riend Chiponchipino, the sculptor,
had but seen the legs of Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith.

But although men so absolutely fine-looking are neither as plenty as
reasons or blackberries, still I could not bring myself to believe that
_the remarkable_ something to which I alluded just now,--that the odd
air of _je ne sais quoi_ which hung about my new acquaintance,--lay
altogether, or indeed at all, in the supreme excellence of his bodily
endowments. Perhaps it might be traced to the _manner_;--yet here again
I could not pretend to be positive. There _was_ a primness, not to
say stiffness, in his carriage--a degree of measured, and, if I may
so express it, of rectangular precision, attending his every movement,
which, observed in a more diminutive figure, would have had the least
little savor in the world, of affectation, pomposity or constraint, but
which noticed in a gentleman of his undoubted dimensions, was readily
placed to the account of reserve, _hauteur_--of a commendable sense, in
short, of what is due to the dignity of colossal proportion.

The kind friend who presented me to General Smith whispered in my ear
some few words of comment upon the man. He was a _remarkable_ man--a
_very_ remarkable man--indeed one of the _most_ remarkable men of the
age. He was an especial favorite, too, with the ladies--chiefly on
account of his high reputation for courage.

"In _that_ point he is unrivalled--indeed he is a perfect desperado--a
down-right fire-eater, and no mistake," said my friend, here dropping
his voice excessively low, and thrilling me with the mystery of his
tone.

"A downright fire-eater, and _no_ mistake. Showed _that_, I should say,
to some purpose, in the late tremendous swamp-fight away down South,
with the Bugaboo and Kickapoo Indians." [Here my friend opened his
eyes to some extent.] "Bless my soul!--blood and thunder, and all
that!--_prodigies_ of valor!--heard of him of course?--you know he's the
man"--

"Man alive, how _do_ you do? why, how _are_ ye? _very_ glad to see ye,
indeed!" here interrupted the General himself, seizing my companion by
the hand as he drew near, and bowing stiffly, but profoundly, as I was
presented. I then thought, (and I think so still,) that I never heard
a clearer nor a stronger voice, nor beheld a finer set of teeth: but I
_must_ say that I was sorry for the interruption just at that moment,
as, owing to the whispers and insinuations aforesaid, my inter