drove the horse was older still. He was sitting by the side of the
road, and he eyed us suspiciously as we came up.

"Didn't see no one else coming across the causeway, didger?" he
inquired.

"Not a soul." I

"Guess I might's well start, then."

He pulled a watch out of his pocket.

"What do you make it?"

Not one of us had a watch, so we couldn't make it anything at all.
We thought it was about two o'clock.

"'Taint," said the car-driver decidedly, with the air of a man
nipping a fraud in the bud. "It's one fifty four. Didn't know but
what Ike Flanders would be coming over, an' trying to bum his way
with me as usual. Well, climb aboard, an' we'll get under way."

All the way to Squid Cove he entertained us with an account of Ike
Flanders' many attempts to get a ride for nothing. He had never
succeeded, owing to the watchfulness of the driver. His whole
life--the driver's--seemed to have consisted of a warfare against
rascals and swindlers. People were always coming around with some
scheme to cheat him, but he had defeated them all. When he found
that we were going to row across to Fishback Island, he said he
guessed he could let us take a boat,--for fifteen cents. It came