APPLY TO J. CARTER, ADMIN'R,"

seemed to have always been there.

The village parliament remained spellbound. Mr. Adams tied up the
purchases and mildly inquired:

"Shall I charge this?"

Not that he was anxious to open an account, but that he would probably
have gone to the length of selling Eph a barrel of molasses "on tick"
rather than run any risk of offending so formidable a character.

"No," said Eph; "I will pay for the things."

And having put the packages into a canvas bag, and selected some
fish-hooks and lines from the show-case, where they lay environed by
jackknives, jewsharps, and gum-drops--dear to the eyes of his
childhood--he paid what was due, said "Good-night, William," to the
storekeeper, and walked steadily out into the night.

"Wall," said the skipper, "I am surprised! I strove to think o' suthin'
to say, all the time he was here, but I swow I couldn't think o'
nothin'. I couldn't ask him if it seemed good to git home, nor how the
thermometer had varied in different parts o' the town where he'd been.
Everything seemed to fetch right up standin' to the State's-prison."

"I was just goin' to say, 'How'd ye leave everybody?'" said Doane; "but
that kind o' seemed to bring up them he'd left. I felt real bad, though,
to hev the feller go off 'thout none on us speakin' to him. He's got a