to have been cased in complete armour. I had only
just taken my unfortunate garment off this new-fashioned cloak-peg, when
Richards returned.

"This is the most infernal wilderness in all the west!" said he.
"Neither road nor path, mud up to the ears, and, to add to my enjoyment,
I have left one of my boots in the swamp."

"And, for my part, there are as many holes in my cloak as thorns on that
cursed acacia-tree," replied I by way of consolation.

These were the last words we spoke in any thing like a jesting tone; for
we were now wet to the skin: and of all situations, I believe a damp one
to be the least favourable to jocularity. I confess a certain partiality
for adventures, when they are not carried too far. There is nothing I
detest like a monotonous wearisome Quaker's journey, with every thing as
tame, and dull, and uniform, as at a meeting of broad-brims; but to be
overtaken by darkness and a deluge in the middle of a maple-swamp, to be
unable to go three steps on one side without falling into the Tennessee,
with an impenetrable morass and thicket on the other hand, a colossal
walnut-tree barring the way in front, and no possibility of turning
back--this was, even to my taste, rather too much of an adventure.

"Well, what is to be done now?" said Richards, who had placed himself in
a sort of theatrical posture--his bootless foot on the gig-step, the
other sticking fast in the mud.

"Take out the horse, and draw the gig back," suggested I.

Easily said, but rather more difficult to accomplish. We set to work,
however, with a will; and pushed, and tugged, and pulled, till at last,
after much labour, we got the gig about thirty paces backwards, where
the road became wider. We then turned it, and were putting Caesar into
the shafts, when, to our inexpressible delight, a loud hallo was given
quite close to us.

Reader, if you were ever at a hard contested election, where you had bet
your fifty or a hundred dollars on your favourite candidate, and just
when you made sure of losing, and your five senses were almost
extinguished by noise, brandy, and tobacco smoke, you heard the result
proclaimed that secured you your stake, and a hundred per cent to boot;
if you have ever been placed in such circumstances, then, and then only,
can you form an idea of the joyful feeling with which we heard that
shout. After such a thorough Yankee fashion was it given, that it caused
the fog to break for a moment, and roused the