"Who shall I say, Sir?"

The stranger paused a moment, and then said, "It's such an everlastin'
long name, I don't think you can carry it all to wunst, and I don't
want it broke in two. Tell him it's a gentleman that calculates to
hold a protracted meeten here to-night. Come, don't stand starin'
there on the track, you might get run over. Don't you hear the engine
coming? Shunt off now."

"Ah, my old friend," said I, advancing, and shaking him by the hand,
"how are you?"

"As hearty as a buck," he replied, "though I can't jist jump quite so
high now."

"I knew you," I said, "the moment I heard your voice, and if I had not
recognised that, I should have known your talk."

"That's because I am a Yankee, Sir," he said, "no two of us look
alike, or talk alike; but being free and enlightened citizens, we jist
talk as we please."

"Ah, my good friend, you always please when you talk, and that is more
than can be said of most men."

"And so will you," he replied, "if you use soft sawder that way. Oh,
dear me! it seems but the other day that you laughed so at my theory
of soft sawder and human natur', don't it? They were pleasant days,
warn't they? I often think of them, and think of them with pleasure
too. As I was passing Halifax harbour, on my way hum in the 'Black