satisfied with the small measure of sport which they had enjoyed. A single verse of this savage ditty will suffice for the present, rolled out upon the air, from fifty voices, the very boys and negroes joining in the chorus, and making it tell terribly to the senses of the threatened person. First one voice would warble "Did you ever, ever, ever!"-- and there was a brief pause, at the end of which the crowd joined in with unanimous burst and tremendous force of lungs:-- "Did you ever, ever, ever, in your life ride a rail? Such a deal of pleasure's in it, that you never can refuse! You are mounted on strong shoulders, that'll never, never fail, Though you pray'd with tongue of sinner, just to plant you where they choose. Though the brier patch is nigh you, looking up with thorny faces, They never wait to see how you like the situation, But down you go a rolling, through the penetrating places, Nor scramble out until you give the cry of approbation. Oh! pleasant is the riding, highly-seated on the rail, And worthy of the wooden horse, the rascal that we ride; Let us see the mighty shoulders that will never, never fail. To lift him high, and plant him, on the crooked rail astride. The seven-sided pine rail, the pleasant bed of briar, The little touch of hickory law, with a dipping in the mire. "Did you ever, ever, ever," &c., from the troupe in full blast! The lawyer Pippin suddenly stood beside the despairing pedler, as this ominous ditty was poured upon the night-winds. "Do you hear that song, Bunce?" he asked. "How do you like the music?" The pedler looked in his face with a mixed expression of grief, anger, and stupidity, but he said nothing. "Hark ye, Bunce," continued the lawyer. "Do you know what that means? Does your brain take in its meaning, my friend?" "Friend, indeed!" was the very natural exclamation of the pedler as he shrank from the hand of the lawyer, which had been affectionately laid upon his shoulder. "Friend, indeed! I say, Lawyer Pippin, if it hadn't been for you, I'd never ha' been in this fix. I'm ruined by you." "Ruined by me! Pshaw, Bunce, you are a fool. I was your friend all the time." "Oh, yes! I can see how. But though you did stop, when they began, yet you did enough to set them on. That was like a good lawyer, I guess, but not so much like a friend. Had you been a friend, you could have saved my property from the beginning." "Nay, nay, Bunce; you do me wrong. They had sworn against you long ago, and you know them well enough. The devil himself couldn't stop 'em when once upon the track. But don't be down in the mouth. I can save you now." "Save me!"