when you git to the fire that I wouldn't want to bother you then."

The Cap'n glowered but chewed his lips to prevent retort, pulled his
wallet, and paid. Then he gathered his apparatus and grunted up to
the high seat.

Far behind them the excited clang-clang of the Methodist bell was
pealing its first alarm.

"By the time they git hosses up out of the fields and hitched onto
'Hecla,' and git their buckets and didoes and git started, I reckon
things will be fried on both sides at Ben Ide's," chatted the peddler.

"Lick up! Lick up!" barked the Cap'n. "I'm payin' for a quick ride
and not conversation."

Brackett clapped the reins along his nag's skinny flank, set his
elbows on his knees, and began:

"There was old Hip Huff, who went by freight,
To Newry Corner, in--"

"Luff, luff!" snorted the Cap'n, in disgust.

"Luff, luff?" queried the songster.

"Yes, luff! Avast! Belay! Heave to! I don't like caterwaulin'. You
keep your mind right on drivin' that hoss."

"You must have been a pop'lar man all your life," remarked the peddler,