The bamboo hastened to assure me that he wasn’t—that he was an American trying to ape English ways.
“Do you want a hammerless?” asked the proprietor.
“I—aw! They come pretty ’igh, don’t they?”
“Not necessarily. Here’s one worth a hundred and twenty-five dollars,” replied the storekeeper; and as he spoke, he opened the show-case and took from it a double-barrel who was so very plain in appearance, that I had not before taken more than a passing glance at him. “I judge from your speech that you are an Englishman, and if you are, you of course know more about this make of guns than I can tell you. It is a Greener.”
The young man seemed pleased to know that he had succeeded in making the proprietor believe that he was not an American, but he did not seem to appreciate the gun, nor did he handle it as if he were accustomed to the use of fire-arms. He hardly knew how to bring it to his face properly.
“I—aw! Hit’s wery fine, no doubt,” said he, after he had made an awkward pretense of examining the gun, “but I—aw! I want something a little more showy and not quite so ’igh-priced, don’t yer know? Something that I can take pride in exhibiting to my ’unting friends, don’t yer know?”
“We have guns that are more showy than this, but they are cheap affairs, and we don’t recommend them. How would this one suit you?” said the proprietor; and as he spoke, he opened another door in the show-case, and took my bragging friend down from his place on the antlers.
It may have been all imagination on my part, but I would have been willing to affirm that his nickel-plated ornaments grew a shade dimmer as he was taken out of the case, and I am of the same opinion still. By his boasting he had led us all to believe that he was worth at least two or three hundred dollars; and you can imagine how surprised we were when we learned that he was valued at a very small fraction of that sum.
“Aw! That looks more like a gun,” said the customer. “That’s a piece, don’t yer know, that a fellah can show to his friends. Hit’ll shoot, I suppose?”
“Oh, yes, it will shoot, but it will not do as clean work as the one I just showed you.”