1
A ROCKY SPRING IN YANKEE LAND
2New England Joke Lore
The Tonic of Yankee Humor
BY
ARTHUR G. CRANDALL
Author of “Optimistic Medicine”
PHILADELPHIA
F.A. DAVIS COMPANY, Publishers
19223
COPYRIGHT, 1922
BY
F. A. DAVIS COMPANY
Copyright, Great Britain. All Rights Reserved.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
PRESS OF
F. A. DAVIS COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
4
DEDICATED TO THOSE
STALWART SONS OF NEW ENGLAND
WHOSE ABILITY TO THINK STRAIGHT, COMBINEDWITH AN UNRUFFLED POISE AND NEVER FAILINGSENSE OF HUMOR, HAS ENABLED THEM ANDTHEIR DESCENDANTS TO TAKE A LEADING PARTIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR GLORIOUS COUNTRY5
FOREWORD
The dry wit of the New England Yankeehas done much to cheer the Lonely Traveleron his way. It has oiled the thinking machinerywhen it creaked and provided inspirationfor that spontaneous good fellowship whichhelps so much to make life worth living.
The following pages are not the product ofan overworked imagination, but a record ofactual happenings. The characters who passin review before the reader are real personageswhose various experiences have gladdenedmany adjacent firesides.
However, the author realizes that certainserious and literal souls are so constructedthat what to others is a source of glee andmerriment, is to them but “the crackling ofthorns under a pot.” Hence the origin of hisconscientious plan to display in the book’s“show window,” so to speak, a sample of thebrand of Yankee humor the reader may expectto find should he resolve to read further.6
Therefore, let us turn aside from thesegracious words of the author as above andconsider for a moment the soliloquy of UncleAndrew Cheney, who did not like his son-in-law.
Uncle Andrew did not like work very welleither, which is often unfortunate for a husbandand father of a family. In view of hisown impecunious state, it was peculiarly annoyingto him to continually be witnessing thelavish display of an elderly neighbor who hadconsiderable inherited property, but, who thougha long time married, was childless.
One summer evening Uncle Andrew wassitting disconsolately on the steps of the littlecountry grocery store, when he heard theclatter of horses’ feet and saw the well-to-doneighbor driving by with his pair of highstepping colts. Uncle Andrew scowled butsaid nothing. Again came the thud of feetand the horses and proud driver, coming backup the country road, once more passed thestore. Uncle Andrew glowered at the spectaclewith increasing disgust, but still managedto restrain himself.7
A third time the gay equipage swept past.This was too much and Uncle Andrew,deeply stirred, began to talk to himself. Aneighbor, sitting near was th