After that I couldn't say a word.
In fact, I felt as though speech were denied me, as it is some unfortunate fellows.
If you ever ran across a man with a genuine impediment in his speech, well, you know how painful it seems to watch him nearly strangle in the endeavor to make himself understood.
Advice is wasted on such a man.
I remember trying it once, only to get the cold laugh.
Here's the story in verse.
Listen!
"Oh, be not hasty, friend?" I cried,
"Think twice o'er all you utter."
"I'm bound to do so," he replied,
"I stut-tut-tut-tut-tutter."
And I never hear any one carrying on in that way, but what I think of an old Irishman, a farmer who dropped into the office of a country weekly, run by a friend of mine.