but don’t let your choler get up, my little stranger.  Peace and little men ought to keep each other company,” spoke the man, with a strong, nasal twang, after having adjusted his thumbs in the arm holes of his waistcoat, and passed twice or thrice up and down the, room, with a tantalizing air.  Ephraim Flagg had given up driving the stage between New London and Norwich, and had recently taken to books, and so studied certain exact and inexact sciences, as they were called, and neglected all business, that it was feared he would become a town tax.  In addition to this he had made himself famous for quarreling with all those who differed with him on the peculiarities of his social problem.

“Sir!” replied the lecturer, “as you chose neither to be convinced, nor to accept reason for argument, perhaps we had as well end this bantering!”

“Oh! there you are,” interrupted the nonresistant, “you must not allow your ill temper to rise.  You can’t get (no you can’t) the better of your adversary that way.  If a man kicks you, and if you want to show yourself his superior, turn right round and thank him.  Depend upon it, there is nothing equal to it!  It so unhinges the man.  Now, as to this Mr. Crabbe, (you forgot, in our controversy yesterday, to say where he was born,) being a gentleman, and in favor of using physical force-”

“Seeing that I am engaged, Mr. Flagg,” interrupted Giles Sheridan, “perhaps you will excuse me any further controversy on the peculiar merits of Crabbe’s combativeness.”

“But there was one point not made quite clear to me, and I came back, not to make you angry, for men who give lectures should have good tempers, but to inquire if this Mr. Crabbe was ever kocked down; and if he was, how and in what manner he returned the kindness?” To this question, Giles Sheridan was not inclined to vouchsafe an answer.  The nonresistant then said, the principles he had been trying to defend, were being illustrated.  “I am an enemy to physical force; but I have gained a victory over you!  You won’t deny that, I take it?” continued the nonresistant, taking a seat uninvited; and, having placed his feet upon the table, near Giles Sheridan, who was scarce able to restrain his feelings at the want of good breeding therein displayed, threw his hat upon the floor, and said he would wager four dollars and thirty cents, which was all the money he possessed, that he could lecture on the principles of nonresistance, and draw an audience greater by ten per cent. than would come to hear about Mr. Crabbe.  “You don’t know whether your man had a liking for tobacco and whiskey?” he parenthesized.  A look of contempt flashed from Giles Sheridan’s eye, as he twirled his fingers, and curtly replied, “I wish, for your own sake, sir, that your tongue did not betray the error of the doctrine you have set up-”