88 
CAPE COD. 
his feet, and having had his sore leg freshly salved, vi ent 
off to bed; then the fool made bare his knotty-looking 
feet and legs, and followed him ; and finally the old man 
exposed his calves also to our gaze. We had never had 
the good fortune to see an old man’s legs before, and 
were surprised to find them fair and plump as an in¬ 
fant’s, and we thought that he took a pride in exhib¬ 
iting them. He then proceeded to make preparations 
for retiring, discoursing meanwhile with Panurgic plain¬ 
ness of speech on the ills to which old humanity is 
subject. We were a rare haul for him. He could com¬ 
monly get none but ministers to talk to, though some¬ 
times ten of them at once, and he was glad to meet some 
of the laity at leisure. The evening was not long enough 
for him. As I had been sick, the old lady asked if 
I would not go to bed, — it was getting late for old peo¬ 
ple ; but the old man, who had not yet done his stories, 
said, You ain’t particular, are you ? ” 
“ 0 no,” said I, “ I am in no hurry. I believe I have 
weathered the Clam cape.” 
“They are good,” said he; “I wish I had some of 
them now.” 
“They never hurt me,” said the old lady. 
“But then you took out the part that killed a cat,” 
said I. 
At last we cut him short in the midst of his stories, 
which he promised to resume in the morning. Yet, 
affer all, one of the old ladies who came into our room 
in the night to fasten the fire-board, which rattled, as she 
went out took the precaution to fasten us in. Old 
women are by nature more suspicious than old men. 
However, the winds howled around the house, and 
made the fire-boards as well as the casements rattle 
