ill; the old man's going to take the bark
off both of us; and besides, with the hand I helt when we quit, I should
'a' beat you and won it all, any way."

"Well, but Mass Simon, we nebber finish de game, and de rule--"

"Go to the devil with your rule!" said the impatient Simon. "Don't you
see daddy's right down upon us, with an armful of hickories? I tell you,
I helt nothin' but trumps, and could 'a' beat the horns off a
billy-goat. Don't that satisfy you? Somehow or another, you're d--d hard
to please!" About this time a thought struck Simon, and in a low
tone--for by this time the Reverend Jedediah was close at hand--he
continued, "But may be daddy don't know, _right down sure_, what we've
been doin'. Let's try him with a lie--'twon't hurt, noway: let's tell
him we've been playin' mumble-peg."

Bill was perforce compelled to submit to this inequitable adjustment of
his claim to a share of the stakes; and of course agreed to swear to
the game of mumble-peg. All this was settled, and a pig driven into the
ground, slyly and hurriedly, between Simon's legs as he sat on the
ground, just as the old man reached the spot. He carried under his left
arm several neatly-trimmed sprouts of formidable length, while in his
left hand he held one which he was intently engaged in divesting of its
superfluous twigs.

"Soho, youngsters!--_you_ in the fence corner, and the _crap_ in the
grass. What saith the Scriptur', Simon? 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard,'
and so forth and so on. What in the round creation of the yearth have
you and that nigger been a-doin'?"

Bill shook with fear, but Simon was cool as a cucumber, and answered his
father to the effect that they had been wasting a little time in the
game of mumble-peg.

"Mumble-peg! mumble-peg!" repeated old Mr. Suggs. "What's that?"

Simon explained the process of _rooting_ for the peg: how the operator
got upon his knees, keeping his arms stiff by his sides, leaned forward,
and extracted the peg with his teeth.

"So you git _upon your knees_, do you, to pull up that nasty little
stick! You'd better git upon 'em to ask mercy for your sinful souls and
for a dyin' world. But let's see one o' you git the peg up now."

The first impulse of our hero was to volunteer to gratify the curiosity
of his worthy sire, but a glance at the old man's countenance changed
his "notion," and he remarked that "Bill was a long ways the best hand."
Bill, who did not deem Simon's modesty an omen ver