with his pocket-handkerchief.


Starbottle. This is evidently the er--locality. Here are the--er--
groves of Academus--the heights of er--Ida! I should say that the
unwillingness which the--er--divine Shakespeare points out in the--
er--"whining schoolboy" is intensified in--er--climbing this
height, and the--er--alacrity of his departure must be in exact
ratio to his gravitation. Good idea. Ged! say it to schoolma'am.
Wonder what she's like? Humph! the usual thin, weazened, hatchet-
faced Yankee spinster, with an indecent familiarity with Webster's
Dictionary! And this is the woman, Star, you're expected to
discover, and bring back to affluence and plenty. This is the new
fanaticism of Mr. Alexander Morton, sen. Ged! not satisfied with
dragging his prodigal son out of merited obscurity, this miserable
old lunatic commissions ME to hunt up another of his abused
relatives; some forty-fifth cousin, whose mother he had frozen,
beaten, or starved to death! And all this to please his prodigal!
Ged! if that prodigal hadn't presented himself that morning, I'd
have picked up--er--some--er--reduced gentleman--Ged, that knew how
to spend the old man's money to better advantage. (Musing.) If
this schoolmistress were barely good-looking, Star,--and she's sure
to have fifty thousand from the old man,--Ged, you might get even
with Alexander, sen., for betrothing his prodigal to Dona Jovita,
in spite of the--er--evident preference that the girl showed for
you. Capital idea! If she's not positively hideous I'll do it!
Ged! I'll reconnoitre first! (Musing.) I could stand one eye;
yes--er--single eye would not be positively objectionable in the--
er--present experiments of science toward the--er--the substitution
of glass. Red hair, Star, is--er--Venetian,--the beauty of