WARWICK WOODLANDS. S7 



not look the character, he played the part, when he got to work, 

 right handsomely. At a more fitting season, Harry in a few 

 words let me into this worthy's history and disposition. " He 

 is," he said, " the most incorrigible rascal I ever met with an 

 unredeemed and utter vagabond ; he started life as a stallion* 

 leader, a business which he understands as in fact he does al- 

 most every thing else within his scope thoroughly well. He 

 got on prodigiously ! was employed by the first breeders in 

 the country ! took to drinking, and then, in due rotation, to 

 gambling, pilfering, lying, every vice, in short, which is com- 

 patible with utter want of any thing like moral sense, deep 

 shrewdness, and uncommon cowardice. 



" He cut his throat once you may see the scar now in a 

 fit of delirium tremens, and Tom Draw, who, though he is per- 

 petually cursing him for the most lying critter under heaven, 

 has, I believe, a sort of fellow feeling for him nursed him and 

 gut him well ; and ever since he has hung about here, getting 

 at times a country stallion to look after, at others hunting, or 

 fishing, or doing little jobs about the stable, for which Tom 

 gives him plenty of abuse, plenty to eat, and as little rum as 

 possible, for if he gets a second glass it is all up with Jem Lyn 

 for a week at least. 



" He came to see me once in New York, when I was down 

 upon my back with a broken leg I was lying in the parlor, 

 about three weeks after the accident had happened. Tim. Mat- 

 lock had gone out for something, and the cook let him in ; and, 

 after he had sat there about lialf an hour, telling me all the 

 news of the races, and making me laugh more than was good 

 for my broken leg, he gave me such a hint, that I was compelled 

 to direct him to the cupboard, wherein 1 kept the liquor-stand ; 

 and unluckily enough, as I had not for some time been in drink- 

 ing tune, all three of the bottles were brimful ; and, as I am a 

 Christian man, he drank in spite of all I could say I could not 

 leave the couch to get at him two of them to the dregs ; and, 

 after frightening me almost to death, fell flat upon the floor, and 

 lay there fast asleep when Tim came in again. He dragged him 

 instantly, by my directions, under the pump in the garden, and 

 soused him for about two hours, but without producing the 

 least effect, except eliciting a grunt or two from this most sea- 

 soned cask. 



a Such is Jem Lyn, and yet, absurd to say, I have tried the 

 fellow, and believe him perfectly trustworthy at least to me ! 



