The capitalists
of Nova Scotia treat it like a hired house, they won't keep it in
repair; they neither paint it to preserve the boards, nor stop a leak
to keep the frame from rottin'; but let it go to wrack sooner than
drive a nail or put in a pane of glass. 'It will sarve our turn out,'
they say.
"There's neither spirit, enterprise, nor patriotism here; but the
whole country is as inactive as a bear in winter, that does nothin'
but scroutch up in his den, a-thinkin' to himself, 'Well if I ain't
an unfortunate devil, it's a pity; I have a most splendid warm coat
as e'er a gentleman in these here woods, let him be who he will;
but I got no socks to my feet, and I have to sit for everlastingly
a-suckin' of my paws to keep 'em warm; if it warn't for that, I
guess, I'd make some o' them chaps that have hoofs to their feet and
horns to their heads, look about them pretty sharp, I know.' It's
dismal now, ain't it? If I had the framin' of the Governor's message,
if I wouldn't show 'em how to put timber together you may depend, I'd
make 'em scratch their heads and stare, I know.
"I went down to Matanzas in the Fulton steamboat once; well, it was
the first of the kind they ever seed, and proper scared they were
to see a vessel, without sails or oars, goin' right straight ahead,
nine knots an hour, in the very wind's eye, and a great streak of
smoke arter her as long as the tail of a comet.
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