in' do they?'

"'Sir.'

"'It's usual for the ladies,' sais I, 'to be together in the airly part
of the forenoon here, ain't it, afore the gentlemen jine them?'

"'Yes, Sir.'

"'It puts me in mind,' sais I, 'of the old seals down to Sable
Island--you know where Sable Isle is, don't you?'

"'Yes, Sir, it's in the cathedral down here.'

"'No, no, not that, it's an island on the coast of Nova Scotia. You know
where that is sartainly.'

"'I never heard of it, Sir.'

"'Well, Lord love you! you know what an old seal is?'

"'Oh, yes, sir, I'll get you my master's in a moment.'

And off he sot full chisel.

"Cus him! he is as stupid as a rook, that crittur, it's no use to tell
him a story, and now I think of it, I will go and smoke them black imps
of darkness,--the rooks.'

"So I goes up stairs, as slowly as I cleverly could, jist liftin' one
foot arter another as if it had a fifty-six tied to it, on pupus to
spend time; lit a cigar, opened the window nearest the rooks, and
smoked, but oh the rain killed all the smoke in a minite; it didn't even
make one on 'em sneeze. 'Dull musick this, Sam,' sais I, 'ain't it? Tell
you what: I'll put on my ile-skin, take an umbreller and go and talk to
the stable helps, for I feel as lonely as a catamount, and as dull as a
bachelor beaver. So I trampousses off to the stable, and says I to the
head man, 'A smart little hoss that,' sais I, 'you are a cleaning of: he
looks like a first chop article that.'

"'Y mae',' sais he.

"'Hullo,' sais I, 'what in natur' is this? Is it him that can't speak
English, or me that can't onderstand? for one on us is a fool, that's
sartain. I'll try him agin.

"So I sais to him, 'He looks,' sais I, 'as if he'd trot a considerable
good stick, that horse,' sais I, 'I guess he is a goer.'

"Y' mae, ye un trotter da,' sais he.

"'Creation!' sais I, 'if this don't beat gineral trainin'. I have heerd
in my time, broken French, broken Scotch, broken Irish, broken Yankee,
broken Nigger, and broken Indgin; but I have hearn two pure gene_wine_
languages to-day, and no mistake, rael rook, and rael Britton, and I
don't exactly know which I like wus. It's no use to stand talkin' to
this critter. Good-bye,' sais I.

"Now what do you think he said? Why, you would suppose he'd say good-bye
too, wouldn't you? Well, he didn't, nor nothin' like it, but he jist
ups, and sais, 'Forwelloaugh,' he did, upon my soul. I never felt so
stumpt afore in all my life. Sa