Me with the subject that I did nothing all day but sing as
we rode along -
'A life in the woods for me;'
until we came to the woods, and then I soon learned to sing that
same, as the Irishman says, on the other side of my mouth."
Here succeeded a long pause, during which friend Tom seemed
mightily tickled with his reminiscences, for he leaned back in his
chair, and from time to time gave way to loud, hollow bursts of
laughter.
"Tom, Tom! are you going mad?" said my husband, shaking him.
"I never was sane, that I know of," returned he. "You know that it
runs in the family. But do let me have my laugh out. The woods! Ha!
ha! When I used to be roaming through those woods, shooting - though
not a thing could I ever find to shoot, for birds and beasts are
not such fools as our English emigrants - and I chanced to think of
you coming to spend the rest of your lives in the woods - I used to
stop, and hold my sides, and laugh until the woods rang again. It
was the only consolation I had."
"Good Heavens!" said I, "let us never go to the woods."
"You will repent if you do," continued Tom.
