Knee-breeches of the same material, with
laced half-boots and leather leggins, set off his stout calf and well
turned ankle.
"Up! up! Frank," he exclaimed, "it is a morning of ten thousand; there
has been quite a heavy dew, and by the time we are afoot it will be well
evaporated; and then the scent will lie, I promise you! make haste, I
tell you, breakfast is ready!"
Stimulated by his hurrying voice, I soon completed my toilet, and
entering the parlor found Harry busily employed in stirring to and fro a
pound of powder on one heated dinner plate, while a second was
undergoing the process of preparation on the hearthstone under a glowing
pile of hickory ashes.
At the side-table, covered with guns, dog-whips, nipple-wrenches, and
the like, Tim, rigged like his master, in half boots and leggins, but
with a short roundabout of velveteen, in place of the full-skirted
jacket, was filling our shot-pouches by aid of a capacious funnel, more
used, as its odor betokened, to facilitate the passage of gin or Jamaica
spirits than of so sober a material as cold lead.
At the same moment entered mine host, togged for the field in a huge
pair of cow-hide boots, reaching almost to the knee, into the tops of
which were tucked the lower ends of a pair of trowsers, containing yards
enough of buffalo-cloth to have eked out the main-sail of a North River
sloop; a waistcoat and single-breasted jacket of the same material, with
a fur cap, completed his attire; but in his hand he bore a large
decanter filled with a pale yellowish liquor, embalming a dense mass of
fine and worm-like threads, not very different in appearance from the
best vermicelli.
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