question,--why I hated your name? But the history of your father is
so mixed up with mine, that I cannot well tell one without the other.
I may as well begin with my own history, and that will be telling you
both."

"Then tell it me," replied I, "and do not tell me what is not true."

"No; I will tell you exactly what it was," replied Jackson; "you may
as well know it as not.--Your father and I were both born in England,
which you know is your country by birth, and you also know that the
language we talk is English."

"I did not know it. Tell me something about England before you say
any more."

I will not trouble the reader with Jackson's description of England,
or the many questions which I put to him. It was night-fall before he
had finished answering, and before I was satisfied with the
information imparted. I believe that he was very glad to hold his
tongue, for he complained of being tired, and I dressed his wound and
wetted the bandage with cold water for him before he went to sleep.

I can hardly describe to the reader the effect which this
uninterrupted flow of language had upon me; I was excited in a very
strange way, and for many nights after could not sleep for hours. I
may say here, I did not understand a great proportion of the meaning
of the words used by Jackson; but I gathered it from the context, as
I could not always be interrupting him.

It is astonishing how fast ideas breed ideas, and how a word, the