' 'Don't stand
staring and jawin' there all night,' said Jim, 'cut me down, I tell
you--or cut my throat and be damned to you, for I am chokin' with
blood.' 'Roll over that 'ere hogshead, old Snow,' said I, 'till I get
atop on it and cut him down.' So I soon released him, but he couldn't
walk a bit. His ankle was swelled and sprained like vengeance, and he
swore one leg was near about six inches longer than t'other. 'Jim
Munroe,' says father, 'little did I think I should ever see you
inside my door agin, but I bid you enter now, we owe you that
kindness, anyhow.'
"Well, to make a long story short, Jim was so chop-fallen, and so
down in the mouth, he begged for heaven's sake it might be kept a
secret; he said he would run the state, if ever it got wind, he was
sure he couldn't stand it. 'It will be one while, I guess,' said
father, 'afore you are able to run or stand either; but if you will
give me your hand, Jim, and promise to give over your evil ways, I
will not only keep it secret, but you shall be a welcome guest at old
Sam Slick's once more, for the sake of your father. He was a brave
man, one of the heroes of Bunker's hill; he was our Sergeant and--'
'He promises,' says I, 'father' (for the old man had stuck his right
foot out, the way he always stood when he told about the old war;
and as Jim couldn't stir a peg, it was a grand chance, and he was
a-goin' to give him the whole revolution from General Gage up to
Independence), 'he promises,' says I, 'father.
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