Ped. Would 25 cents be any inducement to you?
Sam. No!
Ped. Would 18 cents tempt you?
Sam. Say another word to me about your old stair carpet if you dare; jest let me ketch you at it. Be I going to have you a trapsin’ all over the house after me? Am I going to be made crazy as a loon by you?
Bet. Oh, Josiah Allen’s wife, do not be so hasty; of course the gentleman wishes to dispose of his goods, else why should he be in the mercanteel business?
Ped. (Turning to Betsey, takes ear-rings out of his pocket) I carry these in my pocket for fear I will be robbed. I hadn’t ought to carry them round at all; a single man going alone around the country as I do; but I have got a pistol. (he takes a large pistol, the larger the better, from his pocket. Betsey shrieks and falls back terribly frightened) I have got a pistol, and let anybody tackle me for these ear-rings if they dare to.
Bet. Is their intrinsic worth so much?
Ped. It hain’t so much their neat value, although that is enormous, as who owned them informally. Whose ears do you suppose these have had hold of?
Bet. How can I tell, never having seen them before.
Ped. Jest so. You never was acquainted with them, but these very identical creeters used to belong to Miss Shakespeare. Yes, these belonged to Hamlet’s mother. Bill bought ’em at old Stratford.