off! that daughter-in-law of yours can't sew any more than a cat (and
she _is_ a cat!). But I love to mend. Mary has saved me all that. She's
such a good daughter--poor Mary. But she's unmarried, poor child."

However, it was not to-morrow. It was two or three days later that Dr.
Lavendar and Danny, jogging along behind Goliath under the buttonwoods
on the road to Upper Chester, were somewhat inconvenienced by the dust
of a buggy that crawled up and down the hills just a little ahead. The
hood of this buggy was up, upon which fact--it being a May morning of
rollicking wind and sunshine--Dr. Lavendar speculated to his companion:
"Daniel, the man in that vehicle is either blind and deaf, or else he
has something on his conscience; in either case he won't mind our dust,
so we'll cut in ahead at the watering-trough. G'on, Goliath!"

But Goliath had views of his own about the watering-trough, and instead
of passing the hooded buggy, which had stopped there, he insisted upon
drawing up beside it. "Now, look here," Dr. Lavendar remonstrated, "you
know you're not thirsty." But Goliath plunged his nose down into the
cool depths of the great iron caldron, into which, from a hollow log,
ran a musical drip of water. Dr. Lavendar and Danny, awaiting his
pleasure, could hear a murmur of voices from the depths of the eccentric
vehicle which put up a hood on such a day; when suddenly Dr. Lavendar's
eye fell on the hind legs of the other horse. "That's Cipher's trotter,"
he said to himself, and leaning out, cried: "Hi! Cy?" At which the other
horse was drawn in with a jerk, and Captain Price's agitated face peered
out from under the hood.

"Where! Where's Cyrus?" Then he caught sight of Dr. Lavendar. "'_The
devil and Tom Walker!_'" said the Captain with a groan. The buggy backed
erratically.