I heard a lot there, Ned, about
that rich man, Mr. Astor. He got his start as a fur trader. I guess he
was about the biggest fur trader that ever was. He was so active that
all them animals that wore furs on their backs concluded they might as
well give up. I heard one story there about an otter an' a beaver
talkin'. Says the otter to the beaver, when he was tellin' the beaver
good-by after a visit: 'Farewell, I never expect to see you again, my
dear old friend.' 'Don't be too much distressed,' replies the beaver,
'you an' I, old comrade, will soon meet at the hat store.'"
Ned and the Bee-Hunter laughed, and Crockett delved again into his past
life and his experiences in the great city, relatively as great then to
the whole country as it is now.
"I saw a heap of New York," he continued, "an' one of the things I liked
best in it was the theaters. Lad, I saw the great Fanny Kemble play
there, an' she shorely was one of the finest women that ever walked this
troubled earth. I saw her first as Portia in that play of Shakespeare's
called, called, called----"
"'The Merchant of Venice,'" suggested Ned.
"Yes, that's it, 'The Merchant of Venice,' where she was the woman
lawyer.
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