boy again.

"Yes. . . . Yes, I believe he did. But--"

"Then stand by while I unload him. Here he comes now. H'ist him down
easy as you can."

That was not too easy, for the end of the box slid from the tail-board
to the ground with a thump that shook the breath from the prisoner
within. But the breath came back again and furnished motive power for
more and worse howls and whines. Joshua pricked up his ears and trotted
to the further end of his halter.

"There!" said Henry G.'s boy, jumping to the ground beside the box,
"that's off my hands, thank the mercy! Here's your fly paper. Five dozen
sheets. You must have pretty nigh as many flies down here as you have
moskeeters. Well, so long. I got to be goin'."

"Wait a minute," pleaded Brown. "What shall I do with this--er--blessed
dog? Is he savage? Why did you bring him in a crate--like a piano?"

"'Cause 'twas the easiest way. You couldn't tie him up, not in a cart no
bigger'n this. Might's well tie up an elephant. Besides, he won't stay
tied up nowheres. Busted more clotheslines than I've got fingers and
toes, that pup has. He needs a chain cable to keep him to his moorin's.
Don't ye, Job, you old earthquake? Hey?"

He pounded on the box, and the earthquake obliged with a renewed series
of shocks and shakings.

The lightkeeper's assistant smiled in spite of himself.

"Who named him Job?" he asked.

"Henry G.'s cousin from Boston. He said he seemed to be always sufferin'
and fillin' the land with roarin's, like Job in the Bible. So, bein' as
he hadn't no name except cuss words, that one stuck. I cal'late Henry
G.'s glad enough to get rid of him. Ho! ho!"

"Did Mr. Atkins see his--this--did he see his present before he accepted
it?"

"No. That's the best part of the joke. Well," clambering to his seat
and picking up the reins, "I've got five mile of sand and moskeeters to
navigate, so I've got to be joggin'. Oh, say! goin' to leave him in the
box there, be ye?"

"I guess so, for the present."

"Well, I wouldn't leave him too long. He's stronger'n Samson and the
Philippines rolled together, and he's humped up his back so much on the
way acrost that he's started most of the nails in them slats over top of
him. I tell ye what you do: Give him a bone or a chunk of tough meat to
chaw on. Then he'll rest easy for a spell. Goodbye. I wish I could
stay and see Seth when he looks at his present, but I can't. Gid-dap,
January."

The grocery wagon rolled out of t