hat followed. All restraints were removed--all hindrances
withdrawn, and the tide rushed onward with a most headlong tendency.

Apprehensive of pecuniary responsibilities in his own person, and having
his neighbors wrought to the desired pitch--fearing, also, lest his
station might somewhat involve himself in the meshes he was weaving
around others, the sagacious chairman, upon the first show of violence,
roared out his resignation, and descended from his place. But this
movement did not impair the industry of the _regulators_. A voice was
heard proposing a bonfire of the merchandise, and no second suggestion
was necessary. All hands but those of the pedler and the attorney were
employed in building the pyre in front of the tavern some thirty yards;
and here, in choice confusion, lay flaming calicoes, illegitimate silks,
worsted hose, wooden clocks and nutmegs, maple-wood seeds of all
descriptions, plaid cloaks, scents, and spices, jumbled up in ludicrous
variety. A dozen hands busied themselves in applying the torch to the
devoted mass--howling over it, at every successive burst of flame that
went up into the dark atmosphere, a savage yell of triumph that tallied
well with the proceeding.

"Hurrah!"

The scene was one of indescribable confusion. The rioters danced about
the blaze like so many frenzied demons. Strange, no one attempted to
appropriate the property that must have been a temptation to all.

Our pedler, though he no longer strove to interfere, was by no means
insensible to the ruin of his stock in trade. It was calculated to move
to pity, in any other region, to behold him as he stood in the doorway,
stupidly watching the scene, while the big tears were slowly gathering
in his eyes, and falling down his bronzed and furrowed cheeks. The
rough, hard, unscrupulous man can always weep for himself. Whatever the
demerits of the rogue, our young traveller above stairs, would have
regarded him as the victim of a too sharp justice. Not so the
participators in the outrage. They had been too frequently the losers by
the cunning practice of the pedler, to doubt for a moment the perfect
propriety--nay, the very moderate measure--of that wild justice which
they were dealing out to his misdeeds. And with this even, they were not
satisfied. As the perishable calicoes roared up and went down in the
flames, as the pans and pots and cups melted away in the furnace heat,
and the painted faces of the wooden clocks, glared ou