preachin',--'if Jabe Slocum ever run, then 't was because he was _too
doggoned lazy to hold back!_ 'an' that settled it!... (No, I couldn't
eat another mossel, Miss Cummins; I've made out a splendid supper.) ...
You can't git such pie 'n' doughnuts anywhere else in the village, 'n'
what I say I mean.... Do you make your riz doughnuts with emptin's? I
want to know! Si says there's more faculty in cookin' flour food than
there is in meat-victuals, 'n' I guess he's 'bout right."

* * * * *

It was bedtime, and Timothy was in his little room carrying on the most
elaborate and complicated plots for reading the future. It must be known
that Jabe Slocum was as full of signs as a Farmer's Almanac, and he had
given Timothy more than one formula for attaining his secret
desires,--old, well-worn recipes for luck, which had been tried for
generations in Pleasant River, and which were absolutely "certain" in
their results. The favorites were:--

"Star bright, star light,
First star I've seen to-night,
Wish I may, wish I might,
Get the wish I wish to-night;"

and one still more impressive:--

"Four posts upon my bed,
Four corners overhead;
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed I _lay_ upon.
Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark,