ck and me to become as well acquainted with him
as we cared to be, and then went back to Kentucky to visit his friends.
He returned a few days ago, and now we may make up our minds to have him
for a companion."

"What sort of a fellow is he, Johnny?" asked Frank.

"I don't admire him," replied Johnny, who, like Archie, never hesitated
to speak his mind very freely. "From what I have seen of him, I should
say that he is not a boy who is calculated to make friends. He talks and
brags too much. He tries to use big words in conversation, and
criticises every one around him most unmercifully. He is one of those
knowing fellows; but, after you have exchanged a few words with him, you
will find that he doesn't know so very much after all. He has been all
over the world, if we are to believe what he says, and has been the hero
of adventures that throw your encounter with Pierre Costello into the
shade. He carries no less than seven bullets in his body."

"Seven bullets!" echoed Archie. "Why, I should think they would kill
him."

"So they would, most likely, if he only had them in him," replied
Johnny. "He is a famous hunter and trapper, owns two splendid horses, a
pack of hounds, three or four fine guns, and makes himself hot and happy
in a suit of buckskin. If it were not for his smooth face and dandy
airs, one would take him for some old mountain man. He gave Dick and me
a short history of his life--which he will be sure to repeat for your
benefit--and was foolish enough to believe that we were as green as two
pumpkins because we had never been in the States, and that we would
swallow any thing. But, if we have always lived in a wilderness, we have
not neglected our books, and we are well enough posted to know that
Arthur makes great mistakes sometimes."

"But why is your day's fun all knocked in the head?" asked Archie.

"Because I can't enjoy myself when Arthur is around. I am always afraid
that I shall do or say something that he won't like. Every time I look
at him, I am reminded of Byron's Corsair, who, you know, was

'--the mildest mannered man
That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.'

I don't mean to say that Arthur would cut any body's throat, but I do
say that if he should happen to get angry at any of us, we shall wish
him safe in Kentucky, where he belongs. I can't very well avoid
introducing him, but, after what I have said, you will understand that
I do not indorse him."

The conversation was brou