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public prisons. Immediately in front of the gaol, those relics of the elder
times were situated, as a lesson of precautionary justice to the evil-doers of
the settlement.
Natty followed the constables to this spot, bowing his head with submission
to a power that he was unable to oppose, and surrounded by the crowd, that
formed a circle about his person, exhibiting in their countenances a strong
curiosity. A constable raised the upper part of the stocks, and pointed with
his finger to the holes where the old man was to place his feet. Without
making the least objection to the punishment, the Leather-stocking quietly
seated himself on the ground, and suffered his limbs to be laid in the
openings, without even a murmur; though he cast one glance about him, as if in
quest of that sympathy that human nature always seems to require under
suffering. If he met no direct manifestations of pity, neither did he see any
savage exultation expressed, nor hear a single reproachful epithet. The
character of the mob, if it could be called by such a name, was that of
attentive subordination.
The constable was in the act of lowering the upper plank, when Benjamin, who
had pressed close to the side of the prisoner, said, in his hoarse tones, as
if seeking for some cause to create a quarrel--
 Where away, master constable, is the use to be found of clapping a man in
them here bilboes? it neither stops his grog nor hurts his back; what for is
it that you do the thing?
  Tis the sentence of the court, Mr. Penguillum, and there s law for it, I
s pose.
 Ay, ay, I know that there s law for the thing; but where away do you find
the use, I say? it does no harm, and it only keeps a man by the heels for the
small matter of two glasses.
 Is it no harm, Benny Pump, said Natty, raising his eyes with a piteous look
to the face of the steward-- is it no harm to show off a man in his
seventy-first year, like a tamed bear, for the settlers to look on! Is it no
harm to put an old soldier, that has sarved through the war of  fifty-six, and
seen the inimy in the  seventy-six business, into a place like this, where the
boys can point at him and say, I have known the time when he was a spictacle
for the country! Is it no harm to bring down the pride of an honest man to be
the equal of the beasts of the forest!
Benjamin stared about him fiercely, and, could he have found a single face
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that expressed contumely, he would have been prompt to quarrel with its owner;
but meeting every where with looks of sobriety, and occasionally of
commiseration, he very deliberately seated himself by the side of the hunter,
and placing his legs in the two vacant holes of the stocks, he said--
 Now lower away, master constable, lower away, I tell ye! If-so-be there s
such a thing hereabouts as a man that wants to see a bear, let him look and be
d--d, and he shall find two of them, and mayhap one of the same that can bite
as well as growl.
 But I ve no orders to put you in the stocks, Mr. Pump, cried the constable;
 you must get up, and let me do my duty.
 You ve my orders, and what do you need better, to meddle with my own feet?
so lower away, will ye, and let me see the man that chooses to open his mouth
with a grin on it.
 There can t be any harm in locking up a creater that will enter the pound,
said the constable, laughing, and closing the stocks on them both.
It was fortunate that this act was executed with decision, for the whole of
the spectators, when they saw Benjamin assume the position he took, felt an
inclination for merriment, which few thought it worth their efforts to
suppress. The steward struggled violently for his liberty again, with an
evident intention of making battle on those who stood nearest to him; but the
key was already turned, and all his efforts were made in vain.
 Hark ye, master constable, he cried,  just clear away your bilboes for the
small matter of a log-glass, will ye, and let me show some of them there chaps
who it is that they are so merry about.
 No, no, you would go in, and you can t come out, returned the officer,
 until the time has expired that the Judge directed for the keeping of the
prisoner.
Benjamin, finding that his threats and his struggles were useless, had good
sense enough to learn patience from the resigned manner of his companion, and
soon settled himself down by the side of Natty, with a contemptuousness
expressed in his hard features, that showed he had subsituted disgust for
rage. When the violence of the steward s feelings had in some measure
subsided, he turned to his fellow sufferer, and, with a motive that might have
vindicated a worse effusion, he attempted the charitable office of
consolation.
 Taking it by and large, Master Bump-ho,  tis but a small matter, after all,
he said.  Now I ve known very good sort of men, aboard of the Boadishey, laid
by the heels, for nothing, mayhap, but forgetting that they d drunk their [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]