Each parenthesis outgrew its proper limits, till he forgot what should have been the main story.

His stories had some compensation, for when he stopped to try to recollect where he was, the pressure on the grindstone was released.
At last the water was hot, and the time came to seize the hogs.

This was the old man's great moment.

He stood in the pen and shrieked with laughter while the hired men went rolling, one after the other, upon the ground, or were bruised against the fence by the rush of the burly swine.
"You're a fine lot," he laughed.

"Now, then, sir, _grab 'im_! Why don't ye nail 'im?
I vum, sir, if I couldn't do better'n that, sir, I'd sell out; I would, sir, by gol! Get out o' the way!" With a lofty scorn he waved aside all help and stalked like a gladiator toward the pigs huddled in one corner of the pen.