h a beef's blawder had hove her up onto the roof, and she
bounded down right atween that stallion's ears and eyes. In jest about
one second I looked so far into the futur' that I run my nose two
inches into the 'arth, and she 's been broke ever since."

"Never mind, Kirtland, she 's all thar'. The furderest time 't I ever
looked ahead," said the voice of Shamgar, "was once in war time. Flour
fifteen dollars a barrel, seven girls and five boys (I know 't we don't
raise no sech families here as they do in Californy), everything high.
All to once the thought come to me, 'Mebbe herrin'll be high tew.' And
sure enough herrin' was high!"

"The furderest time 't I ever looked ahead----" deliciously began
Captain Leezur.

"G'long! ye old fool! Git up! ye old skate!"

Admiral 'S I Sums-it-up was turning his horse about.

"I believe you and me 's got a bet on, ain't we, adm'r'l?" said Captain
Pharo.

"I told 'em 'twas wastin' waggin ile to come down here to c'lect.
G'long! ye old fool! Git up! ye old skate! 'S I sums it up, bet ye,
goin' 'tween here and the Point I could scrape twenty-five pound o' mud
off 'n yer kerridge time ye gits thar', Kobbe. G'long! ye old fool!
Git up! ye old skate!"

His unbaffled monotone grew gradually faint in the distance.

"Roads _be_ all porridge up there a piece, I reckon," chuckled Captain
Pharo; "but as long as Crooked River runs, I don't calk'late to lose no
bet. Poo! poo!"

[Illustration: Music fragment: 'My days are as the grass, Or as--']

"Jest give me time," beamed Captain Leezur, sounding mellifluously,
"'n' I can row any Pointer ashore in an argyment 't ever was born yit.
I takes a moderate little spall to dew it in. Forced-to-go----"

"Ye be a lazy, yarn-reelin' set, all on ye," said Captain Rafe,
grinning with affection and delight on the group. "I'm going to have
ye all posted and put on the teown!"

Murmurs of rich and deep laughter.

A tall, dark form, shifty-eyed, had been insensibly moving and
disintegrating me from the group. I found myself drifting strangely
ever farther and farther away. I was sitting beside him on a rock in
the covert of the woods, the sun setting over the bay, and all was
still save his voice.

"I went to Californy minding" (mining), said he. "She ain't nothin' so
wonderful of a State as you might think: she ain't no bigger 'n Maine
'n' New York and Alabamy, 'n' Afriky 'n' Bar Harbor all put into one!"

"Great heavens!" said I