I hope I may be skinned if they
wouldn't--they would I swan."
No. XIX
The Clockmaker Quilts a Bluenose.
The descendants of Eve have profited little by her example. The
curiosity of the fair sex is still insatiable, and, as it is often
ill directed, it frequently terminates in error. In the country this
feminine propensity is troublesome to a traveller, and he who would
avoid importunities would do well to announce at once, on his arrival
at a Cumberland inn, his name and his business, the place of his
abode and the length of his visit.
Our beautiful hostess, Mrs. Pugwash, as she took her seat at the
breakfast table this morning, exhibited the example that suggested
these reflections. She was struck with horror at our conversation,
the latter part only of which she heard, and of course misapplied
and misunderstood.
"She was run down by the President," said I, "and has been laid up
for some time. Gulard's people have stripped her, in consequence of
her making water so fast."
"Stripped whom?" said Mrs. Pugwash, as she suddenly dropped the
teapot from her hand; "stripped whom--for heaven's sake tell me
who it is?"
"The Lady Ogle," said I.
"Lady Ogle?" said she, "how horrid!"
"Two of her ribs were so broken as to require to be replaced with new
ones."
"Two new ribs!" said she, "well I never heerd the beat of that in all
my born days; poor critter, how she must have suffered.
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