Pencil Sketches; or, Outlines of Character and Manners — John Shaqi
Pencil Sketches; or, Outlines of Character and MannersLeslie, Eliza
General
Pencil Sketches; or, Outlines of Character and Manners
Leslie, Eliza
Humorous stories; Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
"No," replied Mrs. Quimby, "nor to the Smiths of the cross-streets
neither--nor to those up in the Northern Liberties, nor them down in
Southwark. If you mean that he is not a Philadelphia man, you've hit the
nail on the head--but that's no reason there shouldn't be Smiths enough
all over the world. However, the short and the long of it is this--I was
to have started for Baltimore yesterday morning, bright and early, with
Mr. and Mrs. Neverwait--but the shoemaker had not sent home my
over-shoes, and the dyer had not finished my gray Canton crape shawl,
that he was doing a cinnamon brown, and the milliner disappointed me in
new-lining my bonnet; so I could not possibly go, you know, and the
Neverwaits went without me. Well, the things _were_ brought home last
night, which was like coming a day after the fair. But as I was all
packed up, I was bent upon going, somehow or other, this morning. So I
made Billy Fairfowl take me down to the wharf, bag and baggage, to see
if he could find anybody he knew to take charge of me to Baltimore. And
there, as good luck would have it, we met with Mr. Smith, who has been
several times in Billy's store, and bought domestics of him, and got
acquainted with him; so that Billy, finding this poor Mr. Smith was a
stranger, and a man that took no airs, and that did not set up for great
things, got very sociable with him, and even invited him to tea. Now,
when we met him on the wharf, Mr. Smith was quite a windfall for us, and
he agreed to escort me to Baltimore, as of course he must, when he was
asked. So, then, Billy being in a hurry to go to market for breakfast
(before all the pick of the butter was gone), just bade me good-bye, and
left me on the wharf, seeing what good hands I was in. Now, poor Mr.
Smith being a stranger, and, of course, not so well used to steamboats
as our own people, took me into the wrong one; for the New York and
Baltimore boats were laying side by side, and seemed both mixed
together, so that it was hard telling which was which, the crowd hiding
everything from us. And after we got on board, I was so busy talking,
and he a listening, and looking at the people, that we never found out
our mistake till we were half-way up the river, instead of being
half-way down it. And then I heard the ladies all round talking of a nic
or a pic (or both I believe they called it), that they said was to be
held on Captain Cheston's grounds. So, then, I pricked up my ears, and
found that it was even so; and I told them that Captain Cheston was a
near relation of mine, for his wife was own daughter to Mrs. Marsden
that was, whose first husband was my sister Nelly's own son; and all
about your marrying Albina, and what a handsome place you have, and how
Mr. Smith and I had got into the wrong boat, and were getting carried
off, being taken up the river instead of down."
"And what did the company say to all this?" inquired Cheston.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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