Sometimes, after palming off a particularly fantastic and outrageous lie upon me, he was so 'full of laugh' that he had to step aside for a minute, upon one pretext or another, to keep me from suspecting.

I staid faithfully by him until his comedy was finished.
Then he remarked that he had undertaken to 'learn' me all about a steamboat, and had done it; but that if he had overlooked anything, just ask him and he would supply the lack.

'Anything about this boat that you don't know the name of or the purpose of, you come to me and I'll tell you.' I said I would, and took my departure; disappeared, and approached him from another quarter, whence he could not see me.

There he sat, all alone, doubling himself up and writhing this way and that, in the throes of unappeasable laughter.

He must have made himself sick; for he was not publicly visible afterward for several days.