quieting him. This gentleman was the father of the
Granthams, who, although then filling a civil situation,
had formerly been a field officer in the corps in which
Sampson had served; and who had carried with him into
private life, those qualities of stern excellence for
which he had been remarkable as a soldier--qualities
which had won to him the respect and affection, not only
of the little community over which, in the capacity of
its chief magistrate, he had presided, but also of the
inhabitants of the country generally for many miles
around. Temperate to an extreme himself, Major Grantham
held the vice of drunkenness in deserved abhorrence, and
so far from sharing the general toleration extended to
the old man, whose originality (harmless as he ever was
in his intoxication) often proved a motive for
encouragement; he never failed, on encountering him, to
bestow his censure in a manner that had an immediate and
obvious effect on the culprit. If Sampson, from one end
of the street, beheld Major Grantham approaching at the
other, he was wont to turn abruptly away; but if perchance
the magistrate came so unexpectedly upon him as to preclude
the possibility of retreat, he appeared as one suddenly
sobered, and would rein in his horse, fully prepared for
the stern lecture which he was well aware would ensue.

It afforded no slight amusement to the townspeople, and
particularly the young urchins, who usually looked up to
Sampson with awe, to be witnesses of one of those
rencontres. In a moment the shouting--galloping--rampaging
cudgel-wielder was to be seen changed, as if by some