PETER GOFF, THE MAN WITH HIS MOUTH OPEN. 197 



" Egad, Colonel, your neighbours had some odd names." 

 " That's neither here nor there on they went on they went 

 hurrah ! hurrah ! through thick and thin, like a streak of lightning, 

 that asks leave of nobody. 



"On they went further and further. I see them going, rushing past 

 like a mill-stream. But stop, my story is nearly at an end now," said 

 the Colonel, pausing a moment to take breath, and wiping away the 

 perspiration from his forehead, for the excitement of the story had 

 got him quite into a blowze " It's pretty near an end, for Peter 

 never came back !" 



" Never came back ! ajid what became of his companion, th e 

 ty thing-man ?" 



" Oh, as for that old Sol, there is no knowing how long he stuck 

 to him ; but as the weather happened to moderate a little while 

 afterwards, a shower of rain came on, so most probably he thawed 

 off." 



" Dead or alive ?" 



" Something between them both ; for he was picked up on the road 

 in a sort of bamboozlement of the mental faculties like. Indeed he 

 never got the better of it ; for he has been a little cracked ever since." 

 tf But was nothing more heard of Peter ?" 



" Not very direct: some say he's wandering now in the Alleghany 

 mountains, though a great many people are positive they have seen 

 him on dark nights flitting here and there, trying to shut his mouth. 

 Several times they have spoken to him, but he never made answer, 

 and that is natural. There are many opinions about it to this day ; 

 and to tell the truth, Squire, I have many times had a distant glim- 

 mering of something like suspicion as to the mystery and witchcraft 

 of the affair ; for you must be informed that Peter left a good many 

 debts behind him ; and old Commodore Keelson said that he was 

 struck with a lock-jaw very dpproposs, as he calls it, just in the nick 

 of time, as one may say j for he would have been taken up for debt 

 had he staid till Monday. In fact, I have been told there is a man 

 still living in New Hampshire State, that has a strong resemblance to 

 Peter. Old Commodore Keelson always maintained it was quite a 

 natural occurrence, and that Peter cleared out to escape the land- 

 sharks." 



" But you say his ghost still walks rides I mean ?" 

 " Ay ; so many a fellow thinks of a dark night, after telling stories 

 of the ' Man with his Mouth open/ But the Commodore says that 

 can be nothing but the flying Dutchman with his land- tacks abroad _, 

 and he has seen that himself." 



