Well,
they've got a cant phrase here, 'the schoolmaster is abroad,' and
every feller tells you that fifty times a day.
"There was a chap said to me not long ago, at Truro, 'Mr. Slick, this
Country is rapidly improving, "the schoolmaster is abroad now,"' and
he looked as knowin' as though he had found a mate's nest. 'So I
should think,' said I, 'and it would be jist about as well, I guess,
if he'd stay to home and mind his business, for your folks are so
consoomedly ignorant, I reckon he's abroad e'enamost all his time. I
hope when he returns, he'll be the better of his travels, and that's
more nor many of our young folks are who go "abroad," for they import
more airs and nonsense than they dispose of one while, I tell you;
some of the stock remains on hand all the rest of their lives.'
There's nothin' I hate so much as cant, of all kinds, it's a sure
sign of a tricky disposition. If you see a feller cant in religion,
clap your hand into your pocket, and lay right hold of your puss,
or he'll steal it as sure as you're alive; and if a man cant in
politics, he'll sell you if he gets a chance, you may depend. Law
and physic are jist the same, and every mite and morsel as bad. If
a lawyer takes to cantin', it's like the fox preachin' to the geese,
he'll eat up his whole congregation; and if a doctor takes to it,
he's a quack as sure as rates.
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