as shot
at him must come before a magistrate; and a great crowd comes round,
and we couldn't get the 'osses to. But the young uns they all stand by
one another, and says all or none must go, and as how they'd fight it
out, and have to be carried. Just as 'twas gettin' serious, and the
old boy and the mob was going to pull 'em off the coach, one little
fellow jumps up and says: 'Here--I'll stay--I'm only going three miles
further. My father's name's Davis, he's known about here, and I'll go
before the magistrate with this gentleman.' 'What! be thee parson
Davis's son?' says the old boy. 'Yes,' says the young un. 'Well, I be
mortal sorry to meet thee in such company, but for thy father's sake
and thine (for thee bi'st[54] a brave young chap) I'll say no more
about it.' Didn't the boys cheer him, and the mob cheered the young
chap--and then one of the biggest gets down, and begs his pardon werry
gentlemanly for all the rest, saying as they all had been plaguy vexed
from the first, but didn't like to ax his pardon till then, 'cause
they felt they hadn't ought to shirk the consequences of their joke.
And then they all got down, and shook hands with the old boy, and
asked him to all parts of the country, to their homes, and we drives
off twenty minutes behind time with cheering and hollering as if we
was county members.[55] But, Lor' bless you, sir," says the guard
smacking his hand down on his knee and looking full into Tom's face,
"ten minutes arter they was all as bad as ever."

[54] #Bi'st#: "beest," art.

[55] #County members#: members of Parliament.

BLOW-HARD AND HIS YARNS.

Tom showed such undisguised and open-mouthed interest in his
narrations, that the old guard rubbed up his memory, and launched out
into a graphic history of all the performances of the boys on the road
for the last twenty years. Off the road he couldn't go; the exploit
must have been connected with horses or vehicles to hang in the old
fellow's head. Tom tried him off his own ground once or twice, but
found he knew nothing beyond, and so let him have his head, and the
rest of the road bowled easily away; for old Blow-hard (as the boys
called him) was a dry old file,[56] with much kindness and humor, and
a capital spinner of a yarn when he had broken the neck of his day's
work, and got plenty of ale under his belt.

[56] #File#: a shrewd person.

What struck Tom's youthful imagination most, was the desperate and
lawless charac