It was now the pedler’s turn for speech; and, forgetting the precise predicament in which he personally stood, and only solicitous to save his chattels from the fate which he plainly saw awaited them, his expostulations and entreaties were rapid and energetic.

“Now, colonel—­gentlemen—­my good friends—­to-morrow or the next day you shall see them all—­I’ll go with you to your plantation—­”

“No, thank ye.  I want none of your company—­and, look ye, if you know when you’re well off, don’t undertake to call me your friend.  I say, Mr. Chairman, if it’s in order—­I don’t want to do anything disorderly—­I move that Bunce’s cart be moved here into this very room, that we may see for ourselves the sort of substance he brings here to put off upon us.”

The chairman had long since seemingly given up all hope of exercising, in their true spirit, the duties of the station which he held.  For a while, it is true, he battled with no little energy for the integrity of his dignity, with good lungs and a stout spirit; but, though fully a match in these respects for any one, or perhaps any two of his competitors, he found the task of contending with the dozen rather less easy, and, in a little while, his speeches, into which he had lugged many a choice ad captandum of undisputed effect on any other occasion, having been completely merged and mingled with those of the mass, he wisely forbore any further waste of matter, in the stump-oratory of the South usually so precious; and, drawing himself up proudly and profoundly in his high place, he remained dignifiedly sullen, until the special reference thus made by Colonel Blundell again opened the fountains of the oracle and set them flowing.

The lawyer, thus appealed to, in a long tirade, and in his happiest manner, delivered his opinion in the premises, and in favor of the measure.  How, indeed, could he do otherwise, and continue that tenacious pursuit of his own interests which had always been the primary aim and object, as well of the profession as the person.  He at once sagaciously beheld the embryo lawsuit and contingent controversy about to result from the proposition; and, in his mind, with a far and free vision, began to compute the costs and canvass the various terms and prolonged trials of county court litigation.  He saw fee after fee thrust into his hands—­he beheld the opposing parties desirous to conciliate, and extending to him sundry of those equivocal courtesies, which, though they take not the shape of money are money’s worth, and the worthy chairman had no scruples as to the propriety of the measure.  The profits and pay once adjusted to his satisfaction, his spirit took a broad sweep, and the province of human fame, circumscribed, it is true, within the ten mile circuit of his horizon, was at once open before him.  He beheld the strife, and enjoyed the triumph over his fellow-laborers at the bar—­he already heard the applauses of his neighbors at this or that fine