Then the
dream changed into a horrible nightmare in the shape of a big
sawhorse which kicked at me and threatened me with hard labor.
Toward morning, when the door was opened and a drunken ruffian
entered, I awoke from my troubled slumbers. "Hi, Dutchy, and have yez
any tin?" he threatened. "Kind sir," I replied, "when I departed for
the West I left all my wealth behind me." Verily, now I was proving
myself the worthy scion of valiant men, who had laid aside hauberk,
sword, and lance, taken up the Bible and stole, and thenceforth
fought only with the weapon of Samson, the strong!
"And so yez are, by special appointment, chamberlain to the gurruls
by day, and ivver sawing wood at nighttime! Bedad! I'll shpile the
thrick for Misther Payterson, the thaving baste, and take this little
greenhorn out of his clutches and sind him about his business." With
these words, he opened the door for me and I escaped.
Farewell, lovely maids of Kansas and Missouri! If mayhap this writing
comes to you, oh, let us meet again; my heart yearns to greet you and
your granddaughters. For surely, though it seems to me as yesterday,
the blossoms of forty summers have fallen in our path and whitened
our hair.
CHAPTER II.
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