u do have
a hand like a gorilla's."

It hain't so; I never wore higher than number 7. But I have never seen
him since pull out his hands so recklessly measurin' off the
dimensions of that fish, or gin hints that it took two men to carry it
up from the boat to the hotel, and insinuate on how many wuz
nourished on it, and for how long a time.

No, I broke it up. But Josiah Allen hain't the only man that stretches
out the fish they have ketched, as if they wuz made of the best kind
of Injy rubber. It seems nateral to men's nater to tell fibs about
fish. Curious, hain't it? That is one of the curious things that lay
holt of our lines. And wimmen have to see squirmin' at their feet anon
or oftener, game that flops and wriggles and won't lay still and grows
all the time.

CHAPTER SIX

IN WHICH I DRAW THE MATRIMONIAL LINE ROUND MY PARDNER AND ALSO KEEP MY
EYE ON MR. POMPER

CHAPTER SIX

IN WHICH I DRAW THE MATRIMONIAL LINE ROUND MY PARDNER AND ALSO KEEP
MY EYE ON MR. POMPER

The next mornin' Whitfield and Tirzah went home, Josiah and I thinkin'
we would stay a few days longer. And what should I git but a letter
from Cousin Faithful Smith sayin' that her Aunt Petrie beyond Kingston
wuz enjoyin' poor health, and felt that she must have Faith come and
visit her before she went West. So she wuz goin' to cut short her
visit to the Smithses and go to her Aunt Petrie's on her way to the
West, and as she had heard Josiah and I wuz to the Islands, she would
stop and stay a few days with us there. And as the letter had been
delayed, she wuz to be there that very day on the afternoon boat. So
of course Josiah and I met her at Clayton. And I went to the
boardin'-house keeper to see if I could git her a room.

But she wuz full, Miss Dagget wuz; and when anybody is full there is
no more to be said; so with many groanin's from my pardner, on account
of the higher price, we concluded we would git rooms at the hotel,
that big roomy place, with broad piazzas runnin' round it and high
ruffs. And as Josiah said bitterly, the ruffs wuzn't any higher than
the prices. And I told him the prices wuzn't none too high for what we
got, and I sez, "We are gittin' along in years and don't often rush
into such high expenses, so we'll make the venter."

And he groaned out, "Good reason why we don't make the venter often,
unless we want to go on the Town!"

And then he kinder brightened up and wondered if he couldn't make a
dicker