“Thank you,” sais I, “but I am afraid I must be a moving. “Fact is, my stomach was movin’ then, for it fairly made me sick. Yes, I’d a plaguy sight sooner see a man embroidering, which is about as contemptible an accomplishment as an idler can have, than to hear him everlastingly smack his lips, and see him open his eyes and gloat like an anaconda before he takes down a bullock, horns, hair, and hoof, tank, shank, and flank, at one bolt, as if it was an opium pill to make him sleep.
Well, all this long lockrum arose out of my saying I should like to have the receipt by which Jessie’s sister had cooked the salmon for dinner; and I intend to get it too, that’s a fact. As we concluded our meal, “Doctor,” sais I, “we have been meditating mischief in your absence. What do you say to our makin’ a party to visit the ‘Bachelor beaver’s dam,’ and see your museum, fixins, betterments, and what not?”
“Why,” said he, “I should like it above all things; but—”
“But what?” said I.
“But I am afraid, as you must stay all night, if you go, my poor wigwam won’t accommodate so many with beds.”
“Oh! some of us will camp out,” sais I, “I am used to it, and like it a plaguy sight better than hot rooms.”
“Just the thing,” said he. “Oh! Mr Slick, you are a man after my own heart. The nature of all foresters is alike, red or white, English or French, Yankee or Blue-nose.”
Jessie looked up at the coïncidence of that expression with what I had said yesterday.
“Blue-nose,” said I, “Doctor,” to familiarize the girl’s mind to the idea I had started of the mixed race being on a footing of equality with the other two, “Blue-nose ought to be the best, for he is half Yankee and half English; two of the greatest people on the face of the airth!”
“True,” said he, “by right he ought to be, and it’s his own fault he ain’t.”