FullReads

“Sam took the money, but he did not immediately make the change. ‘I don’t want you to think hard of any of us,’ said he, ‘on account of your bein’ kept here a little longer than common. But specially I don’t want you to think hard of my friend Cap’n Abner Budlong, the gentleman who stepped out here to see who was passin’. Bless your soul, he’s no detective! He’s one of the finest fellows I know, and you jes ought to see his house at Shamrick. It’s filled with more things that’s nice to look at and things that’s comfortable to use than any other house in that region. Everything’s jes as clean and shipshape–‘

“‘He must have a good wife,’ the young woman interrupted.

“‘He hasn’t got no wife at all,’ said Sam, delighted to get in this piece of information. ‘Never had one.’

“The girl looked at him, and then she laughed merrily. ‘I really must go on,’ she said. ‘You truly are a funny lot, all of you.’ And as she drove on she looked back, still laughing.

“Sam Twitty rubbed his hands together quite cheerfully, and went into the house to get his dinner.

“‘Did that woman change your five-dollar note?’ asked the keeper of the toll-gate.

“‘Bless my soul!’ exclaimed Sam. ‘I never thought to ask her.’

“‘What did you ask her?’ cried the woman. ‘She was out there for the longest time, and I thought of course you was gettin’ your note changed.’

“Sam smiled. ‘She was very interesting,’ said he.”

“What a treasure Sam Twitty would be in a matrimonial bureau!” exclaimed the Mistress of the House.

“Provided he exercised a little more caution in the selection of his specimens,” suggested John Gayther, respectfully. “Some might be too green and some the other way, you know; he didn’t seem over-particular.”

“Three travellers passed through,” continued the Master of the House, “but not one of them could change a five-dollar note; and Abner chafed at the delay.

“‘I don’t like wastin’ time like this,’ said he to Sam, as the two smoked their after-dinner pipes.

“‘Wastin’!’ exclaimed Sam. ‘I don’t call this wastin’ time. We didn’t start till late this mornin’, and here we’ve got sight of two of her a’ready. Here’s this one, as red-cheeked and sociable as anybody could expect, and then there’s that gal in the buggy.’

“‘Gal in the buggy!’ exclaimed Abner. ‘What on earth are you talkin’ about her for?’

“‘Why shouldn’t I?’ asked Sam. ‘I tell you, Cap’n Abner, she’s the prettiest and the liveliest young woman you’d be likely to meet if you cruised for a year, and she’s visitin’ right in the neighborhood, and can’t be far from Shamrick.’

“‘Codwollops!’ said Abner, contemptuously.

“In the course of an hour old Joshua Asbury drove up in his farm-wagon, and changed the five-dollar note, and was glad to do it, for he did not like to carry so much inconvenient silver and copper in his pocket. The two friends now made ready to depart.

“‘Let’s hurry up,’ said Sam. ‘We’ve done fust-rate so far, and maybe we’ll sight one or two more afore bedtime.’

“‘When you come back,’ said the woman, ‘I’d be glad to have you stop and rest, and give your horse a feed if you want to.’

“Sam Twitty assured her most earnestly that they certainly would stop, whether they wanted rest and a feed or not; and he thanked her warmly as he paid for the kind entertainment she had given them.

“‘Sam,’ said Abner, when they were on the road, ‘the trouble with you is, you’re too quick. If you was at the tiller you’d run into the fust port you come to, and there wouldn’t be no v’yage at all.’

“‘There’s no knowin’ when a fellow may want to run into port,’ replied Sam, ‘and it’s a good thing to find out all about them as you’re coastin’ along.’

“A few miles from the toll-gate they came to the bottom of a long hill, and half-way up it they saw, going in the same direction as themselves, a man walking vigorously.