"Do you?" inquired the youthful prodigy, climbing to the wagon seat.
"Don't forget to keep straight ahead after you turn off the main road.
Git dap! So long, fellers!" He leaned over the wheel, as the stage
turned, and bestowed a wink upon the delighted "Squealer," who was
holding one freckled paw over his mouth; then the "depot wagon" creaked
away.

The square-shouldered young man looked after the equipage with an odd
expression of countenance. Then he shrugged his shoulders, picked up the
suitcase, and walked off the platform into the darkness.

Mr. Wixon removed the hand from his mouth and displayed a mammoth
grin, that grew into a shriek of laughter in which every member of the
committee joined.

"Haw! haw!" bellowed "Bluey," "so that's the feller that done Parker out
of his job! Well, he may be mighty smart, but if that Joe Bartlett ain't
smarter then I'm a skate, that's all! Smartest boy ever I see! 'If you
keep on straight ahead you'll git to the station!' Gosh! he'll have to
wear rubbers!"

"Maybe he's web-footed," suggested Smalley, and they laughed again.

A little later Captain Eri, with a dozen new, clean-smelling cranberry
barrels in the wagon behind him, drove slowly down the "depot road." It
was a clear night, but there was no moon, and Orham was almost at its
darkest, which is very dark, indeed. The "depot road"--please bear in
mind that there are no streets in Orham--was full of ruts, and although
Daniel knew his way and did his best to follow it, the cranberry barrels
rattled and shook in lively fashion. There are few homes near the