ignorant of those little eccentricities which, had they known them, would have opened up a correct view of the splendid materials for village greatness which he possessed, and which, probably, were nipped in their bud for the want of a pocket to his breeches, or rather by the want of a breeches to his pocket; for such was the wayward energy of his disposition, that he ultimately succeeded in getting the latter, though it certainly often failed him to procure the breeches.  In fact, it was a misfortune to him that he was the Son of his father and mother at all.  Had he been a second Melchizedec, and got into breeches in time, the virtues which circumstances suppressed in his heart might have flourished like cauliflowers, though the world would have lost all the advantages arising from the splendor of his talents at going naked.

Another fact, in justice to his character, must not be omitted.  His penchant for fruit was generally known; but few persons, at the period we are describing, were at all aware that a love of whiskey lurked as a predominant trait in his character, to be brought out at a future era in his life.

Before Phelim reached his tenth year, he and his parents had commenced hostilities.  Many were their efforts to subdue some peculiarities of his temper which then began to appear.  Phelim, however, being an only son, possessed high vantage ground.  Along with other small matters which he was in the habit of picking up, might be reckoned a readiness at swearing.  Several other things also made their appearance in his parents’ cottage, for whose presence there, except through his instrumentality, they found it rather difficult to account.  Spades, shovels, rakes, tubs, frying-pans, and many other-articles of domestic use, were transferred, as if by magic, to Larry’s cabin.

As Larry and his wife were both honest, these things were, of course, restored to their owners, the moment they could be ascertained.  Still, although this honest couple’s integrity was known, there were many significant looks turned upon Phelim, and many spirited prophecies uttered with especial reference to him, all of which hinted at the probability of his dying something in the shape of a perpendicular death.  This habit, then, of adding to their furniture, was one cause of the hostility between him and his parents; we say one, for there were at least, a good round dozen besides.  His touch, for instance, was fatal to crockery; he stripped his father’s Sunday clothes of their buttons, with great secrecy and skill; he was a dead shot at the panes of his neighbors’ windows; a perfect necromancer at sucking eggs through pin-holes; took great delight in calling home the neighboring farmers’ workingmen to dinner an hour before it was ready; and was in fact a perfect master in many other ingenious manifestations of character, ere he reached his twelfth year.