I ate it ravenously.

Then I asked, "Where is Tip?"

"He's gone down the walley to my brother-in-law, Harmon Shadrack's.
He's tryin' to borry a me-yule."

"A what?"

"A me-yule. The colt was dead beside you in the creek. Him and me
fixed up the buggy agin, and he's gone to borry Harmon's me-yule so as
you uns can git back to Black Log."

"Tip's left Black Log forever," I said firmly.

Then John Shadrack's widow laughed. She laughed so hard that she blew
the ashes out of her pipe, and they showered down over my face, and
made me wink and sputter.

"There--there," she said solicitously, dusting them away with her hand.
"But it tickled me so to hear you say Tip wasn't goin' back. Why, he's
been most crazy since you come. He's afraid his wife'll marry agin
before he gits home. I've been tellin' him how nice it was to have you
both, and that jest makes him roar. He's never been away so long
before."

"He thinks maybe Nanny will give him up this time?"

"Exact."