ne for anything less
ludicrously ideal. Though it had been of his own choosing, a shadow
pursued him and would not let him rest: it was the ghost of the murdered
K. K. K. He had been with it in its prosperity; had eaten its bread in its
adversity; and since above the spot of its interment the daisies were
developing into types of its departed beauty, he had given himself to the
magnanimous resolve of perpetuating its genius in other climes.

Having chalked a freight car, "Through without delay," he deposited his
remains on the inside, and four days thereafter found himself at the door
of a cheap hashery, in the thriving little city of Columbus, Texas. Here
he refreshed the inner man on a promise to pay, rendered subsequent to the
meal, and having been damned for a "blister," and a "cooter," and a
"scorpion," wandered forth, that image of "blank dismay" which we have
already depicted to the reader. Destiny was now begun with him in earnest,
and it was only necessary for him to sit still and "administer upon the
fluttering pasteboards," with that resignation of soul which should
characterize the man who has given five points in the game, and occupies
the losing seat. Mounting a goods-box on a neighboring corner, he adjusted
his unshapeliness to its angles in a posture that would have been an easy
one for another man, and awaited events. They were not slow in coming. In
fact they came in troops, and awaited their turn with a constancy of
resolve that would have frightened a less Napoleonic structure. The first
visitation comprised two Hibernians of smiling aspect, who, observing this
unusual tableau, affected to note a disposition to sneeze in the subject.
Instantly our hero accepted the challenge (_ad hominem et sine
exceptione_), and leaping from his perch engaged his persecutors with the
desperation of a man who feels that he would be made happier if soundly
whipped. Striking right and left, he provoked his adversaries to do their
worst, and soon brandishing huge knives, they made inroads upon his
anatomy which left him an intricate subject for the hospitals and doctors.
Twenty-two wounds in all had severally penetrated his lungs, severed his
carotid artery, atrophied his liver, wasp-nested his umbilicus, riddled
his facial parts, and bereft him of five fingers and the arm to which
their five fellows were attached,--and yet he would not die, could not see
it to his interest to die, felt that it would not be destiny to die