Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XLII. Wallace Meets with an Adventure--Goes to a Quadroon Ball, and Teaches Them "The Stampede"--Wallace Takes a "White Lion," and Pays for It--Has His Fortune Told-- What Followed. A FTER breakfast, I loaded my pipe and took a y4d seat on the front porch, with my legs hoisted Jl. j.up on the iron railings, and while I was sitting there puffing away, as comfortable as an old sow in a mud-hole on a hot day, a young woman came along on the opposite side of the street, and stopped awhile to look at some pictures in a window. Presently she looked up and beckoned me to come to her! I couldn't believe my eyes at first, but she kept on motioning her hand to me until I knew there was no mistake about it. I thought maybe she takes me for some acquaintance of hers, and I'll go down and let her know she is on the wrong trail, just to see how foolish she will look when she finds she has been making so familiar with a stranger. So I went down the steps and crossed over to where she was standing. When I got up close to her I noticed that her dress didn't look overly neat, and that her eyes were as red as if she had been on a burst for the last week. I made her a polite bow, however, and remarked that I suppose she was mistaken; but before I could finish my speech, which I had "cut and dried," like the politicians, she ran up to me and grabbed me by the hand. "Oh, bosh!" said she, "not a bit of it: you are the hardest fellow to take a hint I ever saw. IVe been beckoning to you for the last half hour. Come along, Johnny Green, I want to introduce you to some particular friends of mine., "My name ain't Johnny Green," said I, trying to get my hand loose from her; but she held on to it like a vise. "Oh! never mind that," said she; "come along with...