d:

"Wa'al, the cirkis fin'ly come to an end, an' the crowd hustled to git
out 's if they was afraid the tent 'd come down on 'em. I got kind o'
mixed up in 'em, an' somebody tried to git my tin pail, or I thought he
did, an' the upshot was that I lost sight o' Billy P., an' couldn't make
out to ketch a glimpse of him nowhere. An' _then_ I kind o' come down to
earth, kerchug! It was five o'clock, an' I had better 'n four mile to
walk--mostly up hill--an' if I knowed anything 'bout the old man, an' I
thought I _did_, I had the all-firedist lickin' ahead of me 't I'd ever
got, an' that was sayin' a good deal. But, boy 's I was, I had grit
enough to allow 't was wuth it, an' off I put."

"Did he lick ye much?" inqured Mrs. Cullom anxiously.

"Wa'al," replied David, "he done his best. He was layin' fer me when I
struck the front gate--I knowed it wa'n't no use to try the back door,
an' he took me by the ear--most pulled it off--an' marched me off to the
barn shed without a word. I never see him so mad. Seemed like he
couldn't speak fer a while, but fin'ly he says, 'Where you ben all day?'

"'Down t' the village,' I says.

"'What you ben up to down there?' he says.

"'Went to the cirkis,' I says, thinkin' I might 's well make a clean
breast on't.

"'Where 'd you git the money?' he says.

"'Mr. Cullom took me,' I says.

"'You lie,' he says. 'You stole the money somewheres, an' I'll trounce
it out of ye, if I kill ye,' he says.

"Wa'al," said David, twisting his shoulders in recollection, "I won't
harrer up your feelin's. 'S I told you, he done his best. I was willin'
to quit long 'fore he was. Fact was, he overdone it a little, an' he had
to throw water in my face 'fore he got through; an' he done that as
thorough as the other thing. I was somethin' like a chickin jest out o'
the cistern. I crawled off to bed the best I could, but I didn't lay on
my back fer a good spell, I c'n tell ye."

"You poor little critter," exclaimed Mrs. Cullom sympathetically. "You
poor little critter!"

"'T was more'n wuth it, Mis' Cullom," said David emphatically. "I'd had
the most enjoy'ble day, I might say the only enjoy'ble day, 't I'd ever
had in my hull life, an' I hain't never fergot it. I got over the
lickin' in course of time, but I've ben enjoyin' that cirkis fer forty
year. The' wa'n't but one thing to hender, an' that's this, that I
hain't never ben able to remember--an' to this day I lay awake nights
tryin' to--that I sa