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"Me no muckle to fight for, sir? isna there the country to fight for, and the burnsides that I gang daundering beside, and the hearths o'the gudewives that gie me my bit bread, and the bits o' weans that come toddling to play wi' me when I come about a landward town? Deil!" he continued, grasping his pike-staff with great emphasis, "an I had as gude pith as I hae gude-will, and a gude cause, I should gie some o' them a day's kemping."
"Hout, lad," said Edie, getting down in his room "let me try my hand for an auld bedral; ye're gude seekers, but ill finders." So soon as he got into the grave, he struck his pike-staff forcibly down; it encountered resistance in its descent, and the beggar exclaimed, like a Scotch schoolboy when he finds anything, "Nae halvers and quarters hale o' mine ain and 'nane o' my neighbour's."
Course, she's set Monty to watch, an' he's gone off a-fishin'. That's as plain as a pike-staff. Pshaw! Folks so poor they can't feed their stawk hain't a right to keep any, I declare! When I get to be constable I'll straighten some things in Marsden township that's terrible crooked now; an' the very first one I'd complain of or arrest would be that lazy little stutterin' Monty Sturtevant!"
A Greek esteemed beyond price a few leaves of olive twisted into a circular shape and set upon his head, a very ridiculous head-gear we should now call it. A time will come when people will think that as idle a decoration as leaves and scalps." "Brother," said the Captain, "there is nothing strange in the matter. It is as plain as a pike-staff to a man who understands the principles of honor."
"I thought she meant what she said," replied Susan, "that she would come here at six o'clock." "Ay, that's as plain as a pike-staff," said Barbara; "but what else did she mean, think you? People, you know, don't always mean exactly, downright, neither more nor less than what they say." "Not always," said Susan, with an arch smile, which convinced Barbara that she was not quite a simpleton.
"Me no muckle to fight for, sir? isna there the country to fight for, and the burnsides that I gang daundering beside, and the hearths o'the gudewives that gie me my bit bread, and the bits o' weans that come toddling to play wi' me when I come about a landward town? Deil!" he continued, grasping his pike-staff with great emphasis, "an I had as gude pith as I hae gude-will, and a gude cause, I should gie some o' them a day's kemping."
I allers said, an I allers will say," and the glitter that came into Ezra's eye indicated that he felt the inspiring bound of his hobby beneath him, "ef govment makes folks pay ther debts, govment's baoun ter see they hez sunthin tew pay em with. I callate that's plain ez a pike-staff. An it's jess so with taxes. Ef govment "
But surely there was never sic a braw propine as this sent to a yerl by an auld fishwife, and through the hands of a gaberlunzie beggar." With this reflection, Edie took up his pike-staff, put on his broad-brimmed bonnet, and set forth upon his pilgrimage. The old woman remained for some time standing in a fixed posture, her eyes directed to the door through which her ambassador had departed.
"'Dusky Fowl' evidently stands for 'rook, and 'rook' for 'Rook Hotel, and 'Rook Hotel' for 'Mrs. Stapleton. And that being the case, who else can 'D.C. stand for but 'Dulcie Challoner'? It's as plain as a pike-staff." "By Jove, Dick," I said after a few moments' pause, "I believe you are right!" "I am sure I am," he answered with complete self-assurance.
I tell you, master, I, Pons, your servant, a poor old man who knows not a letter from a pike-staff I tell you God lives, and the time you shall appear before him is short." He paused with sudden recollection, and added: "He is here, the priest you spoke of." On the instant I remembered my engagement. "Why did you not tell me before?" I demanded angrily. "What did it matter?"
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