any
consid'able extent--not enough to stick my nose up much. The men I
worked fer was rough, an' I got my share of cusses an' cuffs, an' once
in a while a kick to keep up my spirit of perseverance; but, on the
hull, I think I got more kindness 'n I did at home (leavin' Polly out),
an' as fer gen'ral treatment, none on 'em c'd come up to my father, an'
wuss yet, my oldest brother 'Lish. The cap'n that throwed me overboard
was the wust, but alongside o' 'Lish he was a forty hosspower angil with
a hull music store o' harps; an' even my father c'd 'a' given him cards
an' spades; an' as fer the victuals" (here David dropped his cigar end
and pulled from his pocket the silver tobacco box)--"as fer the
victuals," he repeated, "they mostly averaged up putty high after what
I'd ben used to. Why, I don't believe I ever tasted a piece of beefsteak
or roast beef in my life till after I left home. When we had meat at all
it was pork--boiled pork, fried pork, pigs' liver, an' all that, enough
to make you 'shamed to look a pig in the face--an' fer the rest,
potatoes, an' duff, an' johnny-cake, an' meal mush, an' milk emptins
bread that you c'd smell a mile after it got cold. With 'leven folks on
a small farm nuthin' c'd afford to be eat that c'd be sold, an'
ev'rythin' that couldn't be sold had to be eat. Once in a while the' 'd
be pie of some kind, or gingerbread; but with 'leven to eat 'em I didn't
ever git more 'n enough to set me hankerin'."

"I must say that I think I should have liked the canal better," remarked
John as David paused. "You were, at any rate, more or less free--that
is, comparatively, I should say."

"Yes, sir, I did," said David, "an' I never see the time, no matter how
rough things was, that I wished I was back on Buxton Hill. I used to
want to see Polly putty bad once in a while, an' used to figure that if
I ever growed up to be a man, an' had money enough, I'd buy her a new
pair o' shoes an' the stuff fer a dress, an' sometimes my cal'lations
went as fur 's a gold breastpin; but I never wanted to see none o' the
rest on 'em, an' fer that matter, I never did. Yes, sir, the old ditch
was better to me than the place I was borned in, an', as you say, I
wa'n't nobody's slave, an' I wa'n't scairt to death the hull time. Some
o' the men was rough, but they wa'n't cruel, as a rule, an' as I growed
up a little I was putty well able to look out fer myself--wa'al, wa'al
(looking at his watch), I guess you must 'a' had e