"What's the matter? Molasses barrel spring a leak, Bill?"

"Leak? No, it was that pesky Bob Henderson. Wait till I git hold
of him! I'll make him smart. An' I'm goin' to sue his father."

"What did he do? Why, Bill, you walk lame. What's the matter, got
rheumatiz?"

"It's all on account of Bob."

"What did he do?"

"Came here for some lard. When I was down cellar gittin' it he tied
a string to the molasses barrel spigot and stretched it across the
doorway."

"What, the spigot?"

"No, the string. Ye know what I mean. Then he went out on the
stoop an' yelled like sin. I thought somebody was killed an' I run
out. I tripped over the string an' it pulled the spigot open. I
barked my shins, an' when I looked in the store, after seein'
nobody was hurt, the molasses was runnin' all over. Oh, wait till
I git hold of that pesky boy!"

"I s'pose if you hadn't been so curious to see who was killed it
wouldn't have happened," observed Adiran Meelik.

"Curious! Ain't I got a right to run an' see who's killed in front