This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from
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The Clockmaker; or
The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville,
by Thomas Chandler Haliburton.
Garrit aniles
ex re fabellas
—Horace.
The cheerful sage, when solemn dictates fail,
Conceals the moral counsel in a tale.
Halifax, N. S.1836.
The following Sketches, as far as the twenty-first No.originally appeared in "THE NOVASCOTIAN" newspaper. Thegreat popularity they acquired, induced the Editor ofthat paper, to apply to the Author for the remaining partof the series, and permission to publish the whole entire.This request having been acceded to, the Editor has nowthe pleasure of laying them before the public in theirpresent shape.
Halifax, December, 1836.
SLICK'S LETTER1. The Trotting Horse2. The Clockmaker3. The Silent Girls4. Conversations at the River Philip5. Justice Pettifog6. Anecdotes7. Go Ahead8. The Preacher that Wandered from His Text9. Yankee Eating and Horse Feeding10. The Road to a Woman's Heart—The Broken Heart11. Cumberland Oysters Produce Melancholy Forebodings12. The American Eagle13. The Clockmaker's Opinion of Halifax14. Sayings and Doings in Cumberland15. The Dancing Master Abroad16. Mr. Slick's Opinion of the British17. A Yankee Handle for a Halifax Blade18. The Grahamite and the Irish Pilot19. The Clockmaker Quilts a Blue Nose20. Sister Sall's Courtship21. Setting up for Governor22. A Cure for Conceit23. The Blowin Time24. Father John O'Shaughnessy25. Taming a Shrew26. The Minister's Horn Mug27. The White Nigger28. Fire in the Dairy29. A Body Without a Head30. A Tale of Bunker's Hill31. Gulling a Blue Nose32. Too many Irons in the Fire33. Windsor and the Far West
[After these sketches had gone through the press, andwere ready for the binder, we sent Mr. Slick a copy; andshortly afterwards received from him the following letter,which characteristic communication we give entire—EDITOR.]
To MR. HOWE,
SIR.—I received your letter, and note its contents; Iaint over half pleased, I tell you; I think I have beenused scandalous, that's a fact. It warn't the part of agentleman for to go and pump me arter that fashion andthen go right off and blart it out in print. It was anasty dirty mean action, and I don't thank you nor theSquire a bit for it. It will be more nor a thousanddollars out of my pocket. There's an eend to the Clocktrade now, and a pretty kettle of fish I've made of it,hav'nt I? I shall never hear the last on it, and. whatam I to say when I go back to the States? I'll take myoath I never said one half the stuff he has set downthere; and as for that long lochrum about Mr. Everett,and the Hon. Alden Gobble, and Minister, there aint aword of truth in it from beginnin to eend. If ever Icome near hand to him agin, I'll larn him—but nevermind, I say nothin. Now there's one thing I don't cleverlyunderstand. If this here book is my "Sayins and Doins,"how comes it yourn or the Squire's either? If my thoughtsand notions are my own, how can they be any other folks's?According to my idee you have no more right to take them,than you have to take my clocks without payin for 'em.A man that would be guilty of such an action is nogentleman, tha