n brought up to the wholesome tail of the plough, I
should say--an ancient and reputable occupation."

"When I obsarved, just now," replied Robinson, somewhat sternly, "that I
couldn't be instigated, I meant to be comprehended as laying down a kind
of general doctrine that I was a man not given to quarrels; but still,
if I suspicioned a bamboozlement, which I am not far from at this
present speaking, if it but come up to the conflagrating of only the
tenth part of the wink of an eye, in a project to play me off, fore God,
I confess myself to be as weak in the flesh as e'er a rumbunctious
fellow you mought meet on the road."

"Friend," said the other, "I do not understand thy lingo. It has a most
clodpolish smack. It is neither grammar, English, nor sense."

"Then, you are a damned, onmannerly rascal," said Horse-Shoe, "and
that's grammar, English, and sense, all three."

"Ha, you are at that! Now, my lubberly booby, I understand you,"
returned the other, springing to his feet. "Do you know to whom you are
speaking?"

"Better than you think for," replied the sergeant, placing himself in an
erect position to receive what he had a right to expect, the threatened
assault of his adversary, "I know you, and guess your arrand here."

"You do?" returned the other sharply. "You have been juggling with me,
sir. You are not the gudgeon I took you for. It has suited your purpose
to play the clown, eh? Well, sir, and pray, what do you guess?"

"Nothing good of you, considering how things go here. Suppose I was to
say you was, at this self-same identical time, a sodger of the king's? I
have you there!"

The stranger turned on his heel and retreated a few paces, evidently
perplexed at the new view in which the sergeant suddenly rose to his
apprehension. His curiosity and his interest were both excited to gain a
more distinct insight into a man whom he had mistaken for a mere
simpleton, but whose hints showed him to be shrewdly conversant with the
personal concerns of one, whom, apparently, he had seen to-night for the
first time in his life. With this anxiety upon his mind, he again
approached the sergeant, as he replied to the last question.

"Well, and if I were? It is a character of which I should have no reason
to be ashamed."

"That's well said!" exclaimed Horse Shoe. "Up and speak out, and never
be above owning the truth; that's the best sign that can be of a man.
Although it mought be somewhat dangerous, just hereabo