nd use it for cod bait before I'll cure it
by buying any more liniment off'm him," the Cap'n retorted. "You jest
keep your settin', Louada Murilla. I'll tend to your fam'ly end after
this."

He struggled up and began to hop toward the end of the piazza. The
new arrival had burst into cheery song:

"There was old Hip Huff, who went by freight
To Newry Corner, in this State.
Packed him in a--"

There was a red van in the yard, its side bearing the legend:

T. BRACKETT,

TINWARE AND YANKEE NOTIONS.

LICENSED BY C.C.

A brisk, little, round-faced man sat on the high seat, bolt upright
in the middle of it, carolling lustily. It was "Balm o' Joy" Brackett,
pursuing his humble vocation and using his familiar method of
attracting customers to their doors.

"Shet up that clack!" roared the Cap'n.

"Hillo, hullo, hallah, gallant Captain," chirped Brackett,
imperturbable under the seaman's glare. "I trust that glory floods
your soul and all the world seems gay." And he went on breathlessly:

"May ev'ry hour of your life seem like a pan of Jersey milk, and may
you skim the cream off'm it. Let's be happy, let's be gay, trade with
me when I come your way. Tinware shines like the new-ris' sun, twist,
braid, needles beat by none; here's your values, cent by cent, and
Balm o' Joy lin-i-ment. Trade with--"

"Git out o' this yard!" bawled the Cap'n, in his storm-and-tempest
tones. "You crack-brained, rag-and-bone-land-pirate, git off'm my
premises! I don't want your stuff. I've bought the last cent's wu'th
of you I'll ever buy. Git out!"

"The Cap'n isn't well to-day, Todd," quavered Mrs. Sproul. Fear
prompted her to keep still. But many years of confidential barter
of rags for knicknacks had made Todd Brackett seem like "own folks,"
as she expressed it. "We won't trade any to-day," she added,
apologetically.

"Nor we won't trade ever," bawled the Cap'n, poising himself on one
foot like an angry hawk. "You go 'long out of this yard."

Without losing his smile--for he had been long accustomed to the
taunts and tirades of dissatisfied housewives--the peddler backed
his cart around and drove away, crying over his shoulder with great
good-humor:

"A merry life and a jolly life is the life for you and me!"

"I'll make life merry for ye, if ye come into this yard ag'in, you
whiffle-headed dog-vane, you!" the Cap'n squalled after him. But
Brackett again struck up his roundelay:

"There was old H