, "I dunno 's I ever see the old man more kind o' womble-cropped
over anythin'. Why, he wouldn't no more 'a' passed them bills 'n he'd
'a' cut his hand off. He, he, he, he! He was jest ticklin' your heels a
little," said Mr. Larrabee, "to see if you'd kick, an'," chuckled the
speaker, "you _surely_ did."

"Perhaps I acted rather hastily," said John, laughing a little from
contagion.

"Wa'al," said Dick, "Dave's got ways of his own. I've summered an'
wintered with him now for a good many years, an' _I_ ain't got to the
bottom of him yet, an'," he added, "I don't know nobody that has."

CHAPTER XXIX.

Although, as time went on and John had come to a better insight of the
character of the eccentric person whom Dick had failed to fathom, his
half-formed prejudices had fallen away, it must be admitted that he
ofttimes found him a good deal of a puzzle. The domains of the serious
and the facetious in David's mind seemed to have no very well defined
boundaries.

The talk had drifted back to the people and gossip of Homeville, but,
sooth to say, it had not on this occasion got far away from those
topics.

"Yes," said Mr. Harum, "Alf Verjoos is on the hull the best off of any
of the lot. As I told ye, he made money on top of what the old man left
him, an' he married money. The fam'ly--some on 'em--comes here in the
summer, an' he's here part o' the time gen'ally, but the women folks
won't stay here winters, an' the house is left in care of Alf's sister
who never got married. He don't care a hill o' white beans fer anything
in Homeville but the old place, and he don't cal'late to have nobody on
his grass, not if he knows it. Him an' me are on putty friendly terms,
but the fact is," said David, in a semi-confidential tone, "he's about
an even combine of pykery an' viniger, an' about as pop'lar in gen'ral
'round here as a skunk in a hen-house; but Mis' Verjoos is putty well
liked; an' one o' the girls, Claricy is her name, is a good deal of a
fav'rit. Juliet, the other one, don't mix with the village folks much,
an' sometimes don't come with the fam'ly at all. She favors her father,"
remarked the historian.

"Inherits his popularity, I conclude," remarked John, smiling.

"She does favor him to some extent in that respect," was the reply; "an'
she's dark complected like him, but she's a mighty han'some girl,
notwithstandin'. Both on 'em is han'some girls," observed Mr. Harum,
"an' great fer hosses, an' that's the w