eight in
wildcats, and, if any gentleman pleases, for a ten-dollar bill he can
throw in a panther. I can hug a bear too close for comfort, and eat any
man opposed to General Jackson.'"

All eyes were immediately turned toward this strange man, for all had
heard of him. A place was promptly made for him at the fire. He was
afterward asked if this wondrous outburst of slang was entirely
unpremeditated. He said that it was; that it had all popped into his
head at once; and that he should never have thought of it again, had
not the story gone the round of the newspapers.

"I came on to Washington," he says, "and drawed two hundred and fifty
dollars, and purchased with it a check on the bank in Nashville, and
enclosed it to my friend. And I may say, in truth, I sent this money
with a mighty good will, for I reckon nobody in this world loves a
friend better than me, or remembers a kindness longer."

Soon after his arrival at Washington he was invited to dine with
President Adams, a man of the highest culture, whose manners had been
formed in the courts of Europe. Crockett, totally unacquainted with the
usages of society, did not know what the note of invitation meant, and
inquired of a friend, the Hon. Mr. Verplanck. He says:

"I was wild from the backwoods, and didn't know nothing about eating
dinner with the big folks of our country. And how should I, having been
a hunter all my life? I had eat most of my dinners on a log in the
woods, and sometimes no dinner at all. I knew, whether I ate dinner
with the President or not was a matter of no importance, for my
constituents were not to be benefited by it. I did not go to court the
President, for I was opposed to him in principle, and had no favors to
ask at his hands. I was afraid, however, I should be awkward, as I was
so entirely a stranger to fashion; and in going along, I resolved to
observe the conduct of my friend Mr. Verplanck, and to do as he did.
And I know that I did behave myself right well."

Some cruel wag wrote the following ludicrous account of this
dinner-party, which went the round of all the papers as veritable
history. The writer pretended to quote Crockett's own account of the
dinner.

"The first thing I did," said Davy, "after I got to Washington, was to
go to the President's. I stepped into the President's house. Thinks I,
who's afeard. If I didn't, I wish I may be shot. Says I, 'Mr. Adams, I
am Mr. Crockett, from Tennessee.' So, says he, 'How d'ye