The first step was to call "a meeting of the friends of law and order;" but no proclamation was issued, no handbills were circulated, no notices posted: not the least noise was made about the matter, lest those against whom it was to act, might hear of and prepare for it. They came together quietly but speedily--each man, as he heard of the appointment, going forthwith to his neighbor with the news. They assembled at a central point, where none need be late in coming, and immediately proceeded to business. The meeting was not altogether a formal one--for purposes prescribed by law--but it was a characteristic of those men, to do everything "decently and in order"--to give all their proceedings the sanction and solemnity of mature deliberation. They organized the assemblage regularly--calling one of the oldest and most respectable of their number "to the chair" (which, on this occasion, happened to be the root of a large oak), and appointing a younger man secretary (though they gave him no desk on which to write). There was no man there who did not fully understand what had brought them together; but one who lived in the "bottom," and had been the mover of the organization, was still called upon to "explain the object of the meeting." This he did in a few pointed sentences, concluding with these significant words: "My friends, it is time that these rascals were punished, and it is our duty to punish them." He sat down, and a silence of some moments ensued, when another arose, and, without any preliminary remarks, moved that "a company of regulators be now organized, and that they be charged with the duty of _seeing the law administered_." The motion was seconded by half a dozen voices--the question was put in due form by the chairman, and decided unanimously in the affirmative. A piece of paper was produced, and the presiding officer called on the meeting for volunteers. Ten young men stepped forward, and gave their names as rapidly as the secretary could enrol them. In less than five minutes, the company was complete--the chairman and four of the meeting, as a committee, were directed to retire with the volunteers, and see that they were fully organized--and the meeting adjourned. All, except the volunteers and the committee, went directly home--satisfied that the matter needed no further attention. Those who remained entered the house and proceeded to organize in the usual manner.