n he went on quietly to show how they must lose the Court-House site
if they did not send him to the legislature, and how, while they might
not get it if they did send him, it was their only hope to send only
him. The crowd had grown somewhat hostile again, and it was after one
telling period, when the Hon. Samuel stopped to mop his brow, that a
gigantic mountaineer rose in the rear of the crowd:

"Talk on, stranger; you're talking sense. I'll trust ye. You've got big
ears!"

Now the Hon. Samuel possessed a primordial talent that is rather rare in
these physically degenerate days. He said nothing, but stood quietly in
the middle of the road. The eyes of the crowd on either side of the road
began to bulge, the lips of all opened with wonder, and a simultaneous
burst of laughter rose around the Hon. Samuel Budd. A dozen men sprang
to their feet and rushed up to him--looking at those remarkable ears, as
they gravely wagged to and fro. That settled things, and as we left,
the Hon. Sam was having things his own way, and on the edge of the crowd
Uncle Tommie Hendricks was shaking his head:

"I tell ye, boys, he ain't no jackass even if he can flop his ears."

At the river we started upstream, and some impulse made me turn in my
saddle and look back. All the time I had had an eye open for the young
mountaineer whose interest in us seemed to be so keen. And now I saw,
standing at the head of a gray horse, on the edge of the crowd, a tall
figure with his hands on his hips and looking after us. I couldn't be
sure, but it looked like the Wild Dog.

IV. CLOSE QUARTERS

Two hours up the river we struck Buck. Buck was sitting on the fence by
the roadside, barefooted and hatless.

"How-dye-do?" I said.

"Purty well," said Buck.

"Any fish in this river?"

"Several," said Buck. Now in mountain speech, "several" means simply "a
good many."

"Any minnows in these branches?"

"I seed several in the branch back o' our house."

"How far away do you live?"

"Oh, 'bout one whoop an' a holler." If he had spoken Greek the Blight
could not have been more puzzled. He meant he lived as far as a man's
voice would carry with one yell and a holla.

"Will you help me catch some?" Buck nodded.

"All right," I said, turning my horse up to the fence. "Get on behind."
The horse shied his hind quarters away, and I pulled him back.

"Now, you can get on, if you'll be quick." Buck sat still.

"Yes," he said imperturbably; "but I