her. Funny place to bring a wife from--Wisdom! Funnier place to
bring Listy from. He loads her down with them ribbons and gewgaws--all
the shades of the rainbow! Says he wants her to be the best-dressed woman
in the state. Callate she is," added Moses, with conviction. "Listy's a
fine woman, but all she knows is enough to say, 'Yes, Jethro,' and 'No,
Jethro.'--Guess that's all Jethro wants in a wife; but he certainly is
good to her."

"And why has he come back before the Legislature's over?" said Wetherell.

"Cuttin' of his farms. Always comes back hayin' time. That's the way
Jethro spends the money he makes in politics, and he hain't no more of a
farmer than--" Moses looked at Wetherell.

"Than I'm a storekeeper," said the latter, smiling.

"Than I'm a lawyer," said Moses, politely.

They were interrupted at this moment by the appearance of Jake Wheeler
and Sam Price, who came gaping out of the darkness of the store.

"Was that Jethro, Mose?" demanded Jake. "Guess we'll go along up and see
if there's any orders."

"I suppose the humblest of God's critturs has their uses," Moses remarked
contemplatively, as he watched the retreating figures of Sam and Jake.
"Leastwise that's Jethro's philosophy. When you come to know him, you'll
notice how much those fellers walk like him. Never seed a man who had so
many imitators. Some of,'em's took to talkie' like him, even to
stutterin'. Bijah Bixby, over to Clovelly, comes pretty nigh it, too."

Moses loaded his sugar and beans into his wagon, and drove off.

An air of suppressed excitement seemed to pervade those who came that
afternoon to the store to trade and talk--mostly to talk. After such
purchases as they could remember were made, they lingered on the barrels
and on the stoop, in the hope of seeing Jethro, whose habit; it was,
apparently, to come down and dispense such news as he thought fit for
circulation. That Wetherell shared this excitement, too, he could not
deny, but for a different cause. At last, when the shadows of the big
trees had crept across the green, he came, the customers flocking to the
porch to greet him, Wetherell standing curiously behind them in the door.
Heedless of the dust, he strode down the road with the awkward gait that
was all his own, kicking up his heels behind. And behind him, heels
kicking up likewise, followed Jake and Sam, Jethro apparently oblivious
of their presence. A modest silence was maintained from the stoop, broken
at le