his
hands--he beheld the opposing parties desirous to conciliate, and
extending to him sundry of those equivocal courtesies, which, though
they take not the shape of money are money's worth, and the worthy
chairman had no scruples as to the propriety of the measure. The profits
and pay once adjusted to his satisfaction, his spirit took a broad
sweep, and the province of human fame, circumscribed, it is true, within
the ten mile circuit of his horizon, was at once open before him. He
beheld the strife, and enjoyed the triumph over his fellow-laborers at
the bar--he already heard the applauses of his neighbors at this or that
fine speech or sentiment; and his form grew insensibly erect, and his
eye glistened proudly, as he freely and fully assented to the measure
which promised such an abundant harvest. Vainly did the despairing and
dispirited pedler implore a different judgment; the huge box which
capped the body of his travelling vehicle, torn from its axle, without
any show of reverential respect for screw or fastening, was borne in a
moment through the capacious entrance of the hall, and placed
conspicuously upon the table.

"The key, Bunce, the key!" was the demand of a dozen.

The pedler hesitated for a second, and the pause was fatal. Before he
could redeem his error, a blow from a hatchet settled the difficulty, by
distributing the fine deal-box cover, lock and hinges, in fragments over
the apartment. The revelation of wares and fabrics--a strange admixture,
with propriety designated "notions"--brought all eyes immediately
around, and rendered a new order, for common convenience, necessary in
the arrangement of the company. The chairman, chair and man, were in a
moment raised to a corresponding elevation upon the table, over the
collection; and the controversy and clamor, from concentrating, as it
did before, upon the person of the pedler, were now transferred to the
commodities he brought for sale. Order having been at length obtained,
Colonel Blundell undertook the assertion of his own and the wrongs of
his fellow-sufferers, and kept uninterrupted possession of the floor.

"And now, Mr. Chairman, I will jist go a little into the particulars of
the rogueries and rascalities of this same Yankee. Now, in the first
place, he is a Yankee, and that's enough, itself, to bring him to
punishment--but we'll let that pass, and go to his other
transactions--for, as I reckon, it's quite punishment enough for that
offence