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Page:Peterruggmissing00austrich.djvu/53

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THE MISSING MAN.
47

more than the other, so that they discovered at the knees their different qualities and colors. His several waistcoats, the flaps of all which rested on his knees, gave him an appearance rather corpulent. His capacious drab coat would supply the stuff for half a dozen modern ones. The sleeves were like meal bags——in the cuffs you might nurse a child to sleep. His hat, probably once black, now of a tan color, was neither round nor crooked, but much in shape like the one President Monroe wore on his late tour. This dress gave the rotund face of Rugg an antiquated dignity. The man, though deeply sunburnt, did not appear to be more than thirty years of age. He had lost his sad and anxious look, was quite composed, and seemed happy. The chair in which Rugg sat, was very capacious, evidently made for service and calculated to last for ages. The timber would supply material for three modern carriages. This chair, like a Nantucket coach, would answer for everything that ever went on wheels. The horse, too, was an object of curiosity——his majestic height, his glossy mane and tail, gave him a commanding appearance,