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I read a novel, there is one sentence I cannot understand:

And he slapped the little bunny's back and gave a hop, skip and jump to one side, and then laughed some more, for he was as happy as a clam at high tide, as an old fisherman used to say when I was a boy not so very long ago, but just long enough to make me wish I were twenty years younger, just the samee.

My questions are:

  1. Does “gave a hop, skip and jump to one side” mean ‘jump to one side’?
  2. What is the meaning of "samee"?
  3. What is the meaning of “as an old fisherman used to say when I was a boy not so very long ago, but just long enough to make me wish I were twenty years younger, just the samee”?
  4. Is “as an old fisherman used to say..." the short form for "as happy as an old fisherman used to say..."?
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  • 1
    Source and date?
    – Xanne
    Commented Jul 12 at 18:57
  • 1. No, he hopped, then skipped, then jumped to one side. 2. Samee is either a typo or an attempt to sound old-timey. 3. As an old fisherman used to say: "When I was a boy not so very long ago [a joke], but just long enough [30 years ago] to make me wish I were [at least] twenty years younger.” 4. No, not "as happy as an old fisherman used to say."
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Jul 12 at 19:15
  • Basically, he's saying that he learned the aphorism "as happy as a clam at high tide" from the old fisherman.
    – Barmar
    Commented Jul 12 at 19:23
  • "Blah", as X used to say means X used to say blah a lot. As=in the way. Have you looked up "hop, skip, and jump"?
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jul 12 at 19:34
  • 3
    What novel? Cite your source. It's same: just the same. The e is a typo.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jul 12 at 20:01

1 Answer 1

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Answers to the numbered questions:

  1. Yes, it means a jump to one side, in addition to a hop and a skip to that same side.

  2. "Samee" isn't anything I've ever seen before. Without further evidence, I'd assume it's a typographical error.

  3. There was an old fisherman whom the narrator used to know back when the narrator was a boy. That old fisherman frequently said that someone or something was as happy as a clam at high tide. The narrator was a boy not so long ago. However, the narrator still feels that he would like to be twenty years younger than he is now.

  4. No.

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3
  • Since the narrator would like to be twenty years younger, he's at least 30 or so. He is teasing to say a boy not so very long ago.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Jul 12 at 19:25
  • @YosefBaskin It's all relative.
    – Doug Warren
    Commented Jul 12 at 19:26
  • A hop, skip and jump is a set colloquial phrase; the author may have used it as such, without clearly having in mind three distinct actions.
    – jsw29
    Commented Jul 23 at 15:07

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