"Humph! Goes gallopin' round the fields chasin' bugs and grasshoppers
like a young one?"

"Why--why, entomology is his profession, so naturally he--"

"Humph! So THAT'S the feller! Tut, tut, tut! Well, if you'd only said
you meant him 'twould have been all right. I forgot there was a Hall
livin' in the Parker place. If you'd said you meant 'Old Bughouse' I'd
have understood."

"Bughouse?"

"Oh, that's what the Wellmouth post-office gang call him. Kind of a joke
'tis. And say, this is kind of a joke, too, my luggin' you 'way over
here, ain't it, eh? Haw, haw!"

Mr. Bangs' attempt at a laugh was feeble.

"But what shall I do now?" he asked, anxiously.

"Well, that's the question, ain't it? Hum... hum... let's see. Sorry I
can't take you back to the Centre myself. Any other night I'd be glad
to, but there's a beans and brown-bread supper and sociable up to the
meetin' house this evenin' and I promised the old woman--Mrs. Pulcifer,
I mean--that I'd be on hand. I'm a little late as 'tis. Hum... let's
see... Why, I tell you. See that store over on the corner there? That's
Erastus Beebe's store and Ras is a good friend of mine. He's got an
extry horse and team and he lets 'em out sometimes. You step into the
store and ask Ras to hitch up and drive you back to the Centre. Tell
him I sent you. Say you're a friend of Raish Pulcifer's and that I said