was never
taken by surprise--accidents never came unexpected, and strange events
never disconcerted him. He would whistle "Yankee Doodle" while his
horses were floundering in a quagmire, and sing "Hail Columbia" while
plunging into an unknown river!

He never met a stranger, for he was intimately acquainted with a man as
soon as he saw him. Introductions were useless ceremonies to him, for he
cared nothing about names. He called a woman "ma'am" and a man "mister,"
and if he could sell either of them a few goods, he never troubled
himself or them with impertinent inquiries. Sometimes he had a habit of
learning each man's name from his next neighbor, and possessing an
excellent memory, he never lost the information thus acquired.

When he had passed through a settlement once, he had a complete
knowledge of all its circumstances, history, and inhabitants; and, the
next year, if he met a child in the road, he could tell you whom it most
resembled, and to what family it belonged. He recollected all who were
sick on his last visit--what peculiar difficulties each was laboring
under--and was always glad to hear of their convalescence. He gathered
medicinal herbs along the road, and generously presented them to the
housewives where he halted, and he understood perfectly the special
properties of each. He possessed a great store of good advice, suited to
every occasion, and distributed it with the disinterested benevolence of
a philanthropist. He knew precisely what articles of merchandise were
adapted to the taste of each customer; and the comprehensive "rule of
three" would not have enabled him to calculate more nicely the exact
amount of "talk" necessary to convince them of the same.

His address was extremely insinuating, for he always endeavored to say
the most agreeable things, and no man could judge more accurately what
would best please the person addressed. He might be vain enough, but his
egotism was never obtruded upon others. He might secretly felicitate
himself upon a successful trade, but he never boasted of it. He seemed
to be far more interested in the affairs of others than in his own. He
had sympathy for the afflictions of his customers, counsel for their
difficulties, triumph in their success.

Before the introduction of mails, he was the universal news-carrier, and
could tell all about the movements of the whole world. He could gossip
over his wares with his female customers, till he beguiled them into