[figure description] Page 367.[end figure description]

“When will distention and strife cease among our
foreign relations?” said Mrs. Partington with a sigh, as
she looked abstractedly at the black profile on the wall,
as if she thought it could answer the question. “When
will distention cease? The peace congress did n't do no
good 's I see, for the Rushins and Austriches are a
carryin' on jest as bad as ever they did, committin' all
sorts of outridges and wrongs on the Hung'ry. Heaven
never smiles on them that distresses the poor. We
ought to hold the Rushers and all that belongs to 'em
in excrescence, — I don't know about hating the Rushy
Salve, though, because that ha'n't done us no harm, —
and the Austriches, too, that lives on nails and gimblets,
that the wild-beast man told us about — the onnateral
heathen! Then the Frenchmen are all in a commotion,
and I should think they would be, eatin' frogs and sich
things, and the English ministers are quarrelin' like
`dog's delight.' Where it will end I can't see.”

She laid down the Times as she said “I can't see,”
and Ike, who had been burning off the outside pages of
Leavitt's Almanac while she was speaking, here poked
the light out, leaving the room and the subject equally
in the dark.

p677-405

Previous section

Next section