eh? And they tell me you like East Wellmouth so much you're goin'
to stick around for a spell. Good business! Say, I'll be sellin' you a
piece of Wellmouth property one of these days to settle down on. That's
the kind of talk, eh, Perfessor? Haw, haw, haw!"

He pounded the Bangs' shoulder blades once more. Mr. Beebe and his two
customers echoed the Pulcifer laugh. Galusha smiled painfully--as the
man in the operating chair smiles at the dentist's jokes.

"I--I--excuse me," he faltered, turning to the grinning Erastus, "can
I--That is, have you a--ah--hat or--or cap or something I might buy?"

Before the proprietor of the general store could answer, Mr. Pulcifer
answered for him. Again the hand descended upon the Bangs' shoulder.

"Haw, haw!" roared Raish, joyfully. "I get you, Mr. Bangs. The old lid
blew out to sea and we've got to get a new one. Say, that was funny,
wasn't it; that hat goin' that way? I don't know's I ever laughed more
in my life. One minute she was jumpin' along amongst them gravestones
like a hoptoad with wings, and then--Zing! Fsst! away she went a half
mile or so down into the breakers. Haw, haw, haw! And to see your face!
Why--"

Galusha interrupted.

"PLEASE don't do that," he said, nervously.

"Hey? Do what?"

"Ah--slap my back. I'd rather you wouldn't, if you don't mind.
And--oh--I should like to see a--a cap or something."

The last sentence was addressed to Mr. Beebe, who cleared his throat
importantly.

"Jest a minute, jest a minute," said Erastus. "Soon's I get through
waitin' on these customers I'll 'tend to you. Jest a minute. Yeast cake,
did you say, Mrs. Blount?"

"Ohh, pardon me," faltered Galusha. "I'll wait, of course."

"Wait?" It was Mr. Pulcifer who spoke. "You don't have to wait. I know
Ras's stock as well as he does, pretty nigh. I'LL show you a cap, Mr.
Bangs."

"Oh--oh, I couldn't think of troubling you, really I couldn't."

"No trouble at all. What's a little trouble amongst neighbors, eh? And
that's what we are now--neighbors, eh? Sure, Mike! You and me are goin'
to see a lot of each other from now on. There! There's a good, stylish
cap, if I do say it. Try it on? What's your size, Perfessor?"

Five minutes later Galusha descended the steps of the Beebe store,
wearing a cloth cap which was, to say the very least, out of the
ordinary. Its material was a fuzzy frieze of nondescript colors, a shade
of dingy yellow predominating, and its shape was weird and um