A sportsman's
benison to him therefor.]
DAY THE THE SECOND
Much as I had heard of Tom Draw, I was I must confess, taken altogether
aback when I, for the first time, set eyes upon him. I had heard Harry
Archer talk of him fifty times as a crack shot; as a top sawyer at a
long day's fag; as the man of all others he would choose as his mate, if
he were to shoot a match, two against two--what then was my astonishment
at beholding this worthy, as he reared himself slowly from his recumbent
position? It is true, I had heard his sobriquet, "Fat Tom," but, Heaven
and Earth! such a mass of beef and brandy as stood before me, I had
never even dreamt of. About five feet six inches at the very utmost in
the perpendicular, by six or--"by'r lady"--nearer seven in
circumference, weighing, at the least computation, two hundred and fifty
pounds, with a broad jolly face, its every feature--well-formed and
handsome, rather than otherwise--mantling with an expression of the most
perfect excellence of heart and temper, and overshadowed by a vast mass
of brown hair, sprinkled pretty well with gray!--Down he plumped from
the counter with a thud that made the whole floor shake, and with a hand
outstretched, that might have done for a Goliah, out he strode to meet
us.
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