t like those of
John Rogers at the stake, enveloped in fire, the cries of the crowd were
mingled in with a rude, wild chorus, in which the pedler was made to
understand that he stood himself in a peril almost as great as his
consuming chattels. It was the famous ballad of the _regulators_ that he
heard, and it smote his heart with a consciousness of his personal
danger that made him shiver in his shoes. The uncouth doggrel, recited
in a lilting sort of measure, the peculiar and various pleasures of a
canter upon a pine rail. It was clear that the mob were by no means
satisfied with the small measure of sport which they had enjoyed. A
single verse of this savage ditty will suffice for the present, rolled
out upon the air, from fifty voices, the very boys and negroes joining
in the chorus, and making it tell terribly to the senses of the
threatened person. First one voice would warble

"Did you ever, ever, ever!"--

and there was a brief pause, at the end of which the crowd joined in
with unanimous burst and tremendous force of lungs:--

"Did you ever, ever, ever, in your life ride a rail?
Such a deal of pleasure's in it, that you never can refuse!
You are mounted on strong shoulders, that'll never, never fail,
Though you pray'd with tongue of sinner, just to plant you
where they choose.
Though the brier patch is nigh you, looking up with thorny faces,
They never wait to see how you like the situation,
But down you go a rolling, through the penetrating places,
Nor scramble out until you give the cry of approbation.
Oh! pleasant is the riding, highly-seated on the rail,
And worthy of the wooden horse, the rascal that we ride;
Let us see the mighty shoulders that will never, never fail.
To lift him high, and plant him, on the crooked rail astride.
The seven-sided pine rail, the pleasant bed of briar,
The little touch of hickory law, with a dipping in the mire.

"Did you ever, ever, ever," &c.,

from the troupe in full blast!

The lawyer Pippin suddenly stood beside the despairing pedler, as this
ominous ditty was poured upon the night-winds.

"Do you hear that song, Bunce?" he asked. "How do you like the music?"

The pedler looked in his face with a mixed expression of grief, anger,
and stupidity, but he said nothing.

"Hark ye, Bunce," continued the lawyer. "Do you know what that means?
Does your brain take in i