tand in reason they rounded up
every last bottle, so it occurred to me that if we hunted we might
make discoveries.'

"'Why, so we could!' I hollers loud and hearty, with more notion of
creatin' a diversion, however, than any rank faith in my havin' a
good time off what old man Davis overlooked. 'It'll be like
hide-and-go-seek of a Christmas Eve when we was kids, William.'

"So we scrimmaged round here and there till there was only one
closet in the cabin left.

"'I saved it till the last--it's the most likely,' says William.
'Shine a light on our departing hopes, Ezekiel.'

"He put his hand very careful toward the back. 'E. G. W., says
he,' 'my fingers have teched something cold and smooth, just like a
bottle--pull hard, Ezekiel.'

"I took a long breath and pulled hard.

"'It _is_ round,' says William Pemberton. 'It _is_ a bottle.'

"Nothin' could be heard but the beatin' of our hearts.

"'Is it--is it--_heavy_, William?' I falters. Then you couldn't
hear nothin', for our hearts had cease to beat. He let loose of a
roar same as a lion that's skipped atop of his prey.

'Ezekiel G. W. Scraggs!' he shrieks, 'she's full!'

"'I wish no better luck myself,' says I. 'Trot her out!'

"When the light of the lantern fell upon that bottle we got a
shock. Instead of the cheerin' color that usually fills useful
bottles, the contents of this here one was green--green as grass
off a June hillside.

"'Well!' says William, 'what in--where in--why, it's perfumery!' he
hollers, and raises it for a smash.

"'Hold, William! Hold!' says I. 'It's got red sealin'-wax on the
top. If you break it before we take a sample you and me is the
best of friends parted in the middle, not to mention the
disturbance we'll make in this room.'

"So I took it away from him and looked at it in the candle-light.
Sure enough, there was the inspirin' words on it, 'Liqueur--Creme
de Menthe.' A furreign way of spellin' liquor, to be sure, but
what's a letter or two out of the way, so long as the results is in
sight?

"'William,' says I, 'L-i-q, lick, u-e-u-r, er--licker. Get
glasses, William, and let us be joyful.'

"William mumbled somethin' about green not bein' a joyful color,
but he went and did as I told him.

"That stuff smelt of perpemint, fearful. It was a young ladies'
bevridge if ever I hit one. We sot opposite each other, filled a
tumbler apiece, says, 'Here's how,' and waited. We waited quite
some time.

"'Ezeki