* These imprecations are printed on the ascending scale by
way of endeavor to show how the speaker delivered them.
Breakfast now! and all the cradles stopped at once.
“What a delightful calm,” said Robinson, “now I can study my police-sheet at my ease.”
This morning, as he happened to be making no noise, the noise of others worried him.
“Mr. Levi, how still and peaceful they are when their time comes to grub. 'The still sow sups the kail,' as we used to say in the north; the English turn the proverb differently, they say 'The silent hog—'”
“Jabber! jabber! jabber!—aie! aie!”
“Hallo! there's a scrimmage! and there go all the fools rushing to see it. I'll go, too!”
Alas! poor human nature; the row was this. The peaceful children of the moon, whom last we saw gliding side by side, vertical and seemingly imperturbable, had yielded to the genius loci, and were engaged in bitter combat, after the manner of their nation. The gig umbrellas were resolved into their constituent parts; the umbrellas proper, or hats, lay on the ground—the sticks or men rolled over one another scratching and biting. Europe wrenched them asunder with much pain, and held them back by their tails, grinning horribly at each other, and their long claws working unamiably.
The diggers were remonstrating; their morality was shocked.
“Is that the way to fight? What are fists given us for, ye varmint?”