I won't do it no more, I won't, indeed." "Well, what did you mean then ?" "Why I meant her ten fingers, to be sure.

When a woman clapper claws her husband, we have a cant tarm with us boys of Slickville, savin' she gave him her ten commandments." "And a very improper expression too, Sir," said Mr.Hopewell; "a very irreverent, indecent, and I may say profane expression; I am quite shocked.

But as you say you didn't mean it, are sorry for it, and will not repeat it again, I accept your apology, and rely on your promise.

Go on, Sir." "Well, as I was a savin', the moment she found herself a coasting of it that way, flounder fashion, she hung on by her ten com--I mean her ten fingers, and her ten toes, like grim death to a dead nigger, and it brought her up jist in time.

But how to get back was the question?
To let go the hold of any one hand was sartain death, and there was nobody to help her, and yet to hold on long that way, she couldn't, no how she could fix it.
"So what does she do, (for nothin' equals a woman for contrivances), but move one finger at a time, and then one toe at a time, till she gets a new hold, and then crawls backward, like a span-worm, an inch at a hitch.