that's a fact. 'One is a serious offence, I mean, sais
he; 'the other is not. We don't want to sarch; we only
want to look a slaver in the face, and see whether he is
a free and enlightened American or not. If he is, the
_flag of liberty_ protects him and _his slaves_; if he
ain't, it don't protect him, nor them nother.'

"Then he did a leadin' article on slavery, and a paragraph
on non-intervention, and spoke a little soft sawder about
America, and wound up by askin' me if he had made himself
onderstood.

"'Plain as a boot-jack,' sais I.

"When that was over, he took breath. He sot back on his
chair, put one leg over the other, and took a fresh
departur' agin.

"'I have read your books, Mr. Slick,' said he, 'and read
'em, too, with great pleasure. You have been a great
traveller in your day. You've been round the world a'most,
haven't you?'

"'Well,' sais I, 'I sharn't say I hante.'

"'What a deal of information a man of your observation
must have acquired.' (He is a gentlemanly man, that you
may depend. I don't know when I've see'd one so well
mannered.)