University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.
COLLOQUIES.

The party from the Brakes caused a great uproar
within the whilom tranquil precincts of Swallow
Barn. The ladies had congregated in one of the
chambers, from whence might be heard the racket of
exclamation and laughter, which, as far as I am acquainted
with the sex, belongs to every feminine
conventicle; whilst below, the hall re-echoed with
the loud and bluff greetings of the gentlemen, the
heavy tramp of boots upon the uncarpeted floor, and
the usual noisy gaiety of an assemblage of joyous
and idle spirits.

There was something worthy of note in the appearance
and manners of Harvey Riggs. A short,
square built person, with the dress of a gentleman,
but so negligently assorted and worn, as to give even
a comic effect to his exterior; a weather-beaten visage,
pockmarked, and of a dry complexion; the
ripeness of forty beaming in eyes of undefined colour,
but bright and shortsighted; a small upturned nose;
a large and well shaped mouth; an uncommonly
large head, bedecked with a tremendous shock of
disorderly hair, that curled upon the cape of his coat:

these formed the most prominent points in his outline.
He had that mellowness in his looks that belongs
to a man who has conversed much with the
world; who has seen it in its pleasant aspects; is
familiar with revels, and “sits up late o' nights;”
and has often been caught by the dawn at a card
table; a countenance of confessed and unmitigated
homeliness, but far from displeasing, from its entire
absence of pretension, and from an expression of
waggery that played upon its features.

His company is much sought after, and, what may
seem a little paradoxical, is particularly valued by
the females of his acquaintance. It is not unusual
for that sex to elevate into favour those individuals
of ours who are capable of contributing to their
amusement, however free from outward attractions.
Harvey Riggs had a vein of strong good sense,
which, united to a learned skill in the ways of society,
gave him great advantages. He is related to
the Tracys, and had recently arrived from Richmond
upon a customary visit at the Brakes, where he was
now in the high career of that service which was
most agreeable to him, that of a squire of dames,
with nothing to do but pick up amusement where-ever
it was to be found.

We were collected in the hall at the foot of the
stair-case, where some refreshments had been placed
upon a table. It is a common custom in Virginia,
about an hour before dinner, to prepare a
bowl of toddy, which is kept in ice until the company
meet at the table. Harvey Riggs had some

reputation in the concoction of this compound, and,
as the proper hour had arrived, he was already engaged
in this occupation. “Ned,” said he, as he
was busily employed with a pitcher in each hand,
pouring the contents from one to the other, by way
of ripening the mixture, “how far do you call it
from here to where we caught you practising your
cantata?”

“Something upwards of a mile,” replied Ned.

“Well, sir,” continued Harvey, “Bel and I rode
that in three minutes:—There's a girl for you! Poor
cousin Kate followed us at a demure gallop, with
Ralph swearing at her, like a trooper, all the way.
I will match Bel for speed against any thing in this
low country. You know how she talks about discretion,
and decorum, and what's elegant—and all
that.—Yet, she thinks no more of a ditch, or a moderate
worm fence,—if they come in her way,—than
she does of a demi-semi-quaver on the piano; she
flies over it singing.”

“Bel was always a brave girl,” said Ned; “you
know how the Spanish ladies ride;—booted and
spurred. If Bel had one of their saddles, I don't
doubt —”

“That every time Edward Hazard looked at it,
we should be favoured with some long story, told us
twenty times over, about the good people round the
Horn,” cried out Bel, from the head of the stairs,
where she was quietly leaning over the balustrade,
and looking down into the hall.

This was followed by a laugh against Ned, both

up stairs and below. “As for the matter of that,”
rejoined Hazard, “if I were inclined to tell stories, I
have seen feats enough performed on Ralph's saddle,
to give me all the occasions I desire. Indeed, I
could give a very true account of a lady crossing a
certain stream on a blind plough-horse, Bel, without
saddle or bridle either.”

“Edward!” returned Bel, as she retreated from
the balustrade, “you have no respect for treaties.”

“Not after they have been broken by one of the
belligerents,” said Ned.

“So much for listening where you had no business,”
exclaimed Ralph, in a rather ungracious tone of voice.

“I come as an ambassador from the Brakes,
charged with a commission to you,” said Harvey
Riggs, addressing himself to Meriwether, “and desire
to acquit myself of it at once. Here is an epistle,
as Mr. Tracy terms it, which was to be put into
your own hands with care and speed. Singleton
Swansdown is expected, and arrangements are to
be made for the immediate settlement of that interminable
boundary-line dispute which has been vexed
for forty years. My good kinsman, Mr. Tracy, is
anxious that you should expedite Swansdown's departure,
and I venture to add my own request, in
the name of charity and all the cardinal virtues, that
you will detain this gentle carpet knight the shortest
practicable time.”

“I devoutly believe,” replied Meriwether, “that
if this old law-suit between our families should be
brought to a close by this device,—even if it should

go in Mr. Tracy's favour,—it will cost him some unpleasant
struggles to part with it.”

“It is impossible to settle it yet,” said Harvey,
“all the oracles are against it. Mammy Diana,
who is a true sybil, has uttered a prophecy, which
runs thus—`That the landmarks shall never be stable
until Swallow Barn shall wed the Brakes.' Ned,
the hopes of the family rest upon you.”

Meriwether opened the letter, and read as follows:

“Habit converts our troubles into pleasures,”
said Meriwether, as he stood with this letter in his
hand, after he had finished reading it, and now began
to descant, in one of his usual strains; “and my

old friend Tracy has so long interested himself with
this inconsiderable claim—for it is not of the value
of a sharpshin—one hundred acres of marsh land,
that no man would buy—that, to tell the truth, I
would long since have given it up to him, if I did not
think it would make the old gentleman unhappy to
take the weight of it off his mind. Felicity, sir, is
an accident; it is motion, either of body or mind; a
mode of being, as the logicians call it. Let the best
machine of man be constructed, with all the appertinences
of strength, faculty, thought, feeling, and
with all the appliances of competence and ease, and
it will rust from disease; the springs and wheels
will grow mouldy; the pipes become oppilated with
crudities, and death will ensue from mere obstruction.
But give it motion—”

“But what do you think,” interrupted Harvey, “of
the old gentleman's selecting Singleton Swansdown
to reverse the decision of all the courts in Virginia,
with Philly Wart, too, to back them?”

“The shrewdest person,” replied Meriwether,
smiling, and bringing down his left hand over his
face, as he threw his head backward, “doubtless
may be beguiled by his prepossessions. Singleton's
a right clever fellow after all; and Mr. Tracy has a
great respect for him, growing out of family connexions,
and his regulated tone of manners, which are
very kind and conciliatory to the old gentleman.”

“But he is a devil of an ass,” said Harvey, “and I
had like to have blundered out as much, yesterday
at dinner, when Mr. Tracy told us he was coming

to the Brakes; but, happily, I was afraid to swear
before my cousin Kate.”

“Why I dare say,” rejoined Meriwether, “Swansdown
will be entirely competent to this case, particularly
with my friend Philly at his elbow, to show
him his road. I have been turning over in my mind,”
he continued, aside to Riggs, “to contrive to give
the old gentleman the advantage in the law-suit, if
I can so arrange it as to let him win it upon a show
of justice; for if he suspected me of a voluntary concession
to him, he would not be pleased; and, upon
my soul! I find a difficulty in managing it.”

“Can't our friend Wart,” said Harvey, “patch up
a case against you, that shall deceive even Mr.
Tracy?”

“I shall so instruct him,” replied Meriwether,
“and it will afford us some speculation to observe
how reluctantly my good neighbour will part with
this bantling of his, when it is decided.”

“It has been his inducement,” said Harvey, “to
study the laws of Virginia from beginning to end;
and it has furnished him more conversation than
any other incident of his life.”