Prev | Current Page 79 | Next

Bacheller, Irving, 1859-1950

"A Man for the Ages A Story of the Builders of Democracy"

Doctor, you and I will take the end seats."
"My pills can be relied upon but my wit is like my dog, away from home
most of the time," said the Doctor.
"Gathering the bones with which you often astonish us," said Kelso. "How
are the lungs, Doctor?"
"They're all right. These long rides in the open are making a new man of
me. Another year in the city would have used me up."
"Mr. Traylor, you stand up as proud and firm as a big pine," Kelso
remarked. "I believe you're a Yankee."
"So do I," said Samson. "If you took all the Yankee out o' me I'd have an
empty skin."
Then Abe began to show the stranger his peculiar art in these words:
"Stephen Nuckles used to say: 'God's grace embraces the isles o' the sea
an' the uttermost parts o' the earth. It takes in the Esquimaux an' the
Hottentots. Some go so fur as to say that it takes in the Yankees but I
don't go so fur.'"
Samson joined in the good-natured laughter that followed.
"If you deal with some Yankees you take your life in your hands," he
said.


Pages:
67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91