other as one of those accidental
acquaintances which, it is known, we all form at watering-places, on
journeys, or in the country, and which it is ill-mannered to press upon
others in town; or, as Captain Poke afterwards expressed it, like the
intimacy between an Englishman and a Yankee, that has been formed in the
house of the latter, on better wine than is met with anywhere else, and
which was never yet known to withstand the influence of a British fog.
"Why, Sir John," the sealer added, "I once tuck (he meant to say TOOK,
not TUCKED) a countryman of yours under my wing, at Stunin'tun, during
the last war. He was a prisoner, as we make prisoners; that is, he
went and did pretty much as he pleased; and the fellow had the best of
everything--molasses that a spoon would stand up in, pork that would do
to slush down a topmast, and New England rum, that a king might set down
to, but could not get up from--well, what was the end on't? Why, as sure
as we are among these monkeys, the fellow BOOKED me. Had I BOOKED but
the half of what he guzzled, the amount, I do believe, would have taken
the transaction out of any justice's court in the state. He said my
molasses was meagre, the pork lean, and the liquor infernal. There
were truth and gratitude for you! He gave the whul account, too, as a
specimen of what he called American living!"

Hereupon I reminded my companion, that an Englishman did not like to
receive even favors on compulsion; that when he meets a stranger in his
own country, and is master of his own actions, no man understands better
what true hospitality is, as I hoped one day to show him, at Householder
Hall; as to his first remark, he ought to remember that an Englishman
considered America as no more than the country, and that it would be
ill-mannered to press an acquaintance made there.

Noah, like most other men, was very reasonable on all subjects that did
not interfere with his prejudices or his opinions; and he very readily
admitted the general justice of my reply.

"It's pretty much as you say, Sir John," he continued; "in England you
may press men, but it won't do to press hospitality. Get a volunteer in
this way, and he is as good a fellow as heart can wish. I shouldn't have
cared so much about the chap's book, if he had said nothin' ag'in the
rum. Why, Sir John, when the English bombarded Stunin'tun with eighteen
pounders, I proposed to load our old twelve with a gallon out of the
very same cask, for