“‘Six weeks! Oh, Solomon!’ said she, ‘in six weeks.’
“‘Yes,’ sais I, ‘in six short weeks.’
“‘How was it, Sam? do tell me all about it; it’s quite romantic. I vow, it’s like the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment. You are so unlucky, I swow I should be skeered—’
“‘At what?’ sais I.
“‘Why, at—’
“She was caught there; she was a goin’ to say, ‘at marryin’ you,’ but as she was a leadin’ of me on, that wouldn’t do. Doctor, you may catch a gall sometimes, but if she has a mind to, she can escape if she chooses, for they are as slippery as eels. So she pretended to hesitate on, till I asked her again.
“‘Why,’ sais she, a looking down, ‘at sleeping alone tonight, after hearing of these dreadful catastrophes.’
“‘Oh,’ sais I, ‘is that all?’
“‘But how did you lose her?’ said she.
“‘Why, she raced off,’ said I, ‘with the Turkish ambassador, and if I had a got hold of him, I’de a lammed him wuss than the devil beatin’ tan-bark, I know. I’de a had his melt, if there was a bowie-knife out of Kentucky.’