You'll find your
match some day."
"What! you think some other chap will fancy he ought to whip me?
Well--maybe so. But this ain't the fellow to do that."
"He's a stout man, and I reckon strong. Besides, Ned, he's very
handsome."
"Handsome! Lord, Bill, what a taste you have? How can a man be
called handsome that never altogether opens his eyes, except when
he turns up the whites until you'd think he'd never be able to get
the balls back to their proper place? Then, what a chin he has--as
sharp as a pitchfork, and who but a girl child would fancy a man
with his hair combed sleek like a woman's on each side of his ears,
with big whiskers at the same time that looks for all the world
like the brush of a seven years running fox, Handsome! If my pup
'Dragon' was only half so much like a beast, I'd plump him into
the horsepond!"
It is probable that Ned Hinkley did not altogether think of the
stranger as he expressed himself. But he saw how deep a hold his
appearance had taken, in an adverse way, upon the mind and feelings
of his relative and friend, and his rude, but well-meant endeavors
were intended to console his companion, after his own fashion, by
the exhibition of a certain degree of sympathy.
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