"Why, for that matter, he's neither one thing nor another--nothing, no
how. A pesky little creature! What they call a hobbe-de-hoy will suit
for his name sooner than any other that I know on. For he ain't a man
and he ain't a boy; but jest a short, half-grown up chunk of a fellow,
with bunchy shoulders, and a big head, with a mouth like an oven, and
long lap ears like saddle flaps."

In this manner the pedler informed Ralph of all those previous
particulars with which he had not till then been made acquainted. This
having been done, and the dialogue having fairly reached its
termination--and the youth exhibiting some strong symptoms of
weariness--Bunce took his departure for the present, not, however,
without again proffering his services. These Ralph did not scruple to
accept--giving him, at the same time, sundry little commissions, and
among them a message of thanks and respectful consideration to Miss
Munro.

She, in the meanwhile, had, upon fainting in the court-room, been borne
off in a state of utter insensibility, to the former residence of Munro,
to which place, as the pedler has already informed us, the wife of the
landlord had that very morning returned, resuming, precisely as before,
all the previous order of her domestic arrangements. The reason for this
return may be readily assigned. The escape of the pedler and of Lucy
from their place of temporary confinement had completely upset all the
prior arrangements of the outlaws. They now conceived it no longer safe
as a retreat; and failing as they did to overtake the fugitives, it was
determined that, in the disguises which had been originally suggested
for their adoption, they should now venture into the village, as many of
them as were willing, to obtain that degree of information which would
enable them to judge what further plans to adopt.

As Rivers had conjectured, Chub Williams, so far from taking for the
village, had plunged deeper into the woods, flying to former and well
known haunts, and regarding the face of man as that of a natural enemy.
The pedler had seen none but women, or those so disguised as such as to
seem none other than what they claimed to be--while Lucy had been
permitted to see none but her uncle and aunt, and one or two persons she
had never met before.

Under these circumstances, Rivers individually felt no apprehensions
that his wild refuge would be searched; but Munro, something older, less
sanguine, and somewhat more timid t