of his knavery the merriment of the spectators was greatly increased; nor
was it much lessened when the fellow proceeded to aver that he had
borrowed it, and that with the express stipulation that it should be left
at Bruce's Station, subject to the orders of its owner. "Thar, cunnel,"
said he, "thar's the beast; take it; and just tell me whar's the one you
mean to lend me,--for I must be oft afore sunset."

"And whar are you going?" demanded Bruce.

"To St. Asaphis,"--which was a Station some twenty or thirty miles
off,--replied Captain Stackpole.

"Too far for the Regulators to follow, Ralph," said Colonel Bruce; at
which the young men present laughed louder than ever, and eyed the
visitor in a way that seemed both to disconcert and offend him.

"Cunnel," said he, "you're a man in authority, and my superior officer;
wharfo' thar' can be no scalping between us. But my name's Tom Dowdle,
the ragman!" he screamed, suddenly skipping into the thickest of the
throng, and sounding a note of defiance; "my name's Tom Dowdle, the
ragman, and I'm for any man that insults me! log-leg or leather-breeches,
green-shirt or blanket-coat, land-trotter or river-roller,--I'm the man
for a massacree!" Then giving himself a twirl upon his foot that would
have done credit to a dancing-master, he proceeded to other antic
demonstrations of hostility, which when performed in after years on the
banks of the Lower Mississippi, by himself and his worthy imitators,
were, we suspect, the cause of their receiving the name of the mighty
alligator. It is said, by naturalists, of this monstrous reptile, that he
delights, when the returning warmth of spring has brought his fellows
from their holes, and placed them basking along the banks of a swampy