Mar monologue — A Rough Diamond: A Comic Drama in One Act

I wish you had--I know I should have got on much better without _you_ at my elbow. And as for my cousin Joe, he may be a stupid fellow and all that, but he's a very good fellow, and if he don't know how to make a proper bow, or a long speech like you do--such as when I've heard you practising to yourself about railroads, and borrowing money, and taxes, and the state of the nation, and situation of the population, and that horrible Education--_he_ can talk so as I can understand him, and that's more than I always can when you talk--and anybody else, for the matter o' that. And if I did like the sojers I used to see so often, what harm was there in that? I'm sure the Captain was a fine man, a very fine man, whiskers and all--and I've often looked at him till I've felt as if I could eat him.