Note 50 — Chapter VI

As big as an elephant.] There is more truth than poetry in this comparison. The following curious anecdote was told me by the Doctor himself, when I breakfasted with him the other morning: The elephant which travelled lately through our country, was shown in New England; two simple country girls, desirous of seeing what kind of a beast it was, applied for admittance. On entering the room, the Doctor, who was stooping to tie his shoe-string with his back toward them, 95was for a moment taken for the elephant! They declared it was a clumsy creature—“they could not make head nor tail of it.” No wonder, poor things, the critics were as much puzzled themselves, as we have already shown.