only in wanting the fringes usually appended to it, and in being
fashioned without any regard to the body it encompassed, so that in
looseness and shapelessness, it looked more like a sack than a human
vestment; and, like his breeches and leggings, it bore the marks of the
most reverend antiquity, being covered with patches and stains of all
ages, sizes, and colours.

Thus far Bloody Nathan's appearance was not inconsistent with his name,
being uncommonly wild and savage; and to assist in maintaining his claims
to the title, he had a long rifle on his shoulder, and a knife in his
belt, both of which were in a state of dilapidation worthy of his other
equipments; the knife, from long use and age, being worn so thin that it
seemed scarce worthy the carrying, while the rifle boasted a stock so
rude, shapeless, and, as one would have judged from its magnitude and
weight, so unserviceable, that it was easy to believe it had been
constructed by the unskilful hands of Nathan himself. His visage, seeming
to belong to a man of at least forty-five or fifty years of age, was
hollow, and almost as weather-worn as his apparel, with a long hooked
nose, prominent chin, a wide mouth exceedingly straight and pinched, with
a melancholy or contemplative twist at the corners, and a pair of black
staring eyes, that beamed a good-natured, humble, and perhaps submissive,
simplicity of disposition. His gait, too, as he stumbled along up the
hill, with a shuffling, awkward, hesitating step, was like that of a man
who apprehended injury and insult, and who did not possess the spirit
to resist them. The fact, moreover, of his sustaining on his own
shoulders a heavy pack of deer and other skins, to relieve the miserable
horse which he led, betokened a merciful temper, scarce compatible with
the qualities of a man of war and contention. Another test and criterion
by which Roland judged his claims to the character of a roarer, he found
in the little black dog; for the Virginian was a devout believer, as we
are ourselves, in that maxim of practical philosophers, namely, that by
the dog you shall know the master, the one being fierce, magnanimous, and
cowardly, just as his master is a bully, a gentleman, or a dastard. The
little dog of Nathan was evidently a coward, creeping along at White
Dobbin's heels, and seeming to supplicate with his tail, which now
draggled in the mud, and now attempted a timid wag, that his fellow-curs
of the Station should no