an that man
can lie more inside of five minutes than any human critter that ever
breathed."

Frank smiled.

"Cyrus has a vivid imagination," he observed.

"'Magination? 'magination?" squawked Hunker. "Mebbe that's what you call
it, but I'd give it a stronger name than that. When I tell him about
this affair I bet a squash he'll have some kind of a story 'bout
drowndin' seventeen Mexicans all in a bunch. Say, have any of your folks
down that way seen anything of Eli Given this arternoon?"

"Why," answered Frank, "we saw Mr. Given, Mr. Small, and Deacon Hewett
shortly after midday."

"Er-haw! haw! haw!" laughed Hunker. "I reckon the whole town seen 'em,
too. Say, they hit up Applesnack's cider barrel, and the stuff fixed
'em--it suttinly fixed 'em. They were corned for keeps. Went through
town a-hoorayin' and a-whoopin' for you and for all your friends. Said
they was goin' down to show their good feelin's toward ye. Applesnack
and a few of the boys tried to keep 'em away, but 'twan't no use. Ten
minutes arter they went down the road Mis's Given come lookin' for Eli,
and some one told her where he'd gone. She hit the trail, and next we
saw she was marchin' him back through town, with Uncle Eb and the deacon
peggin' along behind, lookin' as meek and meechin' as wet cats.

"I dunno what happened arter Mis's Given gut Eli home, but he broke out
ag'in and took to the woods or somewheres, and she ain't been able to
find him. She was so all-fired mad that she come to me and wanted him
'rested. I had hard work to persuade her not to have him jugged. 'Course
if it had been some feller who was inclined to git on a tear and raise
thunder, I'd 'a' jest gone out and muckled onto him and shoved him into
the lockup. But I did kinder hate to lock Eli up.

"I went over to Uncle Eb's lookin' for him, and there was Eben out in
the woodshed a-snoozin' on a hoss blanket. Took me 'bout fifteen minutes
to wake him up. He didn't know nuthin' 'bout Eli, so I went over to
Deacon Hewett's. Er-haw! haw! haw! The deacon's wife had him on the
lounge a-bathin' his head with cold water and a-holdin' smellin' salts
to his nose. She said he'd been took sick sudden and was havin' a
crackin' headache. She was in for callin' the doctor, but the deacon he
wouldn't have it. He jest laid on the lounge and groaned and kept
sayin' he was a poor sinful worm of the earth.

"When I left Mis's Hewett she follered me outside, pulled me by the
sleeve and kind