This raised a laugh, as did also a clumsy stumble of Union Mills against the pork barrel, although that gentleman took refuge from his confusion and secured a decent retreat by a gross exaggeration of his lameness, as he limped after the Right Bower.

The Judge whistled feebly.

The Left Bower, in a more ambitious effort to impart a certain gayety to his exit, stopped on the threshold and said, as if in arch confidence to his companions, "Darned if the Old Man don't look two inches higher since he became a proprietor," laughed patronizingly, and vanished.
If the newly-made proprietor had increased in stature, he had not otherwise changed his demeanor.

He remained in the same attitude until the last figure disappeared behind the fringe of buckeye that hid the distant highway.

Then he walked slowly to the fire-place, and, leaning against the chimney, kicked the dying embers together with his foot.
Something dropped and spattered in the film of hot ashes.