' 'Well,
well,' says he, kinder snappishly, 'I suppose you're half right, Sam,
but we've said enough about it; let's drop the subject, and see if I
have picked 'em all up, for my eyes are none of the best now, I'm
near hand to seventy.'"
No. XVI
Mr. Slick's Opinion of the British.
"What success had you," said I, "in the sale of your clocks among
the Scotch in the eastern part of the Province? Do you find them as
gullible as the Bluenoses?"
"Well," said he, "you have heerd tell that a Yankee never answers one
question, without axing another, haven't you? Did you ever see an
English stage-driver make a bow? because if you hain't observed it, I
have, and a queer one it is, I swan. He brings his right arm up, jist
across his face, and passes on, with a knowin' nod of his head, as
much as to say, how do you do? but keep clear o' my wheels, or I'll
fetch your horses a lick in the mouth as sure as you're born; jist as
a bear puts up his paw to fend off the blow of a stick from his nose.
Well, that's the way I pass them 'ere bare-breeched Scotchmen. Lord,
if they were located down in these here Cumberland marshes, how
the mosquitoes would tickle them up, wouldn't they? They'd set 'em
scratching thereabouts, as an Irishman does his head, when he's in
sarch of a lie. Them 'ere fellers cut their eye-teeth afore they ever
sot foot in this country, I expect.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124