THE 'POWERS THAT BE. 



171 



"'Gently over the stones!"' said Mr. Greening, 

 as the sudden crash of a fallen tumbler woke him up, 

 and the opening door announced the entry of luncheon 

 " ' a bite six feet wide !' my heart ! who was it 

 took that, Sir ! What a happy-tight he must have 

 had ! What, luncheon a'ready ! well, it 's uncom- 

 mon interesting, I'm sure. Why, you '11 be quite an 

 Inventor ! It 's for all the world like what my little 

 girl reads out to me o' nights from her ' Life o' 

 Columbus ' somewhere in the beginning part, where 

 he talks to himself so, till they all thought liim out 

 of his wits. I'm blest if it a'n't just like Columbus, 

 as diskivered America. You ought to take a pattern 

 out, Sir." 



"Did Columbus take out a patent, Greening?" 

 " Oh my ! that 's capital ! a pattern for America ! 

 Well, that is a good un, however; no, no, I guess 

 his diskivery was a little too big for a pattern 

 'Wide as a world and broad as 'umanity/ as our 

 parson says No, no ! he died quite the wrong side 

 o' money-making, now I think of it. But I wish 

 you 'd a' talked it, now, instead o' reading : for some- 

 how the soft back of this chair o' yourn, and that 

 what was it piping -Dickler my heart ! what a word 

 that was ; it sent me right off wool-gathering I 



