86 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



" them darned etarnal Teachmans they've murdered me right 

 out ! I'll never get over this ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! Half drowned 

 and smashed up the darndest ! Now aint it an etarnal shame ! 

 Cuss them, if I doos n't sarve them out for it, my name's not 

 Thomas Draw !" 



" Well, it is not," rejoined Harry, " who in the name of won- 

 der ever called you Thomas ? Christened you never were at 

 all, that's evident enough, you barbarous old heathen but you 

 were certainly named Tom." 



Swearing, and vowing vengeance on Jem Lyn, and Garry, 

 and the Teachmans each one of whom, by the way, was sound 

 asleep during this pleasant interlude and shaking with the 

 cold, and sputtering with uncontrollable fury, the fat man did 

 at length get dressed, and after two or three libations of milk 

 punch, recovered his temper somewhat, and his spirits alto- 

 gether. 



Although, however, Harry and I told him very frankly that 

 we were not merely the sole planners, but the sole executors, 

 of the trick it was in vain we spoke. Tom would not have it. 



" No he knew he knew well enough ; did we go for to 

 think he was such an old etarnai fool as not to know Jem's 

 voice a bloody Decker he would be the death of him.'' 



And direful, in good truth, I do believe, were the jokes prac- 

 tical, and to him no jokes at all, which poor Jem had to under- 

 go, in expiation of his fancied share in this our misdemeanor. 



Scarce had the row subsided, before the horses were an- 

 nounced. Harry and I, and Tom and Timothy, mounted the 

 old green drag ; and, with our cheroots lighted the only lights, 

 by the way, that were visible at all oft* we went at a rattling 

 trot, the horses in prime condition, full of fire, biting and snap- 

 ping at each other, and making their bits clash and jingle every 

 moment. Up the long hill, and through the shadowy wood, 

 they strained, at full ten miles an hour, without a touch of the 

 whip, or even a word of Harry's well-known voice. 



We reached the brow of the mountain, where there are four 

 cleared fields whereon I once saw snow lie five, feet deep on 

 the tenth day of April and an old barn ; and thence we look- 

 ed back through the cold gray gloom of an autumnal morning, 

 three hours at least before the rising of the sun, while the stars 

 were waning in the dull sky, and the moon had long since set, 

 toward the Greenwood lake. 



Never was there a stronger contrast, than between that lovely 



