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Look at me, I says, and see what I've come to, with my forty year o' sailorin' all about the world an' furrin parts a poor rhumenaticky chap as is half a cripple, forced to eke out his miserable pension of a bob an' a tanner a day by pulling a rotten old tub of a boat back'ards and forruds, up and down Porchm'uth Harbo'r, a-tryin' to gain an honest livin', an' jest only arnin' bread an' cheese at that!"
"Master Marner," she said, one day that she came to bring home Eppie's washing, "I've been sore puzzled for a good bit wi' that trouble o' yourn and the drawing o' lots; and it got twisted back'ards and for'ards, as I didn't know which end to lay hold on.
For a matter of nigh upon forty year you've carried me, man and boy, back'ards and for'ards in safety and comfort over these here seas; and now, like a jade, you goes and founders, a desartin' of me in my old age. Arter a lifetime spent upon the heavin' buzzum of the stormy ocean `where the winds do blow, do blow' you're bound to-day to y'ur last moorin's in old Davy's locker.
Henry Gully were Mr. "'De town were a-millin' wid folks from ever'where. Chisolm an' dem done got in de jail for safety an' Miss Cornelia Chisolm went back'ards an' for'ards to de jail. Mr. McClendon he were one of' em were wid her twict. He were on de right-hand side. Some b'lieved he were de one dat killed Mr. John Gully.
From there in due time he might have gained promotion to the augmented dignities of Congress, but he had persistently waved aside the whispers of such temptation. "He hain't a wishful feller nohow," the stranger was always told, "despite thet he knows hist'ry an' sich like lore in an' out an' back'ards an' forrards."
So I clim' a little higher, and when the tree begun ter bend, that bar sot thar and just laffed, if ever a bar laffed in this world. The tree kep' swayin' back'ards and for'ards jist like a cradle. "I watched my chance, and, when ther top come putty nigh ther ground, I jist dropped, and, when I picked myself up, blast my eyes, ef thar warn't ther bar, right side er me.
He cussed the man he shot, then he cussed the world, then he cussed hisself, and with a terr'ble oath he jumped off the bough, and swung back'ards and for'ards with his neck broke. 'An Englishman, I reflected aloud. He nodded. 'You're a Britisher, I reckon, ain't yer? 'Yes; why? 'Wal, you've a puty strong accent. 'Think so? 'Wal, I could jest tie a knot in it.
I saw him walk up to the glass, and walk back from the glass. And when he'd got up to the glass he bowed, he did, and he went back'ards just so." Doubtless the presence of a lady was the active agent that prevented Crummins from doubling his body entirely, and giving more than a rapid indication of the posture of Mr. Tinman in his retreat before the glass.
Ef we don't stan' togedder an' keep de white folks from a-takin' away what we's got, we nebber gits no mo'. In fac', we jes goes back'ards instead o' forrards till yer can't tell de difference twixt a free nigger an' a rale ole time slave. Dat's my 'pinion, an' I say now's de time ter begin jes when dey begins.
"Now, Tom," said the captain, "I spoke to you, when we first came here, respecting your constitutional weakness on the subject of sun-stroke." "You did, sir." "Will my slow friend," said the captain, "lend me his arm, or I shall sink right back'ards into this blessed steward's cookery?
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