the hand
of the hostess and shook his head; "my fortune has in no jot improved
since I left you almost a year ago. I broke from you hastily then to
resume my share in the war, and I have had nothing but hard blows ever
since. The tide, Mistress Dimock, sets sadly against us."

"Never let your heart fail you," exclaimed the landlady; "it isn't in
the nature of things for the luck to be for ever on the shady side.
Besides, take the good and bad together, you have not been so hardly
dealt by, Captain Butler."

"Major Butler, madam, of the second Carolina continental reg'lar
infantry," interrupted Robinson, who had stood by all this time
unnoticed, "_Major_ Butler; the captain has been promoted, by occasion
of the wiping out of a few friends from the upper side of the adjutant's
roll, in the scrimmage of Fort Moultrie. He is what we call, in common
parley, brevetted."

This annunciation was made by the sergeant with due solemnity,
accompanied by an attempt at a bow, which was abundantly stiff and
ungraceful.

"My friend Sergeant Robinson," said Butler; "I commend him, Mistress
Dimock, to your especial favor, both for a trusty comrade, and a most
satisfactory and sufficient trencher man."

"You are welcome and free to the best that's in the house, sergeant,"
said the landlady, courtesying; "and I wish, for your sake, it was as
good as your appetite, which ought to be of the best. Mr. Arthur
Butler's word is all in all under this roof; and, whether he be captain
or major, I promise you, makes no difference with me. Bless me! when I
first saw you, major, you was only an ensign; then, whisk and away! and
back you come a pretty lieutenant, about my house: and then a captain,
forsooth! and now, on the track of that, a major. It is up-up-up-the
ladder, till you will come, one of these days, to be a general; and too
proud, I misdoubt, to look at such a little old woman as me! hegh, hegh,
hegh! a pinch of snuff, Mr. Arthur." And here the good dame prolonged
her phthisicky laugh for some moments, as she presented a box of Scotch
snuff to her guest. "But I'll engage promotion never yet made the
appetite of a travelling man smaller than before; so, gentlemen, you
will excuse me while I look after your supper."

"The sooner the better, ma'am," said Robinson; "your night air is a sort
of a whetstone to the stomach; but first, ma'am, I would be obligated to
you, if you would let me see the ostler."

"Hut, tut! and have I been dr