For instance, 'what's that to me,' is a phrase so common
that it shows it's a natural one, when people have no particular
interest in a thing. Well, when a feller gets so warm on either side
as never to use that phrase at all, watch him, that's all! keep your
eye on him, or he'll walk right into you afore you know where you be.
If a man runs to me and says, 'Your fence is down,' 'Thank you,' says
I, 'that's kind.' If he comes agin and says, 'I guess some stray
cattle have broke into your short sarce garden,' I thank him agin;
says I, 'Come now, this is neighbourly; but when he keeps etarnally
tellin' me this thing of one sarvant, and that thing of another
sarvant, hints that my friends ain't true, that my neighbours are
inclined to take advantage of me, and that suspicious folks are seen
about my place, I say to myself, what on airth makes this critter
take such a wonderful interest in my affairs? I don't like to hear
such tales; he's arter somethin' as sure as the world, if he warn't
he'd say, 'What's that to me.' I never believe much what I hear said
by a man's violent friend, or violent enemy. I want to hear what a
disinterested man has to say. Now, as a disinterested man, I say if
the members of the House of Assembly, instead of raisin' up ghosts
and hobgoblins to frighten folks with, and to show what swordsmen
they be, a-cuttin' and a-thrustin' at those phantoms that only exist
in their own brains, would turn to, heart and hand, and develop the
resources of this fine country, facilitate the means of transport,
promote its internal improvement, and encourage its foreign trade,
they would make it the richest and greatest, as it now is one of the
happiest sections of all America.
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