for letting you lie in
bed, you must talk to Tom about it; I bid him call you, and the fat
rascal never did so, and never said a word about you, till we were ready
for a start, and then no Master Frank was to the fore."

"Well, Tom," cried I, "what have you got to say to this?"

"Now, cuss you, don't come foolin' about me," replied that worthy,
aiming a blow at me, which, had it taken place, might well have felled
Goliah; but which, as I sprang aside, wasting its energies on the
impassive air, had well nigh floored the striker. "Don't you come
foolin' about me--you knows right well I called you, and you knows, too,
you almost cried, and told me to clear out, and let you git an hour's
sleep; for by the Lord you thought Archer and I was made of steel!--you
couldn't and you wouldn't--and now you wants to know the reason why you
warn't along with us!"

"Never mind the old thief, Frank," said Archer, seeing that I was on the
point of answering, "even his own aunt says he is the most notorious
liar in all Orange county--and Heaven forbid we should gainsay that most
respectable old lady!"

Into what violent asseveration our host would have plunged at this
declaration, remains, like the tale of Cambuscan bold, veiled in deep
mystery; for as he started from the log on which he had been reposing
while in the act of unsplicing his bamboo fishing pole, the elder of the
Teachmans thrust his head out of the cabin nearest to us--"Come, boys,
to breakfast! "--and at the first word of his welcome voice, Tom made,
as he would have himself defined it, stret tracks for the table. And a
mighty different table it was from that to which we had sat down on the
preceding morning. Timothy--unscared by the wonder of the mountain
nymphs, who deemed a being of the masculine gender as an intruder,
scarce to be tolerated, on the mysteries of the culinary art--had
exerted his whole skill, and brought forth all the contents of his
canteen! We had a superb steak of the fattest venison, graced by
cranberries stewed with cayenne pepper, and sliced lemons. A pot of
excellent black tea, almost as strong as the cognac which flanked it; a
dish of beautiful fried perch, with cream as thick as porridge, our own
loaf sugar, and Teachman's new laid eggs, hot wheaten cakes, and hissing
rashers of right tender pork, furnished a breakfast forth that might
have vied successfully with those which called forth, in the Hebrides,
such raptures from the lexicographer