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The Clockmaker — or, the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville by Thomas Chandler Haliburton
page 23 of 241 (09%)
the fire. Taking a small penknife from his pocket, he
began to whittle a thin piece of dry wood, which lay on
the hearth; and, after musing some time said, I guess
you've never been in the States. I replied that I had
not, but that before I returned to England I proposed
visiting that country. There, said he, you'll see the
great Daniel Webster--he's a great man, I tell you; King
William, number 4, I guess, would be no match for him as
an orator--he'd talk him out of sight in half an hour.
If he was in your house of Commons, I reckon he'd make
some of your great folks look pretty streaked--he's a
true patriot and statesman, the first in our country,
and a most particular cute Lawyer. There was a Quaker
chap too cute for him once tho'. This Quaker, a pretty
knowin' old shaver, had a cause down to Rhode Island; so
he went to Daniel to hire him to go down and plead his
case for him; so says he, Lawyer Webster what's your fee?
Why, says Daniel, let me see, I have to go down south to
Washington, to plead the great Insurance case of the
Hartford Company--and I've got to be at Cincinnati to
attend the Convention, and I don't see how I can go to
Rhode Island without great loss and great fatigue; it
would cost you may be more than you'd be willing to give.
Well, the Quaker looked pretty white about the gills, I
tell you, when he heard this, for he could not do without
him no how, and he did not like this preliminary talk of
his at all--at last he made bold to ask him the worst of
it, what he would take; why, says Daniel, I always liked
the Quakers, they are a quiet peaceable people who never
go to law if they can help it, and it would be better
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