Читать книгу The Pedestrian's Guide through North Wales. A tour performed in 1837 онлайн

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This bundle of comfort, pulling down for an instant the neckerchief, which was also rolled round the aperture of speech, emphatically stated that he had no need of the offer.

“For ye ken,” said he, “that I’m a prudent mon, and never venture outside o’ the coach, unless I have a’ the comforts o’ the inside about me; there’s ne’er a mon, sir, shut up in that unhealthy box, ye may ken, but is caulder than mysel; and I guess, fra’ the garments on your person, that ye’re no quite sae warm.”

“Why thin if I was, I’d be thinking myself nearer to a certain personage than I have any inclination to be for the next half century.”

“But ye ken that extremes meet; and I think by that calculation ye may be nearer to the friend ye mention than I am, seeing that I am but just comfortable, and ye are near the freezing point.”

Having uttered this sarcasm upon his shivering companion, the canny Scot replaced the muffler over his lips, as a signal for silence, while the Irishman, taking another draught from his pocket pistol, sang a stanza of Erin go bragh, and consoled himself with striking a light for his cigar, from which he sent clouds of smoke, which made our travelling convenience resemble, in the gloom, a steam carriage, as it flew along, with nearly as great rapidity; the lighted end serving, as a warming pan to his nose, which thus illuminated, seemed not much unlike a blue light, such as mariners burn for signals of distress.