history and means, and like a driver of an English Stage
Coach, was not unwilling to impart what he knew. Do you
see that snug looking house there, said he, with a short
sarce garden afore it, that belongs to Elder Thomson.
The Elder is pretty close fisted, and holds special fast
to all he gets. He is a just man and very pious, but I
have observed when a man becomes near about too good, he
is apt, sometimes, to slip a head into avarice, unless
he looks sharp arter his girths. A friend of mine in
Connecticut, an old sea Captain, who was once let in for
it pretty deep, by a man with a broader brim than common,
said to me, friend Sam, says he, "I don't like those
folks who are too d--n good." There is, I expect, some
truth in it, tho' he need'nt have swore at all, but he
was an awful hand to swear. Howsomever that may be, there
is a story about the Elder, that's not so coarse neither.
It appears, an old Minister came there once, to hold a
meetin at his house--well, after meetin was over, the
Elder took the minister all over his farm, which is pretty
tidy, I tell you; and he shewed him a great Ox he had,
and a swingeing big Pig, that weighed some six or seven
hundred weight, that he was plaguy proud of, but he never
offered the old minister any thing to eat or drink. The
preacher was pretty tired of all this, and seeing no
prospect of being asked to partake with the family, and
tolerably sharp set, he asked one of the boys to fetch
him his horse out of the barn. When he was taking leave
of the Elder, (there were several folks by at the time,)
says he, Elder Thomson, you have a fine farm here, a very
fine farm, indeed; you have a large Ox too, a very large