"Why don' ye go yerself, Peleg, if ye be so dretful brave!" inquired
Israel Goodrich.

"That's so, Peleg, why don' ye go?"

"I ain't no talker," said Peleg. "Ther's Ezry, he'd orter go, he's
sech a good talker."

But Ezra swallowed the bait without taking the hook. "Tain't talkin ez
is wanted, it's assin. Any on ye kin dew that's well's I," he
discriminated.

The spirit of mutual deference was so strong that it is doubtful how
long the contest of modesty might have continued, had not Laban Jones
suddenly said:

"Ef none on ye dasn't ass what the convenshin has did, I'll ass
myself. I'm more scairt o' my hungry babbies an I be o' the face o'
any man."

Raising his stalwart figure to its full height, and squaring his
shoulders as if to draw courage from a consciousness of his thews and
sinews, Laban strode toward the store. But though he took the first
steps strongly and firmly, his pace grew feebler and more hesitating
as he neared the group of gentlemen, and his courage might have ebbed
entirely, had not the parson, glancing around and catching his eye,
given him a friendly nod. Laban thereupon came up to within a rod or
two of the group, and taking off his cap, said in a small voice:

"Please we'd like ter know what the convenshin has did?"