“He sprung right up on eend, as if he had been stung by a galley nipper, did Steve, ‘Let me alone,’ said he. ‘What have I done to be jobed, that way? Didn’t I keep within the strict line o’ truth? Did I tell that Frenchman one mossel of a lie? Answer me, that, will you? I’ve been cheated awful; but I scorn to take the advantage of any man. You had better look to your own dealin’s, and let me alone, you pedlin’, cheatin’ Yankee clockmaker you.’
“‘Elder,’ sais I, ‘if you warn’t too mean to rile a man, I’d give you a kick on your pillion, that would send you a divin’ arter your hoss; but you ain’t worth it. Don’t call me names tho’, or I’ll settle your coffee for you, without a fish skin, afore you are ready to swaller it I can tell you. So keep your mouth shut, my old coon, or your teeth might get sun-burnt. You think you are angry with me; but you aint; you are angry with yourself. You know you have showd yourself a proper fool for to come, for to go, for to talk to a man that has seed so much of the world as I have, bout “refreshin’ time,” and “outpourin’ of spirit,” and “makin’ profession” and what not; and you know you showd yourself an everlastin’ rogue, a meditatin’ of cheatin’ that Frenchman all summer. It’s biter bit, and I don’t pity you one mossel; it sarves you right. But look at the grave-digger; he looks to me as if he was a diggin’ of his own grave in rael right down airnest.’
“The captain havin’ his boat histed, and thinkin’ the hoss would swim ashore of hisself, kept right straight on; and the hoss swam this way, and that way, and every way but the right road, jist as the eddies took him. At last, he got into the ripps off of Johnston’s pint, and they wheeled him right round and round like a whip-top. Poor pony! he got his match at last. He struggled, and jumpt, and plunged and fort, like a man, for dear life. Fust went up his knowin’ little head, that had no ears; and he tried to jump up and rear out of it, as he used to did out of a mire hole or honey pot ashore; but there was no bottom there; nothin’ for his hind foot to spring from; so down he went agin ever so deep: and then he tried t’other eend, and up went his broad rump, that had no tail; but there was nothin’ for the fore feet to rest on nother; so he made a summerset, and as he went over, he gave out a great long end wise kick to the full stretch of his hind legs.
“Poor feller! it was the last kick he ever gave in this world; he sent his heels straight up on eend, like a pair of kitchen tongs, and the last I see of him was a bright dazzle, as the sun shined on his iron shoes, afore the water closed over him for ever.
“I railly felt sorry for the poor old ‘grave-digger,’ I did upon my soul, for hosses and ladies are two things, that a body can’t help likin’. Indeed, a feller that hante no taste that way ain’t a man at all, in my opinion. Yes, I felt ugly for poor ‘grave-digger,’ though I didn’t feel one single bit so for that cantin’ cheatin’, old Elder. So when I turns to go, sais I, ‘Elder,’ sais I, and I jist repeated his own words—‘I guess it’s your turn to laugh now, for you have got the best of the bargain, and no mistake. Goodish and the old mare are jist alike, all tongue, ain’t they? But these French is a simple people, so they be; they don’t know nothin’, that’s a fact. Their priests keep ‘em in ignorance a puppus.
“The next time you tell your experience to the great Christian meetin’ to Goose Creek, jist up and tell ‘em, from beginnin’ to eend, the story of the—‘Elder and the Grave-digger.’”
CHAPTER XIII. LOOKING BACK.
In the course of the evening, Mr. Hopewell adverted to his return as a matter of professional duty, and spoke of it in such a feeling and earnest manner, as to leave no doubt upon my mind, that we should not be able to detain him long in this country, unless his attention should be kept fully occupied by a constant change of scene.
Mr. Slick expressed to me the same fear, and, knowing that I had been talking of going to Scotland, entreated me not to be long absent, for he felt convinced that as soon as he should be left alone, his thoughts and wishes would at once revert to America.