While Ben is showing him in, we will introduce him more fully to our
readers, promising that the picture is not overdrawn, but such as we
saw it in our native state. Joel belonged to that extreme class of
Yankees with which we sometimes, though not often meet. Brought up
among the New England mountains, he was almost wholly ignorant of what
really belonged to good manners, fancying that he knew everything, and
sneering at those of his acquaintance who, being of a more quiet turn
of mind, were content to settle down in the home of their fathers,
caring little or nothing for the world without. But as for him, “he was
bound,” he said, “to see the elephant, and if his brothers were green
enough to stay tied to their mother’s apron strings, they might do it,
but he wouldn’t. No, _sir_! he was going to make something of himself.”
To effect this, about two years before the time of which we are
speaking, he went to Boston to learn the art of daguerreotype-taking,
in which he really did seem to excel, returning home with some money, a
great deal of vanity, and a strong propensity to boast of what he had
seen. Recollections of ’Lena, his early, and, as he sentimentally
expressed it, “his undying, all-enduring” love, still haunted him, and
at last he determined upon a tour to Kentucky, purchasing for the
occasion a rather fantastic suit, consisting of greenish pants, blue
coat, red vest, and yellow neck-handkerchief. These he laid carefully
by in his trunk until he reached Lexington, where he intended stopping
for a time, hanging out a naming sign, which announced his presence and
capabilities.
After spending a few days in the city, endeavoring to impress its
inhabitants with a sense of his consequence, and mentally styling them
all “Know Nothings,” be-cause they did not seem to be more affected, he
one afternoon donned his best suit, and started for Mr. Livingstone’s,
thinking he should create a sensation there, for wasn’t he as good as
anybody? Didn’t he learn his trade in Boston, the very center and
source of all the _isms_ of the day, and ought not Mr. Livingstone to
feel proud of such a guest, and wouldn’t ’Lena stare when she saw him
so much improved from what he was when they picked _checkerberries_
together?
With this comfortable opinion of himself, it is not at all probable
that he felt any misgivings when Ben ushered him at once into the
presence of Mr. Livingstone’s family, who stared at him in unfeigned
astonishment. Nothing daunted, he went through with the five changes of
a bow, which he had learned at a dancing-school, bringing himself up
finally in front of Mr. Livingstone, and exclaiming,
“How-dy-do?—Mr. Livingstone, I s’pose, it comes more natural to say
cousin John, I’ve heard Miss Nichols and Aunt Nancy talk of you since I
was knee high, and seems as how you must be related. How is the old
lady, and Helleny, too? I don’t see ’em here, though I thought, at
fust, this might be her,” nodding to Anna.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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