Now, if these things an"t _desarving_ of punishment, there"s n.o.body fit to be hung--there"s n.o.body that ought to be whipped. Hickories oughtn"t to grow any longer, and the best thing the governor can do would be to have all the jails burnt down from one eend of the country to the other.
The proof stands up agin Bunce, and there"s no denying it; and it"s no use, no how, to let this fellow come among us, year after year, to play the same old hand, take our money for his rascally goods, then go away and laugh at us. And the question before us is jist what I have said, and what shall we do with the critter? To show you that it"s high time to do something in the matter, look at this calico print, that looks, to be sure, very well to the eye, except, as you see, here"s a tree with red leaves and yellow flowers--a most ridiculous notion, indeed, for who ever seed a tree with sich colors here, in the very beginning of summer?"
Here the pedler, for the moment, more solicitous for the credit of the manufactures than for his own safety, ventured to suggest that the print was a mere fancy, a matter of taste--in fact, a notion, and not therefore to be judged by the standard which had been brought to decide upon its merits. He did not venture, however, to say what, perhaps, would have been the true horn of the difficulty, that the print was an autumn or winter ill.u.s.tration, for that might have subjected him to condign punishment for its unseasonableness. As it was, the defence set up was to the full as unlucky as any other might have been.
"I"ll tell you what, Master Bunce, it won"t do to take natur in vain. If you can show me a better painter than natur, from your pairts, I give up; but until that time, I say that any man who thinks to give the woods a different sort of face from what G.o.d give "em, ought to be licked for his impudence if nothing else."
The pedler ventured again to expostulate; but the argument having been considered conclusive against him, he was made to hold his peace, while the prosecutor proceeded.
"Now then, Mr. Chairman, as I was saying--here is a sample of the kind of stuff he thinks to impose upon us. Look now at this here article, and I reckon it"s jist as good as any of the rest, and say whether a little touch of Lynch"s law, an"t the very thing for the Yankee!"
Holding up the devoted calico to the gaze of the a.s.sembly, with a single effort of his strong and widely-distended arms, he rent it asunder with little difficulty, the sweep not terminating, until the stuff, which, by-the-way, resigned itself without struggle or resistance to its fate, had been most completely and evenly divided. The poor pedler in vain endeavored to stay a ravage that, once begun, became epidemical. He struggled and strove with tenacious hand, holding on to sundry of his choicest bales, and claiming protection from the chair, until warned of his imprudent zeal in behalf of goods so little deserving of the risk, by the sharp and sudden application of an unknown hand to his ears which sent him reeling against the table, and persuaded him into as great a degree of patience, as, under existing circ.u.mstances, he could be well expected to exhibit. Article after article underwent a like a.n.a.lysis of its strength and texture, and a warm emulation took place among the rioters, as to their several capacities in the work of destruction. The shining bottoms were torn from the tin-wares in order to prove that such a separation was possible, and it is doing but brief justice to the pedler to say, that, whatever, in fact, might have been the true character of his commodities, the very choicest of human fabrics could never have resisted the various tests of bone and sinew, tooth and nail, to which they were indiscriminately subjected. Immeasurable was the confusion that followed. All restraints were removed--all hindrances withdrawn, and the tide rushed onward with a most headlong tendency.
Apprehensive of pecuniary responsibilities in his own person, and having his neighbors wrought to the desired pitch--fearing, also, lest his station might somewhat involve himself in the meshes he was weaving around others, the sagacious chairman, upon the first show of violence, roared out his resignation, and descended from his place. But this movement did not impair the industry of the _regulators_. A voice was heard proposing a bonfire of the merchandise, and no second suggestion was necessary. All hands but those of the pedler and the attorney were employed in building the pyre in front of the tavern some thirty yards; and here, in choice confusion, lay flaming calicoes, illegitimate silks, worsted hose, wooden clocks and nutmegs, maple-wood seeds of all descriptions, plaid cloaks, scents, and spices, jumbled up in ludicrous variety. A dozen hands busied themselves in applying the torch to the devoted ma.s.s--howling over it, at every successive burst of flame that went up into the dark atmosphere, a savage yell of triumph that tallied well with the proceeding.
"Hurrah!"
The scene was one of indescribable confusion. The rioters danced about the blaze like so many frenzied demons. Strange, no one attempted to appropriate the property that must have been a temptation to all.
Our pedler, though he no longer strove to interfere, was by no means insensible to the ruin of his stock in trade. It was calculated to move to pity, in any other region, to behold him as he stood in the doorway, stupidly watching the scene, while the big tears were slowly gathering in his eyes, and falling down his bronzed and furrowed cheeks. The rough, hard, unscrupulous man can always weep for himself. Whatever the demerits of the rogue, our young traveller above stairs, would have regarded him as the victim of a too sharp justice. Not so the partic.i.p.ators in the outrage. They had been too frequently the losers by the cunning practice of the pedler, to doubt for a moment the perfect propriety--nay, the very moderate measure--of that wild justice which they were dealing out to his misdeeds. And with this even, they were not satisfied. As the perishable calicoes roared up and went down in the flames, as the pans and pots and cups melted away in the furnace heat, and the painted faces of the wooden clocks, glared out like those of John Rogers at the stake, enveloped in fire, the cries of the crowd were mingled in with a rude, wild chorus, in which the pedler was made to understand that he stood himself in a peril almost as great as his consuming chattels. It was the famous ballad of the _regulators_ that he heard, and it smote his heart with a consciousness of his personal danger that made him shiver in his shoes. The uncouth doggrel, recited in a lilting sort of measure, the peculiar and various pleasures of a canter upon a pine rail. It was clear that the mob were by no means satisfied with the small measure of sport which they had enjoyed. A single verse of this savage ditty will suffice for the present, rolled out upon the air, from fifty voices, the very boys and negroes joining in the chorus, and making it tell terribly to the senses of the threatened person. First one voice would warble
"Did you ever, ever, ever!"--
and there was a brief pause, at the end of which the crowd joined in with unanimous burst and tremendous force of lungs:--
"Did you ever, ever, ever, in your life ride a rail?
Such a deal of pleasure"s in it, that you never can refuse!
You are mounted on strong shoulders, that"ll never, never fail, Though you pray"d with tongue of sinner, just to plant you where they choose.
Though the brier patch is nigh you, looking up with th.o.r.n.y faces, They never wait to see how you like the situation, But down you go a rolling, through the penetrating places, Nor scramble out until you give the cry of approbation.
Oh! pleasant is the riding, highly-seated on the rail, And worthy of the wooden horse, the rascal that we ride; Let us see the mighty shoulders that will never, never fail.
To lift him high, and plant him, on the crooked rail astride.
The seven-sided pine rail, the pleasant bed of briar, The little touch of hickory law, with a dipping in the mire.
"Did you ever, ever, ever," &c.,
from the troupe in full blast!
The lawyer Pippin suddenly stood beside the despairing pedler, as this ominous ditty was poured upon the night-winds.
"Do you hear that song, Bunce?" he asked. "How do you like the music?"
The pedler looked in his face with a mixed expression of grief, anger, and stupidity, but he said nothing.
"Hark ye, Bunce," continued the lawyer. "Do you know what that means?
Does your brain take in its meaning, my friend?"
"Friend, indeed!" was the very natural exclamation of the pedler as he shrank from the hand of the lawyer, which had been affectionately laid upon his shoulder. "Friend, indeed! I say, Lawyer Pippin, if it hadn"t been for you, I"d never ha" been in this fix. I"m ruined by you."
"Ruined by me! Pshaw, Bunce, you are a fool. I was your friend all the time."
"Oh, yes! I can see how. But though you did stop, when they began, yet you did enough to set them on. That was like a good lawyer, I guess, but not so much like a friend. Had you been a friend, you could have saved my property from the beginning."
"Nay, nay, Bunce; you do me wrong. They had sworn against you long ago, and you know them well enough. The devil himself couldn"t stop "em when once upon the track. But don"t be down in the mouth. I can save you now."
"Save me!"
"Ay! don"t you hear? They"re singing the regulation song. Once that blaze goes down, they"ll be after you. It"s a wonder they"ve left you here so long. Now"s your time. You must be off. Fly by the back door, and leave it to me to get damages for your loss of property."
"You, lawyer? well, I should like to know how you calkilate to do that?"
"I"ll tell you. You know my profession."
"I guess I do, pretty much."
"Thus, then--most of these are men of substance; at least they have enough to turn out a pretty good case each of them--now all you have to do is to bring suit. I"ll do all that, you know, the same as if you did it yourself. You must lay your damages handsomely, furnish a few affidavits, put the business entirely in my hands, and--how much is the value of your goods?"
"Well, I guess they might be worth something over three hundred and twenty dollars and six shillings, York money."
"Well, give me all the particulars, and I venture to a.s.sure you that I can get five hundred dollars damages at least, and perhaps a thousand.
But of this we can talk more at leisure when you are in safety. Where"s your cart, Bunce?"
"On t"other side of the house--what they"ve left on it."
"Now, then, while they"re busy over the blaze, put your tackle on, hitch your horse, and take the back track to my clearing; it"s but a short mile and a quarter, and you"ll be there in no time. I"ll follow in a little while, and we"ll arrange the matter."
"Well, now, lawyer, but I can"t--my horse, as you see, having over eat himself, is struck with the founders and can"t budge. I put him in "Squire d.i.c.kens" stable, "long with his animals, and seeing that he hadn"t had much the day before, I emptied the corn from their troughs into his, and jest see what"s come of it. I hadn"t ought to done so, to be sure."
"That"s bad, but that must not stop you. Your life, Bunce, is in danger, and I have too much regard for you to let you risk it by longer stay here. Take my nag, there--the second one from the tree, and put him in the gears in place of your own. He"s as gentle as a spaniel, and goes like a deer. You know the back track to my house, and I"ll come after you, and bring your creature along. I "spose he"s not so stiff but he can bring me."
"He can do that, lawyer, I guess, without difficulty. I"ll move as you say, and be off pretty slick. Five hundred dollars damage, lawyer--eh!"
"No matter, till I see you. Put your nag in gears quickly--you have little time to spare!"
The pedler proceeded to the work, and was in a little while ready for a start. But he lingered at the porch.
"I say, lawyer, it"s a hard bout they"ve given me this time. I did fear they would be rash and obstropulous, but didn"t think they"d gone so far. Indeed, it"s clear, if it hadn"t been that the cretur failed me, I should not have trusted myself in the place, after what I was told."
"Bunce, you have been rather sly in your dealings, and they have a good deal to complain of. Now, though I said nothing about it, that coat you sold me for a black grew red with a week"s wear, and threadbare in a month."
"Now, don"t talk, lawyer, seeing you ha"n"t paid me for it yet; but that"s neither here nor there. If I did, as you say, sell my goods for something more than their vally, I hadn"t ought to had such a punishment as this."
The wild song of the rioters rang in his ears, followed by a proposition, seemingly made with the utmost gravity, to change the plan of operations, and instead of giving him the ride upon the rail, cap the blazing goods of his cart with the proper person of the proprietor. The pedler lingered to hear no further; and the quick ear of the lawyer, as he returned into the hall, distinguished the rumbling motion of his cart hurrying down the road. But he had scarcely reseated himself and resumed his gla.s.s, before Bunce also reappeared.
"Why, man, I thought you were off. You burn daylight; though they do say, those whom water won"t drown, rope must hang."
"There is some risk, lawyer, to be sure; but when I recollected this box, which you see is a fine one, though they have disfigured it, I thought I should have time enough to take it with me, and anything that might be lying about;" looking around the apartment as he spoke, and gathering up a few fragments which had escaped the general notice.
"Begone, fool!" exclaimed the lawyer, impatiently. "They are upon you--they come--fly for your life, you dog--I hear their voices."
"I"m off, lawyer"--and looking once behind him as he hurried off, the pedler pa.s.sed from the rear of the building as those who sought him re-entered in front.