foot; hain't got anything but cheat in him--hain't got room for any
principle---not enough either to git drunk with a friend, or have it
out, in a fair fight, with his enemy. I shouldn't myself wish to see the
fellow's throat cut, but I ain't slow to say that I shall go for his
tasting a few hickories, after that a dip in the horsepond, and then a
permit to leave the country by the shortest cut, and without looking
behind him, under penalty of having the saft places on his back covered
with the petticoats of Lot's wife, that we hear of in the Scriptures."

Ralph Colleton was somewhat oppressed with apathy, and he knew how idle
would be any attempt to lessen the hostility of the sturdy woodman, in
respect to the wretched class of traders, such as were described in
Jared Bunce, by whom the simple and dependent borderers in the South and
West, were shockingly imposed upon. He made but a feeble effort
accordingly, in this direction, but was somewhat more earnest in
insisting upon the general propriety of forbearance, in a practice which
militated against law and order, and that justice should he administered
only by the proper hands. But to this, Mark Forrester had his ready
answer; and, indeed, our young traveller was speaking according to the
social standards of a wholly different region.

"There, again, 'squire, you are quite out. The laws, somehow or other,
can't touch these fellows. They run through the country a wink faster
than the sheriff, and laugh at all the processes you send after them.
So, you see, there's no justice, no how, unless you catch a rogue like
this, and wind up with him for all the gang--for they're all alike, all
of the same family, and it comes to the same thing in the end."

The youth answered languidly. He began to tire, and nature craved
repose, and the physician had urged it. Forrester readily perceived that