Nova
Scotians; they have been running back so fast lately, that they have
tumbled over a bank or two, and nearly broke their necks; and now
they've got up and shook themselves, they swear their dirty clothes
and bloody noses are all owing to the banks. I guess if they won't
look ahead for the future, they'll larn to look behind, and see if
there's a bank near hand 'em.
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