horses, and abundance of drink and
venison for the master within the tumble-down fences, and behind the
cracked windows of the hall. Harry had slept on many a straw mattress,
and engaged in endless jolly night-bouts over claret and punch in
cracked bowls till morning came, and it was time to follow the hounds.
His poor brother was of a much more sober sort, as the lad owned with
contrition. So it is that Nature makes folks; and some love books and
tea, and some like Burgundy and a gallop across country. Our young
fellow's tastes were speedily made visible to his friends in England.
None of them were partial to the Puritan discipline; nor did they like
Harry the worse for not being the least of a milksop. Manners, you see,
were looser a hundred years ago; tongues were vastly more free-and-easy;
names were named, and things were done, which we should screech now to
hear mentioned. Yes, madam, we are not as our ancestors were. Ought we
not to thank the Fates that have improved our morals so prodigiously,
and made us so eminently virtuous?

So, keeping a shrewd keen eye upon people round about him, and fancying,
not incorrectly, that his cousins were disposed to pump him, Harry
Warrington had thought fit to keep his own counsel regarding his own
affairs, and in all games of chance or matters of sport was quite a
match for the three gentlemen into whose company he had fallen. Even in
the noble game of billiards he could hold his own after a few days' play
with his cousins and their revered pastor. His grandfather loved the
game, and had over from Europe one of the very few tables which existed
in his Majesty's province of Virginia. Nor, though Mr. Will could
beat him at the commencement, could he get undue odds out of the young
gamester. After their first bet, Harry was on his guard with Mr. Will,
and cousin William owned, not without respect, that the American was his
match in most things, and his better in many. But though Harry played so
well that he could beat the parson, and soon was the equal of Will, who
of course could beat both the girls, how came it, that in the contests
with these, especially with one of them, Mr. Warrington frequently
came off second? He was profoundly courteous to every being who wore a
petticoat; nor has that traditional politeness yet left his country. All
the women of the Castlewood establishment loved the young gentleman.
The grim housekeeper was mollified by him: the fat cook greeted him wit