John was a very good specimen of everybody’s friend; beseemed to have some slight knowledge of all trades, and was always willing to let his neighbours "have the advantage of his skill. He was a first-rate gardener, could repair watches and clocks, and in his treatment of diseases incidental to horses and cattle, had no equal for miles round. Had John charged anything for the multifarious services he rendered, he might have greatly improved his condition, but no thing was ever further from his thoughts than asking for remuneration. Even in his actual Business as carrier he had the same easy going ideas; if anyone had a parcel and no money to pay for it they could owe it to him, a permission of which many most readily' availed themselves. John was a short and rather fat, awk wardiy-built man, dressed in a suit of unvarying drab, with gaiters so ve.iy tight, that some people imagined he must have put them on when a boy, and worn them ever since. His face very much resembled the inside of a muffin coloured to a very light crimson; his hair was as curly “and about the same tint as a new thatch, and not very much softer; lips and nose he had nothing- of either worth mentioning; so that the little beauty of his countenance could boast lay' in his eyes, which were very ■bright and small, and always twinkling with good-nature. His vau was an ancient vehicle, that his father had driven before him, and which, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, had never been re paired nor received a touch of paint. The old gray mare appeared to partake of a large portion of her master’s equable temperament; she always regulated her own pace, and no amount of persuasion, either by kind words or the whip, had power to increase her speed.
