! ha! ha!
ain't it rich? Don't it cut six inches on the rib of clear shear, that.
Oh! it's han_sum_, that's a fact."

"It's no use to talk about it, Mr. Slick," I replied; "I plead guilty.
You took me in then. You touched a weak point. You insensibly flattered
my vanity, by assenting to my self-sufficiency, in supposing I was
exempt from that universal frailty of human nature; you "_threw the
Lavender_" well."

"I did put the leake into you, Squire, that's a fact," said he; "but let
me alone, I know what I am about; let me talk on, my own way. Swaller
what you like, spit out what is too strong for you; but don't put a
drag-chain on to me, when I am a doin' tall talkin', and set my wheels
as fast as pine stumps. You know me, and I know you. You know my speed,
and I know your bottom don't throw back in the breetchin' for nothin'
that way."

"Well, as I was a-sayin', I want you to see these great men, as they
call 'em. Let's weigh 'em, and measure 'em, and handle 'em, and then
price 'em, and see what their market valy is. Don't consider 'em as
Tories, or Whigs, or Radicals; we hante got nothin' to do with none o'
them; but consider 'em as statesmen. It's pot-luck with 'em all; take
your fork as the pot biles up, jab it in, and fetch a feller up, see
whether he is beef, pork or mutton; partridge, rabbit or lobster;
what his name, grain and flavour is, and how you like him. Treat 'em
indifferent, and treat 'em independent.

"I don't care a chaw o' tobacky for the whole on 'em; and none on 'em
care a pinch o' snuff for you or any Hortentort of a colonist that ever
was or ever will be. Lord love you! if you was to write like Scott, and
map the human mind like Bacon, would it advance you a bit in prefarment?
Not it. They have done enough for the colonists, they have turned 'em
upside down, and given 'em responsible government? What more do the
rascals want? Do they ask to be made equal to us? No, look at their
social system, and their political system, and tell 'em your opinion
like a man. You have heard enough of their opinions of colonies, and
suffered enough from their erroneous ones too. You have had Durham
reports, and commissioners' reports, and parliament reports till your
stomach refuses any more on 'em. And what are they? a bundle of mistakes
and misconceptions, from beginnin' to eend. They have travelled by
stumblin', and have measured every thing by the length of their knee,
as they fell on the ground, as a mill