Polished lightning

      I never saw the buckskin man move, but suddenly he was in their path and the murderous axe-heads clanged as they struck and parried and struck again faster than the eye could follow. I looked to see him cut down in seconds by those agile fighting demons, but if they were fast as cats the little chap was like quicksilver, cutting, ducking, leaping aside, darting in again as though he were on springs—I’ve seen men of their hands, but never one to cap him for speed, and he wasn’t just holding his ground, but driving them back, his hatchet everywhere at once like polished lightning, and the two of them desperately trying to fend him off.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.190, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, Kit Carson.

Words versus axe-handles

   ‘Well, you can handle a team, surely?’ cries the merry Senator. ‘Why not make your fortune out of axe-handles?’
   ‘Well, sir, I’ll tell you,’ says Lincoln, and everyone listened, grinning. ‘I’ve just put the return on axe-handles at one thousand per centum. But I’m a politician, and sometime lawyer. Axe-handles aren’t my style; my stock-in-trade is spoken words. You may believe me, words can be obtained wholesale a powerful sight cheaper’n axe-handles – and if you take ’em to the right market, you’ll get a far richer return for ’em than a thousand per centum. If you doubt me – ask President Polk.’

Flash For Freedom!, pp.130-31, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Abraham Lincoln, words.