et waggons the same road.

One might almost back one of these crack hands to hunt a picked team of
their own, a cross country, with the Melton hounds, coach and all; and
if it was not for the _pace_, it would not be such a very bad bet
either.

At Camden we quitted our vehicular mode of progressing, and took once
more to the water, or rather to the ice, since it certainly ruled over
the broad Delaware. In many places this was strong enough to sustain the
weight of our little steamer's bow, and only gave way beneath repeated
heavy blows of the iron-sheathed paddles.

After a hard fight we forced a path through all obstacles, and as the
clock struck four were alongside the Chestnut-street wharf; having,
notwithstanding the delays occasioned by our mishap and various changes,
accomplished the hundred miles in exactly ten hours.

I was expected, found a dinner prepared for five o'clock, and, going at
once to my chamber to dress, thought I had never seen the Mansion-house
look to greater advantage. A well-warmed and carpeted corridor led to my
snug little room, the window of which looking into the inner court,
afforded one of the most attractive winter prospects imaginable, in the
form of entire carcasses of several fat bucks all hanging in a comely
row, and linked together by a festooning composed of turkey, woodcock,
snipe, grouse, and ducks of several denominations. Although quartered
here for a month to come, I felt fortified against any fear of famine by
this single glance without; nor did my interior appear less inviting,
cheered as this was by a brisk fire of hickory, several logs of which
lay athwart my hearth, sustained by a couple of antique-looking brass
dogs, blazing and crackling most uproariously: this is a fire I prefer
even to one of Liverpool coal; and how it can ever be superseded by that
quiet, unsocial, unearthly-looking and smelling, anthracite, I am at a
loss to _guess_!

FOOTNOTE:

[6] Described as the officer commanding the Downingsville militia, a
New-Englander, and a stanch adherent of the "Gineral's, so far as 'a
decent hunk of the animal wint,' but entirely agin' the whole-hog
system." Under this perfect assumption there appeared a series of really
familiar epistles, either remonstrating with or speaking of the
"Gineral," or, as the Major latterly styled the President, "the
Govermint;" no less admirable for the political acumen they display than
for a caustic drollery, which is enforced wit