Page:1880. A Tramp Abroad.djvu/206

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194
THE HOMESICK AMERICAN.

wanted me to; but that kind of thing don't excite me, I like something hearty. But I'm awful homesick. I'm homesick from ear-socket to crupper, and from crupper to hock joint; but it ain't any use, I've got to stay here, till the old man drops the rag and gives the word,—yes, sir, right here in this —————— country I've got to linger till the old man says Come!—and you bet your bottom dollar, Johnny, it ain't just as easy as it is for a cat to have twins!"

At the end of this profane and cordial explosion he

THE PARSON CAPTURED.

fetched a prodigious "Whoosh!" to relieve his lungs and make recognition of the heat, and then he straightway dived into his narrative again for "Johnny's" benefit, beginning, "Well, —————— it ain't any use talking, some of those old American words do have a kind of a bully swing to them; a man can express himself with 'em,—a man can get at what he wants to say, dontchuknow."

When we reached our hotel and it seemed that he was about to lose the Reverend, he showed so much sorrow, and begged so hard and so earnestly that the Reverend's heart was not hard enough to hold out against the pleadings,—so he went away with the parent-honoring student, like a right Christian, and took supper with him in his lodgings and sat