At first he had felt a little overawed by Arthur's
elegant appearance, and had whispered to his neighbor:
'That's a swell, and no mistake. I s'pose that's what you call foreign
get up. Well, me and ma is goin' to Europe some time, and hang me if I
don't put on style when I come home. I'd kind of like to speak to the
feller. I wonder if he remember that I was runnin' a boat when he went
away?'
If Arthur did remember it he showed no sign when Peterkin at last
pressed up to him, claiming his attention, as Captain Peterkin, of the
_'Liza Ann_, the fastest boat on the canal, and by George, the
all-tiredest meanest, too, I guess, he said: 'but them days is past, and
the old captain is past with them. I dabbled a little in ile, and if I
do say it, I could about buy up the whole canal if I wanted to; but I
ain't an atom proud, and I don't forget the old boatin' days, and I've
got the old '_Liza Ann_ hauled up inter my back yard as a relict. The
children use it for a play-house, but to me it is a--a--what do you call
it? a--gol darn it, what is it?'
'Souvenir,' suggested Arthur, vastly amused at this tirade, which had
assumed the form of a speech, and drawn a crowd around him.
'Wall, yes; I s'pose that's it, though 'taint exactly what I was trying
to think of,' he said.
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