I took, at
first, to be symbols of the calculating qualities of the owners of the
mansions--a species of republican heraldry--but which the brigadier told
me, on inquiry, were no more than a fashion that had descended from the
custom of having stuffed images before the doors, in the early days of
the settlement, to frighten away the beasts at night, precisely as we
station scarecrows in a corn-field. Two of these well-padded sentinels,
with a stick stuck up in a fire-lock attitude, he assured me, had often
been known to maintain a siege of a week, against a she-bear and a
numerous family of hungry cubs, in the olden times; and, now that the
danger was gone, he presumed the families which had caused these iron
monuments to be erected, had done so to record some marvellous risks
of this nature, from which their forefathers had escaped by means of so
ingenious an expedient.

Everything in Bivouac bears the impress of the sublime principle of the
institutions. The houses of the private citizens, for instance, overtop
the roofs of all the public edifices, to show that the public is merely
a servant of the citizen. Even the churches have this peculiarity,
proving that the road to heaven is not independent of the popular will.
The great Hall of Justice, an edifice of which the Bivouackers are
exceedingly proud, is constructed in the same recumbent style, the
architect, with a view to protect himself from the imputation of
believing that the firmament was within reach of his hand, having taken
the precaution to run up a wooden finger-board from the centre of the
building, which points to the place where, according to the notions of
all other people, the ridge of the roof itself should have been raised.
So very apparent was this peculiarity, Noah observed, that it seemed to
him as if the whole "'arth" had been rolled down by a great political
rolling-pin, by way of giving the country its finishing touch.

While making these remarks, one drew near at a brisk trot, who, Mr.
Downright observed, eagerly desired our acquaintance. Surprised at his
pretending to know such a fact without any previous communication, I
took the liberty of asking why he thought that we were the particular
objects of the other's haste.

"Simply because you are fresh arrivals. This person is one of a
sufficiently numerous class among us, who, devoured by a small ambition,
seek notoriety--which, by the way, they are near obtaining in more
respects than the