Page:Pioneersorsource02cooprich.djvu/201

 pedients of a settler's changeable habits, was wasted in feeding the harpies of the courts. He was endeavouring to impress the mind of the grand juror with the merits of a cause that was now at issue. Along with these two was a pedestrian, who, having thrown a rifle frock over his shirt, and placed his best wool hat above his sunburnt visage, had issued from his retreat in the woods by a footpath, and was striving to keep company with the others, at an unequal gait, on his way to hear and to decide the disputes of his neighbours as a petit juror.

By ten o'clock the streets of the village were filled with groups of men with busy faces, some talking of their private concerns, some listening to a popular expounder of political creeds, and others gaping in at the open stores, admiring the finery, or examining sithes, axes, and such other manufactures as attracted their curiosity or excited their admiration. A few women were to be observed in the crowd, mostly carrying infants in their arms, and followed, at a lounging, listless gait, by their rustic lords and masters. There was one young couple, in whom the warmth of connubial love was yet new, walking among the moving throng, both dressed in their back-wood finery, at a respectful distance from each other, while the swain directed the timid steps of his bride by the unbending motions of an extended arm, to which she was appended by grasping his thumb.

At the first-stroke of the bell, Richard issued from the front door of the "Bold Dragoon," flourishing in his hand a sheathed sword, that he was fond of saying his ancestors had carried in one of Cromwell's victories, and crying, in an authoritative tone, to "clear the way for the court." The order was obeyed promptly, though not ser-