Also said that on the way down from La Crosse he had inspected and examined his boat so diligently and with such passionate interest that he had mastered the whole thing from stem to rudder-blade.
Asked me where I was from.

I answered, New England.

'Oh, a Yank!' said he; and went chatting straight along, without waiting for assent or denial.

He immediately proposed to take me all over the boat and tell me the names of her different parts, and teach me their uses.

Before I could enter protest or excuse, he was already rattling glibly away at his benevolent work; and when I perceived that he was misnaming the things, and inhospitably amusing himself at the expense of an innocent stranger from a far country, I held my peace, and let him have his way.
He gave me a world of misinformation; and the further he went, the wider his imagination expanded, and the more he enjoyed his cruel work of deceit.