Pelatiah, otherwise "Pel" Frost, knew more about the matter than most
other folks, because he had unlimited time to devote to general culture.
Though not yet thirty years old, he was the laziest man in York County.
(Jabe Slocum had not then established his record; and Jot Bascom had ruined
his by cutting his hay before it was dead in the summer of '49, always alluded
to afterwards in Pleasant River as the year when gold was discovered
and Jot Bascom cut his hay.)
Pel was a general favorite in half a dozen villages,
where he was the life of the loafers' bench. An energetic
loafer can attend properly to one bench, but it takes
genius as well as assiduity to do justice to six of them.
His habits were decidedly convivial, and he spent a good deal
of time at the general musters, drinking and carousing with
the other ne'er-do-weels. You may be sure he was no favorite
of Mrs. Todd's; and she represented to him all that is most
undesirable in womankind, his taste running decidedly to rosy,
smiling, easy-going ones who had no regular hours for meals,
but could have a dinner on the table any time in fifteen
minutes after you got there.
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