at
Lawyer Pippin take the chair, and judge in this matter; for the day has
come for settling off accounts, and I don't see why we shouldn't be the
regulators for Bunce, seeing that everybody agrees that he's a rogue,
and a pestilence, and desarves regilation."

This speech was highly applauded, and chimed in admirably with all
prejudices, and the voice that called Lawyer Pippin to preside over the
deliberations of the assembly was unanimous. The gentleman thus highly
distinguished, was a dapper and rather portly little personage, with
sharp twinkling eyes, a ruby and remarkable nose, a double chin,
retreating forehead, and corpulent cheek. He wore green glasses of a
dark, and a green coat of a light, complexion. The lawyer was the only
member of the profession living in the village, had no competitor save
when the sitting of the court brought in one or more from neighboring
settlements, and, being thus circumstanced, without opposition, and the
only representative of his craft, he was literally, to employ the slang
phrase in that quarter, the "cock of the walk." He was, however, not so
much regarded by the villagers a worthy as a clever man. It required not
erudition to win the credit of profundity, and the lawyer knew how to
make the most of his learning among those who had none. Like many other
gentlemen of erudition, he was grave to a proverb when the occasion
required it, and would not be seen to laugh out of the prescribed place,
though "Nestor swore the jest was laughable." He relied greatly on saws
and sayings--could quote you the paradoxes of Johnson and the
infidelities of Hume without always understanding them, and mistook, as
men of that kind and calibre are very apt to do, the capacity to repeat
the grave absurdities of others as a proof of something in himself. His
business was not large, however, and among the arts of his profession,
and as a means for supplying the absence of more legitimate occasions
for its employment, he was reputed as excessively expert in making the
most of any difficulty among his neighbors. The egg of mischief and
controversy was hardly laid, before the worthy lawyer, with maternal
care, came clucking about it; he watched and warmed it without
remission; and when fairly hatched, he took care that the whole brood
should be brought safely into court, his voice, and words, and actions,
fully attesting the deep interest in their fortunes which he had
manifested from the beginning. Many