extracts from Jefferson Brick's and Lafayette Kettle's speeches, and
Elijah Pogram's Defiance, from "Martin Chuzzlewit." Gazing at
Gus, who was convulsed with suppressed merriment, he thundered
forth:--

"In the name of our common country, sir, in the name of that
righteous cause in which we are jined, and in the name of the
star-spangled banner, I thank you for your eloquent and categorical
remarks. You, sir, are a model of a man fresh from Natur's mould.
A true-born child of this free hemisphere; verdant as the mountains
of our land; bright and flowin' as our mineral Licks; unspiled by
fashion as air our boundless perearers. Rough you may be; so air
our Barrs. Wild you may be; so air our Buffalers. But, sir, you air
a Child of Freedom, and your proud answer to the Tyrant is, that
your bright home is in the Settin' Sun. And, sir, if any man denies
this fact, though it be the British Lion himself, I defy him. Let me
have him here!"--smiting the table, and causing the inkstand to
skip--"here, upon this sacred altar! Here, upon the ancestral ashes
cemented with the glorious blood poured out like water on the
plains of Chickabiddy Lick. Alone I dare that Lion, and tell him
that Freedom's hand once twisted in his mane, he rolls a corse
before me, and the Eagles of the Great Republic scream, Ha, ha!"

By this time the boys were rolling about in fits of laughter; even
sober Frank was red and breathless, and Jack lay back, feebly
squealing, as he could laugh no more. In a moment Ralph was as
meek as a Quaker, and sat looking about him with a mildly
astonished air, as if inquiring the cause of such unseemly mirth. A
knock at the door produced a lull, and in came a maid with apples.