d hear."

"I want to know, Sam, did you see that pot?" I exclaimed at this part of
the story.

"Wal, no, I didn't. Ye see, I jest happened to drop asleep while they
was diggin', I was so kind o' tired, and I didn't wake up till it was
all over.

"I was waked up, 'cause there was consid'able of a scuffle; for Hokum
was so mad at Toddy for speakin', that he was a fistin' on him; and
old Primus he jest haw-hawed and laughed. 'Wal, I got _my_ money safe,
anyhow,' says he.

"'Wal, come to,' says I. ''Tain't no use cryin' for spilt milk: you've
jest got to turn in now and fill up this 'ere hole, else the selectmen
'll be down on ye.'

"'Wal,' says Primus, 'I didn't engage to fill up no holes;' and he put
his spade on his shoulder and trudged off.

"Wal, it was putty hard work, fillin' in that hole; but Hokum and Toddy
and Wiggin had to do it, 'cause they didn't want to have everybody a
laughin' at 'em; and I kind o' tried to set it home to 'em, showin' on
'em that 'twas all for the best.

"'Ef you'd a been left to get that 'are money, there'd a come a cuss
with it,' says I. 'It shows the vanity o' hastin' to be rich.'

"'Oh, you shet up!' says Hokum, says he. 'You never hasted to any
thing,' says he. Ye see, he was riled, that's why he spoke so."

"Sam," said we, after maturely reflecting over the story, "what do you
suppose was in that pot?"

"Lordy massy! boys: ye never will be done askin' questions. Why, how
should I know?"

[Illustration: Mis' Elderkin's Pitcher, Page 122]

"MIS' ELDERKIN'S PITCHER."

"Ye see, boys," said Sam Lawson, as we were gathering young wintergreen
on a sunny hillside in June,--"ye see, folks don't allers know what
their marcies is when they sees 'em. Folks is kind o' blinded; and, when
a providence comes along, they don't seem to know how to take it, and
they growl and grumble about what turns out the best things that ever
happened to 'em in their lives. It's like Mis' Elderkin's pitcher."

"What about Mis' Elderkin's pitcher?" said both of us in one breath.

"Didn't I never tell ye, now?" said Sam: "why, I wanter know?"

No, we were sure he never had told us; and Sam, as usual, began clearing
the ground by a thorough introduction, with statistical expositions.

"Wal, ye see, Mis' Elderkin she lives now over to Sherburne in about the
handsomest house in Sherburne,--a high white house, with green blinds
and white pillars in front,--and she rides out in her own kerridge;