"Well-read, Frank, and say, when you hear the contents, whether you would be particularly sorry to learn that the old lady had, as sailors say, her hands well greased, and a fast hold upon the moon? Read, d——n it, man! there's no trouble in deciphering my aunt Catharine's penmanship. Hers is not what Tony Lumpkin complained of—a cursed cramp hand; all clear and unmistakable—the t's accurately stroked across, and the i's dotted to a nicety. Go on—read, man, read."
I obeyed the order, and thus ran the missive, my honored father adding a running commentary at every important passage; shall place them in italics—
"'MY DEAR NEPHEW,'"
"Oh, —— her affection!"
"'If, by a merciful dispensation, I shall be permitted to have a few spiritual minded friends to-morrow, at four o'clock, at dinner—'"
"Temps militaire—they won't fail you, my old girl."
"'I shall then have reached an age to which few arrive—look to the psalm—namely, to eighty—'"
"She's eighty-three—"
"'I have, under the mercy of Providence, and the ministry of a chosen vessel, the Reverend Carter Kettlewell, and also a worshiping Christian learned in the law, namely, Mr. Selby Sly, put my earthly house in order. Would that spiritual preparation could he as easily accomplished; but yet I feel well convinced that mine is a state of grace, and Mr. Kettlewell gives me a comfortable assurance that in me the old man if crucified—'"
"Did you ever listen to such rascally cant?"