reat many things which were new to him, and he says that British
America is as different from the United States as if it were not a part
of the same continent. None of the crew minded walking about on shore in
the rain, and while they were gone I was alone, excepting Dick, and he
was on deck writing a letter to his sister, to send across the country
and prepare her for his return; for you know she thinks that he is dead.
When David came back, though, I had fun enough; for he gave me the most
amusing description of every thing he had seen.
"Hurrah for New England!" he exclaimed, as soon as he got on board.
"John Bull don't beat Brother Jonathan yet. Let them talk of their lords
and their ladies; there is not a gentleman in Boston that is not quite
as noble-looking as the one that I saw, and a great deal more knowing, I
can tell you. We saw a splendid carriage and four, with a troop of
soldiers in red tramping after it, and a passably pretty flag flying
over them. I asked a little boy whom we met what they were about, and he
replied, that they were escorting a great British general, who had just
come over to the Provinces. I ran forward to get a peep at the wonder,
and had a good stare at the old fellow; and such another fright you
never saw. I wished I had a temperance tract to give him, for his face
was redder than the sun last night, when it went down in a cloud, and
his eyes looked like stoppers to a whiskey-bottle, which had got soaked
through. He'd better not have much to do with fire-arms, for he'd blow
up to a certainty. They say he lies in bed till twelve o'clock every
day, and then does nothing but just drink and eat, and drink and smoke,
till midnight. I am glad that our government has no such loafers to
maintain."
"But did not the place itself look flourishing?" I asked, amused at his
warmth.
"No, indeed!" he replied; "every body had a constrained air, as if they
were in bondage, and it made my blood boil to see two fine-appearing
men waiting so obsequiously on a good-for-nothing young scamp, just
because he had a title to his name. I hope that I shall never live to
see the day when there is any such nonsense tagging to my label as they
string on to theirs. How much better George Washington sounds than the
Honorable Alexis Fiddle Faddle, &c."
"That's a nobleman I never heard of," said old Jack, laughing at David's
vexation; "but Nelson is a very fine-sounding name, for all it's an
English one."
"A
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