and see the world--that is to say, she would
go chambermaiding on a steamboat, the darling ambition of her race and
sex.
Her last call was on the black giant, Jasper. She found him chopping
Pudd'nhead Wilson's winter provision of wood.
Wilson was chatting with him when Roxy arrived. He asked her how she
could bear to go off chambermaiding and leave her boys; and chaffingly
offered to copy off a series of their fingerprints, reaching up to their
twelfth year, for her to remember them by; but she sobered in a moment,
wondering if he suspected anything; then she said she believed she didn't
want them. Wilson said to himself, "The drop of black blood in her is
superstitious; she thinks there's some devilry, some witch business about
my glass mystery somewhere; she used to come here with an old horseshoe
in her hand; it could have been an accident, but I doubt it."
CHAPTER 5 -- The Twins Thrill Dawson's Landing
_Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond;
cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college
education._ --Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
_Remark of Dr. Baldwin's, concerning upstarts: We don't care
to eat toadstools that think they are truffles._
--Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
Mrs. York Driscoll enjoyed two years of bliss with that prize,
Tom--bliss that was troubled a little at times, it is true, but bliss
nevertheless; then she died, and her husband and his childless sister,
Mrs. Pratt, continued this bliss-business at the old stand. Tom was
petted and indulged and spoiled to his entire content--or nearly that.
This went on till he was nineteen, then he was sent to Yale. He went
handsomely equipped with "conditions," but otherwise he was not an object
of distinction there. He remained at Yale two years, and then threw up
the struggle. He came home with his manners a good deal improved; he had
lost his surliness and brusqueness, and was rather pleasantly soft and
smooth, now; he was furtively, and sometimes openly, ironical of speech,
and given to gently touching people on the raw, but he did it with a
good-natured semiconscious air that carried it off safely, and kept him
from getting into trouble. He was as indolent as ever and showed no very
strenuous desire to hunt up an occupation. People argued from this that
he preferred to be supported by his uncle until his uncle's shoes should
become vacant. He brought back one or two new habits with him, one of
which he rather openly practiced--tippling
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