tion; Tom Draw is a decided genius--rough as a
pine knot in his native woods--but full of mirth, of shrewdness, of keen
mother wit, of hard horse sense, and last, not least, of the most
genuine milk of human kindness. He is a rough block; but, as Harry says,
there is solid timber under the uncouth bark enough to make five hundred
men, as men go now-a-days in cities!

At ten o'clock, thanks to the excellent precautions of my friend Harry,
we were all snugly berthed, before the whiskey, which had well justified
the high praise I had heard lavished on it, had made any serious
inroads on our understanding, but not before we had laid in a quantum to
ensure a good night's rest.

Bright and early was I on foot the next day, but before I had half
dressed myself I was assured, by the clatter of the breakfast things,
that Archer had again stolen a march upon me; and the next moment my
bed-room door, driven open by the thick boot of that worthy, gave me a
full view of his person--arrayed in a stout fustian jacket--with half a
dozen pockets in full view, and Heaven only knows how many more lying
perdu in the broad skirts. Knee-breeches of the same material, with
laced half-boots and leather leggins, set off his stout calf and well
turned ankle.

"Up! up! Frank," he exclaimed, "it is a morning of ten thousand; there
has been quite a heavy dew, and by the time we are afoot it will be well
evaporated; and then the scent will lie, I promise you! make haste, I
tell you, breakfast is ready!"

Stimulated by his hurrying voice, I soon completed my toilet, and
entering the parlor found Harry busily employed in stirring to and fro a
pound of powder on one heated dinner plate, while a second was
undergoing the process of preparation on the hearthstone under a glowing
pile of hickory ashes.

At the side-table, covered with guns, dog-whips, nipple-wrenches, and
the like, Tim, rigged like his master, in half boots and leggins, but
with a short roundabout of velveteen, in place of the full-skirted
jacket, was filling our shot-pouches by aid of a capacious funnel, more
used, as its odor betokened, to facilitate the passage of gin or Jamaica
spirits than of so sober a material as cold lead.

At the same moment entered mine host, togged for the field in a huge
pair of cow-hide boots, reaching almost to the knee, into the tops of
which were tucked the lower ends of a pair of trowsers, containing yards
enough of buffalo-cloth to have eked out t