my plain manner.'

"So I made my obeisance to them, and retired into the house."

It is true that there was much of mere curiosity in the desire to see
Colonel Crockett. He was a strange and an incomprehensible man. His
manly, honest course in Congress had secured much respect. But such
developments of character as were shown in his rude and vulgar toast,
before a party of gentlemen and ladies, excited astonishment. His
notoriety preceded him, wherever he went; and all were alike curious to
see so strange a specimen of a man.

The next morning, several gentlemen called upon him, and took him in a
carriage to see the various objects of interest in the city. The
gentlemen made him a present of a rich seal, representing two horses at
full speed, with the words, "Go Ahead." The young men also made him a
present of a truly magnificent rifle. From Philadelphia he went to New
York. The shipping astonished him. "They beat me all hollow," he says,
"and looked for all the world like a big clearing in the West, with the
dead trees all standing."

There was a great crowd upon the wharf to greet him. And when the
captain of the boat led him conspicuously forward, and pointed him out
to the multitude, the cheering was tremendous. A committee conducted
him to the American Hotel, and treated him with the greatest
distinction. Again he was feted, and loaded with the greatest
attentions. He was invited to a very splendid supper, got up in his
honor, at which there were a hundred guests. The Hon. Judge Clayton, of
Georgia, was present, and make a speech which, as Crockett says, fairly
made the tumblers hop.

Crockett was then called up, as the "undeviating supporter of the
Constitution and the laws." In response to this toast, he says,

"I made a short speech, and concluded with the story of the red cow,
which was, that as long as General Jackson went straight, I followed
him; but when he began to go this way, and that way, and every way, I
wouldn't go after him; like the boy whose master ordered him to plough
across the field to the red cow. Well, he began to plough, and she
began to walk; and he ploughed all forenoon after her. So when the
master came, he swore at him for going so crooked. 'Why, sir,' said the
boy, 'you told me to plough to the red cow, and I kept after her, but
she always kept moving.'"

His trip to New York was concluded by his visiting Jersey City to
witness a shooting-match with rifles. He was invited to try