Tuff

“ To watch for Todd's returning face,
Or wait until the voice so dear
Shall fall like music on his ear.
Unmoved by other sight or sound
He lies as if in thought profound.
Call him, he seems both deaf and dumb
Unless you say: "Ho! Orrin's come!"
When quick, like one from sleep, he springs,
And flies, as swift as bird on wings,
To meet his master and his friend,—
Then Tuffy's mourning has an end. ”

“ Good Master Todd could not deny
The pleading of poor Tuffy's eye,
And said: "Jump in and take a seat,
And you shall have a royal treat;
[pg 08] For though we go by mountain road
And do not want a heavy load,
Our sprightly horses strong and true
Will never mind a mite like you." ”

“ Thank God! (with reverence do I speak)
'Twas plain you needed nothing more
Than just to walk about the floor.
At length, when people thought you dead,
You left your room and little bed;
"He's tough," they said, "as hickory rod,"
And called you "Tough," then Tuffy Todd ”

“ Every man carries a small bag called a tuffio, in his knapsack, in which is his pipe and tobacco, and the women have their tuffio in their wrappers, carrying their pipes in their hands. They prepare their tobacco for smoking by straining out its juice while quite green, and they informed us by signs that it would otherwise make them drunk. ”

“ It was written for the amusement of the guests at Todd's "Hillside Home," to whom the facts as set forth were familiar, and who will recognize in the following lines the story as it originally appeared in the so-called Dry Brook Evening Mail.
S.D.
Philadelphia, Nov. 22, 1886.
[pg 05] TUFFY TODD'S ADVENTURE.
There is a little dog whose name
Is Tuffy Todd, who has the same
Wise look as many a dog you've met;
And is a well-bred house-dog pet,
But quaintly called in rhyme a hound,
To please the poet's ear for sound.
Round as a mole, he's fat and fair,
And robed in coat of whitest hair ”

“ Turfe. A Tale of a Tub, sir, a mere Tale of a Tub.
Lend it no ear, I pray you: the 'squire Tub
Is a fine man, but he is too fine a man,
And has a lady Tub too to his mother;
I'll deal with none of these fine silken Tubs:
John Clay and cloth-breech for my money and daughter. [5]
Here comes another old boy too vor his colours,
Enter Rosin, and his two Boys. ”

“ A little before hath been given a description of a Tub for a Bath in which any one may sit with his whole body except his head, not only to be washed in sweet warm water, whether medicinal and mineral, but also to sweat in without water, where the vessel is heated by warm vapours, either of sweet waters, or minerals. ”

“ A grave philosopher of the famous watering-place, remembering that botanists determine the age of trees by counting the rings on the section of the stems and noticing the layers in the tufa rock, polished a portion of the surface, and counted eighty-one layers to the inch. He forthwith made the following calculation:
"As I have seen half an inch of tufa formed in two years on a brick which received the overflow from a spout of water containing only twenty grams of carbonate of lime in a gallon, I am inclined to think our antiquarian's estimates are not entirely reliable." ”

“ Friday, codfish and potato day; some vessels have one or two special days for pork; salt beef, hardtack, tea and coffee are fluids and solids to fall back on every day. I dreaded the making of duffs, or flour puddings, to the end of the voyage. Rarely did I attain success with them. A duff is a quantity of flour and yeast, or yeast-powder, mixed, tied up in a bag and boiled until it is light. Plum-duff argues the insertion of a quantity of raisins. Plain duff is duff without raisins. But the proper cooking of a duff is rather a delicate matter. ”

“ Do you know who that man is, Mrs. Duff?” asked he aloud. “For that lady was taking the air at her shop-door, and had watched the movement.
“I don’t know much about him, sir. He have been a stopping in the place this day or two. What did I hear his name was, again?” added Mrs. Duff, putting her fingers to her temples in a considering fit. “Jarrum, I think. Yes, that was it. ”

“ As I write, the air is filled with a sweet penetrating fragrance, which comes from a tuberose, placed near me on the window-sill. The narrow stalk seems scarcely strong enough to support its thick, knob-like head with the withered buds and sickly, onion-shaped leaves. A tuberose is a poor [27] unshapely thing at the best of times, but this plant is unhealthy because it has lived too long as an ornament in a dark corner of the room under the chandeliers, among albums and photographs. ”

“ But we must leave Jan, and make an evening call upon Mrs. Duff.
Mrs. Duff stood behind her counter, sorting silks. Not rich piece silks that are made into gowns; Mrs. Duff’s shop did not aspire to that luxurious class of goods; but humble skeins of mixed sewing-silks, that were kept tied up in a piece of wash-leather. Mrs. Duff’s head and a customer’s head were brought together over the bundle, endeavouring to fix upon a skein of a particular shade, by the help of the one gas-burner which flared away over head. ”

“ Tupman, with rising indignation and great importance, explained the mystic device.
‘Rather short in the waist, ain’t it?’ said the stranger, screwing himself round to catch a glimpse in the glass of the waist buttons, which were half-way up his back. ‘Like a general postman’s coat—queer coats those—made by contract—no measuring—mysterious dispensations of Providence—all the short men get long coats—all the long men short ones.’ Running on in this way, Mr. Tupman’s new companion adjusted his dress, or rather the dress of Mr. Winkle ”

“ He went up to it, and, never taking his eyes off it, slowly took out of the skirts of his coat a box, slowly pulled open its lid by a strap, slowly thrust into it his two fat fingers (which pretty well filled it up) , rolled and rolled up some snuff, and creasing up his nose in anticipation, helped himself to it several times in succession, accompaning the snuff-taking everytime by a prolonged sneezing. Then, his streaming eyes blinking faintly, he relapsed into profound meditation. ”

“ The ladies are not without their recreation, the most common of which is snuff-dipping. A snuff-box or bottle is carried, and with it a very small stick or cane, which has been chewed at the end until it forms a small mop. The little dippers or sticks are sold in bundles for the use of the ladies, and can be bought simply cut in the requisite lengths or chewed ready for use. This the dipper moistens with saliva, and dips into the snuff-box, and then lifts the mop thus loaded inside the lips. ”

“ TRARRE DI FUOCO: described by Cellini as being the technical term for completing the process of soldering before the commencement of the cleaning, &c. Tra. 91. TRARRE DI PECE: similarly described as the term for carrying the work of embossing and [164] chasing through to the moment of removing the pitch. Tra. 134, 135.
TREMENTINA: turps.
TRIPOLO: Tripoli clay; a silicious earth consisting of the remains of diatoms. Tra. 103.
TUFO or ARENA DI TUFO: a sand tufa, a volcanic spongey rock like pumice, used for silver casting. Tra. 102. ”

“ There are others of a browner colour, and some nearly black; this last is the food of soldiers and servants. The cause of this variation of colour is manifold; the Teff that grows on light ground having a moderate degree of moisture, but never dry; the lighter the earth is in which it grows, the better and whiter the Teff will be; the husk too is thinner. That Teff, too, that ripens before the heavy rains, is usually whiter and finer, and a great deal depends upon sifting the husk from it after it is reduced to flour, by bruising or breaking it in a stone-mill. ”

“ And the shirt ain't all that's gone, nuther. Ther's a spoon gone; and THAT ain't all. There was ten, and now ther's only nine. The calf got the shirt, I reckon, but the calf never took the spoon, THAT'S certain."
"Why, what else is gone, Sally?"
"Ther's six CANDLES gone—that's what. The rats could a got the candles, and I reckon they did; I wonder they don't walk off with the whole place, the way you're always going to stop their holes and don't do it; and if they warn't fools they'd sleep in your hair, Silas—YOU'D never find it out; but you can't lay the SPOON on the rats, and that I know." ”

“ The fuzzier the towel the more like a sponge it is. Each little bit of linen or cotton, is really a tiny hollow tube—a capillary tube it is called—and these tubes suck up the water on your hands as the same fuzzy capillary tubes in a piece of blotting paper suck up the ink. ”

“ If you find a fellow with a flat nose, and a pair of upper tusks sticking out an inch, and a squint that turns out one eye like the white of an egg, you pull out the tusks, you raise the skin of the nose, slice a bit out of the cheek, and make a false bridge, as high as you please ”

“ They are fond of adorning themselves with coral and rings, and snuff-boxes are to be seen in the hands of both men and women. They cork up the snuff in their nostrils with a hollowed-out bit of wood, till the tears run down their cheeks. ”

“ Now he soaked his towel in bay rum, and slapped it all over my face nastily; slapped it over as if a human being ever yet washed his face in that way. Then he dried it by slapping with the dry part of the towel, as if a human being ever dried his face in such a fashion; but a barber seldom rubs you like a Christian. Next he poked bay rum into the cut place with his towel, then choked the wound with powdered starch, then soaked it with bay rum again, and would have gone on soaking and powdering it forevermore, no doubt, if I had not rebelled and begged off. ”

“ Whether it was the sudden yell that caused poor old Tubby to lose her stride, or whether it was the sudden rush of the broncho’s feet behind her that made Peg lose her nerve, as Tubby rose for the leap Peg pulled hard and next instant Tubby was floundering in the swift running water and Peg floating down toward the pool. ”

“ Sometimes it would be a low rustling, as though made by some body gliding through the foliage. Sometimes it would be the snapping of a twig—behind us, off to the right, perhaps, or to the left; never in front of us. Alas, it grieves me to do so, but I am constrained by the love of truth, and by nothing else, to inform the admirers of that great scientist Mark Twain that twigs do snap when they are stepped upon. ”

“ She took a thin forked hazel twig, about sixteen inches long, and held it by the ends, the joint pointing downwards. When she came to the place where water was under the ground, the twig immediately bent, and the motion was more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew from the spring. When just over it, the twig turned so quick as to snap, breaking near the fingers, which, by pressing it, were indented and heated and almost [Pg 317] blistered; a degree of agitation was also visible in her face. The exercise of the faculty is independent of any volition. ”

“ The position and the direction of these two upper tusks, which rise upright, and then bend in the form of a circle, have made some skilful naturalists, such as Grew, imagine that these tusks ought not to be looked upon as teeth, but as horns. They founded their opinion upon the circumstance that in all animals the sockets of the teeth in the upper jaw open downwards; that in the babiroussa, as in the other animals, the sockets are turned downwards, except those of these two great tusks, which, on the contrary, are turned upwards ”

“ Last evening, indeed, after a whole day's haunting with it, the smell of that hamper of truffles which the conductor took up at Finale was almost insupportable; but now, in the fresh morning air, it is anything but disagreeable. I shall never hereafter encounter the scent of truffles without being forcibly reminded of all the incidents of this journey. That smell seems absolutely interwoven with images of torrent-crossing, cliff-falling, pouring rain, and roaring waves. ”

“ Every new odour perceived is a source, if not of warning, of recurrent satisfaction or interest. We are acquainted with too few of the odours which the spring-time offers. Only this spring the present writer learned two peculiarly delightful odours quite new to her, that of young larch twigs, which have much the same kind and degree of fragrance as the flower of the syringa, and the pleasant musky aroma of a box-hedge. ”

“ The large starchy tuber is an important article of food in some countries; a var. of [39] “arrowroot” is prepared from it in the Pacific Islands and elsewhere; vide under amara. Boys call the tall flowering stems sandan yan bori, sandan biri, or sandan dutsi, and use them as toy spears. Other names for the plant are gatarin zomo and ?yayu or tara yaya (Katagum) .
girgera, a var. of gero, q.v.
giri giri, 1. In Sokoto = aya aya, q.v. the tuber of a sedge. 2. In Kano, Hadeija, &c. = ?Pachyrhizus tuberosus, Spreng. “Yam Bean” or “Manioc Pea;” a bean with a starchy tuberous root. ”

“ In calculating for tucks, one must remember that the tuck takes up twice the amount of material as the width of tuck desired, and covers its own width in lying flat. If tucks are used to make the neck size smaller, it will be found more satisfactory to put a narrow facing around the neck before trimming.
To seam the ends of lace, make a plain seam on the wrong side. Lay it flat, turn under the two edges together, and hem in a narrow hem.
A pretty way to finish the edges of neck and sleeves is with bias bands. ”

“ After arranging these things, Nikíta lingered around us for some moments, and looked on as Guskof and I were drinking the liquor, and it was evidently very distasteful to him. By the feeble light shed by the candle through the paper, amid the encircling darkness, could be seen the seal-skin cover of the lunchcase, .the supper arranged upon it, Guskof's sheepskin jacket, his face, and his small red hands which he used in lifting the patties from the pan. ”

“ These are the mouths of the perspiratory ducts, which convey to the surface the product of the sweat glands. The gland itself is merely a coiled tube, already described as situated deep down in the true skin, and is surrounded with a network of blood-vessels. The duct is simply a continuation of the same tube upward through the cuticle to the surface. It passes out upon the surface of the skin obliquely, thus leaving a small portion of the cuticle overlapping its orifice, forming a sort of valve. ”