"You do it elegant; I never see anybody do it better. You're right; play
it on us, too; play it on us same as the others; it'll keep you in
practice and prevent you making blunders. We'll keep away from you and
let on we don't know you, but any time we can be any help, you just let
us know."

Then we loafed along past the Nickersons, and of course they asked if
that was the new stranger yonder, and where'd he come from, and what was
his name, and which communion was he, Babtis' or Methodis', and which
politics, Whig or Democrat, and how long is he staying, and all them
other questions that humans always asks when a stranger comes, and
animals does, too. But Tom said he warn't able to make anything out of
deef and dumb signs, and the same with goo-gooing. Then we watched them
go and bullyrag Jake; because we was pretty uneasy for him. Tom said it
would take him days to get so he wouldn't forget he was a deef and dummy
sometimes, and speak out before he thought. When we had watched long
enough to see that Jake was getting along all right and working his signs
very good, we loafed along again, allowing to strike the schoolhouse
about recess time, which was a three-mile tramp.

I was so disappointed not to hear Jake tell about the row in the
sycamores, and how near he come to getting killed, that I couldn't seem
to get over it, and Tom he felt the same, but said if we was in Jake's
fix we would want to go careful and keep still and not take any chances.

The boys and girls was all glad to see us again, and we had a real good
time all through recess. Coming to school the Henderson boys had come
across the new deef and dummy and told the rest; so all the scholars was
chuck full of him and couldn't talk about anything else, and was in a