F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 40
the window-sill, draws from his bosom the concealed flask. "There,
Tom!" he says, with childlike satisfaction, holding the flask before
him--"only two pulls. To-morrow reef down to one; and the day after
swear a dissolution of copartnership, for this chap (he points to
the whiskey) is too mighty for you."
Tom hesitates, as if questioning the quality of the drug he is about
to administer.
"Only two!" interrupts the sailor. "It will reduce the ground-swell
a bit." The outcast places the flask to his lips, and having drank
with contorted face passes it back with a sigh, and extends his
right hand. "My honor is nothing to the world, Spunyarn, but it is
yet something to me; and by it I swear (here he grasps tighter the
hand of the old sailor, as a tear moistens his suffused cheeks)
never to touch the poison again. It has grappled me like a fierce
animal I could not shake off; it has made me the scoffed of felons-I
will cease to be its victim; and having gained the victory, be
hereafter a friend to myself."
"God bless you-may you never want a friend, Tom-and may He give you
strength to keep the resolution. That's my wish." And the old sailor
shook Tom's hand fervently, in pledge of his sincerity.
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH MR. SNIVEL, COMMONLY CALLED THE ACCOMMODATION MAN, IS
INTRODUCED, AND WHAT TAKES PLACE BETWEEN HIM AND MRS. SWIGGS.
READER! have you ever witnessed how cleverly one of our
mob-politicians can, through the all-soothing medium of a
mint-julep, transpose himself from a mass of passion and bad English
into a child of perfect equanimity? If not, perhaps you have
witnessed in our halls of Congress the sudden transition through
which some of our Carolina members pass from a state of stupidity to
a state of pugnacity? (We refer only to those members who do their
own "stumping," and as a natural consequence, get into Congress
through abuse of the North, bad whiskey, and a profusion of promises
to dissolve the Union.) And if you have, you may form some idea of