Well, you never heerd sich a shoutin' and clappin' of hands, and
cheerin', in your life; they haw-hawed like thunder. Says I, 'Jehiel
Quirk, that was a superb joke of your'n; how you made the folks larf,
didn't you? You are e'enamost the wittiest critter I ever seed. I
guess you'll mind your parts o' speech, and study the ACCIDENCE agin
afore you let your clapper run arter that fashion, won't you?'"
"I thought," said I, "that among you republicans, there were no
gradations of rank or office, and that all were equal, the hog-reave
and the governor, the judge and the crier, the master and his
servant; and although, from the natur' of things, more power might
be entrusted to one than the other, yet that the rank of all was
precisely the same."
"Well," said he, "it is so in theory, but not always in practice; and
when we do pracTISE it, it seems to go a little agin the grain, as
if it warn't quite right neither. When I was last to Baltimore there
was a court there, and Chief Justice Marshall was detailed there for
duty. Well, with us in New England, the sheriff attends the judge to
court and, says I to the sheriff, 'Why don't you escort that 'ere
venerable old judge to the State House? He's a credit to our nation
that man, he's actilly the first pot hook on the crane; the whole
weight is on him; if it warn't for him the fat would be in the fire
in no time.
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