upon
the task of personally securing him. By this means her enterprise was
sure to get wind, and a mob of the idle young men and barefooted
urchins of the village, with Bob M'Cann, "a three-quarter clift"* of
a fellow--half knave, half fool, was to be found, a little below the
village, upon an elevation of the road, that commanded a level stretch
of half a mile or so, in anxious expectation of the procession. No
sooner had this arrived at the point of observation, than the little
squadron would fall rearward of the principal group, for the purpose of
extracting from Nancy a full and particular account of the capture.

[Illustration: PAGE 656-- Bringing home "graceless Ned,"]

* This is equal to the proverb--"he wants a square," that
is, though knavish not thoroughly rational; in other words,
a combination of knave and fool. Bob, in consequence of his
accomplishments, was always a great favorite in the village.
Upon some odd occasions he was a ready and willing drudge at
everything, and as strong as a ditch. Give him only a good
fog-meal--which was merely a trifle, just what would serve
three men or so--give him, we say, a fog-meal of this kind,
about five times a day, with a liberal promise of more, and
never was there a Scotch Brownie who could get through so
much work. He knew no fatigue; frost and cold had no power
over him; wind, sleet, and hail he laughed at; rain! it
stretched his skin, he said, after a meal--and that, he
added, was a comfort. Notwithstanding all this, he was
neither more nor less than an impersonation of laziness,
craft, and gluttony. The truth is, that unless in the hope
of being gorged he would do nothing; and the only way to get
anything out of him was, never to let the gorge precede the
labor, but always, on the contrary, to follow it. Bob's
accomplishments were not only varied, but of a very elevated
order, and the means of holding him in high odor among us.
Great and wonderful, Heaven knows, did we look upon his
endowments to be. No man, wise or otherwise, could "hunt the
brock," alias the badger, within a hundred miles of Bob; for
when he covered his mouth with his two hands, and gave forth
the very sounds which the badger is said to utter, did we
not look upon him--Bob--with as much wonder and reverence as
we would have done upon the badger himsel