ir mistake, it kep' 'em so
on a keen run. They would git it headed towards us, and then it would
kick up its heels, and run into some lot, and canter round in a circle
with its head up in the air, and then bring up short ag'inst the fence;
and then they would leap over the fence. The first one had white
pantaloons on, but he didn't mind 'em; over he would go, right into
sikuta or elderbushes, and they would wave their hats at it, and holler,
and whistle, and bark like dogs, and the colt would whinner and start
off again right the wrong way, and them two men would go a pantin' after
it. They had been a runnin' nigh onto half an hour, when a good lookin'
young feller come along, and seein' me a settin' still and holdin' the
old mare, he up and says:

"Are you in any trouble that I can assist you?"

Says I, "We are goin' home from Jonesville, Josiah and me, and our colt
got away and--"

But Josiah interrupted me, and says he, "And them two fools a caperin'
after it, are sewin' machine agents."

The good lookin' chap see all through it in a minute, and he broke out
into a laugh it would have done your soul good to hear, it was so clear
and hearty, and honest. But he didn't say a word; he drove out to go by
us, and we see then that he had a sewin' machine in the buggy.

"Are you a agent?" says Josiah.

"Yes," says he.

"What sort of a machine is this here?" says Josiah, liftin' up the cloth
from the machine in front of him.

"A pretty good one," says the feller, lookin' at the name on it.

"Is yours as good?" says Josiah.

"I think it is better," says he. And then he started up his horse.

"Hello! stop!" says Josiah.

The feller stopped.

"Why don't you run down other fellers' machines, and beset us to buy
yourn?"

"Because I don't make a practice of stoppin' people on the street."

"Do you haunt folks day and night; foller 'em up ladders, through
trap-doors, down sullers, and under barns?"

"No," says the young chap, "I show people how my machine works; if they
want it, I sell it; and if they don't, I leave."

"How much is your machine?" says Josiah.

"75 dollars."

"Can't you," says Josiah, "because I look so much like your old father,
or because I am a Methodist, or because my wife's mother used to live
neighbor to your grandmother--let me have it for 25 dollars?"

The feller got up on his wagon, and turned his machine round so we could
see it plain--it was a beauty--and says he:

"You see this