I'm reading an article that talks about Yankee English and it quotes the following paragraph written by Thomas Chandler Haliburton:
"...you are a careless kind of a man that way, and let your shillin’s desart oftener than they had ought to. But what would I have been, had I been so stravagant? and as to passin’ bad money, I see no harm in it, if you have given valy for it, and received it above boord handsum, in the regular way of swap, trade, or sale."
In this quote, "above boord handsum" sounds like "above board handsome" to me. But this doesn't seem to make sense. What does "above board handsome" mean? Is he saying this or somehing else? Can anybody give me some ideas?