to wear them just as they had a mind to; there were those
who had them set far over back, -- wide-awake men, who
wanted a clear prospect; while careless men, who did not
know, or care, how their hats sat, had them shaking about
in all directions. The various hats, in fact, were quite a
Shakespearian study.

Divers negroes, in very free-and-easy pantaloons, and with.
no redundancy in the shirt line, were scuttling about, hither
and thither, without bringing to pass any very particular
results, except expressing a generic willingness to turn over
everything in creation generally for the benefit of mas'r
and his guests. Add to this picture a jolly, crackling, rol-
licking fire, going rejoicingly up a great wide chimney, --
the outer door and every window being set wide open, and
the calico window-curtain flopping and snapping in a good
stiff breeze of damp raw air, -- and you have an idea of
the jollities of a Kentucky tavern.

Your Kentuckian of the present day is a good illustration
of the doctrine of transmitted instincts and peculiarities.
His fathers were mighty hunters, -- men who lived in the
woods, and slept under the free, open heavens, with the
stars to hold their candles; and their descendant to this
day always acts as if the house were his camp, -- wears
his hat at all hours, tumbles himself about, and puts his
heels on the tops of chairs or mantel-pieces, just as his
father rolled on the greensward, and put his upon trees
and logs, -- keeps all the windows and doors open, winter
and summer, that he may get air enough for his great lungs,
-- calls everybody "stranger," with nonchalant bonhomie,
and is altogether the frankest, easiest, most jovial creature
living.

Into such an assembly of the free and easy our traveller
entered. He was a short, thick-set man, carefully dressed,
with a round, good-natured countenance, and something
rather fussy and particular in his appearance. He was
very careful of his valise and umbrella, bringing them in
with his own hands, and resisting, pertinaciously, all offers
from the various servants to relieve him of them. He
looked round the bar-room with rather an anxious air, and,
retreating with his valuables to the warmest corner, dis-
posed them under his chair, sat down, and looked rather
apprehensively up at the worthy whose heels illustrated

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