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ground, and tail curling in the air. He was thus tossed about,
with a most feathery facility, for a moment, settling down finally
like a stone, in very close proximity to the sow. Their groans were
so mingled, that it was not easy to distinguish between them;
and, confounding them together for a moment, we almost appre
hended that the Kniglit of the Bleeding Heart would soon be in
want of an epitaph. Several of us dismounted and rushed to his
assistance, Major Bulmer, in the meanwhile, eagerly rushing in to
slit the jugular of the boar, who had succumbed to the Knight of
Santee and myself; and the Knights of the Dragon and Swan do
ing the same good service for the third boar, with which he and
the Knights of the Rose and Etiwan had been doing battle. We
picked up the champion of the Bleeding Heart, and found him
with bleeding nostrils. This was his worst injury. He was stun
ned and considerably scratched, but, alighting just upon the boar’s
back, tilted next upon the sow’s, and, rolling over finally among
the pigs, the shock of his fall was measurably broken. It might
have been otherwise a fatal one ; for he was slung from the saddle,
headlong, like a stone. It was surprising, too, that he should have
been thus unhorsed, for he ranked as a first rate rider. But he was
taken by surprise, and the lack of vigilance is usually the wreck of
skill. The worst of his misfortune is to come. That he should
have suffered so little was the evil feature in his case. Had leg, or
arm, or neck, been broken, the mishap would have risen into tragic
dignity. As it resulted, it was simply ludicrous, and the Knight
of the Bleeding Heart was every where laughed at as the Knight
of the Bloody Nose!
CHAPTER XV.
A FLARE UP BETWEEN MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.
We bagged our prey as well as we could. The overseer had
providently ordered a cart to follow the party, and our spoils filled
it:—the dead hogs being at the bottom, while the maternal
porker, still unhurt, with her numerous progeny, grunted all the
*ay home, from a spacious but bloody eoucli in the centre of her
slain associates. I forbear numerous small details of our adventure,
satisfied to have given all the material facts. 1 may mention here,
that, subsequently, one of the party, who possessed a wonderful
faculty for carricature, executed a drawing to the life, and brimfull
of spirit, of the serio-ludicro exhibition of the Knight of the
bleeding Heart, at the moment of his unexpected descent among
the swine. lie is bestraddling the mammoth boar, on all fours,
hands thrown forward, as if grasping at the tail of the beast, while
his legs are scattered 4 all .abroad 1 over the animal’s neck. The
r ost of the hogs are grouped around in various attitudes, more or
less influenced by the advent of the Knight. Ihe little pig s > i Q
particular, with snouts uplifted and tails upcurled, are recoiling
“ith evident awe and apprehension, seeming to ask, ‘Heavens!
u hat are we to look for next!’ The picture is preserved with gieat
care the Bulmer Barony, where it may be seen at any moment,
This was true at the moment of the writing; but, in a note just received
|'°' n -W\ Cooper, he tells me that the picture has disappeared, no body knows
’ ,e l°niouslv cut out of its frame, while it hung in the passage ay , Major
bulmer being inclined to think that the deed w'as done either by the young
K,l1 S ht or some of the Porker family, they being the only parties interested in
toying l be proofs of such an adventure. — Editor.
THE GOLDEN CHRISTMAS.
much to the secret disquiet of tlie graceful young Knight, who is
the hero of the scene.
But I must not linger in the narration of such episodes, even
though they constituted the chief exercises and amusements of the
Christmas holidays. Day and night, for two weeks, we were on
the move, now to this club house, or that, —this or that dance or
dinner party, —seeing new faces daily with the old ones, and hav
ing no moment unemployed with brisk and pleasant exercises. I
must not forget to mention that, in the meanwhile, Ned Bulmer
grew better, and, as his sorenesses of body lessened, those of his
heart seemed to increased. As soon as he was able to go forth, we
went together on a visit to Bonneau place, where he had the feli
city of enjoying a more civil welcome from the grandmother than
he had altogether expected, and where I succeeded, by going out
with that excellent old lady to admire her poultry, in giving him
a chance for a half hour’s sweet secret chat with Paula. Os course,
nobody cares to listen to the prattle of young lovers, who are mere
children always, the sympathies and affections leaving them no
motive for the exercise of thoughts.
Leaving it to the reader’s imagination and experience, to supply
this portion of my chapter, let me peep, for a while, into the habi
tation of my own cynosure. We will suppose ourselves, therefore,
at Mazyck place, on the morning of the day when Madame Girardin
and Paula received their invitations to the grand festival to come off
on Christmas, at the Barony. Mrs. Mazyck and Beatrice had re
ceived invitations at the same time, and they, too, required to sit in
council upon the matter. The subject was one of great doubt and
deliberation in the one household as in the other. Most people of
insular life, living in the country, and only occasionally in society,
are tenacious and jealous of their social claims in much greater de
gree than people of a city. Seclusion is a great nurse of self
esteem, and all matters, however minute and unimportant, which
affect the social position or estimates, are weighed with a nicety
and observance, in rural life, which really provoke a smile only
among persons to whom the jostle with humanity is a daily and
constantly recurring thing. In the city, the crowd is always com
pensative for the ill-treatment of the clique. You care little for
that denial or neglect from the one group, which is more than made
up to you by the attentions of another. You find refuge in one set
from the exclusiveness of its rival; and, where the city is a large
one, there is no class or street, without a sufficiently solacing circle,
in which you may find wit, intelligence, grace of manner, and vir
tue, quite adequate, at once, to your claims and your desires.
Accordingly, you miss no consideration, and are comparatively heed
less of neglect. People, tacitly, make their communities on every
side, and he must be a poor devil, indeed, who may not readily find
all the companionship which suits his tastes and necessities. But,
the case is far otherwise in the sparsely settled abodes of our inte
riol.. this is just in degree with the real wealth and resources
of the planters. Large plantations push away permanent society,
and make it inconvenient to procure it regularly. Hence, the hos
pitality of all those regions which continually welcome their guests
from abroad. Hence, again, a sort of rivalry among the several
proprietors in the state which they keep and the entertainment of
their guests. But this aside. Enough here to indicate the sort of
influence which helps to make people tenacious of every claim or
rio-ht and resentful of the most shadowy appearance of neglect or
slfr-ht The self-esteem which is continually nursed, while it is the
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