you?' said he.

"'Considerable sum,' sais I. Now, sais I to myself, this
is the rael object he sent for me for; but I won't tell
him nothin'. If he'd a up and askt me right off the reel,
like a man, he'd a found me up to the notch; but he thort
to play me off. Now I'll sarve him out his own way; so
here goes.

"'Your long acquaintance with the provinces, and familiar
intercourse with the people,' sais he, 'must have made
you quite at home on all colonial topics.'

"'I thought so once,' sais I; 'but I don't think so now
no more, Sir.'

"'Why how is that?' sais he.

"'Why, Sir,' sais I, 'you can hold a book so near your
eyes as not to be able to read a word of it; hold it off
further, and get the right focus, and you can read
beautiful. Now the right distance to see a colony, and
know all about it, is England. Three thousand miles is
the right focus for a political spy-glass. A man livin'
here, and who never was out of England, knows twice as
much about the provinces as I do.'

"'Oh, you are joking,' sais he.

"Not a bit,' sais I. 'I find folks here that not only