I'm a living whirlwind! And," looking at me as
I sat in the chair by the wall, "you can steal a woman's estate and I'll
get it away from her heirs for you."
I wondered if he meant me. I hardly believed that he could; for all the
while he had made a great to-do about protecting my interests; and I now
remembered that he had taken an oath to do so. But he kept sneering at
me all the evening, and just as I was leaving to go to bed, he called
the crowd up to drink with him.
"This is on the estate," he hiccoughed--for he was very drunk by this
time--"and I'll give you a toast."
They all lined up, slapping him on the back; and as I stood in the door,
they all lifted their glasses, and Jackway gave them what he called his
"toast," which ran as follows:
"Sold again
And got the tin,
And sucked another Dutchman in!"
He paid out of a fat pocketbook, staggering, and pointing at me and
looking like a tipsy imp of some sort; and finally he started over
toward me, saying, "Hey, Dutchman! Wait a minute an' I'll tell you how
you got sucked in!"
I grew suddenly very angry; and slammed the door in his face to prevent
myself from doing him harm. I had not yet seen why I ought to do him
harm; and along the road to Iowa, I was all the time wondering why I got
madder and madder at Jackway; and that rhyme kept running through my
mind, oftener and oftener, as I drew nearer and nearer my journey's end:
"Sold again
And got the tin,
And sucked another Dutchman in!"
It was in the latter part of March.
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