true,” said Mr. Felt, “sundry stories grew out of Rugg’s affair, whether true or false I cannot tell; but stranger things have happened in my day, without even a newspaper notice.”  “Sir,” said I, “Peter Rugg is now living.  I have lately seen Peter Rugg and his child, horse and chair; therefore I pray you to relate to me all you know or ever heard of him.”  “Why, my friend,” said James Felt, “that Peter Rugg is now a living man I will not deny; but that you have seen Peter Rugg and his child is impossible, if you mean a small child, for Jenny Rugg, if living, must be at least—­let me see—­Boston Massacre, 1770—­Jenny Rugg was about ten years old.  Why, sir, Jenny Rugg if living must be more than sixty years of age.  That Peter Rugg is living is highly probable, as he was only ten years older than myself; and I was only eighty last March, and I am as likely to live twenty years longer as any man.”  Here I perceived that Mr. Felt was in his dotage, and I despaired of gaining any intelligence from him on which I could depend.

I took my leave of Mrs. Croft, and proceeded to my lodgings at the Marlborough Hotel.

If Peter Rugg, thought I, has been travelling since the Boston Massacre, there is no reason why he should not travel to the end of time.  If the present generation know little of him, the next will know less, and Peter and his child will have no hold on this world.

In the course of the evening I related my adventure in Middle Street.  “Ha!” said one of the company, smiling, “do you really think you have seen Peter Rugg?  I have heard my grandfather speak of him as though he seriously believed his own story.”  “Sir,” said I, “pray let us compare your grandfather’s story of Mr. Rugg with my own.”  “Peter Rugg, sir, if my grandfather was worthy of credit, once lived in Middle Street, in this city.  He was a man in comfortable circumstances, had a wife and one daughter, and was generally esteemed for his sober life and manners.  But unhappily his temper at times was altogether ungovernable, and then his language was terrible.  In these fits of passion, if a door stood in his way he would never do less than kick a panel through.  He would sometimes throw his heels over his head, and come down on his feet, uttering oaths in a circle.  And thus, in a rage, he was the first who performed a somerset, and did what others have since learned to do for merriment and money.  Once Rugg was seen to bite a tenpenny nail in halves.  In those days everybody, both men and boys, wore wigs; and Peter, at these moments of violent passion, would become so profane that his wig would rise up from his head.  Some said it was on account of his terrible language; others accounted for it in a more philosophical way, and said it was caused by the expansion of his scalp, as violent passion, we know, will swell the veins and expand the head.  While these fits were on him, Rugg had no respect for heaven or earth.  Except this infirmity, all agreed that Rugg was a good soft of a man; for when his fits were over, nobody was so ready to commend a placid temper as Peter.