"What do you think of that, my boy ?" said he, as I went up to him; "what do you think of catching such a thing as that with the naked hand ?" "What do I think ?" said I.

"Why, that I could do as much myself." "You do," said the man, "do you?
Lord! how the young people in these days are given to conceit; it did not use to be so in my time: when I was a child, childer knew how to behave themselves; but the childer of these days are full of conceit, full of froth, like the mouth of this viper;" and with his forefinger and thumb he squeezed a considerable quantity of foam from the jaws of the viper down upon the road.

"The childer of these days are a generation of--God forgive me, what was I about to say!" said the old man; and opening his bag he thrust the reptile into it, which appeared far from empty.

I passed on.

As I was returning, towards the evening, I overtook the old man, who was wending in the same direction.