“That’s too much the case, I know.”
“I don’t want to swaller an Englishman whole. I know they press our seamen, and are overbearin’; but, then, they press their own likewise, take a man from his own doorstep; but ‘tain’t the people, it’s the government, does that. They say this new man that’s come up—What’s his name?”
“Bonaparte.”
“That he’s goin’ to lick the English into shoe-strings.”
“Then he’ll do what has not been done for the last two hundred years.”
“I tell you it ain’t in ‘em, parson; it’ ain’t in the men that live on frogs and soup to lick the men that eat beef and pork, I don’t care who they’re led by. When I was payin’ for my place, I follered the sea a good deal. I have been in English ports and French ports; fought side by side with Englishmen, and aginst Frenchmen; and I don’t care who knows it, I like an Englishman better’n a Frenchman eny day. When it’s good weather at sea, and everything goin’ well, an Englishman is a grouty chap; he’ll growl at the wind, the ship, the grub, and the usage; but let there come a gale of wind, a raal tryin’ time, the lee riggin’ hangin’ in bights, men three or four hours on a yard tryin’ to smother a sail, or the ship sprung a leak and like to go down, I tell you, John Bull is there. The harder it blows, the blacker it looks, and the tougher it comes, the higher his spirit rises; then they’re a Protestant people, and that’s a thing goes a good ways with me.”
Our readers may suspect that the old gentleman was not so obtuse in relation to religious matters as he appeared; an idea of this kind seemed to cross the mind of Mr. Goodhue, for he instantly attempted to introduce a religious conversation; but the old man shrunk from it as speedily as a turtle draws his head into the shell when apprehensive of danger.
When Edmund Griffin returned to the kitchen, he said, “Come, wife, ain’t you going to do something? There ain’t a speck of fire on the hearth.”
“What of that? I’ve got baked beans, brown bread, pies, and an Indian pudding in the oven, and I must put this cheese in press.”