hollow, and almost as weather-worn as his apparel, with a long hooked
nose, prominent chin, a wide mouth exceedingly straight and pinched, with
a melancholy or contemplative twist at the corners, and a pair of black
staring eyes, that beamed a good-natured, humble, and perhaps submissive,
simplicity of disposition. His gait, too, as he stumbled along up the
hill, with a shuffling, awkward, hesitating step, was like that of a man
who apprehended injury and insult, and who did not possess the spirit
to resist them. The fact, moreover, of his sustaining on his own
shoulders a heavy pack of deer and other skins, to relieve the miserable
horse which he led, betokened a merciful temper, scarce compatible with
the qualities of a man of war and contention. Another test and criterion
by which Roland judged his claims to the character of a roarer, he found
in the little black dog; for the Virginian was a devout believer, as we
are ourselves, in that maxim of practical philosophers, namely, that by
the dog you shall know the master, the one being fierce, magnanimous, and
cowardly, just as his master is a bully, a gentleman, or a dastard. The
little dog of Nathan was evidently a coward, creeping along at White
Dobbin's heels, and seeming to supplicate with his tail, which now
draggled in the mud, and now attempted a timid wag, that his fellow-curs
of the Station should not be rude and inhospitable to a peaceful
stranger.

On the whole, the appearance of the man was anything in the world but
that of the ferocious ruffian whom the nick-name had led Roland to
anticipate; and he scarce knew whether to pity him, or to join in the
laugh with which the young men of the settlement greeted his approach.
Perhaps his sense of the ridiculous would have disposed the young soldier
to merriment; but the wistful look with which, while advancing, Nathan
seemed to deprecate the insults he evidently expected, spoke volumes of
reproach to his spirit, and the half-formed smile faded from his