'None of our'n
at all,' says he; 'Warsaw in Poland.' 'Well, I don't know,' says I;
'what do you call worth while?' 'Six dollars a day, expenses paid,
and a bonus of one thousand dollars, if speculation turns out well.'
'I am off,' says I, 'whenever you say go.' 'Tuesday,' says he, 'in
the Hamburg packet. Now,' says he, 'I'm in a tarnation hurry; I'm
goin' a-pleasurin' today in the Custom House Boat, along with Josiah
Bradford's gals down to Nahant. But I'll tell you what I am at: the
Emperor of Russia has ordered the Poles to cut off their queues on
the 1st of January; you must buy them all up, and ship them off to
London for the wig makers. Human hair is scarce and risin'. 'Lord a
massy!' says I, 'how queer they will look, won't they. Well, I vow,
that's what the sea folks call sailing under bare poles, come true,
ain't it?' 'I guess it will turn out a good spec,' says he; and a
good one it did turn out--he cleared ten thousand dollars by it.
"When I was at Warsaw, as I was a-sayin', there was a Russian officer
there who had lost both his arms in battle; a good-natured contented
critter, as I e'enamost ever seed, and he was fed with spoons by his
neighbours, but arter awhile they grew tired of it, and I guess he
near about starved to death at last. Now Halifax is like that 'ere
SPOONEY, as I used to call him; it is fed by the outports, and they
begin to have enough to do to feed themselves; it must larn to live
without 'em.
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