Under the larger of the two trees we have described stood a circle
of the country people, listening to, and evidently amused by, the
conversation of an individual whose bearing and appearance we must
describe at great length.

He was a person whom at first sight you would feel disposed to class
with young men. In other words, you might be led, from the lively flow
of his spirits and his peculiarly buoyant manner, to infer that he
had not gone beyond thirty or thirty-five. Upon a closer inspection,
however, you could easily perceive that his countenance, despite of
its healthy hue, was a good deal wrecked and weatherbeaten, and gave
indications of those traces, which not only a much longer period of
time, but deep and violent passions, seldom fail to leave behind them.
His features were regular, and at first glance seemed handsome, but upon
a nearer approach you were certain to find that their expression was
heartless and disagreeable. They betokened no symptom of humanity of
feeling, but were lit up with a spirit of harsh and reckless levity,
which, whilst it made him popular with the unthinking multitude, might
have been easily understood as the accompaniment, if not the direct
exponent, of a bad and remorseless heart. The expression of his mouth
was at the same time both hard and wanton, and his eyes, though full
of a lively lustre, resembled in their brightness those of a serpent or
hyena. His forehead was constructive but low, and, we may say, rather
unintellectual than otherwise. He was without whiskers, a circumstance
which caused a wound on the back part of his jaw to be visible, and
one-half of the left-hand little finger had been shot off in defence of
his church and country, according to his own account. This was a subject
however, upon which he always affected a good deal of mystery when
conversing with the people, or we should say, he took care to throw out