pigeons, but you don't think the hawks will swallow it, do ye? Come--out
with your notions!"

"Oh, to be sure, only give a body time, colonel," as, pulled by the
collar, with some confusion and in great trepidation, responded the
beleagured dealer in clocks and calicoes--"they shall all be here in a
day or two at most. Seeing that one of my creatures was foundered, I had
to leave the goods, and drive the other here without them."

The pedler had told the truth in part only. One of his horses had indeed
struck lame, but he had made out to bring him to the village with all
his wares; and this fact, as in those regions of question and inquiry
was most likely to be the case, had already taken wind.

"Now, look ye, Bunce, do you take me for a blear-eyed mole, that never
seed the light of a man's eyes?" inquired Blundell, closely approaching
the beset tradesman, and taking him leisurely by the neck. "Do you want
to take a summerset through that window, old fellow, that you try to
stuff us with such tough stories? If you do, I _rether_ reckon you can
do it without much difficulty." Thus speaking, and turning to some of
those around him, he gave directions which imparted to the limbs of the
pedler a continuous and crazy motion, that made his teeth chatter.

"Hark ye, boys, jist step out, and bring in the cart of Jared Bunce,
wheels and all, if so be that the body won't come off easily. We'll see
for ourselves."

It was now the pedler's turn for speech; and, forgetting the precise
predicament in which he personally stood, and only solicitous to save
his chattels from the fate which he plainly saw awaited them, his