and Cattaraugus, has
certainly destroyed the cock-shooting of Orange county. A sportsman's
benison to him therefor.]

DAY THE THE SECOND

Much as I had heard of Tom Draw, I was I must confess, taken altogether
aback when I, for the first time, set eyes upon him. I had heard Harry
Archer talk of him fifty times as a crack shot; as a top sawyer at a
long day's fag; as the man of all others he would choose as his mate, if
he were to shoot a match, two against two--what then was my astonishment
at beholding this worthy, as he reared himself slowly from his recumbent
position? It is true, I had heard his sobriquet, "Fat Tom," but, Heaven
and Earth! such a mass of beef and brandy as stood before me, I had
never even dreamt of. About five feet six inches at the very utmost in
the perpendicular, by six or--"by'r lady"--nearer seven in
circumference, weighing, at the least computation, two hundred and fifty
pounds, with a broad jolly face, its every feature--well-formed and
handsome, rather than otherwise--mantling with an expression of the most
perfect excellence of heart and temper, and overshadowed by a vast mass
of brown hair, sprinkled pretty well with gray!--Down he plumped from
the counter with a thud that made the whole floor shake, and with a hand
outstretched, that might have done for a Goliah, out he strode to meet
us.

"Why, hulloa! hulloa! Mr. Archer," shaking his hand till I thought he
would have dragged the arm clean out of the socket--"How be you, boy?
How be you?" "Right well, Tom, can't you see? Why confound you, you've
grown twenty pound heavier since July!--but here, I'm losing all my
manners!--this is Frank Forester, whom you have heard me talk about so
often! He dropped down here out of the moon, Tom, I believe! at least I
thought about as much of seeing the man in the moon, as of meeting him
in this wooden country--but here he is, as you see, come all the way to
take a look at the natives. And so, you see, as you're about the
greatest curiosity I know of in these parts, I brought him straight up
here to take a peep! Look at him, Frank--look at him well! Now, did you
ever see, in all your life, so extraordinary an old devil?--and yet,
Frank, which no man could possibly believe, the old fat animal has some
good points about him--he can walk some! shoot, as he says, first best!
and drink--good Lord, how he can drink!"

"And that reminds me," exclaimed Tom, who with a ludicrous mixture of
pleasure, bash