d worthy of such a
listener. As for Opportunity, she read a newspaper a little while,
munched an apple a very little while, and slept the rest of the way. But
the journey between modern Troy and Saratoga is not a long one, and was
soon accomplished.
CHAPTER VII.
"I will tell you;
If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little),
Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer."
MENENIUS AGRIPPA.
At the springs we parted, Mr. Warren and his friends finding a
conveyance, with their own horses, in readiness to carry them the
remainder of the distance. As for my uncle and myself, it was understood
that we were to get on in the best manner we could, it being expected
that we should reach Ravensnest in the course of a day or two. According
to the theory of our new business, we ought to travel on foot, but we
had a reservation _in petto_ that promised us also the relief of a
comfortable wagon of some sort or other.
"Well," said my uncle, the moment we had got far enough from our new
acquaintances to be out of ear-shot, "I must say one thing in behalf of
Mr. Seneky, as he calls himself, or Sen, as his elegant sister calls
him, and that is, that I believe him to be one of the biggest scoundrels
the state holds."
"This is not drawing his character _en beau_," I answered, laughing.
"But why do you come out so decidedly upon him at this particular
moment?"
"Because this particular moment happens to be the first in which I have
had an opportunity to say anything since I have known the rascal. You
must have remarked that the fellow held me in discourse from the time we
left Troy until we stopped here."
"Certainly; I could see that his tongue was in motion unceasingly: what
he said, I have to conjecture."
"He said enough to lay bare his whole character. Our subject was
anti-rent, which he commenced with a view to explain it to a foreigner;
but I managed to lead him on, step by step, until he let me into all his
notions and expectations on the subject. Why, Hugh, the villain actually
proposed that you and I should enlist, and turn ourselves into two of
the rascally mock redskins."
"Enlist! Do they still persevere so far as to keep up that organization,
in the very teeth of the late law?"
"The law! What do two or three thousand voters care for any penal law,
in a country like this? Who is to enforce the law against them? Did they
commit murder, and were they ev
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