I include the following not-so-literary quote because (a) it is from a scholastic reader and so, although it is not about reading, it is for the purpose of teaching children to read, and (b) I really like how the Native American flips the script on the first speaker.
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From The Columbian Reading Book (1799) as quoted in Old-Time Schools and School-books by Clifton Johnson:

The retort Courteous.

A white man meeting an Indian asked him, “whose Indian are you?”  To which the copper-faced genius replied, “I am God Almighty’s Indian : whose Indian are you?”