His cries now became so loud as to render it necessary to gag him, which was done by one of the party in the most thorough and expeditious manner.  They then dragged him into a wheelwright’s shop near by, where they obtained some tar, with which they coated his face completely.

“Oh! don’t he look like a nigger!” said one of the party, when they had finished embellishing their victim.

“Rub some on his hands, and then let him go,” suggested another.  “When he gets home I guess he’ll surprise his mammy:  I don’t believe his own dog will know him!”

A shout of laughter followed this remark, in the midst of which they ungagged Mr. Stevens and turned him from the door.

“Now run for it—­cut the quickest kind of time,” exclaimed one of them, as he gave him a kick to add impetus to his forward movement.

This aid was, however, entirely unnecessary, for Mr. Stevens shot away from the premises like an arrow from a bow; and that, too, without any observation upon the direction in which he was going.

As soon as he felt himself out of the reach of his tormentors, he sat down upon the steps of a mansion, to consider what was best to be done.  All the shops, and even the taverns, were closed—­not a place was open where he could procure the least assistance; he had not even an acquaintance in the neighbourhood to whom he might apply.

He was, indeed, a pitiable object to look upon The hat he had so recently purchased, bad as it was when it came into his possession, was now infinitely less presentable.  In the severe trials it had undergone, in company with its unfortunate owner, it had lost its tip and half the brim.  The countenance beneath it would, however, have absorbed the gazer’s whole attention.  His lips were swelled to a size that would have been regarded as large even on the face of a Congo negro, and one eye was puffed out to an alarming extent; whilst the coating of tar he had received rendered him such an object as the reader can but faintly picture to himself.

The door of the mansion was suddenly opened, and there issued forth a party of young men, evidently in an advanced state of intoxication.  “Hallo! here’s a darkey!” exclaimed one of them, as the light from the hall fell upon the upturned face of Mr. Stevens.  “Ha, ha!  Here’s a darkey—­now for some fun!”

Mr. Stevens was immediately surrounded by half a dozen well-dressed young men, who had evidently been enjoying an entertainment not conducted upon temperance principles.  “Spirit of—­hic—­hic—­night, whence co-co-comest thou?” stammered one; “sp-p-peak—­art thou a creature of the mag-mag-na-tion-goblin-damned, or only a nigger?—­speak!” Mr. Stevens, who at once recognized one or two of the parties as slight acquaintances, would not open his mouth, for fear that his voice might discover him, as to them, above all persons, he would have shrunk from making himself known, he therefore began to make signs as though he were dumb.