Pettifog owed his elevation to his interest at an election. It is
to be hoped that his subsequent merits will be as promptly rewarded,
by his dismissal from a bench which he disgraces and defiles by his
presence.
No. VI
Anecdotes.
As we mounted our horses to proceed to Amherst, groups of country
people were to be seen standing about Pugnose's inn, talking over the
events of the morning, while others were dispersing to their several
homes.
"A pretty prime superfine scoundrel, that Pettifog," said the
Clockmaker; "he and his constable are well mated, and they've
travelled in the same gear so long together, that they make about
as nice a yoke of rascals as you'll meet in a day's ride. They pull
together like one rope reeved through two blocks. That 'ere constable
was e'enamost strangled t'other day; and if he hadn't had a little
grain more wit than his master, I guess he'd had his wind-pipe
stopped as tight as a bladder. There is an outlaw of a feller here,
for all the world like one of our Kentucky Squatters, one Bill
Smith--a critter that neither fears man nor devil. Sheriff and
constable can make no hand of him; they can't catch him no how; and
if they do come up with him, he slips through their fingers like
an eel; and then, he goes armed, and he can knock the eye out of a
squirrel with a ball, at fifty yards hand running--a regular ugly
customer.
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