hand was armed with a walking stick, and the other carried a small
bundle inclosed in a handkerchief. His aspect was of a man, whose whole
fortunes were in his walking stick and bundle. He was observed to eye
the swinging sign with a keen recognition, inspiring such courage as
the mariner feels on entering the desired haven.

His dialect betrayed the stranger to be a native of Ireland. He sat down
on the _stoup_, and asked in his own peculiar mode of speech, for cold
water. A supply from the spring was readily handed him in a gourd. But
with an arch pause between remonstrance and laughter, he added, that he
thought cold water in a warm climate injurious to the stomach and begged
that the element might be qualified with a little whisky.

The whisky was handed him, and the usual conversation ensued, during
which the stranger inquired if a school-master was wanted in the
settlement--or, as he was pleased to phrase it, a professor in the
higher branches of learning? It is inferred that the father of Boone was
a person of distinction in the settlement, for to him did the master of
the "Store and Tavern" direct the stranger of the staff and bundle for
information.

The direction of the landlord to enable him to find the house of Mr.
Boone, was a true specimen of similar directions in the frontier
settlements of the present; and they have often puzzled clearer heads
than that of the Irish school-master.

"Step this way," said he, "and I will direct you there, so that you
cannot mistake your way. Turn down that right hand road, and keep on it
till you cross the dry branch--then turn to your left, and go up a
hill--then take a lane to your right, which will bring you to an open