nailed to the mast it’s a sign that things grow desperate. Ha, ha! Old Ahab! The White Whale; he’ll nail ye! This is a pine tree. My father, in old Tolland county, cut down a pine tree once, and found a silver ring grown over in it; some old darkey’s wedding ring. How did it get there? And so they’ll say in the resurrection, when they come to fish up this old mast, and find a doubloon lodged in it, with bedded oysters for the shaggy bark.

Oh, the gold! The precious, precious, gold! The green miser’ll hoard ye soon! Hish! Hish! God goes ’mong the worlds blackberrying. Cook! Ho, cook! And cook us! Jenny! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Jenny, Jenny! And get your hoe-cake done!”