66 a cheerful fire to encourage and thaw me out; -that's all. "Hech mon!" said a red-faced, broadshouldered Scotchman, who had just taken his place at the fire, and was mixing a mug of flip -"Hech mon! to see how ye're negleckit!" A glance of his keen gray eye, as he uttered these words, with the foam of a new tankard upon his lips, directed my attention to a distant corner, where the landlord was sitting with his feet on a chair, his head thrown back, and eyes half shut, trying to puzzle through a paragraph on the wrong side of a newspaper. It was all a fetch-I could see it was; and though a little angry at first, at being so negleckit, and not even asked what I'd have to take, I determined to have my revenge in my own way. As I never drink what I do not believe to be good for me-I eat all the more; and when I find myself in a public house, however wretched, with a bright fire, a clean hearth, and a tumbler of cold water, to be had for the asking, I always manage to pay for the whole in some shape or other. Stinginess I abhor-nobody ever charged me with it. And I wouldn't do what I call a shabby thing, even to the keeper of a groggery. And yet, on this particular occasion, I determined to go to bed without my supper-only to spite the landlord. Nay, if my horse had not been well taken care of, I believe in my heart I should have turned my back upon the "Royal Arms," and limped off to another house. cap he wore, looped up in front with a bit of gold lace, and pushed back from his large, full, shining forehead, I felt sure from the first, that he belonged to the army, and equally sure that he was another cannie Scot-overflowing with loyalty; and that he was in a terrible rage, though not so much perhaps with what a bold young fellow was saying in a low earnest voice, which prevented my hearing to advantage-till the words Yankee - Yankee rebel- and Brother Jonathan-hang him— reached me, and put me upon my guard, as at the patience with which he was listened to by a person he called the Squire, though others called him the Major; a fine, steady-looking, middle-aged man, who sat with his hand lifted to his chin-a newspaper spread out before him and one leg thrown over the other, watching the countenance, and weighing the words of the young man, evidently without thinking of, or caring for, the large pewter flagon by the side of his chair, the basket of London porter upon the floor, and within reach, or his interfering neighbour. His mind was about made up; and so was mine. Twice I saw the surly host lift his eyes from the paper, when something was muttered near him about the psalm-singin' rebels, and vile swappin' Yankees; and once I caught another young man, who sat by the fire with a long pipe in his mouth, and a cap that showed his lineage, with more certainty perhaps than his yellow hair, interchanging glances with the burly Scotchman, who was the first to fire up, when he saw me so rudely huffed by the landlord. That there was mischief brewing, I felt sure; but how was I to provide for it? A hurried survey of the whole company satisfied me, that I had little or nothing to hope for, in a row. Only one out of the whole number wore a hat like mine. I felt acquainted with him at once, and I knew he would act with me the moment he turned his head. All the rest wore capsoutlandish hats-and breeches-or gaiters-or something else, that we never see at home. While standing with my back to the fire, and After a while, they began to talk louder. watching the churlish landlord and the old More ale was ordered up-and though the weather-beaten Scotchman brewing his peck o' landlord never left his chair, he saw that every malt for two, and listening to the conversation man was helped to what he called for, by the about me, my attention was called to a party old woman at his elbow. At last, the word of three sitting round a small card-table, with "annexation" reached my ear-and a new light a nipper of Scotch ale and a single wine-glass broke upon me. I saw the meaning of the before them and two other persons, bystand-glances I had been so troubled about—and was ers I thought from their shyness at first, sideling up and hitching nearer and nearer every few minutes, until one had got his arm over the back of his neighbour's chair, and the other seemed ready to spring to his feet more than once, and throw himself headlong into the business under consideration. Judging by his garb-his earnestness-and the half-military probably looked upon as a sort of spy, or eavesdropper; and the most loyal of the company were most anxious that I should hear little or nothing, to encourage any preposterous hope i might entertain to their prejudice. The dispute grew warmer. The fire burned brighter, and the ale kept humming louder and louder. The young man at the table was holding forth upon the prodigies he had grown | tinctly heard all over the room. The landlord familiar with, in a trip of three weeks, through growled-an old woman just entering, made a western New York and the busiest parts of full stop, on her way to the table with a fresh New England. supply of small black bottles, and a little boy by the door turned to see what the plague was the meaning of such looks. 66 "Whoy, man alive!" said he, pushing out his left hand as far as he could stretch it, and resting the tip of his right forefinger in the very middle of the palm, as if that of itself would pin the Major and settle the question for ever, "I wish I may be danged, if all I tell ye, beant the blessed truth. Yer may take an' blindfold me, and carry me first over the line and then back, all the way from Quebec to Toronto, forty times a day if ye like, an' domme | if I couldn't tell you which side I was on, the moment I opened my eyes-that's what I could, neighbour, if there was a bit o' fence near me, or the sign of a house, or even so much as a wheelbarrow-path for a highway." "That's a fact," added the man who sat by bread for her majesty." the Major. Tush, tush," said the Major; "the question is too serious for quarrelling; let the lad finish what he has to say, and then we'll try to answer him." "Oh, kiss your grannie; don't you meddle nor make, Mr. Yankee, if you know what's good for yourself," growled the landlord, without lifting his eyes from the paper. My dander was up. "Meddle an' make as much as you like,” said I, “and I'll stand by you, friend." "An' for the matter o' that, so will I," muttered the broad-chested Scotchman, fetching me a comforting slap, and casting an eye toward the landlord, which seemed to threaten a grapple in that quarter, if the worst came to the worst. "Hurrah for you, Major! that's the time o' day," sung out my zealous countryman. "How would you like to be twitted with eating the bread o' the Queen, just because you happened to be employed, at ten dollars a month an' found, for drivin' a garrison-team "Two pound ten, if you please, neighbour." "Well then, two pound ten, if you like; an' I should be glad to know who it is that finds Friend," whispered the Major, and letting his right hand fall gently upon the other's knee, "mind what you say, here. The people, whatever they may do, or think of doing in this matter, will allow of no interference from strangers." "So much the better for them! who wants to interfere, hey?" By this time the landlord, who had managed to get both his feet packed away underneath a chair, began to cough, and shuffle, and wheeze, and then to show unmistakeable symptoms of uneasiness; and seeing his half-shut eyes directed by stealth toward my countryman, I confess I began to feel a growing interest in his welfare. The landlord was a bully and a blackguard, and though he had left the prize-ring and withdrawn from business, and taken to swilling beer, yet he was what may be called an ugly customer, when his blood was up. I could see all this in the look of those about me; I could hear it in their very breathing. My friend with the hat, which I had felt acquainted with from the first, was a quiet, well-behaved, mid "The young man's a gettin' fou, I tell yehe's ben' a sogerin' among the Yankee-doodles, yer may ken, an' he's just got a bee in his bonnet, an' his twa lugs are fu' o' muckle mair than it may be gude for him to let his neebors oonderstant. Och! ye maun carry it bravely, but there's naething ye ha' seen awa' there, wuth a brass ha'penny, compared with what we're aw a thrivin' wi'-under the proteeksion o' the Queen-God bless her!" Here the speaker had got up to the table; he could beardle-aged farmer, rather meddlesome to be sure, it no longer-and thrusting his outstretched hand towards the others' palm, as if he had made up his mind to be dipping into the same dish, come what would of it, he added by way of a clincher-"It's just treeson the puir body's a talkin', but he's no idee o' the consequences-up. he's clean daft, I tell ye—eatin' the bread of her majesty, an' preechin' a poleetical separation-hech! but its awfu' to think of, neebors!" "Eating the bread of her majesty!" retorted the young man, with a suddenness that startled the other, and sent a swarthy flush over his forehead-"no more than her majesty is eating my bread, Mister Sargeon." but good-natured and conscientious. With pluck enough, where he had the law on his side, or the question was to be settled by talking; I had my doubts, I acknowledge, whether he would come to the scratch, in a regular flare The Yankees are slow to anger, and slower still at fisticuffs. But give them to do what a man ought not to be ashamed of doing, and I never saw one yet that would flinch from a two-and-forty pounder. Believing a crisis at hand, for my ear caught the quickened shuffling of feet under the landlord's chair, I began to count noses. We were in a frightful minority, if the breeches stood together, or the caps "Nor half as much," added the Yankee, in a combined and acquitted themselves like men; sort of whisper, though loud enough to be dis-otherwise we stood a pretty fair chance. No two of the whole being dressed altogether alike, as you may see by the sketch, already referred to, which I declare to you, is very faithful; it was clear by my theory that no two of the whole could think alike upon any one subject under heaven. But then, if a majority of the whole should happen to think anywhere near alike upon the very subject under consideration, what would become of us? I took another survey of the whole room, and as I did so, trusting there would be no neutrals, for I wanted the question settled one way or another, "about the quickest," as we say Down-East, I saw for the first time, a stout young fellow near me, leaning with both elbows over the top of a high settle, and making faces at the baby. I saw too, that he was Irish, and felt more and more encouraged, notwithstanding his cap, which, if not altogether Yankee, was certainly very far from being British. A show of hands might help us out of the scrape, if we could only manage to have that show of hands, before they got employed in some other way. Happening to turn my head once more toward my countryman, my eyes lighted on his large bony hand as it lay over the back of the Major's chair. I felt comforted. The strength and repose I saw there, led me to try for a look at the side of his face; and the moment I had done so, the question was settled in my mind. I saw that he was a Green Mountain boy, with the grasp of a blacksmith's vice; a thorough-bred cold water | man; such as in other days followed Ethan Allen to Tycunderogue, as they call it there, heaving the rocks from their path like pebbles; and that if the puffy, porter-drinking landlord should undertake a fall with him, he would, in all human probability, get pitched head first into the street. "Oh, ho!" said I to myself, "things are not so bad after all! Who knows what the Major may do? And as the stout Scotchman has promised to see fair play, and the Irishman is ready for a row at any time, why, the sooner we begin the better." "Row! what row?" said the Major. together and get a talkin', jest as we have tonight, and then somebody jumps up and sings out, Hallow! I motion that we choose a moderator, and go to work right away.' 'I second the motion,' says somebody else; and then they up and choose; and then they begin to talk, some o' one side and some o' tother; but they never think o' talkin' away all together, as they always did afore they come to order. Well now, Major," slapping him on the back, "how do ye like the idee?” "You do!-don't ye? I knew you would. Well then, feller citizens, here goes! I motion that we choose the Major for moderator o' this 'ere meetin'. As many as are for it, will say ay!-contrary-minded, no! The ay's have it! Major, shall I have the honour of leadin' you up to the cheer?" This was too much even for the gravity of old Barleycorn, and I thought the Scotchman would have burst his waistband. Such a clapping of hands, and stamping of feet, and barking and screaming, you never heard in your life. And the thing took-at it they went, hammer and tongs. And the way they served up the whole subject of annexation, on both sides, before they got through, would have tickled any of our oldest debaters, into convulsions. Perhaps a summary of the arguments employed, may be a help to the future historian. I give it, of course from recollection—not having taken a single note, upon my honour. The landlord being called up first, as one whose loyalty had never been questioned, spoke as follows, with one leg over the back of a chair, a short pipe in his mouth, and his eye fixed upon the young traveller, who had opened the ball. "Mr. Cheerman-I believe in my soul the world is comin' to an end. [hear, hear!] I can stand a plenty o' nonsense [puff-puff], an' you know that, Major [hear, hear, hear!], but I'll be blessed. O, ye needn't think o' callin' me to order. I don't mind the rap of a pen I had probably been thinking aloud, and felt knife, I tell ye," [puff-] looking round on the rather sheepish. "Who wants a row here, hey? I should be glad to know; this ain't a question to be settled in that way," added my countryman. company as if counting noses, before he went further [puff-puff]. "The gentleman will address the chair." "All right, Major. Well, then, all I have to "Well, how would you take to have it set- say is, that if I wouldn't rather go back to the tled?" asked the Major. old country, and die there, and rot and starve, under our glorious constitution, with her ma "How? why, like raytional critters," said the Vermonter. "Ever ben to one of our town-jesty to look up to-and gentlemen as is genmeetin's?" The Major shook his head with a smile. tlemen-to drop in and drink with a feller, when he's flush-than to be made president o' "Oh, ye haint though, have ye? Well, I the Yankee doodles, with Californy to boot" declare!" "Never," said the Major. "Well then, let me tell ye how they do this kind o' business over there. Fust, they come [hear, hear, hear!]; and the gentleman sat down, without finishing the sentence, and wiped his forehead with a Belcher he had carried for five-and-twenty years, and never used but upon great occasions- utterly overwhelmed with with a smile, as if he saw there something applause. Here a timber-merchant took the floor, who began by saying, in a quiet way, that "he wasn't much of a speaker, and having been called upon rather unexpectedly, he had forgotten to bring with him a written speech." (Hear, hear!—and two or three raps on the table to quiet a most outrageous burst of laughter.) 66 But, Mr. Chairman," said he, "there's one comfort. A short horse is soon curried. Five years ago, I was in comfortable circumstances. Now I am poor. Then I was loyal-now I am not. [Hear!] By a change of policy, which has ruined me and beggared the whole country about me, without helping anybody, to my belief-I have been driven from my farm; I dare not raise any wheat-and my lumber lands, bought with the savings of a long life spent in hardship and self-denial - are not worth the taxes." [Hear, hear, hear!] And down he sat. There was a dead silence for several minutes. The Major shook his head mournfully-tried to speak-stoppedand then added. "My friends, I know what Mr. T has said is what he believes to be the truth. I have slept under his roof when he was a rich man--he is now a poor man-and I have no doubt made so, by the mistaken policy of our home government. Excuse me-but I could not help saying this." With a sound that puzzled me—it was something between a growl and a groan-the doctor stood up. "Hoozah! three cheers for her majesty! and that's all I have to say!" and down he dropped into a chair. "An' three cheers more for our holy releegion, hech, mon?" added another, from the land o' cakes. "Wi' all my heart-gie's thy hand, man!" And three cheers were sounded with such prodigious strength, I do believe they might have been heard across the river. The Green Mountain boy was now called for -and up he stood. To my astonishment, he was a tall man-put together as the wire bridges are said to be at Niagara-a skeleton strung with fibre. His language and manner reminded me of the giant Wilson, who seems to have been quarried-by a thunderbolt-from the granite-hills of New Hampshire. "My friends," said he, "this is ticklish business for a stranger; but I'm not afraid to trust ye and there's my hand on't; open or shut-take your choice." It was instantly clutched by the stout broadchested Caledonian, and shaken heartily. "We have all been tippling together," (holding up a tumbler of cold water, and eyeing it brighter than a bee's wing,) "and if I understand the arguments I have been listening to— and I acknowledge my head is none of the clearest-the whole question, appears to turn at last upon your capacity for self-government [hear, hear!]. You believe yourselves capable of self-government, drunk or sober,-hey?" "To be sure we do-drunk or sober-here's to the Queen, God bless her!" shouted one of the company. "And to the Colonial Office!" added the timber-merchant. "And confusion to all traitors-and Yankee doodles, hip, hip, hurra!" screamed another. "Gentlemen! gentlemen! order! order!"and down came the penknife, with three distinct raps. "Very well," bowing courteously to the cheer, "but that proves nothing. Confound the Yankees, if you will-but how does that help the matter? Is your wheat worth more?-do your timber lands rise in the market?-have you manufactories and workshops springing up all along your rivers and water-courses- -and thrifty villages?" [Hear, hear, hear!] "But," he continued, after taking breath, "suppose your capacity for self-government were questioned, how would you prove it?" "Proof it!-By licken the feller that questioned it," said the burly Scotchman. "That would prove nothing but your greater bodily strength," continued the Vermonter. "And your greater weakness of understanding," added the Major blandly, but decidedly. "Aweel, how would ye proof it yesel, my mon?" "By reasoning together. If people are qualified to govern themselves-they can argue the question for themselves-and want nobody to govern them." "Not so fast, if you please, my friend. How do you get along on your side of the house? Have you nobody to govern you there?" asked the younger Scotchman, who had not opened his mouth before, and had so little of the accent of his country, as to render it questionable at first, whether he was an Englishman educated in Scotland, or a Scotchman caught young, and domesticated in England. "Yes, indeed-enough and to spare; but then they are people whom we have chosen for ourselves, and may get rid of whenever we've grown tired of them. But, I have already taken up too much of your time-" sure that independence would be a good thing | of liquor were plentiful as water, and cheap as for your people." "And why not?" asked the Major, with a look of astonishment. "And still further am I from believing that annexation would be desirable for either party." "And why not, I ask again?" The young farmer and the two Scotchmen looked puzzled. "Simply because I don't believe in the capacity of all men for self-government. Unprepared men are unfitted for such a work. Nations have to be led to it step by step-and through a wilderness of suffering and selfdenial. There are the Mexicans, the South Americans, and the French." dirt, and strong enough to take the skin off a pewter mug; that a man's vote was an estate in New York, and worth a farm anywhere else; and that he could always swap it away when he liked, for a berth in the custom-house; and in short that real genuine republicans had always everything their own way, both at home and abroad; and that every few years, when the people got strong enough, there was to be a division of all the land, and houses, and wealth, and privileges, share and share alike,-and after a while, another, and so on till everybody had got enough and to spare, and was able to live without work; that all a man "What'll ye hae to tak', my lad?" whispered had to do was to hurry over, and vote himself the Scotchman. a farm, or a wife to begin with, and the rest would follow, of course. They didn't say what "Nothing, I thank ye." "Just a wee taste, for the sound opeenions kind of rest. ye hae just uttered." "Not a drop!" "A teetotaller by the swipes !" ejaculated our landlord; "if I didn't think so the moment I clapped eyes on him, I wish I may be-blessed." "Order! order!" On the other side it was urged that the great Yankee nation were no better than snobs; that they hardly knew the difference between a king and a president; that they were governed altogether by mobs, and newspapers, and Lynch law; and that all men were equal-meaning by "And there's another," continued the land- all men about two-thirds of the men, and none lord, looking at me. "Order! order! hear! hear! hear!" "And here's another," said the bluff old Scotchman, lifting a large pewter mug to his mouth, and emptying it to the last drop, without drawing breath. But enough-a sketch may be better than a report. On one side it was urged, that just over the line everything was better and cheaper, and more plentiful, and labour higher; that every man willing to work was sure of employment all the year round, and not obliged to take his hat off, when he found himself in the house of a gentleman; that every man had a chance for a snug and profitable berth, where he could live without work, and have a plenty of meat every day in the year, and after a while get elected a president, or a judge, or a general for life; that the office of general was hereditary; that every man did as he liked in the States; that nobody was ever transported nor sent to the hulks for thieving; that if people didn't love to work, they needn't-they were always provided for; that nobody was obliged to pay his debts, or to be hung for burglary, or forgery, or rape, or murder; that all sorts MUSIC, when moonlight gilds the evening sky, As sparkling thoughts within thy spirit beam, No grief disturbs, and not a pang or sigh of the women, the rest being slaves; that there were no servants, no titles (worth having), no coats-of-arms, no liveries, no nothing that a gentleman as was a gentleman would covet, after he had been abroad; that people wore their hats day and night, and would spit a hole through a two-inch board, carpet and all, in less than no time, if left to themselves; that niggers were hatched for the market, just like so much poultry, whipped in the open street by well-dressed fashionable women till they shed their skins, which were often picked up by the boys, and cut into razor-strops, garters, and elastic ties; that all their prosperity and all their reputation were owing to what little they had left in them of their old English blood; that society could no more hold together where all men were equal, than a pyramid all the way of a size could hope to withstand an earthquake; and that, to say all in a word, they could not if they would, and they would not if they could, undergo annexation: wherefore It was resolved accordingly, and duly certified by the young Scotchman as secretary, that they would see us all hanged first. SONNET. BY W. D. F'er breaks the current of life's happy dream. Thou art and shalt be blest beyond compare, All hopes, all prayers shall keep thee safe from harm, Years shall not steal one ray that shines so fair; Love laughs at Fate, and even Death can charm. O'er thy bright face Love waves his rosy wings, Round thee he hovers, and for thee he sings. |